North east India consists of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. They are different from the other parts of India and have only recently been added to India’s political scene. As such, there is still a lot of unrest amongst the various ethnic groups with regards to territories and rights. The rebellions come in the form of merders, burning of houses, villages, churches, etc.
The Joint Peace-Team of Northeast India consists of representatives from the Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, CNI, Catholic and the NEICC Churches, led by Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, and they serve to look for the cause of outbreaks of violence and provide it with a solution and an angle to approach it from. They also serve as a voice to the public for the victims, as many of the places cannot be reached by the media.
The Northeastern Team affirmed that their success was mainly due to the fact they worked together as an ecumenical team, for relief, rehabilitation and peace-building; that they kept close to their Hindu and Muslim friends in the neighborhood and elicited support from the Administration. At every stage they made sure not to alienate the local officers nor general public.
They insisted that there would be no substitute for building up neighborhood relationships, especially when the time comes for the police to be withdrawn. Confidence-building gestures must become visible. Emphasis was placed on the importance of throwing feelers to the opponent seeking for dialogue. If this cannot be done directly, an effort could be done through a third party.
They do understand the need to handle inter-ethnic tensions as inter-ethnic tensions. By allowing such tensions to develop a religious dimension, they acknowledge that they are merely isolating and weakening ourselves stating that that is precisely what their opponents are trying to do, thus refusing to yield to that.
In the same way, they believe that one should never provoke the opposing group nor allow ourselves to be provoked. If unpleasantnesses have arisen between communities due to economic or political imbalances or even perceived unfairness of one group against another, they have to be addressed accordingly; dialogue must be initiated. Experience has shown that when problems are handled according to their nature (economic, political, cultural, social), the religious prejudice that has been artificially linked with the issue, often disappears. Stray incidents are bound to happen when things are returning to normal after a serious conflict. They should not be generalized.
The experience of the Northeastern Team has been that it is always better to look to the future after a tragedy than list the grievances of the past and assign responsibilities for each of the negative things that have happened. Even claims of rights, insistence of justice, winning of cases…all these are of value only if neighborhood harmony can be restored, confidence built up, and relationship re-established.
Thus, we can see that this particular religious organization tries as far as possible to stay in a neutral position, not siding with any one party in question. In addition, they hold a very logical viewpoint, first analyzing the situation and discussing solutions not according to what their holy book says but according to what is logical. In addition, their strong ties with the other religions keep them safe from any misunderstandings between the various groups. Thus, the serve as the analyzers, solution providers and in some situations the executors, making sure that what they are proposing is tailor fitted to the situation at hand.
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