1.
Outline
of the Study
This
study has four chapters with introduction and conclusion. The first chapter
deals with the history of the Maras before the coming of colonialism and
Christianity. The second chapter deals with the changes brought by the British
administration and Christian mission in Mara life. And then, it examines the
revival movements in Maraland, the interaction between Christianity and Mara
social-cultural practices and the way in which revival movements are
responsible for bringing indigenous Mara Christianity. The third chapter
assesses the development of the Mara Evangelical Church of Myanmar and the
Evangelical Church of Maraland India and her missionary endeavour through
postcolonial critique. Then, the last chapter brings out the propose Mara
theology of mission and ends with suggestion for further research.
Introduction
gives
the purpose of the study, the research questions which the author tackles
followed by the methodology which the author intends to apply in this study,
scope and significance of the research. It also provides the problems and
limitations of this study and the outlines of each chapter and the conclusion.
Chapter
One, ‘Pre-Colonial Mara Religion and Culture’ presents the origin of the
Maras, where they came from, their traditional religious and cultural practices
such as their concept of god, human, world, salvation and life after death. The
author aims to construct a postcolonial theological approach to the Mara primal
religion.
‘The
Advent of Colonialism and Christian Mission’ and ‘Revival Movements: Cultural Response to
Westernization’ is Chapter Two which deals with the coming of the British
rule in Maraland and the change that has affected the social and religious life
of the Mara society in both positive and negative ways. This was followed by
the Christian missionaries who converted the Maras to Christianity within a few
decades. This transformation from traditional life to Christianity has severely
affected the Mara life and as a result many of their cultural and religious
practices have been lost or abandoned. The author intends to retrieve the lost
cultural elements for theological interpretation in the present day Mara
context.
‘Revival
Movements: Cultural Response to Westernization’ looks
at the coming of the revival movement in Maraland and how it helps the Maras in
their response to Christianity and Colonial power. It explores the extent to
which the revival movement is responsible for recovering the lost or abandoned
cultural elements for the reformulation or reconstruction of the Mara
Christianity. Integrating the Mara cultural elements such as traditional drums,
dancing and new indigenous Mara Christian hymns will be seen from the
postcolonial perspective.
Chapter
Four, ‘An Analysis of the Mission
of the Mara Evangelical Church Myanmar and the Evangelical Church of Maraland
India’ first traces the history of the Evangelical Church. It also
highlights the paradigm shifts in the history of Christian mission. It outlines
how mission work started within the Evangelical Church, what were the aims and
objectives of doing mission among the people. It also shows factors that
motivated the Maras for this task and how they met the financial needs for this
purpose. It will also analyse the mission of the Evangelical Church from the
perspective of a postcolonial approach.
Chapter
four is Towards a Mara Theology of Mission. The main purpose of this
section is to reformulate or recreate a new and relevant theology of mission
for the Mara Christians. Since our perception of God is determined by our
understanding of cosmology, the concern of this chapter is to rediscover the
Mara cosmology and particularly their concept of God-human-world relationship
as one of the transformational motifs to be theologically constructed or
rediscovered. Moreover, since the issue of land is so fundamental in Mara life,
the relationship of the people and their land is discussed under ecological
theology. The relationship between men and women is also examined in order to
rectify and transform the Mara communitarian society to make it more liveable
and effective. An attempt is also made to rediscover the traditional festival
of Lyuva khutla and ethical principle of Mara community called ‘apiepasaina
hro’ for the construction of relevant Mara theology of mission.
‘Conclusion’
comprises
the contributions this study has made for the Evangelical Church and to Mara
Christianity as a whole. This includes re-reading of the Mara religious and
cultural practices with the purpose of finding contextual and hermeneutical
reinterpretation of the Mara theology of mission. It ends with a brief
evaluation of each chapter and suggestions for further research.
2.
Definitions
9.1.Mara
Tribal
“Tribus” the root word in Latin literally means ‘to be three’
(tri = three, bhuour or bu = to be). It was used to identity the three basic
divisions of Roman people namely, the Tintienses, Ramnses and Luceres who were
so divided for the purpose of taxation, military conscription and census
taking.[1] The term in this sense had
no negative connotation.[2]
The usage of the term later became more negative, pejorative
connotations, which is unfortunate. Some of the terms used are vanjajati
(forest caste), vanvasi (inhabitants of the forest), pahari (hill dwellers),
adimjati (primitive people), janjati (folk people), anusuchit janjati
(Scheduled tribe) and adivasi (first settlers).[3]
The Hebrew word ‘misphaha’ in Genesis 12:3, often translated as
“families” (KJV), “peoples” (NIV), can be more accurately rendered by an
in-between social category like “communities” or “people groups”. William
Holladay’s Hebrew lexicon agrees that ‘misphaha’ is best translated as
subdivisions of ethnic and national groups. In the scripture, is capable of
considerable flexibility and latitude of usage, depending upon its contexts. It
is translated ethically as ‘clan’, ‘tribe’ or ‘people’. It is used sociologically as ‘kind’ or ‘classes’.[4]
Mara tribal are now
all Christians belonging to Mongoloid race of Kuki-Chin group of Tibeto-Burman
family. M. Kipgen opines that the Mara were included in the Tibeto-Burman group
which is a branch of Tibeto-Chinese and their original home was in North West
China between the upper cause of Yan Tse and Haung-ho.[5] Maraland is located in the
area bordered by India to the West, Myanmar to the East and Bangladesh to the
South. It straddles two states: the western section is part of the
south-eastern corner of the state of Mizoram (North-East India) and the eastern
section is part of the south-western corner of the Chin State (North-West
Myanmar). They have their own language using the Roman alphabet of letter for
their official language.
[4] John D. Robb, Focus! The Power of People Group Thinking
(Bihar: Mission Educational Books, 1989), 13-14.
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