The topic given to me by the Convener, Zomi Human Rights Foundation, Delhi Cell for this seminar was ‘Zo Re-unification’ in the line of my article written six years ago for the seminar organized by the Zomi Re-Unification Organization at Aizawl. As you would have seen, I have rephrased the title as ‘Towards Zo Unification’ to make the subject more neutral than the former which technically implies primordiality of the Zo unity as single ethnic entity in their presumed historic homeland from where they dispersed and settled in areas now occupied by them in Myanmar, India and Bangladesh with each group identifying itself as a separate tribe. This is known as ‘ethnic dissolution’ through fusion, fission or proliferation. In this paper, I am going to briefly survey the progress of Zo unification and note down my observations.

Who are the Zo people?

Here I use the term ‘Zo’ to represent Chin, Kuki and Mizo/Zomi (Chikumi) group as defined by G. A. Grierson in the Linguistic Survey of India Vol. III Part III as one linguistic ethnic community belonging to the Tibeto-Burman group with the exception of the Meiteis for obvious reasons.

The Zo people believe that their earliest known settlement was a large cave with a big stone lid called Sinlung or Khûl somewhere in China. Conjecturally, the presumed ancestral homeland could have been located somewhere in and around the Stone Forest near Kunming in Yunan Province in China during the Nanchao Dynasty. With the collapse of the Nanchao rule, many tribes fled its stranglehold, some heading southward like the Karens, the Siams (now known as Thais) and other kindred tribes and the rest towards the west like the Shans, the Burmans, the Kachins, the Arakanese, the Meiteis, the Naga group of tribes, the Zo group of tribes and many other tribes now inhabiting the north-east India. The first major dispersal from Yunnan took place in early 9th century A.D and the second wave between 13th-14th centuries. The Burmans’ first known settlement was established at Kyaukse near Mandalay around A.D 849 and then moved to Pagan on the eastern bank of Irrawaddy where the Burman King Anawarahta in A.D 1044 founded the famous kingdom known as Pagan Dynasty. The modern history of Burma (Myanmar) began from here.

The Zo ancestors, however, chose to follow the call of the unknown and continued to head further west into the Chindwin River and the Kabaw Valley then already under the suzerainty of the Shan princes (swabaws) some of whose disparate groups later established the Ahom kingdom in Assam. From there some headed southwest and spread over in the present Rakhine (Arakan) State in Myanmar and Chittagong Hills Tract in Bangladesh. But the major bulk of them continued to move westward, climbed the rugged Chin Hills and settled in its mountain fastnesses undisturbed from outside forces for a period long enough to establish their own pattern of settlement and administration, socio-cultural norms and practices, beliefs and rituals, myths and legends, folk tales, music and dance and many other customs and traditions which they handed down from generation to generation and to the present time.

Zo dispersal

It was during the Chin Hills settlement that the linear strata became more defined and clanism more emphasized as each clan and sub-clans moved and settled in groups thereby subsequently resulting in the formation of new tribes and sub-tribes. In this way, the Zo group of tribes, clans and sub-clans speaking varied Zo dialects were born. As they spread out over different hills clan by clan and moved along, they became more and more isolated from each other and their loyalty concentrated more and more on their respective clans. Consequently, they became fiercely insular, loyal to their clan only and fought each other to gain supremacy over others as well as to defend their lands and honor from intrusion by others. In the absence of a centrally controlled authority, therefore, inter-tribal rivalries and wars were common, leaving a trail of bitterness and hate. This was basically the condition when the British came and subjugated the Zo world and its people.

The size of the Zo population is variously estimated to be from 2.5 to 5 million. It is not possible at present to know the exact figure mainly for lack of reliable statistical data and the fact that many Zo tribes and clans have for long been classified as belonging to other ethnic camps. Zo people have yet to accept a common nomenclature to represent their collective identity. Till now, they are commonly identified as ‘Chin’ in Myanmar; ‘Lusei’ and subsequently ‘Mizo’ in Mizoram and elsewhere; and ‘Kuki’ in Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura and Chittagong Hills Tract. Many tribes within the Zo group have also identified themselves as separate tribes and are recognized as such under the Indian

Constitution

The Linguistic Survey of India published in 1904 identified more than 40 Zo dialects of which Duhlian-Lusei dialect now known, as ‘Mizo language’ is the most developed and understood and is gradually evolving to become the lingua franca of the Zo people. The best linguistic cauldron in the Zo world is Churachandpur town in Manipur where as many as eight Zo dialects out of eleven major Zo tribes are spoken and understood along with Manipuri, Hindi and English.

The role of the colonial power

Before the Zo people realized what had 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 also 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 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, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura States in India; and Chittagong Hills Tract and its adjoining areas in Bangladesh.

The British rule had a tremendous impact on Zo politics. On the negative side, they divided up all the Zo inhabited areas under different rulers and reduced them to a miniscule. 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 could be regarded as a partial fulfillment of the Calcutta resolution. The Chin Hills Regulation and its extension to all Zo inhabited areas by the British was 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 wherever the missionaries set their feet. They followed 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 a written word. They became the elites and intelligentsias who played an important role in national rediscovery. They reduced 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 Zos

A greater force in the process of Zo integration has been the Christian faith, which in fifty 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 had volunteered to go to the heathen 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 planted, 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 bonding 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 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 call for Zo integration, we do not necessarily imply immediate political integration of all their inhabited areas in exercise of their right of self-determination which is an inherent right of every human soul.

The first step in achieving integration is the creation of an atmosphere congenial to the growth of emotional integration and the sense of oneness within the community. Therefore, the visions and focus of Zo integrationists have 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 grave and will soon be wiped off from the face of the earth without a trace. To the Zo nationalists, this is not a question 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 ethnic group which annexed or attracted other ethnic groups 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 boundaries 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 election 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 Thados, the Suktes, the Zahaus, the Kamhaus, the Sailos and others but none so were as successful as the Sailo clan. By their wisdom and foresight, the Sailo clan stood united in the face of challenges and adversaries and soon almost the whole of the present Mizoram State fell under their sway. They unified various Zo tribes under their rule, introduced 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, majority of the inhabitants belonged to other Zo tribes such as Hmar, Lakher (Mara) Pawi (Lai), Paite (Tiddim), Ralte, Thado etc., and amongst them they unmistakably addressed to 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 a close scrutiny. The intrinsic meaning appears to be much deeper and therefore should not be deduced by attaching locational 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 the Zo descent. Consequently, the name of Lushai Hills was changed into Mizo Hills and when it attained the status of Union Territory and later 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 the 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 a pride of place as a land where every Zo descent is fully integrated in ‘Mizo’.

