10/40 window: Naga missionaries as spiritual migrants and the Asian experience

This paper will examine Naga Baptist missionaries going to specific parts of Asia – China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It will focus on three questions: 1) what motivates these missionaries; 2) in what ways do missionaries negotiate and navigate the worlds beyond their immediate context; 3) and finally, how do these processes relate to the broader ideas of mission. I will suggest that missionary activities are based on the nexus between territorial and cosmic narratives that are related to the question of sovereignty in the Naga context. This covenant – that of sending 10, 000 missionaries – is related to the founding of the Nagaland Missions Movement (NMM) in the 1970s and its promise to make Nagaland a “land of missions”. I will argue that there is an intimate connection between the “covenant” and potential, future sovereignty for Nagaland. And thus missionaries can be seen as accruing “spiritual capital” through the routes God has chosen for them. Here the coming together of “covenant” (land of missions) and “fulfilment” (sovereignty) is animated.