Christianity in Nagaland

[2] Christianity was introduced in the erstwhile Naga Hills to expand colonialism as well driven by missionary fervour which failed to garner numbers in the Brahmaputra Valley.

[3] The earliest Christian missionaries in the erstwhile Naga Hills (part of colonial Assam province) belonged to the American Baptist Mission.

In the 1870s, other colonial military officers such as John Butler and James Johnstone also extended the invitation to missionaries for the Naga Hills.

The primary purpose of these military invitations, with assurance of state security, was to 'pacify' these Indigenous communities and subjugate them to colonial rule.

[3] While the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society were one of the first Christian missionaries to enter the northeast frontier of Colonial India, their initial projects were frustrating.

Starting the proselytising mission from Colonial Assam, the society's annual report in 1858 noted their 'great failure' to convert a sizeable population to Christianity after almost 23 years.

The revival emphasised believers having a "personal encounter with Christ", the witnessing of "signs and wonders" (such as miraculous healings), and having a missionary outreach to non-believing or nominally-Christian Nagas.

Rani Gaidinliu was an Indian freedom fighter who struggled for the revival of Heraka, the traditional animist religion of the Naga people.