At the crossroads

When India and Pakistan gained independence from the British rule in 1947 and Burma in the following year, the politically conscious Zo leaders of Mizoram were in a fix. They knew that Zo inhabited regions would be divided up by three countries- a Buddhist country, a Muslim country and a Secular but Hindu dominated country. By then, two fledgling political parties namely Mizo Union and United Mizo Freedom Organization (UMFO) had already been born with the latter in favor of merging with their kindred tribes in Burma which they believed would ensure a better chance of their survival. The original founders of the Mizo Union were staunch nationalists in favor of self-determination of some kind of which they were not clear. However, a few months after it was formed, Mizo Union was torn asunder by the machinations of highly ambitious educated leaders who came under the influence of the Indian nationalists. Resorting to populist politics, these so-called Mizo-Indian nationalists hoodwinked the innocent and unsuspecting peasant folks, captured the Mizo Union party leadership and presided over one of the most crucial moments in Zo history without a vision and an agenda. The result was disillusionment that exploded in armed rebellion after twenty years. This was called the Mizo National Front (MNF) movement and for twenty years it spat out the fire of Zo nationalism and independence from the barrel of imported guns.

Whatever the differences in the visions of the political leaders of the day, they were and are always united in one thing: ZO INTEGRATION. The Mizo Union representation before the President of the Constituent Assembly, inter alia, included amalgamation of all Zo inhabited areas to form Greater Zoram (Zoland). With this vision in mind, the Zo leaders, on the eve of India’s independence, signed a declaration amounting to conditional accession to the Indian Union in which a provided clause was inserted to the fact that the Zo people would have the right to remain with or secede from the Indian Union after a period of ten years. The Mizo Union conference at Lakhipur on November 21, 1946 which was attended by many Zo representatives resolved unanimously that all Zo areas in Burma and India including Chittagong Hills Tract be amalgamated to form a Greater Zoram State. It is thus cleared that Zo re-unification issue has occupied the minds of the Zo leaders right from the time of India’s independence.

The big bang

The most widespread Zo re-unification movement came in 1966 in the form of an armed rebellion spearheaded by the Mizo National Front (MNF). The main objective of the MNF was to declare Zo right of self-determination and to establish ‘Independent Zoram’ for all the Zo inhabited areas. The movement rekindled national sentiments throughout Zoland and many young men from all corners of Zoland joined the movement and fought for Zo rights. Mizo Integration Council and later Mizo Integration Party were formed in 1970 with its headquarters in Churachandpur, Manipur. This party was the progenitor of Zomi National Congress (ZNC) born two years later and its offshoot Zomi Re-unification Organization (ZORO). Under the banner of ZORO, the First World Zomi Convention on Re-Unification was held at Champhai from May 19-21, 1988 which was attended by representatives from all Zo inhabited areas.

The armed struggle for Zo independence lasted twenty years and peace returned in 1986 when Mizoram attained Statehood. This was preceded by the formation of Mizoram in 1972 when the status of Union Territory was granted by India. The birth of Mizoram was a big boost to the Zo peoples’ search for a political identity and a formal recognition of their existence. It was the first time in Zo history that a full-fledged State was named after its own given name. It was also for the first time that a core state had been established through and around which Zo reunification would eventually evolve and grow.

It will be pertinent to mention here that in fact, the first Zo State was born in the name of Chin Special Division in 1948 when Burma became independent. But being divested of power and funds from the start and the absence of a dominant group who could weld the many Zo tribes into a single entity, the Chin State could never be able to play the role of a core state. It has been a state torn by tribalism with Babel of tongues to add to its woes. Their lingua franca has become Burmese and not a Zo language. It is interesting to note that, even here, the most understood language is the ‘Mizo language’ though actual speakers are small in number.

Present Scenario

The political dust kicked up by the MNF movement in 1966 settled with the grant of Statehood and the return of the MNF outfits in 1986 from their Arakan hideout and the euphoria over the new status also soon waned and evaporated. Soon, the heavily deficit Mizoram State began to bite the reality of governance. Corruption of all kinds and the spirit of insulation and intolerance seep in. As it comfortably settled in its State cushion, the core State has begun to slowly abandon its role model as a forerunner of Zo integration and has become less and less accommodating. Increasing intolerance shown to non-Mizo speaking Zo community from within and outside Mizoram by the Mizo speaking community has caused ripple effects on the progress of Zo unification and put the process of integration in a reverse gear.

In an interview in November-December, 1998, a leading Mizo historian B. Lalthangliana, when asked why various tribes which he claimed as Mizo were bent on establishing their own identity, admitted that when he was doing some research for his book on Mizo history the Maras also known as Lakhers from Southern Mizoram came up to him and told him not to include their name in the list of Mizo groups. “Many Maras” he said, “still do not like to be called Mizo…In this manner the Thado-Kukis of Manipur or the Paites also did. The Thado-Kukis, however, do not mind identifying themselves as Mizo…it is the Paites, in fact, who have distanced themselves from the Mizo identity”.

While Lalthangliana believed that the State of Mizoram would play a major role in shaping the theory of a greater Mizo identity, the post Statehood era has witnessed mushrooming of armed ethnic movements within the Zo community where almost every imaginable Zo tribe especially in Manipur has its own armed outfits who carved out areas occupied by them as their respective sphere of influence and monopoly and barred others from entering into their area without permission. The most disturbing part is that they turned the clock back, returned to the barbaric days of their headhunting forefathers, hunted each other and engaged themselves in frenzied self-annihilation. Mutual intolerance has increased which seriously hinders the progress of Zo unification.

Awareness of the danger of their position and the inevitability of their eventual demise unless they are united has greatly increased in recent years. How fast consideration for ethnic national survival will supplant petty tribalism from the Zo mind remains to be seen. There lies the fate and destiny of the Zo people. Like charity, the politics of survival always begins at home.

