For example, at Imphal in Manipur, special pioneer K. V. Joy found a teen-ager of the Tangkhul Naga tribe. Though the lad began to study the Bible immediately, doubts soon developed due to pressure from fellow Baptist religionists and he stopped his study. But this Naga, whose name is Grace, later found God’s name, Jehovah, in a school book and also learned from that publication that some popular “Christian” customs are of pagan origin. He resumed his Bible studies with Brother Joy.

Now religious community pressure became severe. The youth reports: ‘My tribal village leaders threatened me with the following alternatives: forsake my new religion and return to the Baptist Church; or pay a fine of 250 rupees; or be killed according to tribal custom. These threats were ignored and in time my elder brother, Angam, my cousin Narising and I resigned from the church. During 1975 I was baptized in symbol of my dedication to Jehovah. Soon afterward Angam and Narising also were baptized and they remained in my village to spread the truth to members of my tribe, who, until recent years, were headhunters. Even now at the front of some homes in my village human skulls are hanging on display as a reminder of the grim past.’

God’s truth in printed form also radiates through the northeastern tribal areas. There were 4,769 books and about twice as many magazines distributed by some seventeen special pioneers there between 1973 and 1975. Most of those special pioneers were from distant Kerala State, which has the largest concentration of Witnesses in India. Those pioneers from south India willingly left their native homelands to serve in strange territories nearly 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) away. It was like a foreign assignment for them, learning new languages and working among people of an entirely different nature. Within a few years the truth spread, and fifty local persons from those tribal territories were baptized. Some became available to translate literature into their own dialects.

DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLICATION WORK

In India, states are mostly determined according to local tongues, each having its own language. A book in a certain language had to be printed where that tongue was used. We had to find a location with a good press and where special pioneers were available to supervise the printing. In most cases, pioneers had to be trained to know how a good book could be produced, and this training was accomplished through correspondence from the branch office. Volumes of letters were exchanged in the process! Pioneers also had to improve in knowledge of their own language to qualify them to check accurately on the printing work. In this way, the Bombay branch office operates its printing organization at eleven different locations by a ‘remote control’ system.

However, in many cases this arrangement also has involved teaching commercial printing firms how to produce books of the high standard required by the Society. In various places, these printers felt that their higher standard of printing was due mainly to the training received through the careful supervision of the pioneers who cared for the printing of the Society’s publications.