The Struggle for Power: Church Leaders in the Naga Political Movement

The domain of religion is not confined with the religious aspects. It often involves in social and political games, mobilizing one's interests and ideas in the name of religion. Like nationalism, religion acts as one of the most potent and inspiring sources of collective identity, but also the most destructive forces for mobilizing large numbers of people and generates social conflict and change. In the Naga context, the Church leaders have campaigned against their revolutionary leaders in the name of “Ideology”, which could be seen as the struggle for power. The inconvenient gesture of the Church leaders in the eyes of the revolutionary leaders, and the retaliation of the latter further divides their population. The Naga people witnessed that the Church leaders journeyed from passivity to political resource, and then to reconciling the warring factions of the people.