Ethnic Churning : CHIKUMI Style
- Part 3 -

Lalthlamuong Keivom *

Pu Lalthlamuong Keivom :: Pix - HL

* Delivered at the 10th Arambam Somorendra Memorial Lecture titled "Ethnic Churning: Chikumi Style" at the Lamyanba Shanglen, Konung Lampak on June 10 2015

Role of the Colonial Power

Before the Zo people could realize what was in store for them, the British had already put their lands under different administrations. However, realizing the mistake and the need to set it right, the Chin-Lushai Conference at Fort William, Calcutta in January 1892 unanimously agreed, "It is desirable that the whole tract of country known as the Chin-Lushai Hills should be brought under one Administrative head as soon as this can be done."

To set the ball rolling, the Chin Hills Regulation was adopted in 1896 to regulate the administration of the Zo people in the Chin Hills as well as other Zo inhabited areas where the Regulation also extended. Two years later, in 1898, North Lushai Hills under Assam and South Lushai Hills under Bengal were amalgamated as one Lushai Hills District under Assam as proposed at the Calcutta Conference as a first concrete step towards the establishment of a common administrative unit for the Zo people. The proposal also included the eventual integration of Zo inhabited areas of the Arakan Hill Tracts into the Lushai Hills District.

For political reasons, the proposed unified administration was never implemented. The belated proposal of Robert Reid, Governor of Assam to create a hill province comprising of areas inhabited by the Mongoloid hill tribes in the region was also overtaken by the Second World War and its aftermath. The Zo people are, therefore, found today in Chin, Rakhine (Arakan) and Sagaing States in Myanmar; Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts and its adjoining areas in Bangladesh.

British rule had a tremendous impact on Zo politics. On the negative side, they divided the Zo inhabited areas under different rulers and reduced them to a miniscule. In fact, unpardonable damage had already been done in 1935. The passage of the Government of India Act, 1935 by the British Parliament, which completely separated not only Burma from India but also the Zo inhabited regions across the borders of the two countries, was the last nail in the coffin.

On the positive side, they established law and order that provided the Zo people an opportunity to consolidate in their respective areas and interact with each other more widely under a settled administration. Though the proposal to bring all Zo inhabited areas under one administrative head did not materialize, the introduction of the Chin Hills Regulation, 1896 and its subsequent extension to all Zo inhabited areas as mentioned earlier can be regarded as a partial fulfillment of the Calcutta Resolution.In fact, the Chin Hills Regulation and its extension to all Zo inhabited areas by the British could be construed as a tacit recognition on their part of the oneness and indivisibility of the Zo people as well as their desire to live under one roof.

Another important aspect of the British rule was the introduction of elementary education using the Roman script wherever the missionaries set foot. They followed on the heels of the British flag, won the hearts of the people through the Gospel wand and opened up new vistas and hopes. They produced a new kind of people who could not only read and write but think and reduce their feelings and knowledge into the written word. They became the elites and intelligentsia who played an important role in national rediscovery. They rendered in writing their past histories, myths and legends, folklores and folk-songs, customs and traditions which reminded the simple folks that they were a "nation" with an enviable past, a glorious history and culture and that they should rediscover themselves again.

Christianity and Zo-ness

A greater force in the process of Zo integration has been the Christian faith, which in 50 years turned Mizoram and many Zo inhabited areas into a Christian land. The newly zealous Zo converts took it as their privileged burden to tell the Good News to their kindred tribes and many volunteered to go to the unreached Zo areas to preach the Gospel. These apostle-like preachers carried the good tidings along with new Christian hymns in Lushai dialect, which the pioneer missionaries employed as a vehicle to spread the Gospel. As a result, Lushai dialect quickly developed into a rich language to become an effective instrument for spreading the Gospel and Zo integration.

The first Bible translation and many other pioneering publications among the Zo tribes were in Lushai that subsequently came to be known as "Mizo language", a language that became the link language of the Zo people. Wherever Zo preachers carried the Gospel and new churches were erected, they also implanted Zo-ness, thus paving the way for a re-unification. Therefore, next to their common ethnic root, Christianity has become the most important binding force of the Zo people. A Zo professing any other faith except the traditional religion (animism) is considered by the majority Zo Christians as not only a renegade but also an alien. Being a Zo and a Christian is like a coin with two faces.

