It is no lie that Christian missionaries have played a significant role in shaping the state of Mizoram culturally, socially, and religiously. While they are often criticised for their role in changing the local culture and imposing their beliefs, it is important to recognise their significant contributions to the region’s development.
One of the main criticisms of Christian missionaries in Mizoram is that they destroyed local culture by imposing their beliefs on the Mizos. For example, some Mizos allege that the British missionaries, known as Zosaps to the Mizos, erased the drinking culture among the Mizos and brainwashed them into believing that they were incapable of drinking reasonably. This, they claim, led to an increase in alcohol abuse in the region. However, it is important to recognise that the Zosaps, despite their flaws, cannot be blamed for every vice in the state. It is true that the Zosaps might have indirectly contributed to the pandemic of drug and alcohol abuse in the state by dismantling Mizo drinking culture and making drinking a sin within Mizo Christianity, which in turn influenced government policies.
Mizoram is currently a “dry state,” due to religious and social settings, and the fact that it is a “dry state” is often pointed out by critics as being one of the main reasons for the prevalence of alcohol and drug-related abuse in the state. Nevertheless, it is important that we do not put the Zosap missionaries into one narrow box but rather look at their activities and mission among the Mizos as a whole and understand that while they were not perfect, they also made great contributions towards the welfare of the Mizo community.
One of the most significant contributions of the missionaries was in the areas of healthcare and education. In the 19th century, Mizo society had little access to modern healthcare and education was practically nonexistent for women. The tireless efforts of the missionaries helped empower Mizo communities and gave them access to modern healthcare and education in the 20th century. The Mizos have a rich history and a unique culture, but like every community, the people were also subject to superstitions and harmful practices.
While many aspects of Mizo culture that were not necessarily harmful became obsolete due to modernism and the activities of the Zosap missionaries, many awful practices that were harming the community were also put an end to by the Zosaps.
One of these practices that ended during the colonial period with the help of the missionaries was the now little-known practice of infanticide, in which babies were either smothered or buried alive when their mother died. Now, this is not a tradition, as not all pre-modern Mizos killed their babies when their mothers died, but even those not killed often died young due to the poor healthcare system available among Mizo communities at that time. In short, infant mortality was also incredibly high in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Mizoram.
The practice of infanticide among Mizo people is a lesser-known aspect of Mizo history and not much can be gathered about it. However, from the little records that we can find, when a Mizo mother dies during childbirth or dies leaving behind a suckling baby, it was common for the family to bury the baby with the mother. This practice was not done out of malicious intent but rather out of consideration for the baby.
Mizo society in the 19th century was a rough one, with poor healthcare, tough living conditions, and the ever-present threat of war. It was seen as more merciful to let a baby die with its mother rather than see it live the harsh reality of life without a mother if it even survived, which was unlikely. A taboo against drinking animal milk among the Mizos further intensified this problem, as animal milk was considered unclean by the Mizo.
Although Mithuns and goats were traditionally reared, they were kept for their meat and their milk was not consumed. Now if animal milk was unavailable for the baby whose mother just died, they would have to rely on the kindness of other mothers in the village who have nursing babies, but sadly, this was neither an option nor a blessing, as it was considered unlucky and cursed to look after a baby whose mother had died. Babies of women dying in childbirth were especially considered cursed, as according to traditional beliefs, death at childbirth is a bad omen for everyone and puts an entire village to a standstill, people lock themselves inside their homes in the event of a Raicheh, or death at childbirth.
The care of a motherless baby then fell solely on the grandmother, if she was alive. As looking after a baby was mainly considered a woman’s work, the baby’s father often did not take part in the care of the baby. The grandmother would try whatever she can to help the child, since milk was unavailable, the baby was fed boiled rice, and normally, they do not last long. So it was considered more merciful to kill a baby than to have it slowly starve to death.
When the British Empire expanded into Mizoram, they were undoubtedly shocked by this practice and banned it, but little was done on their part to solve the problem and help the Mizo community overcome the challenge. One of the first things the missionaries noticed when they arrived in the then Lushai Hills was the poor health of the residents, especially the children, and they took it upon themselves to not just stop at banning the practice as the government has done but also help the people overcome the challenges, thus giving the baby killing practice a natural death.
Eleanor Lorrain ( Pi Dari), the wife of pioneer missionary Rev. James Herbert Lorrain, was especially instrumental in this mission. As recorded in the book “Set on a Hill: The Record of Fifty Years in the Lushai Country,” Pi Dari arrived in Mizoram in the year 1904 and was extremely concerned with the condition of the Lushai villagers, she is quoted: “I must do something for these women and the children”.
She especially took motherless babies as her portion. After several attempts, Pi Dari was able to convince a few Mizo girls to help her foster the motherless babies that she had collected. She then acquired a rare supply of cow’s milk at her own expense.
The supply was procured from a small number of Gorkhas who have settled in the Lushai hills, and thus, with the help of a Gurkha milkman and her band of girls, they were able to operate a makeshift clinic in southern Mizoram and save many motherless babies with proper care. The clinic received motherless babies and cared for them, however, this effort was not enough, as a lot more was needed to be done.
Things finally changed in 1919, when a certified teacher, Miss Chapman, and a certified nurse, Miss Oliver Dicks, finally arrived in the Lushai Hills. Through their hard work and dedication, more Mizo women were given education, and even more, babies were saved. Soon, hospitals and orphanages were set up, and shortly, the practice of infanticide finally had its natural death among the Mizo. And 129 years after Pi Dari first set up her mission to save motherless Mizo babies, Mizoram now has the lowest infant mortality rate in India. The practice was so completely abandoned that it has, in a way, been forgotten that it was ever practised in the then-Lushai Hills.
This success story and the end of this brutal practice are certainly two of the few good things that the missionaries helped occur in Mizoram. Yes, the practice would have likely ended anyway even if it weren’t for the missionaries, but their efforts not only sped up the pace of progress but also saved many lives. As much as the missionaries were responsible for many good things in Mizoram, they were also in many ways responsible for the loss of certain important cultural elements of the Mizos, which would have been better preserved.
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However, we must also acknowledge that the early missionaries among the Mizos, the Zosaps, had a genuine love for the Mizo people. They left their homes, and crossed thousands of miles, to live in squalid conditions with a passion to teach the gospel and help the people of Mizoram. Were they perfect? Absolutely not. We need to know that they were Edwardian British people with outdated opinions and outlooks. Many of their accounts about the Mizos could have been biased and their views unsuitable for the modern world. But they were passionate about what they were doing, and they genuinely believed what they were doing was right, many of which were actually right.
We need to have this understanding, especially in today’s environment where many Mizos are beginning to question the intentions of the white missionaries of Lushai Hills and revisit the impact they had on the Mizo community. While the White missionaries who introduced Christianity to Mizoram changed many cultural practices of the Mizos, it is also important to acknowledge the positive changes they brought. Perhaps looking at history as more than just black and white would help us understand the complexity and come to terms with it.
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