Politics
Hoax Faith Healing Camps Boost Conversions In Arunachal Pradesh
- As for the state government, while it has passed an anti-conversion law, it has not notified and implemented it.
A Christian cross. Representative image (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
‘Faith healing’ has become the latest tool of Christian proselytisers to lure the tribals of Arunachal Pradesh into Christianity.
Thousands of tribals, especially in the remote areas of the state, are being converted to Christianity through elaborate hoaxes that go by the name of ‘faith healing’ and ‘healing crusades’.
Preachers, most of them from other parts of the country, have been conducting these ‘healing crusades’ in which they showcase people with physical disabilities and illnesses 'recovering miraculously' after being administered a blessing or a prayer invoking the name of Christ.
The local churches and clerics are willing participants in these hoaxes since these boost their proselytising targets.
In fact, say those in the know, local churches and pastors welcome these ‘faith healers’ and host them since the latter help them in meeting the conversion targets set for them by donors in some Western countries. Funds--hefty ones at that--are tied to the number of people who are lured into Christianity.
This is how it works
A ‘faith healing’ camp at a village is announced weeks in advance through the pastor in that particular village or one from a neighbouring village.
Villages whose residents still practise their traditional faiths are targeted. Villagers are also encouraged to get their relatives from neighbouring villages to attend the camp.
In fact, cash or material rewards are given by the local pastor to those who can get their relatives or friends from other villages to the camp.
The name of the faith healer, and his ‘achievements’--the numerous people he has 'cured' of epilepsy, psychological disorders, physical disabilities and even terminal illnesses--are advertised well in advance.
Often, video clips of people confined to wheelchairs springing on their feet, or epileptics being completely cured after being ‘blessed’ by the faith healers ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’, are shown in advance to the villagers.
This prepares the ground for the camp.
On the day of the faith healing camp, a grand feast--funded by the local church and the proselytising body holding the camp--is held for the villagers. Animals (pigs, cattle and hens) are slaughtered and a sumptuous spread is laid out for the villagers, who are mostly poor.
The event starts with a prayer read out by a local pastor, or a pastor from a neighbouring village in case that particular village has not fallen prey to conversions. The pastor ‘blesses’ the camp and wishes that the “civilising word of Lord Jesus Christ” will spread in that particular village.
The ‘faith healer’ then takes over and starts speaking of the healing powers that Christ had vested in him. The faith healer and his associates--they operate in groups of a dozen or more--then start singing hymns and behaving as if they have come under the influence of a divine power.
After that, some people--all of them strangers unknown to the local villagers--who had been transported to the camp are brought on stage. They are women and men of different age groups and are made to pretend that they suffer from disabilities and disorders.
The healer then tells the villagers at the gathering that the ‘devil’ and evil spirits have taken charge of the bodies of these people (the ones pretending to have disabilities and disorders) and he would rid them of those spirits.
The healer then touches the 'pretenders' or whispers a prayer into their ears, and immediately the ‘afflicted’ go into paroxysmal fits, fall to the ground, shriek and swear. That’s to demonstrate to the gullible villagers that the evil anti-Christ spirits in their bodies are rebelling. And after a few minutes, they fall silent and turn into human beings without any disabilities or disorders.
The awe-struck villagers are told by the healer and his associates that the ‘miracle’ happened because of Christ. He, and the pastor, then ask the gullible villagers to “accept Christ” and become Christians.
The villagers are also told that if they do not convert, they will develop psychological disorders, debilitating illnesses and other grave disorders. Very often, the pastor tells the villagers that their entire village would be cursed and would perish.
The ‘deal’ is also sweetened by cash doles and other material gifts like dry rations, toiletries, blankets, clothes etc.
Spread of Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh
Christians now form the largest religious group in the state. While the 2011 census revealed that Christians account for 30.26 per cent of the state’s population, current estimates are that they form over 40 per cent of the population now, thanks to large-scale conversions.
Christians were negligible in numbers fifty years ago: in 1971, Christians accounted for a mere 0.79 per cent of the state’s population.
The conversion spree started when the Congress-led Union Government under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allowed Christian missionaries to foray into the state. Her father--Jawaharlal Nehru--had wisely imposed a ban on entry of Christian missionaries into what was then the federally administered North East Frontier Agency (NEFA).
NEFA was, then, constitutionally deemed to be part of Assam but was administered directly by the Governor of Assam on behalf of the Union Government.
Large-scale proselytisation started when NEFA became a Union Territory in January 1972 and then a full-fledged state in February 1987.
As soon as it became a Union Territory, Christian missionaries started lobbying the Union Government to lift the ban on their entry into the state.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lifted the ban.
Christian missionaries flooded the state and, in the name of providing education and healthcare to the tribals, started luring them to Christianity.
The figures speak for themselves: by 1981, the percentage of Christians in the state jumped to 4.32 per cent and ten years later, the figure was 10.32 per cent.
By 2001, Christians formed 18.72 per cent of the population of the strategic border state that has Chinese-occupied Tibet to its north.
Proselytisation became more rampant when the Congress-led UPA came to power at the centre. Once again, statistics reveal this: the percentage of Christians in the state shot up to 30.26 per cent in 2011.
By that time, Christian converts had entrenched themselves in the state’s politics, bureaucracy and the police force, thus providing protection and patronage to the Christian missionaries who redoubled their efforts to make Arunachal Pradesh a ‘Christian state’ like the other tribal-majority states of the region.
Since the usual process of conversions through preaching and offering doles and incentives is being considered to be too slow to realise the church’s aim of making Arunachal Pradesh an overwhelmingly Christian-majority state by 2040, faith healers have been deployed in the state to hasten the process.
The response
Though the state government passed an anti-conversion law--the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act--in 1978, it has not notified the Act and implemented it into a law.
That’s because a powerful section of the state’s political elite are Christians and are vehemently opposed to its implementation.
They’re so powerful that they could even get chief minister Pema Khandu, a Buddhist by faith, to announce in 2018 that his government would repeal the Act. He, however, backtracked from that stand.
But the Act remains only on paper despite persistent demands by the state’s citizenry who follow the indigenous Donyi Polo faith to implement the anti-conversion Act.
Thus, while proselytisation through various inducements continues unabated, the hoax faith healing camps that take advantage of the tribals to lure them into Christianity have also become common in the state.
A few months ago, the deputy commissioner of Upper Siang district banned such activities. The order prohibited any individual, group, faith, or religion from conducting prayer healing, healing crusades, healing through local priests at public premises, and advertising magical remedies for treatment of diseases and disorders.
But the Christian community in the state has been up in arms against even this order. The Arunachal Christian Forum has opposed the ban and said it “hurts the sentiments of the Christian community”.
“We strongly condemn the order. It seems like the deputy commissioner has misunderstood the difference between black magic and healing programs, which is very unfortunate. The order is an insult to the Christian community,” said ACF general secretary James Techi Tara.
Fortunately, the state government has given no indication of a rethink on the order.
This agitates the ACF which is worried that a similar order could be imposed all over the state. The faith healing hoaxes are, after all, integral to speedy conversion of tribals to meet this Church’s avowed objective.How Arunachal Pradesh is safeguarding its indigenous cultures from Christian missionaries and conversion
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