The Global Church Era · 1906-present · Kerala; Mizo, Khasi & Naga hills; diaspora
Northeast India & the Mar Thoma Church — the 20th Century
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About This Movement
Two very different Indian Christian worlds are carried together here, both of them twentieth-century continuations of older stories. In the northeast hills, revival waves ran through the Mizo country from 1906 and again in 1913, in 1919 and through the 1930s, and out of them came lengkhawm zai — hymns composed in the local language for the local way of singing, which is now the churches' ordinary practice rather than a curiosity. Within a few generations Mizoram and Nagaland became, on the usual counts, among the most heavily Christian regions on earth. In Kerala, the Mar Thoma Church — the reform wing of the ancient St Thomas Christians — went through its own century under indigenous leadership, with the annual Maramon Convention as its great gathering, and sent congregations out with the diaspora.
Sources
- The hills' churches' own twentieth-century record: Mizo revival waves (1906, 1913, 1919, the 1930s); synod records under indigenous leadership; the continuing composition of lengkhawm zai (primary) — The revival hymnody described earlier is now this church's own mainstream practice. Records are largely in local languages, which limits outside access.
- The Mar Thoma Church's era-10 record: Abraham Mar Thoma and his successors; Maramon Convention records; twentieth-century mission societies and diaspora parishes (primary) — Sources here are largely in Malayalam, which limits outside access.
- Robert Eric Frykenberg, Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present (Oxford, 2008) (secondary) — The standard reference for both wings' continuations.
- F. S. Downs, History of Christianity in India, vol. V pt. 5: North East India (Church History Association of India, 1992) (secondary) — The standard account for the northeast hills.