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2 - Reading the Forest

Roads, Animals, Converts (1891–1912)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2023

Kyle Jackson
Affiliation:
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver
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Summary

So far, Christianity in Mizoram has been understood as having a specific birthdate: 11 January 1894, the day two Christian missionaries from London carried the world religion - along with technologies of writing, education, and print media - into the foothills. Despite the centrality of forest animals and spirits to everyday life in the past, the roles of forest-dwellers in this story have drawn little more than a cursory glance in historical writings. This chapter paints a different picture. The story of the Christianization can be seen afresh by paying attention to both continuity and change in older human relationships with the forest as well as by taking seriously both vernacular sources and the environmental knowledge of uplanders. Ecological transformations and catastrophic collapses in animal populations attended the arrival of the colonial state in the late nineteenth century, alongside the mass ‘vermin’ eradication schemes of the early 1900s. The changes wrought during this period altered the most historically significant of human relationships in the Lushai Hills - those with other animals, plants, and non-human beings. In this complicated ecosystem, these shifts both shaped and mirrored changes in upland society towards modern institutions: a cash economy, state rule, missionary and state medicine, and, most importantly, the near total conversion of the human population to Christianity from the early to mid-twentieth century. It was through the actions and reactions of specific forest species, and through changing human relations with them, that Christian missionaries first become relevant to upland people.

Type
Chapter
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The Mizo Discovery of the British Raj
Empire and Religion in Northeast India, 1890–1920
, pp. 57 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Reading the Forest
  • Kyle Jackson, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver
  • Book: The Mizo Discovery of the British Raj
  • Online publication: 12 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009267359.003
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  • Reading the Forest
  • Kyle Jackson, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver
  • Book: The Mizo Discovery of the British Raj
  • Online publication: 12 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009267359.003
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Reading the Forest
  • Kyle Jackson, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver
  • Book: The Mizo Discovery of the British Raj
  • Online publication: 12 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009267359.003
Available formats
×