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1 Religious conversions reconsidered: Christian missions and indigenous movement among the Zo people in colonial Chin Hills. Pum Khan Pau Colonialism and Christian missions are two distinct institutionalised entities that often move alongside to any new venture but opposed to each other fundamentally. 1 While the primary objective of the former was predominantly economic and its practice was conditioned by economic laws 2 the latter mainly aimed at transforming the socio-cultural and religious lives of the people through and by means of Christianity. Generally, the relations between Christian missions and colonialism had not always been “cordial” in all cases; it apparently depends more often on the local situation. For instance, missionaries were at first prohibited to start evangelical activities in India owing to Indian religious sensibilities. But in the latter part of the nineteenth century doors were opened for the missionaries who began to interact, if not collaborate, with colonial rulers in different forms and at many levels. Such mutual connection was believed to be depended on the particular mission and issues involved as well as the nature of the colonial situation. 3  Recent studies thus aptly stated that “missionaries followed hard on the heels of soldiers and administrators”, 4 and in most cases “if the missions did not precede the colonial movement, they did follow in the heels of colonial powers”. 5 Although the two entities differ in their objective and methods they have one thing in common: they are unwelcomed in a strange land and they encountered opposition from the indigenous people and traditions. Following the routes taken by colonial soldiers Christian missionaries ventured into the Chin hills, along the Indo-Myanmar border, in the late nineteenth century. As colonial 1 Lal Dena, Christian Missions and Colonialism: A study of missionary movement in North East India with  particular reference to Manipur and Lushai Hills 1894-1947 , Verdrame Institute, Shillong, 1988, p.12. 2 J.S.Furnivall, Colonial Policy and Practice: A Comparative Study of Burma and Netherlands India, New York University Press, 1956, p.8. 3 Robert W. Strayer, The Making of Mission Communities in East Africa, New York, 1978, p.2. 4 Mark R. Woodward, “Gift for the Sky People: Animal Sacrifice, Head-hunting and Power among the Naga of Burma and Assam,” in Graham Harvey (ed.),  Indigenous Religions: A Companion, London: continuum, 2000, quoted in Terence Ranger, “Christianity and Indigenous Peoples: A personal Overview”,  Journal of Religious History , Vol.27, No.3, October 2003, p.264. 5 Lal Dena, p.13.

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