Demography watch on Christianity among ST in Assam

Partha Pratim Mazumder

(parthapratimmazumder1988@gmail.com)

The tribal people normally live in contiguous areas, and their lives are closely associated with nature—streams, trees, plants, animals, etc. It is therefore recognised that maintaining their identities would invariably mean keeping their traditional environment intact. Given the contiguous inhabitations, it also becomes simpler to have area approach for development activities and also regulatory provisions to protect their interests. In order to protect the interests of the tribal population, provision of Sixth Schedule is enshrined in the Constitution under Articles 244(2) and 275(1) to enable autonomous administration of the tribal areas of Assam. Six tribal districts of Assam, Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, and Udalguri, have been declared Scheduled Areas. But, now, Christianity in Assam has spread mainly through the conversion of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) of the region. There are numerous tribes that live here; specific tribes often dominate a specific district or even a sub-district. It is fascinating and instructive to look into how the religious demography of different tribes has changed over time and how and when they have moved away from their native religions—which in their doctrine and practise fall within the Hindu fold—to Christianity. In this and the following concept notes, I will discuss the spread of Christianity among the specific individual tribes of Assam.

The situation in Assam is very different from other states in the region. The spread of Christianity in Assam has been limited, and, more surprisingly, less than 20 percent of the Christians in the state are from the scheduled tribes. This is very unusual. Elsewhere in the Northeast, the Christians are almost entirely tribal. The peculiar situation of Assam is because several essentially tribal communities of Assam have not been included in the ST list. Such communities include the tea-tribes, one-fifth of whom are said to be have been converted. Estimates indicate that perhaps all of the non-ST Christians of Assam are from the tea-tribes. There is a long-standing demand for the tea-tribes and five other communities—the Tai Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshi—to be included in the ST list of the state. The current government at the centre seems serious about accepting this demand. If and when that happens, Assam shall become a tribal-majority state, and the non-tribal component of the population shall become largely Muslim. This is likely to drastically reorder the political and religious demographic profile of the state.

As per 2011 census data, Christians form 12.8 percent of the current ST population of the state. Their share has risen to this level from 7.6 percent in 1991 and 8.8 percent in 2001. There are two separate ST lists for Assam, one for the autonomous hill districts and the other for the rest of the state. The proportion of Christians among the hill STs is higher at 27.4 percent; among the plains STs , the share of Christians is lower at 9.7 percent.Of the in f 6.7 lakh STs of the hill dlakh areicts, 4.3 lakh are Karbi and 1 lakh Dimasa-Kachari. Christianity has spread mainly in the Karbi, 17.6 percent of whom are now Christian; the proportion in 1991 was 11.7 percent. The Dimasa and Kachari are largely Hindu; there are only The shareercent Christians among them. Share of Christians among the smaller hill tribes is much larger; the Kuki,(Mizo),-Jaintia, Garo, Hmar, Lushai (Mizo) and Naga tribes in the hilAmong thetricts are largely Christian. Among 32 lakh STs of the plains, there are 13.6 lakh Boros or BorocacChristians them, 10 percent are now Christian. There is little Christian presence in the other plains tribes, whicSonowal,de the Miri, Rabha, Kachari Sonowal and Lalung. Garos have sinceincluded among theof thelains STs after 2003; 96 percent of 1.36 laper theplains Garos are Chrionlyns. As Per 2011 census report, Only 42 percent of the Christians in AsOf them are from the Scheduled Tribes. Of 11.66 lakh Christians in Assam, only 4.95 lakh are from the Scheduled Tribes (ST). The ST Christians thus form 42.5 percent of all Christians in Assam; the remaining 57.5 percent of the Christians are from the non-ST communities. This is unusual. In other States of the Northeast, Christians are nearly exclusively from within the STs.

Do you know Non-ST Christians of Assam are mostly from the tea-tribes?

Yes, this is because many tribal groups in Assam have not been granted Scheduled Tribes status. The so-called tea tribes are one such group. They are the descendants of the indentured labourers that the British brought, mainly from the tribal regions of Central India and Telangana, to work in the tea plantations of Assam. Many of them belong to communities that are counted as STs in their states of origin. In Assam, they are treated as Other Backward Castes. Estimates of their numbers range from 45 to 60 lakh; about one-fifth of them are said to have converted to Christianity. This would amount to around 10 lakh non-ST Christians among the tea tribes alone. This cannot be correct because the Census of 2011 counts only 6.7 lakh non-ST Christians in the state. However, it can probably be surmised that nearly all of the non-ST Christians are from the tea tribes. The large numbers of Christians counted from outside the Scheduled Tribes in Assam are thus not an indicator of Christianity making inroads in the non-tribal population of the state, but only of the fact that there has been considerable conversion among the tea-tribes, who remain outside the list of STs. There has been a persistent demand from the tea-tribes, as well from certain other communities, to be included among the STs. We discuss this issue later in this note.

The share of Christians in the STs of Assam is low compared to other states of the Northeast, but it has been rising rapidly during the last couple of decades. The rise has been particularly spectacular during the last decade, when their share in the ST population rose from 8.78 percent to 12.75 percent. Growth of ST Christians has been spectacular during 2001-11. During the last decade, the ST Christians in Assam have recorded decadal growth of more than 70 percent, while the total ST population has risen by 17.4 percent. The growth of Christians in the total population of Assam in this decade has been rather modest at 18.17 percent. Their growth in the non-ST population has been negative, with the numbers declining from 6.96 lakh in 2001 to 6.70 lakh in 2011. We shall see below that this extraordinary growth of Christians among the STs and decline among the non- STs is mainly because of the addition of new tribal groups to the list of STs through the parliamentary Act 10 of 2003 that amended and added to the list of STs for many States.

