The church did not emerge in a cultural vacuum. Rather, it developed through the encounter between the global Unitarian tradition and the religious worldviews of the Khasi, Pnar, War, and Karbi peoples. Its theology is therefore the product of both historical continuity and cultural contextualisation.
The history of Unitarianism in Northeast India began during the late nineteenth century through the pioneering work of Hajom Kissor Singh (1865-1923). Influenced by Rev. C.H.A Dahl a Unitarian Minister then based in Calcutta, Hajom Kissor Singh embraced the Unitarian understanding of the unity of God while remaining deeply rooted in the culture and traditions of his own people.
Unlike many Christian missions that sought to transplant European forms of Christianity, Hajom Kissor Singh envisioned a church that would express Unitarian faith through the language, culture, and worldview of the indigenous peoples of the region. Consequently, the Unitarian movement in the Khasi and Jaiñtia Hills gradually developed its own identity, incorporating local customs and modes of worship without compromising its central affirmation of one God.
The uniqueness of Unitarianism in the Hills of Meghalaya and Assam is the fact that its roots is distinctively indigenous while its trunk, is strong in liberal thoughts and philosophy and it branches and flowers itself into an open and progressive understanding of the world. This blending of liberal Unitarian ideals with tribal thoughts and philosophy is the strength of the church and it is unique only to this region.
H.K. Singh's concept of the oneness of God was based both on traditional beliefs and on the Bible of the Judeo Christian tradition. H.K. Singh's concept of God is a synthesis of the "Yahweh" of the Old Testament, the Father in Heaven of Jesus, and the ultimate God and Creator of the Khasi tradition.
U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh is not the only name that the Khasi and Pnar use for God. They also have another name for God: U Trai Kynrad. Whether U Trai Kynrad is a Khasi translation of the English "Lord," which is itself derived from the Greek word Kyrios, is debatable. Certainly, in the Christian context, the use of the word U Trai connotes the New Testament concept of the Lord, which often refers to the second person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ.
U Trai is not a post Christian period invention. In Khasi parlance, the term has been in use since time immemorial. Apart from using the word for God, the Khasi also use the word Kynrad, or U Trai Kynrad, when paying obeisance to God Almighty. Incidentally, the word Trai in Khasi also has meanings similar to those of the English word "Lord," including owner, foundation, foothold, and related concepts. Kynrad is a personification of God.
H.K. Singh went further in indigenizing the concept of God by using the Khasi word Phi ("you") to address the Almighty. This term is commonly used to address someone in a position of much higher status and respect, instead of the Khasi word Me ("thou"). H.K. Singh's concept of the oneness of God was based both on traditional beliefs and on the Bible of the Judeo-Christian tradition. H.K. Singh's use of Phi to address the Almighty was sometimes misunderstood as referring to God in the plural. Hence, he was thought to worship many gods. His replacements of the Khasi word 'Me' with 'Phi' when addressing the Almighty is, in itself, a landmark, because Phi is a polite and respectful term in the Khasi Pnar context.
It is evident from the hymns he composed that Hajom Kissor Singh's concept of God was rooted in the traditional Khasi Pnar understanding of God as the Creator, who is both God and Lord at the same time. Like the traditional concept, he did not differentiate between the two. However, his concept of God went beyond the understanding of God held by his forefathers.
In his Statement of Belief, H.K. Singh describes his idea of God in stanza 2 of Hymn No. 1 in the Khasi Unitarian Hymn Book: /The living God is one only God/He is our real Father Mother/. Singh, in stanza 2 of Hymn No. 1 in the Khasi Unitarian Hymn Book, he describes his idea of God: /The living God is one only God/He is our real Father Mother/. By describing God as both a "Father and Mother" entity, H.K. Singh went a step further than the traditional concept of a male God. His God is genderless, or more importantly, his concept is of a God beyond gender. This is one of the unique features of Unitarian theology in this region. Believing that God is both mother and father is innovative even within a matrilineal society.
