This paper explores the ethical positioning of the figure of Father
Krick in Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill, a novel situated in what is
now known as Arunachal Pradesh in India by bringing Postcolonial
theory into conversation with Bakhtin’s idea of moral accountability.
Through close textual analysis, it argues that Krick’s encounters with
Indigenous communities are shaped by an orientalist framework that
embeds his missionary efforts within wider imperial agendas,
ultimately contributing to epistemic and physical violence.
Employing Bakhtin’s critique of “theoretism,” the study shows how
Krick depends on rigid, repeatable images of the “Orient,” that have
historically facilitated both colonial and evangelical authority. A
Bakhtinian reading of ethical responsibility further demonstrates
Krick’s displacement of culpability onto colonial institutions,
exposing the instrumental and ethically compromised nature of his
professed “love” for the natives. By highlighting Krick’s orientalist
worldview and his refusal to recognise the interdependence of
religious and political domains, the paper challenges assumptions
about the autonomy of the religious sphere. It also situates the
novel’s critique within current debates in Arunachal Pradesh, where
renewed attention to the Freedom of Religion Act reveals how
contemporary legal ambiguities around conversion threaten to
perpetuate epistemic violence.