PDF CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 The Study of Religion: Definition

[Pages:26]CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.0 The Study of Religion: Definition Religion, which is a matter of belief and practice, is a universal social phenomenon

which seriously concerns almost every living man. Generally, religion is understood by many as a belief in the Supernatural power or the Supreme Being and their relationship with the nature that surrounds them. Man, being a social animal, is also, therefore, considered a religious being. Religion is also accepted as one of the strongest sources and means of social control. It is considered as one of the earliest institutions of mankind and is found in all the societies of the past and present. Scholars from the different disciplines of Sociology, Anthropology, Ethnology, Theology and Philosophy conceptualise the elements of religion in their own context; as a result there is no single uniform theory or definition on religion. Besides, religion being one of the earliest institutions is also one of the oldest subjects in human history that is taught and is most widely spread and universally discussed at many levels. Numerous scholars have explained the origin of religion from different perspectives and some of the approaches are discussed below, but let us first look into the definitions given by these scholars.

The term religion carries a different meaning for different people. Ronald L. Johnstone puts it in this way, "The English word ,,Religion has a Latin root, i.e. ,,Religare meaning, ,,to bind together (suggesting the concept of a group or fellowship)", (1961: 7). Therefore, because of the richness and variety of the subject matter, opinion and understanding differ in theoretical conceptualization. Emile Durkheim in, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915) conceptualised religion as a dichotomy on the basis of social facts by studying of the indigenous Aborigines of Australia and arrives saying that "religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories of beliefs and practices", the first being the ,,states of opinion in the representation of the mind; the second ,,determined modes of action which is the practical side of life" (1915: 36). Durkheims religious concept is focuses on the importance of the Aborigines ,,totem a symbolic representation of their clan or society where he sees nothing in the practical meaning of the rites and rituals; rather he believes that it is in the sacredness of the totem that the rites and rituals are practiced to reinforce their group cohesion and solidarity which is seen to be the expression of collective consciousness (ibid.: 37). Accordingly he states that "religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities" (ibid: 10). Therefore, he claims that, all known religious belief

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systems, whether simple or complex, present one common characteristic that presupposes a classification of all the things as ,,real and ideal, into two classes or opposed groups designated by two distinct terms or words -- ,,profane and ,,sacred (ibid: 37). Thus, Durkheim gives one of the most convincing definitions of religion as:

"A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them" (1915: 47).

Durkheims religion is focused on the dichotomy of beliefs and practices (rites) embodied in the objects of the sacred and profane which is generally accepted as the essence of all religion, irrespective of whether being a simple or complex society. Universally, belief is an aspect of a powerful conviction upon something, a conviction that has the potential and capacity to create a strong faith. Hence, belief is understood to be the manifestation of conviction; faith and values consecrated in the sacredness of the object that is revered and honoured with adoration. For example, the Arc of the Covenant, sacred texts like the Gita, Quran, Bible, etc., besides these, there are also some objects considered to have endowed with certain power and having certain indispensible values for an individual or society, that have been conceived as sacred, like totems: bear, crow, tiger, beaver, etc. According to Durkheim, anything which is not sacred is ,,profane. So, we see that no society or culture is completely free from the elements of sacred and profane and hence, the treatment of sacred things differs from one culture to another but generally honouring sacred things or objects may involve simple to complex religious activities or rites and rituals, for some they may be an obligation carried out in the form of certain socio-religious norms or moral principles.

According to James G. Frazer, "Religion is a belief in a power superior to man, which is believed to direct and control the course and nature of human life" (quoted from Rao 1990: 446). Elizabeth H. Nottingham, on the other hand defines it from the perspective of emotional and sentimental attachment of the traditional practices of the past as the determining criteria for religious belief. She says, "Religion is for many people so much an affair of the heart, so often inexplicable even to themselves, so coloured by their own special feeling for the particular belief and ceremonies that have become sacred to them through long association" (1971: 4). Another view closer to the above definition given by Malcolm Hamilton is that "Religion is seen to be the product of psychological factors inherent in all human beings and on the other it is seen as providing support for social values and social stability" (2001: 133). He believes that religion originates from the mind out of fear and security for the group cohesion guided by the moral principles of

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social values to stabilize the social system. Considering the above given definitions and many others that are excluded here shows there is no consensus among them. As Lucy Mair states, "anthropologists have always agreed on the importance of the practice, but their treatment of the beliefs has been very different at different times" (1972: 211). Therefore, on the above statements Roger A. Johnson combines all the elements of religion into one aspect and states that "Religion is an extremely complex phenomenon. It encompasses beliefs and doctrines, myths and rituals, sacred scriptures and cultic objects, and the manifestation of transcendence in these many aspects" (1973: 9).

