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St. Thomas Church Tuensang: A stepping Stone for Catholic Church in Eastern Nagaland

Opinion | Articles | Benjamin Chang | 15-Oct-2021

St. Thomas Church is the first Diocesan Catholic Mission Centre to be opened in Nagaland, also the third Catholic Mission Centre of Nagaland after Kohima and Lakhuti Catholic Mission Centres’. The establishment of St. John’s School, Tuensang may be said to have paved the way for the emergence of St. Thomas Parish, Tuensang. On the invitation of Mr. Akum Imlong Chang, Minister in charge of Tuensang Affairs, St John’s School was opened in 1965 by Rev. Fr. Felix under the guidance and favour of Rt. Rev. Hubert D’Rosario, the then Bishop of Dibrugarh, Manipur and Nagaland. Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Graves from Jamshedpur were asked to teach at St John's School.

The Chang Naga tribe is one of the major tribes of the Eastern Frontier of Nagaland. Tuensang is the District Headquarter of the Chang tribe. It is the easternmost and one of the largest district of Nagaland, bordering with Myanmar (Burma). Tuensang Village, which is only next to BaraBosti, of Kohima in terms of area is the most important and the mother village of the Changs. The earliest report about the Changs is found in the Tour-diary of E.A. Woods, Deputy Commissioner, Naga Hills Districts and some casual references here and there and a brief note about the Changs by J.H. Hutton. There were only two Chang villages under the Naga Hills district, namely, Yaongyimti and Chakpa, therefore the British contact with the Chang community was brief and scanty. The district was an un-administered area and was part of North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) up to the dawn of independence. Earlier the Changs were known to the British as Mazung. However, the word Chang soon became popular and hence, we find the mention of the word Chang in the works other British officers like E. A. Woods, (Deputy Commissioner, Naga Hills District) J. H. Hutton (1921 and 1969) and J. P. Mills. Other Naga tribes identified the Changs by different names such as Changhai by Khiamniungans, Changru by Yimchungers, Duenching by upper Konyaks and Phoms, Machungrr by Aos, Mochumi by Semas and Mojung by lower Konyaks...

On 28th February, 1967 Rev. Fr. P.C. Mani together with five Adoration sisters: Sr. Epephrasia, Sr. Rose Teresa, Sr. Blessilia, Sr. Cicily Kattakayam and Sr. Therese took charge of the Tuensang mission and St. John’s school. They were given two buildings for their stay and the town club building was used for the school. Aliba Imti, the DC, L. Toshi, the SDO and Mr. N.I. Jamir, the DC gave them much support and encouragement in the initial period of the mission. The beginning brought a lot of criticism and opposition from every corner. All the oppositions and criticisms were bravely traced, with more courage and determination by the cooperation and dedicated service of Mr. Akum Imlong Chang, the then Tuensang Affairs Minister and Mr. L. J. Graves the first headmaster. There was much hostility from the people. The people were prevented from selling the land for the establishment of the mission centre in Tuensang by the Baptist leaders. Fr. P.C. Mani’s gentle and affable ways slowly wore out the oppositions. The pioneers, Fr. P.C. Mani and Fr. Mathew Manianchiara, who took over a year later, put the institution on its feet and shifted from the temporary building to the present site...

The pioneering works of the missionaries are praise worthy. The fathers and sisters took up great challenges and risks in promoting the Catholic faith. The inclement weather, the opposition and spreading false notions about the Catholic Faith by our Baptist brethren, lack of communication facilities, the Spirit of Naga Nationalism and hatred for the Indians, etc. were some of them to be mentioned. The first Indo-Naga war took place in Tuensang. Almost every household had NNC members fighting with the Indian Armies. Anything that was associated with India was resisted by the local people. Yet in all this circumstances the Catholic missionaries stood firm and resolute on the rock of Christ. The pioneering work of fathers such as P.C. Mani, Lucian, L. Castelino S.J, L. Miranda, T.J. Chacko, Devassay, C.M. Joseph, Mathew Keemattam, Chacko Karinthayil, etc. and the dedicated services of sisters such as Srs. Euphamia, Luciana, Lima Rose, Justina, Else Paikadu, Rosily Chalil, Toms Maria, Celine Jose, Sebia, etc. are to be mentioned in particular.