Note: December 17, 2005, Delhi * Anthony D. Smith, ‘National Identity’, Penguin, London, 1991 p.39

I sincerely thank the organisers – Kuki Research Forum (KRF) and Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) – for inviting me to be the Resource Person in this seminar, which I believe, has been organised at lightning speed. I have accepted the invitation promptly but fully knowing that I am neither an expert on the subject nor a politician in a term or meaning we commonly understood and attached these days. I am a nationalist and to a great extent, an internationalist too because of my profession and family standing, and a keen student of history, especially contextual history.

Today, I am going to share with you some of my personal readings of our ethnic history. As you know, ours is a proto-nation, a nation in-the-making, in a cocoon. Our ethnic group living in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh is conservatively estimated to number about 2.5-3 million. We have two full-fledged federated states, Mizoram in India and Chin State in Myanmar.

Though we claim to have our ancient roots in China, our recorded history began barely one and half century ago after the advent of the British colonialist in our then undefined region where we lived independently in our city-state-like villages with little or no contact with the outside world except when we raided our neighbors occasionally. The British stopped all these for the better, imposed law and order and introduced uniform administrative system. Then, the missionaries entered our lands to sow the seeds of the Gospel and education that quickly germinated all over. Soon, majority of our people became Christians, learned the magic Roman alphabet and came to possess a script through which we could penetrate the world of knowledge. For good or for bad, our encounter with the British and the new religion turned our world upside down and opened up new vistas. Many of the good things we have inherited as also the many ills our society has been suffering from are the outcome of the visible and the invisible imbalances created by this abrupt change.

The greatest harm the British Raj did to us was the bifurcation of our inhabited areas into different administrative units under their divide-and-rule policy. This seemed to matter little until formal borders were drawn up and we suddenly found ourselves all divided up as we are today in three different countries. On the eve and immediately after India’s independence, the newly formed political party with common agenda to bring our ethnic group under one roof in the form of ‘Greater Mizoram’ raised strong voices against this unholy divide but to no effect. This was followed twenty years later by a much louder armed protest which plunged Mizoram into darkness and miseries for twenty years. In fact, unpardonable damage had already been done to us in 1935 when The Government of India Act, 1935 was passed by the British Parliament which completely separated not only Burma from India but our people living across the borders of the two countries.

Our fate was decided without our consent and we have been stucked with it ever since. Can we undo it? I believe, we gather here to-day to find an answer. It is the dream of every self-respecting people to have freedom to decide and determine their own fate. There is no permanent boundary on earth. Histories are written and re-written and boundaries are drawn and redrawn at the bidding and will of the people. The mighty Soviet Union was undone in 1990 and 15 States including Russia came out from its gigantic ruins.

In what way and shape our vision to become a nation with our own space will continue to evolve is any body’s guess. We can assume that the strategies and modalities we have to adopt in realizing our dream, and what will be its final manifestation, and most important of all, our very own survival, will be determined by various internal and external factors within and outside our control. Whatever be the case, it is important to know that our destiny lies in our own hands and we create our history by our doings and undoings. If we want a respectable history, we must write carefully with united hands as history written in divided hands is senseless. One thing we must remember is that cultural unification will have to precede any form of political realization. The latter cannot be achieved without the former. This calls for a common name and a language, the fevicol of a nation.

With this haphazard introduction, let us briefly survey our present situation and suggest some possible steps that we should consider and take, with special reference to Manipur, whenever appropriate.

Political Scenario
In 1996 I wrote Zoram Khawvel-4 which dealt with national identity and the key factors in nation making with special reference to Chin, Kuki, Mizo/Zomi (Chukumi) of which our ethnic group is variously identified. Of the many books I studied on the topic, I like the most Anthony D. Smith’s books on nationalism in which he categorised national identity into two models- western or civic model and non-Western or ethnic model. In his book National Identity he listed six main attributes of ethnic community which are 1. a collective proper name 2. a myth of common ancestry 3. shared historical memories 4. one or more differentiating elements of common culture 5. an association with a specific ‘homeland’ and 6. a sense of solidarity for significant sectors of the population.

A quick look at these attributes will confirm that excepting point no. 1 of which we have atleast three, if not more, collective proper names depending on where we live, we fit into this category perfectly. Of the three collective names, the first two were assumed names given to us by others and the last by ourselves. But there are many tribes within these groups who have preferred to be identified as distinct tribes and accordingly registered themselves as such in Government of India’s Scheduled Tribe list, thereby further complicating the meaning and interpretation of the generic terms given above. This is a divide and rule policy applied by us to ourselves because of ignorance and lack of political vision. It is a lethal dose for self-destruction. Small is not beautiful in national politics and for survival. Thinking small and acting foolish is courting disaster. But why did we do it?

Tradition held that we all came out from a cave with a big stone lid called Sinlung/Khûl somewhere in China. Conjecturally, the presumed ancestral homeland could have been located somewhere in and around the Stone Forest near Kunming in Yunan Province in China during the Nanchao Dynasty. With the collapse of the Nanchao rule, many tribes fled its stranglehold, some heading southward like the Karens, the Siams (now known as Thais) and other kindred tribes and the rest towards the west like the Shans, the Burmans, the Kachins, the Arakanese, the Meiteis, the Naga group of tribes, the Zo group of tribes and many other tribes now inhabiting the north-east India. The first major dispersal from Yunan took place in early 9th century A.D and the second wave between 13th-14th century. The Burmans’ first known settlement was established at Kyaukse near Mandalay around A.D 849 and then moved to Pagan on the eastern bank of Irrawady where the Burman King Anawarahta in A.D 1044 founded the famous kingdom known as Pagan Dynasty. The modern history of Burma (Myanmar) began from here.

After our settlement in the Kabaw valley and dispersal from the Chin Hills, our forefathers in batches moved out and settled in clan groups in different hill locks. Because of lack of communication, each group started developing their own form of speaking and gradually formed themselves into new dialect groups. Consequently, they began to treat each other as belonging to another tribe and therefore different from each other. This tendency to highlight and give more importance to our dialect affinity than our ethnic oneness is our national curse that has been afflicting us. Many of us have become worshippers of our respective dialect groups at the expense of the growth of our ethnic unity.

