Innocent Pioneers And Their Triumphs In A Foreign Land

Contributed articles on Christianity in Burma.

Chinram was once an independent land ruled by Chin chiefs and where the people followed traditional Chin religion. By the turn of the twentieth century however, it had been abruptly transformed by British annexation and the arrival of Christian missionaries. As the Chin became increasingly related to Burmese independence movements, they began to articulate their own Christian traditions of democracy and assert a burgeoning self-awareness of their own national identity. In short, Christianity provided the Chin people with a means of preserving their national identity in the midst of multiracial and multireligious environments. Written by an exiled former Secretary General of the Chin National League for Democracy, this is the first in-depth study on Chin nationalism and Christianity. Not only does it provide a clear analysis of the close relationship between religion, ethnicity and nationalism, but also the volume contains valuable data on the Chin and their role in the history of Bruma.

While the image of modern Myanmar/Burma tends to be couched in human rights terms - and especially of a heroic Aung San Suu Kyi opposing and oppressive military regime - in reality there are several conflicts with ethnic and religious dimensions, as well as political and ideological differences between the opposition and the ruling military regime. This is not surprising in a country where 30% of the population and much of the land area are non-Burman, and where contradictory tendencies towards regional separatism versus unitary rule have divided the people since before independence. In what is probably the most comprehensive study of Burma's ethnic minorities to date, this volume discusses the historical formation of ethnic identity and its complexities in relation to British colonial rule as well as the modern state, the present situation of military rule, and its policy of "myanmarification." Changes of identity in exile due to religious conversion are analyzed and discussed. Finally the book deals with relevant and recent anthropological and sociological theoretical discussions on the ethnic identity, boundaries, and space of all the main ethnic groups in Burma.