Bnei Menashe - Revivalism

Revivalism

During the first Welsh missionary-led Christian Revivalism movement which swept through the Mizo Hills in 1906, indigenous festivals, feasts and traditional songs and chants were strictly prohibited by the missionaries. This policy was abandoned during the 1919–24 Revival and the Mizos began writing their own hymns and incorporating indigenous elements thereby creating their own distinct form of worship.

Dr. Shalva Weil, a senior researcher and noted anthropologist at Hebrew University, quotes Steven Fuchs in her paper Dual Conversion Among the Shinlung of North-East: "Revivalism (among the Mizo) is a recurrent phenomenon distinctive of the Welsh form of Presbyterianism. Certain members of the congregation who easily fall into ecstasy are believed to be visited by the Holy Ghost and the utterings are received as prophecies" (1965: 16). McCall (1949) records several incidents of revivalism including the "Kelkang incident" in which three men "spoke in tongues" claiming to be the medium through which God spoke to men. Their following was large and widespread until they clashed with the colonial Superintendent who put down the movement and removed the "sorcery" (1949: 220-223)".