Scheduled Tribes of Assam are divided into two groups, the STs of the autonomous districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills and those in the rest of the State including Bodoland Territorial Area districts (BTAD). Some of the tribes are on both lists, but there are many that may be recognised as STs in the hills but do not get the same status in the plains districts, and the converse can also be true. This is another cause of concern among the tribal people. Among the Scheduled Tribes of the autonomous hill districts, the two largest are the Karbi and Dimasa-Kachari. These two account for 5.33 lakh of the 6.76 lakh STs in the hill districts. Of these, the latter are almost entirely Hindu, but Christianity has been spreading among the Karbi. In 2011, nearly 18 percent of the Karbi were converts to Christianity. The proportion of Christians in the hill STs as a whole is higher at 27.42 percent. This is because some of the smaller tribes in the autonomous hill district are largely Christian, as we see below. The Karbi contribute 41 percent of all Christians among the autonomous hill tribes.

Besides the Karbi and Dimasa-Kachari, the hill tribes comprise the Kuki group, which includes 37 sub-tribes; the Khasi-Jaintia group, which includes 7 sub-tribes; and the Lushai, Hmar, and Garo tribes. The level of Christianization in all these groups is very high; the share of Christians in the Khasi-Jaintia tribes is near 88 percent, and it is above 90 percent in all others. Total population of these tribes in 2011 is 91,275; of them, 85,619, forming 93.8 percent of the total, are Christians. Besides them, the Naga tribes have a population of about 30 thousand; of them, 67 percent are Christians and the remaining are mainly Hindu. The Lalung of the hill districts have been counted as scheduled tribes for the first time in 2011; they have a population of more than 18 thousand, of whom 15.4 percent are Christian and the remaining mainly Hindu. Then there are the Buddhist tribes, the Chakma and Man Tai. The Chakma have a population of 2,032, of whom 82 percent are Buddhist and 14 percent are Hindu, but there are also nearly 4 percent Christians among them. The Man Tai have a population of 1,269, of whom 94.5 percent are Buddhist and 3.7 percent are Hindu; there are even 11 Christians among them. Finally, there are the much smaller tribes of Hajong, Lakher, Pawi, and Syntheng. The total population of these three tribes is 481, of whom 420 are Hindu and 55 are Christian. There has been some growth of Christianity among all of the hill tribes, but the major gain of Christianity has been among the Karbi.

Of the 3.1 lakh ST Christians in the rest of Assam, 2.7 lakh are from the Boro and Garo tribes. There are another 24 thousand Christians among the generic tribes. These three groups together account for all but 18 thousand Christians among the Scheduled Tribes of the Plains districts. The Garo were added to the ST list of the plains districts in 2003, though they were counted as ST in the hill districts even earlier. The sudden rise in the number and share of ST Christians in Assam that we have noted above is mainly because of the addition of this fairly large tribe, which has been mostly converted to Christianity. In 2011, 96 percent of the Garo in the plains were Christians; in the hill districts, 93.5 percent of them were Christians. The decline in the number of non-ST Christians noted earlier is also because the Garo of the plains are no longer counted among the non-ST communities.

Besides the above, the other significant plains tribes are Deori, Hajong, and Dimasa; the share of Hindus in all three is above 99 percent. The Dimasa were added to the Plains ST list in 2003. That amendment also added Singpho and Khampti among the plains tribes. The numbers of these two are small, and they are predominantly Buddhist. As I have mentioned earlier, many tribal communities in Assam are not counted as “scheduled tribes.” Six major communities of the state—Tai Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi, and the so-called tea tribes—have been long demanding to be included among the STs; as of now, they are counted among the Other Backward Castes (OBCs). As far back as 2004, the Legislative Assembly of Assam unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Center include these six communities in the list of STs in the state. The Prime Minister of India had promised to grant this request during his election campaign in 2014. The issue seems to be under active consideration by the Union Government; a committee has been set up in March this year to go into the modalities of granting ST status to these communities, and their report is expected soon.

Christianity in the Northeast has spread largely through the conversion of the Scheduled Tribes of the region. Therefore, it is important to look at the religious demography of the individual tribes separately. Binoy Brahma, spokesperson for the Janajati Dharma-Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JDSSM), said, “Tribal people, who have been converted to “foreign religions” such as Christianity and Islam, are getting double benefits, both as STs and as a minority. “We believe that this (the benefits of job reservation as an ST and as a minority) is unconstitutional and hence needs to be revoked.” He added, “Besides, the identity and existence of tribals and their following traditional customs and rituals will be at stake, much like in some other states of the country where a majority of the population has been converted.” This peculiarity of Assam is because many of the essentially tribal communities of Assam have not been included in the list of “scheduled tribes.” One of these communities is the tea tribes; it is estimated that about one-fifth of them have been converted to Christianity. If this is correct, then nearly all of the non-ST Christians of Assam are likely to be from the tea-tribes.

There has been a long-standing demand for the inclusion of the tea-tribes and five other major communities, including the Tai Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshi, in the list of STs for Assam. The present government at the centre seems serious about granting the demand. If and when this happens, Assam will become a tribal-majority state. And Muslims shall acquire a predominating presence in the non-ST population. This has the potential to fundamentally reorder the polity and religious demography of Assam.