The category ‘women’ is one of the majority members in the Nagaland churches of Northeast India. Institutionalization of associations and churches according to denominations has contributed to the bureaucratization of churches, arranging the church positions in vertical hierarchy. Today, churches in Nagaland struggle with complex gender hierarchies. Women are underrepresented in church leadership in Nagaland. Historically, Naga Women theologians have been absent in the process of licencing and ordination. This article attempts to explore both the structural dynamics (...) and local practices in the process of gendered licencing and ordination. The study assesses two associations and churches within those two associations under Nagaland Baptist Church Council. Narrative from the two associations brings out the tacit but visible practices of differentiated licencing requirements between men and women theologians in Nagaland churches. The almost exclusive ‘Reverend’ title reserved for men in Nagaland demonstrably explains the near absence of ordained women in most of the Nagaland churches. (shrink)

Articles on the history of Assamese Sikhs.

In Nagaland, a state in India’s North-East region, the morung is a tribal institution that serves as an educational portal through which all young men passed as the means of learning their living heritage. Described by anthropological accounts, for a century until the 1950s, as a ‘dormitory’ for boys and young men, it is in fact much more. It is a school, both vocational and law, a premises in which tribal elders dispense wisdom, a crafts centre, a barracks, and (...) embodies other functions too. Moreover, it is one of the most important, if not the most important, social institution that maintains instruction about what may be called a pre-materialist worldview, one that was widespread when indigenous societies were free from a science hegemony that defined what counts as knowledge. From the 1990s, a combination of factors caused the decline of the institution, and as tribal youth have moved into the ‘mainstream’, the morung and all that it stands for is close to being extinguished. Yet it is irreplaceable. For Naga adolescents and youth, the morung was physically where part of an unique worldview became manifest, one which valued cooperation far above competition. While there, the youth learned within sight of all that was dear to them, a learning immersion complete in many respects. Their learning used the medium of material mastery and intimacy with material laws to transport the youth, so that their awareness of nature abundant became awareness of its invisible forces both subtle and great. (shrink)

In this paper, we employ what we term as ‘the ethical dimension in political market orientation ’ framework to underline how an integration of information from relevant stakeholder groups can inform the formulation of market-oriented, yet ethical policies. Against the backdrop of India’s Look East Policy, we undertake a critical analysis of historic economic data from 1980 to 2014 in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, often termed as the Seven Sisters because of (...) their interdependence. Our analysis of the data, using time-series methods, reveals that policy changes ensuing from the economic reforms of 1990s and the initiation of the LEP in 1991 have resulted in regional income convergence in North-Eastern India. A key contribution of our work emanates from the fact that we determine two structural breaks endogenously from long time-series data, thereby identifying three distinct policy regimes, rather than specifying exogenous breaks based on historic and theoretical conjectures. Overall, our work offers both conceptual insights into processes that enable ethical and inclusive policy making, as well as empirical evidence emerging from stochastic convergence of incomes per capita for the Seven Sister states in the North-Eastern region in India, to illustrate how regional economic inequality can be reduced through targeted market-oriented policies. (shrink)

Understanding the Ao Naga traditional religion detached from its colonial and Christian theological imprints is still in a very nascent stage. Literature review reveals that there are copious writings on Ao traditional religion, seemingly indicating that it is one of the most studied aspects of Ao society. Even though Ao traditional religion is the most studied aspect of Ao society, it is also one of the most misunderstood aspects of the society. Such misunderstanding stems from the bubble of references among (...) the academic writers concentrated on colonial and Ao theologians’ writings with negligible scrutiny. This paper is an attempt to break the bubble and challenge the mindscape by giving an alternative proposal. The first section critiques the colonial writings of J. P. Mills and W. C. Smith. The second section critiques work by Ao Christian theologians. In the last section, I propose a way of understanding Ao traditional religion gleaning from the work of contemporary animism. (shrink)