Although Khasi Pnar tends to use the prefix U before the word for God, which represents the male gender, the Unitarians here have no image of God. Its concept of God is more that of a spirit that pervades all things.
The two original readings written by H.K. Singh are Readings Nos. 10 and 11 in the Khasi Unitarian Hymn Book. Both readings are dated 1891, and Reading No. 10 is another piece that describes his concept of God: "…who is our Creator, our foundation, and the source of all things; eternal and everlasting, perfect in every respect, and who loves us beyond measure. God is eternally good, infinitely wise, and present both within us, and around, and pervading all of existence and permeating everything." The phrase "God is within us" expresses the idea of divine immanence: God is not distant from human beings but intimately present within human life and consciousness. The second part, "beyond our being," prevents the statement from being understood simply as saying that God is identical with the human self.
This expresses divine transcendence. God exceeds human comprehension, individual existence, and the limitations of the created world. Although God may be experienced within us, God cannot be reduced to our thoughts, emotions, or consciousness. "God is everywhere" extends this understanding beyond the individual human being. Divine presence is not confined to a particular temple, church, sacred place, nation, or religious community.
God is in everything suggests that the whole of creation participates in, or bears witness to, the presence of the divine. This does not necessarily mean that everything is God; it is the identification of God with the universe itself. H.K. Singh's concept of the oneness of God was based both on traditional beliefs and on the Bible of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Singh's understanding of God can be interpreted as an affirmation of both divine immanence and divine transcendence. In describing God as being "within us and beyond our being, present everywhere and in everything," he presents a conception of the divine that is neither confined to a distant transcendent realm nor reduced to the human self or the material universe. God is intimately present within human existence while simultaneously exceeding it.
Two Khasi stalwarts, Radhon Singh Berry and Job Solomon, were contemporaries of H.K. Singh. They were also known for their contributions to the literary world of the emerging Khasi language. R.S. Berry and Job Solomon contributed immensely to the growth of the Unitarian movement by composing hymns for the Church. Radhon Singh Berry of Seng Khasi, who composed more than 30 hymns for the Unitarian Hymn Book, later became a Unitarian, while Job Solomon remained a Presbyterian until he breathed his last. Both these men of letters emphasised in the hymns they composed for the Unitarian Hymn Book the idea that the Khasi Unitarian concept of God is rooted in the traditional Khasi Pnar understanding of God.
In Hymn No. 40, stanza 3, R.S. Berry says: /This is not a foreign God/God of our own, He is/
The Khasi version says: (Une Um long U Blei nongwei/ U Blei la jong U dei/ U ba thaw ïa phi ka long briew/ Mynta U wan kyrsiew/). Job Solomon, in Hymn No. 7 further stresses this idea in stanza 5: /this is our God/God of our ancestors too/God of the Pnars and the Khasi/He is also Lord of the Lords/. (Une U long U Blei jong ngi/ Blei ruh ki Ba-hyndai/ U Blei ki Pnar bad ki Khasi/ Uba U Trai ki trai/)
The concept of God that emerged within the Unitarian Union represents a distinctive understanding of the divine as universal, formless, spiritual, and all pervading. It differs significantly from the conventional Judeo Christian conception of God as a heavenly Father or as an anthropomorphic being fashioned in the image of humanity. Instead, it understands the divine as a spiritual presence that transcends human form while remaining present within and throughout creation.
It is in this sense that Unitarianism in the Khasi, Jaiñtia, and Karbi Hills can be understood as an indigenous religion. It did not merely transplant a foreign theological system into the region; rather, it emerged from the religious and philosophical soil of the people and entered into dialogue with their indigenous worldview, concepts of the divine, and understanding of human existence. The result is a distinctive theological tradition in which universal Unitarian principles are expressed through indigenous thought and experience. Its uniqueness, therefore, lies in its creative synthesis of liberal religious ideas with the intellectual and spiritual heritage of the region.