Open Collections

BK, Amar

Database of Religious History (DRH)

Sachchai is a loosely organized group of believers who aim to heal their suffering and illnesses through the means of Bible study, ritual exorcism, and speaking in tongue. Sachchai is rapidly spreading across villages and towns in Nepal. Hundreds of thousands of believers have embraced it. More than ninety percent of the believers are women who mostly are from poor and low-caste backgrounds. Sachchai claims to be an inclusive, egalitarian, and universal group. People from any religious and cultural background are welcome and they do not need to abandon their past religions and cultures. But the believers are required to believe in Jesus and study the Bible. Other synchretist faith-based groups like Sachchai are also found in South Asia. For example, Christ-Bhakta followers in Tamil Nadu, India, who identify themselves as Christ-Bhakta Hindus, and Jesus Imandars in Bangladesh, who identify themselves as Isa-Muslims (Jørgensen 2008; Kuttiyanikkal 2014) . Both these groups study the Bible but do not disassociate themselves from their past religions. Sachchai was established by Christian evangelicals in the late 1970s in India but could not prosper until the first decade of the 21st century when it got fertile ground in Nepal. Extreme political instabilities, huge international labor migration of men, dire lack of public services, and, most importantly, rising domestic violence against women, all have contributed to the rapid expansion of Sachchai. Hindu nationalists and Christians in Nepal both have considered Sachchai as a threat to them.

Other

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0438185

Non UBC

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/