Mizoram scene
A study of our history shows that potential core clans or tribes appeared in our domain from time to time like the Thados, the Suktes, the Zahaus, the Kamhaus etc but none so were as successful as the Sailo clan. By their wisdom and foresight, the Sailo clan stood united in the face of challenges and adversaries and soon almost the whole of the present Mizoram State fell under their sway. They unified various kindred tribes under their rule, introduced uniform code of administration and social and moral codes of conduct and mobilised 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 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, majority of the inhabitants belonged to other Zo tribes such as Hmar, Lakher (Mara) Pawi (Lai), Paite (Tiddim), Ralte etc., and amongst them they unmistakably addressed to 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 a close scrutiny. The intrinsic meaning appears to be much deeper and therefore should not be deduced by attaching locational connotation to the term.

Whatever be the case, the term ‘Mizo’ quickly gained popular acceptance in Lushai Hills as a common nomenclature for all the Zo descent. Consequently, the name of Lushai Hills was changed into Mizo Hills and when it attained the status of Union Territory and later Statehood it became ‘Mizoram’, a land of the Mizos. 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 the nomenclatures like ‘Chin’ and ‘Kuki’ are derogatory terms given by outsiders to the Zo people whereas ‘Mizo’ is a self-given name which is dignified, honourable and all-embracing. It now virtually stands as the collective name of the Zo descent. And Mizoram can claim a pride of place as a land where every Zo descent is fully integrated in ‘Mizo’.

The formation of Mizoram is indeed a partial answer to the Zo peoples’ search for a political identity, a formal recognition of their existence. It is the first time in the Zo history that a full-fledged State has been named after its own given name. It is also for the first time that a core state has been established through and around which Zo reunification is destined to evolve and grow. In fact, the first Zo State was born in the name of Chin Special Division in 1948 when Burma became independent but being divested of power and funds from the start, it has never come up to be able to play the role of a core state. Besides, it is a state torn by tribalism and clanism with a babel of tongues. Their lingua franca is Burmese and not a Zo language. It is interesting to note that, even here, the most understood language is the ‘Mizo language’ though the actual speakers are small in number.

The British rule had a tremendous impact on Zo politics. On the negative side, they divided up all the Zo inhabited areas under different rulers and reduced them to a status not deserving to be reckoned with. On the positive side, they established law and order which provided the Zo people an opportunity to consolidate themselves in their respective areas and to interact with each other more widely under a settled administration. Christianity which came along with the British flag and the introduction of elementary education wherever the missionaries set their feet opened up new vistas and hopes. It produced a new kind of people who could not only read and write but reduce their feelings and knowledge into a written word. They were the elites and intelligentsias who played an important role in national rediscovery. They reduced 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.

A greater force in the process of Zo integration has been the Christian faith, which in fifty years turned Mizoram 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 had volunteered to go to the heathen Zo areas to preach the Gospel. These apostol-like preachers carried the good tidings along with new christian hymns in Lushai dialect which the Welsh and Baptist missionaries employed as the vehicle to spread the Gospel. As a result, Lushai dialect quickly developed and spread and the first Bible translation and many other pioneering publications among the Zo tribes were in Lushai which subsequently came to be known as ‘Mizo language’, a language perhaps ordained and destined to become the link language of the Zo people. Wherever Zo preachers carried the Gospel and new churches were planted, 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 bonding force of the Zo people. A Zo professing any other faith except the traditional religion (animism) is considered by majority Zo Christians not only as a renegade but an alien. Being a Zo and a Christian is like a two-faced coin.

When India gained independence in 1947 and Burma in the following year, the politically conscious Zo leaders of Mizoram were in a fix. By then, two political parties namely Mizo Union and United Mizo Freedom Organisation (UMFO) had already been born with the latter in favour of merging with their kindred tribes in Burma which they believed would ensure a better chance of their survival. The original founders of the Mizo Union were staunch nationalists in favour of self-determination of some kind of which they were not clear. A few months after it was formed, Mizo Union was torn asunder by the machinations of highly ambitious educated leaders who resorted to populist politics, hoodwinked the innocent and unsuspecting peasant folks, captured the Mizo Union party leadership and presided over one of the most crucial moments in Zo history without a vision and an agenda. The result was lingering disillusionment that exploded in armed rebellion twenty years later.

Whatever the differences in the visions of the political leaders of the day, they were and are always united in one thing: ZO INTEGRATION. The Mizo Union representation before the President of the Constituent Assembly, inter alia, included amalgamation of all Zo inhabited areas to form Greater Zoram (Zoland). With this vision in mind, the Zo leaders, on the eve of India’s independence, signed a declaration amounting to conditional accession to the Indian Union in which a provided clause was inserted to the fact that the Zo people would have the right to remain with or secede from the Indian Union after a period of ten years. The Mizo Union conference at Lakhipur on November 21, 1946 which was attended by many Zo representatives resolved unanimously that all Zo areas in Burma and India including Chittagong Hill Tracts be amalgamated to form a Greater Zoram State. It is thus cleared that Zo re-unification issue has occupied the minds of the Zo leaders right from the time of India’s independence.

The most widespread Zo re-unification movement came in 1966 in the form of an armed rebellion spearheaded by the Mizo National Front (MNF). The main objective of the MNF was to declare Zo right of self-determination and to establish ‘Independent Zoram’ for all the Zo inhabited areas. The movement rekindled national sentiments throughout Zoland and many youngmen from all corners of Zoland joined the movement and fought for Zo rights. Mizo Integration Council and later Mizo Integration Party was formed in 1970 with its headquarters in Churachandpur, Manipur. This party was the progenitor of Zomi National Congress (ZNC) born two years later and its offshoot Zomi Re-unification Organisation (ZORO). Under the banner of ZORO, the First World Zomi Convention on Re-Unification was held at Champhai from May 19-21, 1988 which was attended by representatives from Zo inhabited areas.

The armed struggle for Zo independence lasted twenty years and peace returned in 1986 when Mizoram attained Statehood. Since then, non-violent movement has replaced the armed struggle and Zo reunification movement continues.