On the other hand, religious practices are all aspects of religious behaviour which is characterised by peculiars acts or practices, observances and performances executed under the umbrella of religion, such as moral principles or morality, socio-religious norms, ceremonies, magic, rites and rituals, taboos, superstition, etc., where the believers consider it an obligation or feel indebted to it for their life as they have faith in it.

In this study the term "indigenous" and "tribe" are used as interlinked conceptual terms for identification and description as both the terms in application are argued as true for the Chothe. The most cited description on the concept of the indigenous is given by Jose R. Martinez Cobo, the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on "Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities" of the UN.1 On the basis of this, B.K. Roy Burman says that there are two definitions widely accepted in the international parlance on ,,Indigenous and Tribal Peoples that are contained in ILO Convention 107 of 1957 and ILO Convention 169 of 1989 (1994:15-16). However the recent "Workshop on Data Collection and Dissaggregation for Indigenous Peoples" organised by United Nations (UN) in New York, from 19th -21st January 2004, presented one of the most simplified working definitions of the indigenous, which reads as:

"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system".2

Therefore, some equivalent terms used for indigenous peoples are: aborigines or aboriginal peoples, native peoples, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, first peoples, first nations and autochthones. The confusion between the terms ,,tribes and ,,indigenous is also explained by Virginius Xaxa who says, tribes are groups of communities living

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outside civilisation free from the administrative socio-political organisation so also the indigenous are considered more of the native tribes of the place (1999: 1393).

1.1 Brief Profile of the Chothe Chothe is an indigenous tribe inhabiting in the state of Manipur having its own

distinctive indigenous religion, socio-cultural, economic and political institutions. The Chothe have been classified as an Old-Kuki Tribe by the British Political Agents like J. Shakespeare (1912), McCulloch (1859), R. Brown (1873), T.C. Hodson (1904), and Greirson (1904) in the Linguistic Survey of India (L.S.I.) on account of their "early migration to Manipur" (Ansari 1991: 14). The Chothe have been notified as one of the 29 recognized Scheduled Tribes of Manipur by the Government of India on 29th October, 1956. Ansari has categorized the Chothe as a very small tribe of Manipur comprising of only 0.58 % of the total tribal population in the state (Ibid.: 58). The Census of India, 2001 gives the total population of the Chothe as 2675 with a literacy rate of 72.35 %. They are concentrated in two districts of Manipur i.e. Bishnupur and Chandel respectively. However, they are divided into three groups or zones based on their village agglomeration viz.; a) Western, b) Central Clusters and c) Eastern groups (Basu 1985: 38). According to K.S. Singh there are only 2.85 % of the Chothe total population who still follow their indigenous religion and 8.59 % have not stated their religion as opposed to 88.50 % who are all Christians now (1994: 225).

1.2 Statement of the Problem of the Study The Chothe since time immemorial believe that they are the descendants of Pu

Lungchungpa or Pu Pakhangpa the mythical Dragon-Python God as their Supreme Principal Guardian God. They also believed in the cosmic Heavenly and Earthly Gods i.e. Thangvan rengpa and Shimlei rengnu. They considered that Pu Pakhangpa is the avatar or Divine-incarnate of Pu Lungchungpa and therefore revered and worshipped Him. It is believed that the God Pakhangpa is a horned serpent possessing a supernatural power to transform himself into anything like, stone, tiger, dog, human being and even take human birth at any time and place (Naorem 1991: 104). British political agents like McCulloch, Hodson, Shakespeare and other scholars have stated in their ethnographies and books that the Chothe worship several gods like Lungchungpa, Pakhangpa, Soraren, Sanamahi, Leima, Chungpathin and Tuipathin in addition to a host of other gods and goddesses. Among the above deities Thangvan rengpa or Soraren have been treated as Heavenly God, while Pu Lungchungpa or Pakhangpa as God on earth (Yuhlung 2002: 6). They also