The Call by Zo Integrationists

Let us now briefly examine the progress in the process of Zo integration. When we talk of a call for Zo integration, we do not necessarily imply immediate political integration of all their inhabited areas in exercise of their right to self-determination which is an inherent right of every human soul on earth.

The first step in achieving integration is the creation of an atmosphere congenial to the growth of emotional integration and a sense of oneness within the community. Therefore, the vision and focus of Zo integrationists has been first and foremost the promotion of emotional integration amongst the dispersed and disparate Zo tribes by constantly reminding them of
a) their common ethnic or ancestral root, historic homeland, myths and historical memories, culture, language, hopes and dreams
b) that their only chance of survival as an ethnic nation is to unite into a cohesive force under a collective proper name with a common dynamic language, and
c) if they do not heed the writings on the wall and continue to maintain fissiparous tendencies, they are digging their own graves and will soon be wiped off from the face of the earth without a trace.

To the Zo nationalists, these imperatives are not a matter of choice but a do or die thing. History is replete with such examples.

Ethnic Cores for Integration

A study of the history of nation formation, whether Western civic model or non-Western ethnic model, would clearly indicate that ethnic nation-states were normally formed in the first place around a dominant community or ethnie, which annexed or attracted other ethnies or ethnic fragments into the state to which it gave a name. In other words, it is the ethnic core or the dominant group that often shapes the character and boundary of the nation – for it is very often on the basis of such a core that states coalesce to form nations. The ethnic core or the dominant community with its myths of ethnic selection ensures ethnic self-renewal and long-term survival and this has been certainly the key to the Jewish survival in the face of deadly adversities.

This is also true in the case of the Zo people. After the Zo settlement in and dispersal from the Chin Hills, potential core clans or tribes appeared in the Zo domain from time to time like the Thado-Kukis, the Suktes, the Zahaus, the Kamhaus, the Sailos and others but none were as successful as the Sailo clan. Other core communities failed to make lasting impact for lack of cohesion, farsightedness and wisdom. For example, about 60 percent of the hill areas of Manipur were at one time under Kuki chieftainship but they left only a trail of internal divisions and failed to attract even their direct blood brothers, not to speak of their kindred tribes. In contrast, the Sailo clan wisely and with foresight stood united in the face of challenges and adversaries and soon the whole of the present Mizoram State fell under their sway.

They unified various Zo tribes under their rule, introduced a uniform code of administration and social and moral codes of conduct and mobilized the disparate tribes into one linguistic and cultural community conscious of themselves as a force with a historical destiny.

The outcome was that when the British came to subdue them, the Sailo chiefs won victory in defeat by carving out of their domain a separate autonomous Lushai Hills District named after their tribe. On this soil prepared by them consciously or unconsciously, Zo nationalism and identity began to grow slowly but surely. Though people from the Lushai Hills were then classified as Lushai, one of the Zo tribes, a majority of the inhabitants belonged to other Zo tribes such as Gangte, Hmar, Kom, Lakher (Mara) Pawi (Lai), Paite (Tiddim), Ralte, Thado/Haokip (Kuki), Simte, Vaiphei, Zou, etc., and amongst them they unmistakably addressed each other not as Lushai but as "Mizo" (a man of Zo or a Zo-man) and they used this terminology to cover all Zo descent.

Some writers have translated the term "Mizo" to mean "Hillman/Highlander" but this interpretation may not stand close scrutiny. The intrinsic meaning is believed to be much deeper and therefore, should not be deduced by attaching locative connotation to the term.

Whatever be the case, the term "Mizo" quickly gained popular acceptance in the Lushai Hills as a common nomenclature for all Zo descent. Consequently, the name of Lushai Hills was changed into Mizo Hills and when it attained the status of Union Territory and then Statehood, it became "Mizoram", a land of the Mizo or Zo people. This was the first time in Zo history that their land or territory had been named after their own given name.

It may be pertinent to mention here that nomenclatures like "Chin" and "Kuki" are derogatory terms given by outsiders to the Zo people whereas "Zo" is a self-given name that is dignified, honorable and all embracing. It now virtually stands as the collective name of the Zo descent.And Mizoram can claim pride of place as a land where every Zo descent is fully integrated in "Mizo". For example, Manipur South District known as Churachandpur District inhabited by Zo descents is in many respects more integrated with Mizoram and even with the Chin Hills than with Manipur. It's the ethnic magnetic pull that bridges up geographical barriers.

To be continued...