Maraland is a region in the southeastern part of Mizoram state, India, referring not to a political or district name but specifically to the area inhabited by the Mara people. The region is one of the three Autonomous District Councils in the state. The Mara Autonomous District Council government is headed by Chief Executive Member, currently by Puhpa N. Zakhai, a veteran Congress politician.
The history of Mizoram encompasses the history of Mizoram which lies in the southernmost part of northeast India. It is a conglomerate history of several ethnic groups of Chin people who migrated from Chin State of Burma. But information of their patterns of westward migration are based on oral history and archaeological inferences, hence nothing definite can be said. The recorded history started relatively recently around the mid-19th century when the adjoining regions were occupied by the British monarchy. Following religious, political and cultural revolutions in the mid-20th century majority of the people agglomerated into a super tribe, Mizo. Hence the officially recognised settlement of the Mizos became Mizoram.
Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu majority country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and significant minorities in Konkan division, Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with various communities in east coast and northern states. Protestants today trace their heritage back to the Protestant reformation of the 16th century. There are an estimated 20 million Protestants and 16 million Pentecostals in India.
Mizoram Presbyterian ChurchSynod is the largest Christian denomination in Mizoram, northeast India. It was a direct progeny of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Wales. It was the first church in Mizoram and is now one of the constituent bodies of a larger denomination Presbyterian Church of India (PCI), which has its headquarters in Shillong, Meghalaya. The administrative body called the Mizoram Synod has its headquarters at Mission Veng, Aizawl. As the first church, it remains the largest denomination in Mizoram.
The Presbyterian Church of India (PCI) is a mainline Protestant church based in India, with over one and a half million adherents, mostly in Northeast India. It is one of the largest Christian denominations in that region.
Christianity is one of the religions in Tripura, a state in North East India. According to the Indian Census 2011, the population of Christians in Tripura is 159,882 or 4.35% of the total population. Christians are mostly found among the indigenous communities of the state such as the Tripuri, Lushai, Kuki, Darlong, Halam etc. Among the Scheduled Tribes of the state Christians share is 13.12% of the population.
Christianity is the third largest religion in Assam, a state in the north-eastern region of India. The total population of Christians in the state is 1,165,867, which according to the 2011 census comprises about 3.74% of the state's total population. After Islam, Christianity is also the second-fastest growing religion of Assam. The largest concentration of Christians in Assam can be found in the Dima Hasao District, where Christians number approximately 30% of the population. The second largest concentration is in the Karbi Anglong district where they form approximately 16.5% of the population.
Christianity is the fastest growing and second most followed religion in Manipur, a state in Northeast India, according to 2011 census data of India.
Christianity is the largest religion in the Northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China. According to the census of 2011 Christians constitute 30.26% of the state's population. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the state with around 180,000 adherents. The Arunachal Baptist Church Council is the second largest denomination with 150,000 baptized members in about 1,200 churches and Arunachal Pradesh Christian Revival Church Council (APCRCC) which started in 1987 at Naharlagun also growing fast.
James Herbert Lorrain, or Pu Buanga, was a Scottish Baptist missionary in northeast India, including Mizoram, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh. He and Frederick William Savidge reduced the Lushai language to writing—devised an alphabet using Roman lettering and phonetic form of spelling based on Hunterian system translation; compiled grammar and dictionaries for missionary activities and clerical administration.
William Williams was a Welsh Presbyterian missionary to Khasi Hills, northeast India, in the late 19th century. He was a son of a ship captain in Nanternis, a small village in Wales. Following his father's footstep he became a sailor for five years. Then he took a profession in carpentry for two years. After graduating in theology from East London Missionary Training Institute he became a pastor. Pursuing his ambition he became a missionary of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Mission to Khasi people in India from 1887 until his death. He died of typhoid in 1892.
The largest religion in Nagaland is Christianity. The state's population is 1,978,502, as of 2011, out of which 87.93% are Christians. The 2011 census recorded the state's Christian population at 1,745,181, making it, with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram as the four Christian-majority states in India. The state has a very high church attendance rate in both urban and rural areas. The majority of churches are found in Kohima, Chümoukedima, Dimapur and Mokokchung.
Evangelization of Meghalaya began in the 19th century during the British era. In the 1830s, American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society had become active in Northeast to evangelize indigenous tribes to Christianity. Later, they were offered to expand and reach into Sohra Meghalaya, but they lacked the resources to do so and declined. Welsh Presbyterian Mission took the offer and they began work at Sohra mission field. By the early 1900s, other Protestant denominations of Christianity were active in Meghalaya. The outbreak of World Wars forced the preachers to return home to Europe and America. It is during this period that Catholicism took root in Meghalaya and neighbouring region. Currently, Catholics, Presbyterians and Baptists are three most common Christian denominations found in Meghalaya.
North East India Christian Council (NEICC) is a Protestant ecumenical council of North East India, affiliated to the National Council of Churches in India as one of the regional councils in the year 1939.
Frederick William Savidge was a pioneer English Christian missionary in northeast India. He and James Herbert Lorrain brought Protestantism to Mizoram, and some parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Together they were entirely responsible for the creation of written language in Mizo, beginning of literacy, origin of formal education and establishment of churches in Mizoram. They devised the original Mizo alphabets based on Roman script, prepared the first book and dictionary in Mizo, started the first school among the Mizos. Mizoram has become the most Christian populated state in India. As a professional educator Savidge was single-handedly responsible for introducing quality education in Mizoram. He is deservedly known as the Father of Mizo Education.
The history of Christianity in Mizoram covers the origin and development of all forms of Christianity in Mizoram since the British occupation at the end of the 19th century. Christianity arrived as a consequence of tribal warfare, raids of British plantations, and the ensuing punitive British military expedition called the Lushai Expedition of 1871. The subsequent annexation of the erstwhile Lushai Hills to the British Empire opened the gateway for British Christian missions to evangelise the Mizo people.
Lalsawma is an Indian social worker, writer and a Christian missionary and Pastor of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church. His contributions are reported in the reconciliation efforts between the Government of India and the Mizo National Front (MNF) on two occasions. In the wake of the March 1966 Mizo National Front uprising, the Mizoram Presbyterian Church Synod appointed missionaries for peace talks with MNF in 1969 and Lalsawma was one of two missionaries who contacted the MNF leaders. In 1982, he was again a member of the three-men delegation who held talks with MNF which, untimaltely, led to the Mizo Accord of 1986. He has written several articles and is the author of the book, Four Decades of Revivals, the Mizo Way. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2005, for his contributions to Indian society.
The Tripura Presbyterian Church Synod is one of the constituent units of the Presbyterian Church of India. It has its headquarters in Agartala, Tripura. It has 325 churches and 22,277 members mostly among the indigenous peoples of Tripura.
