The Hindu (Madras)- Dec 1, 1998

[khtut@xxxxxxxx]

The following article is something about the Mizo People's political
progress and their historical ethnic background.  Mizos in India recently
elected their local indigenous party, Mizo National Front to the state
legislature with the absolute majority for the state of Mizoram, which has
been traditionally dominated by the Indian National Congress Party.  This
election vicotry by MNF means something more than a political change to most
of the people, who are "illegally" residing within the state.
There is also a substantial population of Mizos inside Burma living under
military regime.  It will be interesting to see whether the rise of Mizo
people in India politics will have some impact on the economicy and politics
of their siblings accross the international Border, which thinly insulates
between two countries, a giant progressive democracy and a small backword
military dictatorship.

MNF is known to be a close freind of Burmese students, such as All Burma
Students League, which based one of its regional branch-offices in the
state, and also sympathetic to tens of thousands of Burmese economic
refugees, who came from places as far as Myit-Ngae, Mandalay.

It is a good time for all Burmese activists in India to make sure that MNF
will do something good for the unfortunate economically-displaced people of
Burma by introducing a set of broad-minded and friendly immigration policy,
which has never been in place in the state.

Kyaw Kyaw Htut
Indiana
**************************************
Doing what you like is freedom.
Liking what you do is happiness.
***********Read Somewhere  in India***********

On a tumultuous course
Date: 01-12-1998 :: Pg: 27 :: Col: a

MIZORAM: Dr. Lalrimawia; Spectrum Publications, H.B. Road, Panbazar, Post
Box 45, Guwahati-781001. Rs. 340.

Among the ``seven sisters'' of the North-East, the tiny but colourful
Mizoram has a unique place. Much of what we know about the place and its
people is based on the early published work of the British administrators
and explorers. Indian researchers and scholars have not done much in this
respect for one reason or the other.

Here is a welcome change. The author, himself a Mizo and the principal of a
government college at Aizawl, has done a good job in bringing out this
170-page volume, which in 12 brief chapters tells about Mizoram, its history
and cultural identity.

The British administrators, explorers and the Christian missionaries had
their own points of view in their writings on the north- eastern region.
This is not to say that they were not objective, but mostly they represented
the colonial point of view particularly while dealing with the warring
tribes, their social customs and geopolitical conditions.

The author has made a good attempt to briefly outline the administrative
developments and the impact of the Christian missionaries on the Mizo
society and culture. In the introductory chapter, he has dealt with the
physical, ethnological and sociological aspects of the Mizo community
against the backdrop of developments in the Lushai hills from 1890 to 1947.

In the second chapter, he has noted that the conditions that prevailed in
the Mizo-inhabited areas were vastly different before and after the British
appeared on the scene. Anyhow, a study of the pre-British Mizo community and
the post-British developments are necessary for a proper understanding of
the present Mizo society. The history of the Mizos is traced to the eighth
century though details are known only from 1500 A.D. The early Mizos
comprised Kuki-Chin groups living in fairly defined ``cultural'' areas. They
were known by different names like Lushai, Chin, Kuki, Shendus etc. The
author admits that in the absence of data, to attempt a cohesive account of
the early society of the Mizos is rather difficult.

What was Lushai Hills, later became Mizoram, bounded on the north by Cachar
and Manipur, and on the east and south by the Chin Hills of Myanmar (Burma)
and on the west by Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh and Tripura
State. Mizoram, with a population of about seven lakhs, has a 255 km long
boundary with Bangladesh and 444 km with Myanmar. The author has given a
brief account of the Lushai and Kuki tribes, their pastoral culture,
clannish conflicts and so on.


The establishment of British control over the North and South Lushai Hill
districts in the 19th Century marked the advent of an era of political
control as the Lushais had no option but to acknowledge the superior power
of the British. On their part the British adopted a conciliatory but firm
basis in their relationship with the tribals.

Extending the administration to the hill areas was no easy task. The British
took a cautious approach in trying to ensure the submission of the tribal
chiefs and administration of crime was not introduced in the district as it
would only have provoked tribal hostility. Gradually the authorities
succeeded in enlarging the scope of administration by introducing the civil
and the criminal justice systems.

How the British came into contact with the Lushais after they had several
clashes with them and how the tea plantations emerged in Cachar and how the
British regime in a calculated operation excluded the Lushai Hills from the
Reforms Act of 1919 and the Lushais were kept out of the Indian mainstream
make interesting reading which are covered in chapters five and six.

It is the emergence of the Mizo elite, as the author has pointed out, that
accounted for the growing unrest in Mizoram. The arrival of the Christian
missionaries, large-scale conversion of the Mizos to Christianity and their
impact on the Mizo society are factors that need better appreciation. The
chapter on the Christian Church gives a clear picture as to how, with its
pervasive influence, the Church has transformed the Mizo society.

After the British left India in 1947, the Lushai Hills, hitherto an
``excluded area'' was brought under a new scheme of administration, based on
the recommendations of the North East Frontier Tribal and Excluded Areas
Sub-committee of the Constituent Assembly (known as the Bardoloi Committee).

The Mizo Union played a key role during this period as it enjoyed popular
support. The emergence of Mr. Laldenga and the Mizo National Front,
campaigning for a sovereign state of Mizoram, posed a serious threat to
national integrity inviting Central intervention by launching
counter-insurgency campaigns under the aegis of the Army. This was an
unfortunate phase that hit the Mizos.

With the birth of Mizoram as a Union Territory in 1971, hived off Assam,
there was a clear repudiation of the cult of violence. The peace agreement
of July 1, 1976, virtually ended the insurgency as Laldenga acknowledged
Mizoram as an integral part of India. Mizoram became a full- fledged State
on August 7, 1986, under a political settlement signed on June 30, 1986, by
New Delhi and the MNF, and in 1987 the MNF won 24 of the 40 seats in the
first Assembly poll.

Mizoram has gone to the polls again on November 25, this year, and this time
the active role played by the Church may influence the outcome of the poll
although the Congress(I) has been in power for a decade in the State. In the
five decades since India's Independence, Mizoram has come a long way and has
established an identity of its own. This is the sum and substance of this
interesting volume.

M. Vinayak