Why Arunachal Pradesh is bringing back 1978 Act against ‘forceful’ religious conversion

The Act specifies that “religious faiths” in this context include “indigenous” faiths, which the Act defines as religions, beliefs, observances, customs, etc. “as have been found sanctioned, approved, performed by the indigenous communities of Arunachal Pradesh from the time these communities have been known…” Included in this definition is Buddhism as practised among the Monpas, Membas, Sherdukpens, Khambas, Khamptis and Singphos; nature worship including the worship of Donyi-Polo among communities in the state; and Vaishnavism in practised by Noctes and Akas.

Since it was enacted in 1978, successive governments have not framed the rules for its implementation, because of which it has laid dormant for nearly five decades.

Why had it been introduced?

Arunachal Pradesh is home to a number of different small ethnic communities with an array of different beliefs and practices. The Monpas and Sherdukpens of West Arunachal Pradesh bordering Tibet and Bhutan practice Mahayana Buddhism, while the Khamptis and Singphos in Eastern Arunachal practice Theravada Buddhism.

Many other tribes engage in polytheistic nature and ancestor worship. Of these, the worship of Donyi Polo in particular, practised by the Tani group of tribes comprising the Nyishis, Adis, Apatanis, Galos, Misings and Tagins, has taken an institutionalised form over the years.

Unlike other hilly North Eastern states such as Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya, Christianity did not become common among Arunachal tribes till the 1950s. This was not just due to the difficult terrain, but also the colonial policy of isolating the “frontier regions” which included restrictions on the entry of missionaries. These restrictions continued even after Independence with the Inner Line system.

Missionary efforts in the foothill areas of Assam led to inroads into what was then the North East Frontier Agency in the 1950s. The first Church in Arunachal was set up in 1957 at Rayang village in the present-day district of East Siang, close to Assam’s Dhemaji district. In the coming decades, census data indicated a steady growth in the number of people identifying as Christians — from 0.79% of the population in 1971 to 4.32% in 1981.

“This change was massive in specific communities located nearer the foothill missions such as the Padam, Adi, Nocte and Nyishi,” sociologists Bhaswati Borgohain and Mekory Dodum wrote in ‘Religious Nationalism, Christianisation and Institutionalization of Indigenous Faiths in Contemporary Arunachal Pradesh, India’ (2023). This, they wrote, triggered “debates about the various ways in which missionaries proselytise, the socio-cultural changes that conversion brought to the respective tribes, and what level of threat conversion poses to indigenous religions” in the state Assembly, with members demanding “the protection of their indigenous religions and cultures”.

Why has the Act remained dormant?

The Act was contested even before it received Presidential assent, with notable opposition from Bakin Pertin, then an MP from Arunachal and a Christian himself. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly also passed a resolution against the Act.

The Arunachal Christian Forum was formed the year after it was enacted, its current president Tarh Miri says, to push for the repeal of the Act. It continues to lead the push against the Act” which Miri called an “anti-Christian law.” “If the bill is enforced, there are chances of it being misused by the district administration or police,” he said.

The number of Christians in the state has grown rapidly over the years, and in the last census of 2011, they were enumerated as 30.26% of the population, making Christianity the largest religion in the state. Miri claims that the numbers have grown since. “Because of the numbers and the opposition, no Chief Minister has moved to implement it so far but now there are chances of interference of external forces,” Miri said, referring to the BJP government in the state, and the RSS and its affiliates, who view the state’s “indigenous faiths” as part of “Sanatana Dharma”.

At a function organised by the Arunachal Pradesh Catholic Association in 2018, Chief Minister Pema Khandu said that the state government was considering a repeal of the Act. This statement, however, led Ram Madhav, an RSS functionary who was then the BJP general secretary in-charge of the North East, to take to social media where he posted that Khandu had not spoken of repealing the Act but about a “consultation of its efficacy”.

Why is the Act back now?

In 2022, an advocate Tambo Tamin, who is a former general secretary of the Indigenous Faiths and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP), had filed a PIL in the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court appealing for the court to intervene over the “failure” of the state government to frame rules for the Act. On September 30 this year, after the Advocate General of Arunachal Pradesh told the court that draft rules had been framed and their finalisation would take another six months, the court closed the petition stating “we expect the concerned authorities to be mindful of their obligations and the draft rules would be finalised within a period of six months from today.”

Maya Murtem, General Secretary of the IFCSAP, said that the implementation of the Act would be an “armour.” “With the rate at which conversions are happening, in some districts it is almost at 90%. Many of the people who have converted are moving away from their traditional practices, calling them ‘alien’ and ‘evil. So this Act is urgent to preserve our culture, for which we are also working on documenting our beliefs and practices,’” she said.

Interestingly, the 2011 census enumerated Hinduism as the second largest religion in the state at 29.04%, while ‘Other Religion’ and ‘Buddhist’ were recorded as 26.2% and 11.77% respectively. A report on the 1971 census — in which 22% of the population was recorded t as Hindu — 63.5% were recorded as ‘Other Religion’, 0.79% as Chrisitan – the then Director of Census Operations, J K Barthakur had observed that a large number of tribal followers of “indigenous faiths” had returned their religion as Hinduism, which he suspected was because of “similarities” to Hinduism because of multiplicity of deities and “customary rituals.”

Murtem said that the activities of the RSS and its affiliates in the state, and the census numbers on ‘Hinduism’ are not seen with similar concern.

“The RSS doesn’t convert us but they have guided us in institutionalising and documenting of our faith, especially in recording our prayers in written form in the nyetam, which is like the Gita for us and in institutionalising our prayer centres,” she said, referring to the Donyi Polo faith.