Their missionary spirit and work brought a vitality and new vigour to the evangelization work, especially in Tobu and Kiphire areas. The arrival of the missionaries and the steady growth of the institution cheered the people and cherished their dream of future. The community had its first local students baptized on 13th April 1968. Mary Zamila, Peter Motiyur, Mathew R. Alem and Rose Theresa Abida were baptized on that day by Rev. Fr. P.C. Mani. There were so many hostel boys and girls who were received to the Catholic Faith through Baptism in the Catholic Church, while some remained faithful to the Church by spreading the Catholic Faith in their own villages and towns, there were also many who failed to be faithful to the Church and left the Church after their studies. Fr. Lucien Miranda and Fr. T. J. Chacko have left behind excellent accounts of their tours into the towns and villages around Tuensang mission area and its people...

Three Jesuits volunteered to pitch their tents in Nagaland. Fr. Ligouri Castelino and Fr. Raymond D’Souza arrived in Kohima on 21st April 1970. Fr. S. Coelho arrived on 11th May 1970. Two months later, their search for a suitable site stopped at Jakhama. It had a small Catholic community of about 150. When Fr. Edwin Goveas joined his Jesuit friends, Fr. L. Castelino decided to go to Tuensang following the request of the Bishop to help provisionally in this difficult Centre of the Parish and St. John’s Middle school. This allowed Fr. Castelino to tour the Tuensang area. He established Loyola Primary School at Kiphire amidst untold hardship. Fr. Castilino sifted his based to Kiphire and started to expand his mission to further south to Meluri village. We owe thanks and gratitude, especially to Fr. Goveas who breathed his last in Tuensang and became the first Catholic missionary to die in Nagaland. His demise necessitated the recall of Fr. Castelino to Tuensang. Another priest then joined him at Tuensang. Fr. Devassy Pudussery, a diocesan, took up his new charge as the parish priest of Tuensang on 26th June, 1974...

Tuensang Mission Church can be called the Mother Church of Tobu, Kiphire, Mokokchung, Mon, Meluri, Longleng, Pongro parishes and Shamator, Angamba and Noklak Mission Centres’ of today. It was from here these parishes began to take root in the Eastern Naga areas. Though Tuensang is the Mother Church, yet the growth of the Catholic communities in proper Tuensang is at snail’s speed with just Noksen as sub-Catholic place, while its tributaries were very receptive and the Catholic faith grew fast in these places. Tuensang took years to get settled in Catholic faith. Catholic Missionaries did not venture much into Chang villages because the Changs of Tuensang were not much receptive to the Catholic faith. The Changs were high on Naga Nationalism and looked down upon the Catholic Church as Indian Hindu Church. The native people showed interest only in having a school. Only by 1986, after 20 years of its existence, the Catholic Church had a breakthrough in bringing in some neighbouring families into the Catholic Church...

The Parish Church today has around sixty families. The growth had been awfully slow in this stronghold area of the Baptist Church. People are keen to have the Catholic school but a lot of opposition to faith exists even today. Despite great odds, the Catholic Church of Tuensang has taken roots. Though less in number, the Catholic Church has been able to make its presence felt. With the demand for a separate state “Frontier Nagaland” there is a general sentiment among the Eastern Nagas that, the people were socially, economically neglected by the educated people of the State for quite a long time. The Catholic Church can play a very vital role as a uniting factor for the Nagas. The Church can help in enlightening the minds of the poor villagers. It’s time for the Catholic Church to adopt look east Policy and make a renewed missionary attempt to the backward areas. The Catholic Church can do a lot for the people of Eastern Nagas, especially in the field of education, where the district headquarters like Mon, Kiphire and Longleng have just one Government College each. With the increase in religious vocations and the rise in general consciousness of the educated people, there is also much hope for the future growth of the Catholic Church in Nagaland...

Maj. Gen. Sardeshpande, one of the Indian Authors on Nagas who wrote a book “The Patkoi Nagas” during his stay at 8th Assam Riffle’s Tuensang in 1990s' made this comment about the people of Tuensang, “A very large majority of us know little about them. The little that we now is about their nakedness, headhunting and anti-national, hostile, insurgent activity. By nature they are suspicious, sensitive, wary, distrustful, inward-looking, volatile and very proud. But deep inside his inscrutable exterior and penetrating eyes there is tremendous warmth, great geniality. They are, on the contrary, very good to those who are good to them, and friendly to those who are friendly and exceptionally hospitable to those who come with good intentions."

(The Author is a Priest in the Diocese of Kohima, and can be reached on Benjamin.chang24@gmail.com. The content of the Article is personal)

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