"most of the north-east is converted [to christianity]" is surprising, but actually that's true, for several Indian states that are in the enclave eastern of Bangladesh (Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya). Not "most" eastern states, though, only these ones.
I am certainly not in favor of acculturation, and I have no sympathy for religions such as christianity who advocate that nature exists just to be used by humans, however I am not sure that the current status is really evolving. These eastern states seem to have been converted long ago.
Well I grew up in the Northeast ('80s). One thing I can assert that these missionaries treated the population a lot more respect than the (for the lack of a better word) folks from mainland India. The common attitude towards Northeast people by my fellow countrymen was that of utter contempt to the point of treating them as inferior beings.
Sure the missionaries had an agenda. But given my options as an hypothetical person of northeastern ethnicity, given the education that I would get from the missionary organizations (they run many primary schools and high schools and vocational training schools) I would have made a wise choice and bettered my life.
Not everyone feels that way, at the end of the day Christians in India may feel special because they are "minority".
I have heard this from an India Christian family settled in Europe, their "christian identity" is not significant and they face all the 'othering' in their churches.
They were considering moving back to their Hindu roots as it gave them some identity.
As for the Christian benevolence, they lost thousands of ships before they found their way to a wealthy India. And when they left India was so impoverished that Indians were shipped off to remote plantations to "compensate" the white plantation owners after the slavery abolition.
The church encroached upon and accumulated so much land and wealth during the colonial era that they have not returned back to the communities or government and in many cases temple lands are under the control of the church.
First of all I don't need to be mansplained about what is happening in the Northeast with videos short or not. Neither do I need to be schooled in the nuances, thank you.
I am just sick and tired of the narrative that comes from the right wing "look missionaries did these horrible things". My rebuttal to that is (i) where were you and (ii) you (not you personally, the rightwing ideology) continue to do worse even today. So the right-wing does not really have a leg to stand on in this particular case.
I am certainly not in favor of acculturation, and I have no sympathy for religions such as christianity who advocate that nature exists just to be used by humans, however I am not sure that the current status is really evolving. These eastern states seem to have been converted long ago.