Manipur Scene
Now let us turn to Manipur. What is our politics today? It is dialect politics at the ethnic level and election politics at the party level. Both have as their backbone underground elements, the Frankenstein monsters we have created but do not have the magic wand to control them. We have been caught in our own folly and hoisted in our own petard! Self-centeredness has consumed us. Like Cain, we say “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Madness has taken over us. We fight and kill each other and make a public spectacle of ourselves. If we cannot be our brother’s keeper, we do not deserve to survive as a nation.

We talk of nationalism but we glorify and practise clannishness and parochialism. The largest group amongst us in fact had the best chance and opportunity to bring about a political status and entity no less important than Mizoram and the Chin State. They held territories much bigger than anyone else as a reward of their support to the British penetration. But the house unfortunately is a divided house, fighting within itself and its so-called constituent members and has failed so far to carve any niche anywhere. It needs to reinvent itself and set its house in order, not by the force of arms but by a change of mindset.

What do we do then? So long as we love to embrace our folly, we will continue to head for destruction. But the moment we realize the futility of our folly and decide to face evil bravely by placing the common interest of our ethnic group over clannish considerations, things will change for the better. We can then unitedly face the dangers lurking around us and save ourselves from being swallowed up. We must stop ourselves from remaining instruments to preside over our own funeral at the grave dug out by our foolish hands.

Socio-Economic Scenario
We have no means to support ourselves economically. Like most states in the north-east, we are depending on the center’s largesse. But whatever fiscal support we have received so far from Delhi, a large chunk of it is ploughed back to the mainland India from where we get almost all our essential and critical supplies. The rest has gone to different educational institutions outside the state where many keep their children for studies. The outcome is that we have become more indebted, more dependent, more corrupt and more restive day by day.

Besides, Manipur state has no capacity to absorb the hundreds of graduates we have churned out every year. Successive ministries in the past had wasted most of their precious terms to form ministry after ministry but had little time to run the government and tackle the explosive socio-economic situation. Political leadership is totally bankrupt and the moral fabric is in tatters. So what do the educated unemployed have to do? They either have to go outside the state to find jobs or remain in the state to indulge in senseless agitation and crimes to bring more misery to the people who are already groaning under the weight of our own folly.

The crux of the matter is that whether we like it or not, we have to look increasingly beyond our state for education and employment. In this regard, persons who have studied outside the state have, in terms of linguistic ability and competence, a much better chance of getting employment than the one brought up at the State’s corrupted educational institutions.

It is high time we realize that the small states of the north-east with little or no economic and industrial infrastructure have very limited capacity to absorb its unemployed youths and that they have to find employment for them elsewhere. However, this realization is not enough. We must prepare the youths so that they can compete others, if not excel them. This naturally calls for revamping and reorientation of our educational system and curriculum contents to suit the job market. We cannot survive politically unless we survive economically. To feed a hungry man with an empty can of nationalism is meaningless; so is politics without economic content. Bandh only breeds more bandh and poverty; and poverty breeds degeneration of all kinds and extinction and not survival.

Cultural Scenario
I now come to the most sensitive part of the scenario. Given the fact that for economic compulsions our youths and all the capable hands have to chance out to advance their prospects, what guarantee do we have they will continue to maintain their distinct identity and culture and that they will not get lost in the ocean of more progressive and established cultures?

We are a people highly susceptible to stronger cultural influence and even while rooted at home in our poorly lit thatched roofs, many of our youths love to ape western, if not the Bollywood, style of living, dress and music, speak in degenerated English, dabble in drugs and all forms of addiction and think and act like zombies. If they get lost so quickly even while at home, how will they survive an onslaught of city life and culture? How many generations of the children of officers studying and living outside our community survive culturally and continue to speak, read and write in our mother tongue and value our culture? We do not last even one generation!

The prognosis
This is where the danger lies. The ten tribes of Israel who formed the Kingdom of Israel had a bitter taste of this experience after their Assyrian exile in 722 BC and got lost, completely assimilated and submerged in a matter of few generations. But the tribes of Judah and Benjamin helped by the Levites who established the Kingdom of Judah at Jerusalem survived the Babylonian exile of 608 BC, returned in two batches after 150 and 164 years numbering about 125,000, rebuilt their Jerusalem and till this day stand proudly in the comity of nations. But remember this, they lost their Hebrew in the process! When they returned from exile, they came back with a Syrian-based language called Aramaic, the lingua franca of all South West Asia those days, a language spoken at the time of Christ in Israel. It does not take more than 50 years to bury a language into oblivion.

What was the magic key to their survival? Could we also draw useful lessons from their experience? The first Israeli nation, more than a million strong, was born and brought up during their 430 years sojourn and exile in Egypt. How did they survive? As we move out of our hearths and homes because of economic and other compulsions to work and live in different stations amongst a sea of strangers and exploiters, we must remember that we step into a mine of extinction and therefore be careful. If we have to survive as an ethnic entity and a nation, we must sink our petty squabbles for the common good and take a cue from the Israeli experience. If we do, we survive, if not, we perish.

(April 5, 2010, Delhi)

A paper presented during a Seminar on “Ethnic Nation Building: Chin-Kuki-Zo Trail” at School of International Students (SIS), JNU, New Delhi on April 5, 2010, jointly organised by Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) and Kuki Research Forum (KuRF).

Kan inhnaih zual zelna tura rahbi pawimawh pakhat chu Zoram khawvela chengte thu leh hla a tam theih ang ber hùn luhna tur Zo Zêmpui siam a ni. Chumi zêmah chuan Zotrong leh Saptronga Zo hnahthlakte kut chhuak thu le hla a tam theih ang ber hùn luh a, kan chanchin zir duhte tana an thu lakna hnarpui, Zo Laibrari a siam tum a ni. Zo hnahthlak trawng hrang hranga siam lehkhabu, abikin Baibul leh Diksawnari te chu a remchan ang zelin kan hung lut ang a; kan hla phuah leh hla sak te a tam theih ang ber dah luh a ni bawk ang. A tranna turin, kum 1991-a Book of the Year ka dawnna Zoram Khawvel-1 chu a thlawna mi tu pawh chhiar atana dah turin ka pe chhuak a ni. Lehkhabu ziaktu le hla rikawt siamtu tu pawhin Zo Zempuia dah atan tlawmngaia an thu leh hla rawn pe ve turin dilna kan siam zui nghal bawk a ni.

