Polygamy and Christianity: Exploring their impacts on the population growth of Rongmei Tribe in Northeast India

The complicated and frequently contentious subject of polygamy in Christianity has generated a great deal of discussion among academics, theologians, and Christians. Although Christian teachings often support monogamous marriages, it is essential to consider the historical context in which many biblical stories were composed. However, the polygamous culture of Rongmei historically led to strife between traditional and Christian societies after Christianity was introduced to the area in 1914. Currently, 92.32% of the population of Rongmei are Christian, and the religion strictly forbids polygamy. As a result, the practice of polygamy is decreasing significantly, which influences family size and population growth. Therefore, this article aims to examine how Christianity changed the traditional Rongmei community and its impact on population growth. Consequently, the current study adopted an inductive approach and selected 11 conglomerate villages in Khoum Valley, utilizing the snowball sampling technique to obtain the targeted data and conduct comparative analysis to understand how Christianity has impacted the traditional Rongmei community, as well as the impact of population growth resulting from the Christian monogamy system.