Evangelising the Nation: Religion and the Formation of Naga Political Identity

Evangelising the Nation examines the extent to which a particular articulation of Christianity mediated the formation of national identity among the Nagas who inhabit the hill tracts between the Brahmaputra River in India and the Chindwin River in Burma (now Myanmar). This revised second edition revisits the defining attributes of this process and brings to forefront the agential role of religion in shaping modern political identities.

This book, based on meticulous archival research, tracks the transmutations of Protestantism from the United States to the hill tracts of Northeast India, and its impact on the form and content of the nation that was imagined and longed for by the Nagas. It also examines how missionaries, local church leaders, and the colonial and post-colonial state mediated nationalist aspirations among the Nagas during the twentieth century.

Part of Transitions in Northeastern India series, this lucidly written book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, religion, political science, sociology and social anthropology, and particularly those concerned with Northeast India.

John Thomas is Assisstant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, India.