Hemi website siamnaa a kûl a tâia trang Elim R. R. Hmar, Shillong leh Robert L. Sungte, Deccan Herald, Bangalore te hmaah lawmthu a tlampuiin ka bun e. Hemi website kantu leh hmangtu zawng zawng zingah inunauna leh inhriat pawhna zual zel se, min suihkhawmtu hmanrua trangkai tak rawn ni zel turin kan Zo Zempui hi Pathianin mal sawm rawh se.

Hmar: Varna le thiemnain hma a sawn ang peiin khawvel indawr tuona hrui khom a ni têlin a hung intom a, chu ruol chun hmai intuoa indawr theina dawkan hluo seng lo a hung inhong pei a. Damsunga hriet suok zo ruol loa kan naupang laia kan ngai hlak kha tu hin chu boruok zai hmanga minit khat sunga hriet thei a lo ni tah. Boruok zai bok hmangin khawvel hmun hrang hranga chenghai khomin dawkan pakhat kuolin ei titi tlang thei tah. Chu dawkan bok chu kîlin khawvel hmun hrang hranga cheng Zo hnathlakhai khom ei titi tlang thei ta a, ei Zoram khawvel khom a ni têlin a hung inhnai zuol deu deu pei a nih.

Chu inhnai zuol peina ding sirbi poimawa ngai chu Zoram khawvela chenghai thu le hla zêng khata hlu lutna ding Zo Zêngpui siem a nih. Chu zênga chun Zotrong le Saptronga Zo hnathlakhai kutsuok thu le hla a tam thei ang tak hlu lut a, ei chanchin inchuk nuomtuhai ta dinga thu lakna hnarpui, Zo laibrari-a siem ei tum a nih. Zo hnathlak trong hrang hranga sut lekhabu, abikin Baibul le Diksawnari hai khom a remchang dan ang peiin hlu lut ning a ta; chun, ei hla phuokhai le sakhai khom a tam thei ang tak sie lut ni bok a tih. A tranna dingin, kum 1991-a Book of the Year ka dongna Zoram Khawvel-1 chu a thlawna mi tin tiem thei dingin lawm takin ka pek suok a nih. Lekhabu ziektu le hla rikawt siemtu tu khomin tlawmngaia Zo Zêngpuia sie dinga an thu le hla hung pe ve dingin hnina ei siem zui nghal a nih.

Hi website siemnaa a kûl a tâia thrang Elim R. R. Hmar, Shillong le Robert L. Sungte, Deccan Herald, Bangalore chungah lawmthu a tlampuiin ei intung a nih. Hi website kantu le hmangtu po po lai inunauna le inhriet tuona zuol pei sien, mi suikhawmtu hmangruo trangkai tak hung ni dingin ei Zo Bawmpui hi Pathienin malsawm raw se.

English: The world is progressively shrinking and the communication gap is bridging up day by day as we advance in tehnological knowledge and wisdom. Innumerable new websites open up daily. It now takes only a minute to collect information which we, during our childhood days thought it would take a whole life time. People of Zoram khawvel living in different parts of the world can now sit and talk together face to face using computer or television. Our Zoram khawvel is getting closer day by day.

One of the key steps we thought will be useful in bringing the people of Zoram khawvel closer is to open Zo Basket wherein we will put all available works of Zo literature and music as much as possible and turn the site as a major source of information on Zo life, culture and literature. The aim is to treasure all works of literature in different Zo dialects, including dictionaries, Bible translations and recorded songs and music. To start with, I have gladly donated my book Zoram Khawvel-1, winner of 1991 Book of the Year in Mizoram and it can now be accessed and downloaded free. I also take this opportunity to invite writers and publishers and people in the music world to donate their works to the Zo Basket.

I thank profusely Elim R. R. Hmar of Shillong and Robert L. Sungte of Deccan Herald, Bangalore for their hard work in preparing this website. It is my hope and trust that this website will be a blessing to all visitors and users, increasing oneness and better understanding amongst them. May God bless this Zo Basket to be a key instrument in bonding Zo descents together.

The human race’s prospects of survival were considerably
better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today
when we have become defenceless against ourselves.
- Arnold Toynbee

Malè khawsik hriin January 7-16, 1994 chhung khan temperechar 102-103 F inkarah mi man bet a. Ka taksa vengtu sipaite leh rawn rûntu hmelma sipaite chu ni sawm chhung chhun zan zawmin an indo char char a. Ka daktor chuan thun tlingin, mupui leh musep chi hrang hrang, India siam leh Sap ram siam, a thra ber berte chu hmangin rûntu hmelmate chu min dopui a. Indo tektik hrang hrang hmanga kan beih ngial pawh chuan an hnung tawlh duh mai lo a, a beidawnthlak hle. A tawpah zawng an tawlh kir ta hrâm a. Ka rimtawngin ka chau bawk a ni ang, indo a reh chuan ka zawi hmin der a, ni thum chhung chu ka chechâng peih loh rêng rêng.

Khum beta ka awm lai hian, a theih chhung chuan natna hrehawm ata ngaihtuahna thla zara zin bo ka tum hrâm hrâm a. Ofis hna lam ngaihtuah buai chu a hlawk loh bâkah trûlna leh trangkaina a awm bawk loh avangin, zalen taka ka thlarau a leng vak theih nan, ka dah bo hmiah a. Tichuan, ka taksa chhungah an indo mup mup lai chuan, a theih hun apiangah, ngaihtuahnain kil tin kil tangah ka zin kual a; hniak chhiarin ka lei zin kawngte ka chhui kir a; ka lehkhabu ziak tran tum mek THUTHLUNG RAM leh ZORAM KHAWVEL-4 te ruangam tur ka duang a, ka rem khawm a, ka thriat a, ka rem thra leh a; mitthi leh minung ngaihtuahna thlarau, boruaka lengvelte nen chuan thu leh hlain kan inkawm a, an thurukte min hrilh a.