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believe in life after death and reincarnation, besides being riddled by myth, legends, superstitions, omens, taboos, magic, rites and rituals, folklores, animistic beliefs and practices. These factors contribute to the making of Chothe indigenous religion which is considered as polytheism; constituted by several animistic and cosmologic beliefs and practices. It can also be considered as a pre-literate religion, since they have no written scriptures of their own like many other tribal religions of North-East India (Sen 1993: 23).

The Chothe indigenous or pre-literate religion is now on the verge of extinction because a majority of them have converted to Christianity and just a handful of Lamlanghupi Chothe still practiced their indigenous faith. Despite, being very small in number, they seem to perform many of their socio-religious activities accordingly. But some of their beliefs and practices are seen to be symbolically represented and observed for the sake of observance due to multiple factors. The crux of the point is that there is not much work done on this subject matter for which reason this research work was undertaken to explore and examine and document the age old indigenous religion. Some scholars have written on different subjects on this community but there has not been any in-depth and comprehensive work undertaken on this aspect. On the other hand, the reason why this study is felt to be necessary is because when most of the tribals of Manipur or North-East are said to have lost or are losing their indigenous religion, it is significant that the Chothe still retain their indigenous religion although confined to just a minority of the population. The significance is that along with this religion, traditional features still find relevance in their continuity despite considerable changes within the system. Therefore, there is a dire need to re-construct and record the Chothe indigenous religious beliefs and their socio-religious practices of the past from the existing system that is enduring even today before it completely disappears. Moreover, there seems to be a close similarity and connection between the Chothe and Meitei belief system which is obscure, this has also been somehow reflected in this study. All these factors and the dynamics of change pose a challenge and generated a strong fascination and an academic interest to study this community intensively and extensively.

1.3 Objective of the Study The basic objective is primarily devoted to the study and documenting the Chothe

indigenous religion in relation to their beliefs and practices. It also aims at understanding the phenomenon of their indigenous religion by examining their myths, rituals, festivals, superstitions, social and religious taboos, folklore and folk culture, etc., which are in practice even today. On the other hand, the study also focuses on some factors and

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influences that are responsible for weakening their indigenous religion. The study is basically exploratory and descriptive in nature, which is expected to bring out further details about the Chothe indigenous religious beliefs and practices over and above existing information, whereby this effort, it is hoped, will serve as a future reference and benefit those interested in religious studies.

The basic objective therefore, is to study the gamut of the Chothe indigenous religion from the contemporary perspective.

1.4 Research Methodology The study is basically exploratory and descriptive in nature, and is based on

qualitative data. Therefore, the bulk of the data is the empirical findings gathered by participatory observation, extensive interviews and interview scheduled techniques which are carried out both in the forms of a structured and an unstructured manner among 200 individuals consisting of religious heads, village elders, senior citizens, youth leaders and lay members during field work. The universe of research consists of twelve (12) villages confined to Bishnupur and Chandel districts of Manipur, over which the Chothe population is spread out into the three village agglomerations as given above. Since, the followers of the indigenous faith are less in number, the extensive interviews and interview scheduled are also conducted among the Christian group of people who are mostly recent converts i.e. especially among the village elders, senior citizens and lay members who still have vast knowledge about their indigenous beliefs and practices.

For comparative analysis, we also refer to various secondary data in published and unpublished books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, thesis, dissertations, village and church souvenirs, booklets, etc., which immensely provide deeper insight in understanding the Chothe indigenous socio-religious history from the perspective of their beliefs and practices which have helped to direct and shape the development of the present study.