Chutiang thu le hla mi rawn pawltu zinga pakhat chu Damhauha (1909-1972) hla phuah 51 zinga pakhat, ‘Fiara tui’ thlavang a hauhna thu, LUNG PHANG LO LA’ tih hi a ni. Thil dang ngaihtuah ka tum pawhin a khattawk hian,

Luang ang che aw, damten luang dêl dêl la,
Thlang kawrvai Reng daikawmah,
Hmingthrahluanthang, lung phang lo la

tih thunawn hian siknala indêt ang hian ka ngaihtuahna a rawn kâp leh zawk zawk thrin a. Nem no leh lung kuai taka Siampui Sailo-in he hla a sak hi ka ngaithla fo tawh thrin a. Chumi aw nêm fawn leh a hla ropuina infawh khawm atranga mawina rimtui lo zâm chhuak chuan mi rawn bual leh a, ka zawr tran a, tî a mûr sung sung a.

Ka ngaihtuah zui zel a. Engah nge Damhauhan FIARA TUI chu lung phâng lo tura a thlavang a hauhsak kher le? Chu fiara tui, zo tlang sang ata ‘thlang kawrvai, Rêng daikawm’, hmana Rengpui Ram kan tih thrin, tuna Tripura lo ni ta pana luang chuan tuipui zau zawk fin a, a luang ral mai tur chu thlaphang turin a ring em ni ang? He hla a phuah laia a ngaihtuahna rûk ber kamtu chu enge ni ang? Zawl khaw sira Rokunga ‘CHITE LUI’, Rialtui hmingthang lengngha vangkhua fin tura luang dem dem chu a thlavang a hauhsak em le? Hauhsak ahnêkin, ‘luang dem dem rawh, piallei a ral hma loh chuan’ tiin a thlah liam zawk a ni.

Zaipute hian hringnuna tuarna, lawmna, lunghnurna, hlauhna leh beiseina thu emaw, mawina rûk an hmu emaw, rimtui an hriat emaw leh an thil vei rûk emaw te chu tlang tak le thlum no taka an puan chhuah ngam leh thiam avangin, an tum reng pawh ni kher loin, an mihring nihpuite ngaihtuahna rûk puansaktu aw-ka an ni fo thrin a. Chuvang chuan a ni, hnam tin nunah hla hian hmun a luah thûk êm êm chu ni. Damhauha pawh hian a tum rêng pawh ni kher loin, Zofate lungkhamna leh thlaphanna rûk ber, piputen mi chîmral mai duh loa thlang an lo tlak chhan chu Fiara tui hmang hian a puansak ta a ni.

Lui te tak tê tê inchhun khawmin lui lian zawk, lui lian zawk infin khawmin luipui, luipui luang khawmin tuipui emaw tuifinriat a siam ang hian, chi leh kuang tla khawmin hnam te tak tê tê, hnam te tak tê tê infin khawmin hnam lian zawk, hnam lian zawk fuan khawmin hnampui (nation) a siam thrin a. Hei hi minit tina thil thleng reng chu a ni. Lui te chuan lui lian zawkah a inchhunfin hunah a nihna a hloh a, lui lian pawhin chutiang zêlin. Chu chu khawvel awmphung a ni.

Chutianga chi leh hnam lo chhuak, lui te phul liam ang maia nû leh chak leh bengchheng êm êm, fîm hman loa luang ral leh ta mai chu histawri phekah hian hmuh tur an tam êm êm a. Van ruahtui tla, tuihawka lung ral leh thuai anga van laia tla ang mai hnam, chakna hnâr leh kalchar inthlunna mumal nei lote chu an luang ral hma a, hnâr nei thra erawh luipui chawmtu ber an ni ve thung. Lui te chu lui lianah a inchhunfin hunah kuang zau zawka luang a nih tawh avangin a chim chin a thûk tawh a, a chakna leh hmantlakna pawh nasa takin a pung a ni.

Chi leh hnam thilah pawh chutiang tho chu a ni. Chumi kawng chu Zofate pawhin kan zawh mek a ni. Galili dil leh Jordan lui emaw, Ganges leh Brahmaputra lui te emaw leh Airawdung (Irawwady) leh Chindung (Chindwin) emaw fintute hian kan hnâr neih dan leh kan lui fin azirin kan nihna leh kan mizia zêl tur a la hril dawn a ni. A tawpah chuan, hnâr thra tak nei a, tuipui zau zawk leh thuk zawka infin khawm thiam apiang nihlawhin an dingchang mai niin a lang. Chung zinga tun laia entirna thra tak chu Japan tuipuiin khawthlang tuipui a fin thiam dan hi a ni awm e.

Kan pi leh pute hun atranga kan thil hlauh êm êm chu mi chîm rala awm leh kan nihna hloh a ni awm e. Mi chîm ral maia awm hlauhin kan pêm kan pêm a, Bengal Tuipui thleng rakin kan thlang tla a. Thlang tlak leh zelna tur awm chhun chu Bengal Tuipui mai a nih tawh avangin ram khawkrawkah kan inham tang mai mai a ni. Chumi avang leh Ganges emaw Brahmaputra emaw kan fin hmaa chatuan hawlh tlang Jordan lui kan fin hmasak zawk avanga luang ral lo mai mai kan ni. Chumi avang tak chuan alawm Ganges emaw Brahmaputra emaw Bengal Tuipui emaw fin chu chukchu ben threlh hlauh taka kan hlauh êm êm ni. Chuvang chuan a ni kan awmna ram apiangah kan intih mikhual tlat ni. Chuvang chuan a ni miten min mikhual en. Chumi vang chuan a ni a leh a linga tun thleng kan dam khawchhuah ni. Chuvang bawk chuan alawm trah leh ha thrial pawh dawn chang loa kum sawmhnih lai kan rammut.