A brief profile of the respondents backgrounds may also be summarised. The table 1(i) shows that out of a total of 200 Chothe respondents interviewed, both followers of indigenous faith and Christians, there are exclusively 40 (i.e. 20%) followers of the indigenous faith with 24 males and 16 females, and 160 (i.e. 80%) are Christian with 134 males and 26 females belonging to different Christian denominations from different Chothe villages. The table 1(i) shows that the majority of the Chothe respondents are Christians, irrespective of denomination, indicating that a majority of the Chothe population has already been converted to Christianity and only a handful of them continue to cling on to their age-old indigenous faith at the present time. These Christian

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respondents were taken into consideration because many of them still have the traditional knowledge as many are recent converts. The 200 respondents comprise of different agegroups who are religious heads, village elders, village leaders, senior citizens, youth leaders and lay members, both male and female, irrespective of religion. Their responses vary from the simple to the complex depending on the questions asked, where some could provide good answers while others could not. It is also found that individuals of similar age groups shared similar opinions because of their experiences.

Table 1(i) Distribution of Chothe respondents by faith

Religion

Male

Female

Followers of the Indigenous faith

24

16

Followers of the Christian faith

134

26

Total

158

42

Total 40 160 200

Percentage 20% 80% 100%

Table 1(ii) Distribution of Chothe respondents by gender (male/female, both followers of

indigenous faith and Christians)

Category

Followers of the

Followers of the Total Percentage

Indigenous faith

Christian faith

Male

24

134

158

79%

Female

16

26

42

21%

Total

40

160

200

100%

In considering the distribution of male/female respondents of both the followers of the Indigenous faith and Christians, there are a total of 158 (i.e. 79%) males and 42 (i.e. 21 %) females which indicates the male ratio is almost triple that of the female respondents [see Table 1(ii)].

On the criteria of the Chothe socio-political structural system or classification as shown in Chapter 3 under Political Institutions, the researcher has broadly divided the respondents into three age-groups viz.; (1) Youths (Nungak-luther), (2) Mature adults (Tang-ngarinta) and (3) Village Elders (Urinta) by taking their socio-political standard age-groups as 20-40, 40-60 and 60-100 years respectively. According to the Chothe sociopolitical and structural system the youth (Nungak-luther) generally fall within the agegroup of 15-40 years and are generally considered unmarried individuals comprising of mostly students and youth leaders. The second group is generally taken by them as mature adults or married individuals within the age-group of 40-60 years that have already had certain experiences in their lives and are called Tang-ngarinta (mature adults) comprising of village leaders, political leaders, senior citizens and lay members. They are the intermediate group between youths and village-elders as they form the bridge of social bonding between the two polar groups of the young and old. The third group called Urinta

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or village elders consist mostly of village elders, religious heads, senior citizens, retired or aged political leaders and old lay members of the community.

Although the initiation age of Chothe youth starts from 14-15 years, for this study the researcher has taken the minimum age of the respondents as 20 years since they are accountable to the questions asked. An interval of five (5) years has been used from 20-25 onwards till 100 years [see Table 2(i)].

Table 2(i) Distribution of followers of indigenous faith respondents only by age-group

Age-groups (Interval)

20-25 25-30

30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 65-70 70-75 75-80 80-85 85-90 90-95 95-100 Total

Frequency

male female

2

5

7

3

-

-

1

-

1

-

-

-

2

3

3

3

3

-

-

1

2

-

1

-

-

-

-

1

1

-

1

-

24

16

Category

Youths (Nungakluther)

Indigenous faith

male female

10

8

Mature adults 6

6

(Tang-

ngarinta)

Village elders (Urinta)

8

2

24

16

Total 18

Percenta ge

45%

12

30%

10

25%

40 100%

Table 2(i) shows that out of 40 exclusive respondents of followers of the Indigenous faith, 18 (i.e. 45%) belong to the youths (Nungak-luthei or luther) with 10 males and 8 females, 12 (i.e. 30%) are mature adults (Tang-ngarinta) with 6 males and 6 females, and the third group of village elders (Urinta) comprises 10 (i.e. 25%) respondents with 8 males and 2 females respectively. The data indicates that there are more youth respondents than mature adults and village elders.

Table 2 (ii) Distribution of followers of indigenous faith only by male/female

Category

Male Female Total

Followers of the Indigenous faith

24 16 40

Percentage

60% 40% 100%

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