Mahse, hemi kawng hi kan pumpelh thei em? A pumpelh awm chhun chu luan ral a ni mai. Luan ral kan duh em? Kan duh si loh chuan hnâr chak tak kan nei a trûl bakah lui lian leh zau zawka Zofate hi kan inchhunfin thiam a ngai a ni. Tunah enge kan dinhmun le? Chi leh kuang luankawr 47 lai hiala pêng darh tawh chu lui lian zawk ZO LUIPUI-ah inchhun khawm leh tumin tran kan la mêk a, kan hnam naupanzia ngaihtuah chuan hma pawh kan sawn chak hle. Kan ke chhah dan erawh a la rual lo hle. Luankawr zau zawka luan tlan tuma a threnin hma kan nawr laiiin, a thren chuan chîm ral hlauhin, mahni luankawr te tak tea awmzia mumal awm loa far fêp fêpa luan trêp tum reng kan la awm bawk. Chutianga mahni thliarkara luan reng tumtute chuan vawi khat pawlitiks leh ekawnawmiks khawkhêng pawh an tuar mawh hle. Mahni chi bil chauha luan tum hi kang chahna leh luan ralna kawng hnai ber chu a ni.

Lehlamah erawh chuan, luankawr te tak tea luan reng tumho rilru put hmang tho chu Mizo Luipuia luangho rilru put hmang a ni a; India Tuipui zau zawk fin a, chuta luan luh chu kan thil hlauhthawn ber a ni ve tho mai. Chutih a nih lai chuan Jordan lui fin a, nihna hloh dêr khawpa luan ral chu kan pawiti lo chang pawh ni loin, kan châk ber ni awmin a lang leh hlauh si a ni. Doordarshan tuipui chu vehbur khawn nan chuan kan duh hle a, mahse fin tura kan duh zawk chu Davida Arsi lui leh Kalvari hnûn atranga luang chhuak, khawthlang tuipui te chu ni zawk tlatin a lang. Kan sakhua a him chuan kan hnam pawh him turin kan ring nghet hle tih a lang. Chu chu Hindu leh Muslim tuipuia chengte pawhin an ring ve tho. Mahse, kan sakhaw innghahna thrut leh ban ei chhetu, a sûlrûl leh tlungpi ber chu keimahni kan ni leh bawk si.

FIARA TUI phuahtu Damhauha hian kan hla phuah thiamte zingah danglamna mak tak a nei a. Zaipu tam tak ang bawka mi lungleng thei êm êm a ni. Mahse a lunglen dan hi lunglen dan pangngai a ni lo. Kan hnam histawri zûna tâng leh uai, lungleng taka kan sulhnu fang fang thrin ni awmin a hla atrangin kan hmu a ni. Zoram tlang tluan leh kan thing le mau leh hnim zawng zawng hian chumi zun chu phurin a hmu a,

Zûn phur thing tin par leh khawtlang lii liai
Hi han hawi vel ila, trah lai min rêltir e;
Ka dawnin suihlung a leng e,
Khuarei ka ngai ngam lo ve!

a ti thlawt mai a ni. Hemi hlaah bawk hian, chumi zûn chu ‘Pipu sulhnu, hnam tin lunglai kuaitu’ a ti hial bawk a.

Zoram khawvel, hmuh theih leh hmuh theih loh mual tinah hian pipu sulhnu chu romei anga zâm kumkhuain a hmu a, “Chatuan romei, pipu zun lêng a zâm, zo daiah” a ti thlawt a ni. A hla phuah thiamna thlarau tinungtu le tichetu pawh histawri zûn niin a lang bawk. Chuvangin, FIARA TUI hmanga Zofate lungkham rûk ber, kan hnam lui luang zel tur dinhmun kan veina thu chu a puang chhuak mai pawh ni loa a thlavang a hauhsak hian ama testimawni mai pawh ni lo Zofate ngaihtuahna ril ber min phawrhsak a ni kan ti thei ang.

Luang ang che aw, damten luang dêl dêl la,
Thlang kawrvai, Reng daikawmah;
Hmingthrahluanthang, LUNGPHANG LO LA.

(April 1, 1994, Male, Maldives)

Our idyllic world
Many were born, to use a worn out phrase, with a silver spoon in their mouths. I was born naked, literally naked, perhaps with a froth in my mouth, delivered at home in the most natural way by whosoever was present in our house at the time of my birth. They cut my umbilical cord not by a sterilized blade or knife but by a sharpened piece of bamboo called ‘tlahthi/tlaihnat’ and tied my side of the cord either with ‘lachhum/patsum’, the cut off piece of the warp of a woven cloth, or ‘hnâng’, a split cane or bamboo that was easily reachable at the time of my arrival in this wonderful planet. Most of my generation from the hills came to this world in this fashion, naturally and originally, the very same way Adam and Eve delivered their first-born. But nature was gracious. We survive.

I was the last born in my family of seven brothers and six sisters, holding a lucky Christ’s number 13 (12 disciples + Jesus Christ). My father died when I was only three months. In our way of saying, he died a believer (Ringtu niin a thi) but before he could learn the ABC that the old folks then called it ‘the white man’s magic’. In modern statistical term, therefore, my father died illiterate. In the traditional sense, however, my father was one of the most educated and respected persons in my village Pherzawl in South West Manipur in his time. Apart from being a poet, he was a famed craftsman specializing in intricate cane and bamboo works like making all kinds of baskets and he received orders from far distant villages. He was also a trusted elder in the Village Council, a duty he had to render because of his marriage into the Chief’s family.

The only civilization that had then deeply penetrated our idyllic world was the Christian faith that came along with the British rule. Everything by then was far and beyond. In our imagination, the misty heaven was much closer to Imphal, the capital of Manipur where the Maharaja and the British rulers sat. Imphal was then called ‘Phaipui’ meaning a city on a vast plain. While our spiritual city called Jerusalem was to the believer only a heartbeat away, the Zo capital Aizawl was many days journey away. The other big place we used to hear often was Hringchar (Silchar) from where we got essential supply of salt, kerosene, and some clothing and stationery materials. The village produced the rest.

Our need was little; our satisfaction, even smaller. Three square meals of cooked rice a day and a year’s supply of food grain and salt were all that we basically needed. The village church met all our spiritual needs. We were in direct touch with God and nature. We had no radio, no newspaper and no post office. Our only channel of contact with the outside world was through travelers and messengers who used to bring stale news of whatever they heard and misheard and added as much salt and masala as they chose to make the news more interesting and palatable. Howsoever old the news might be, still news was news to us. This was the condition in most hill areas of northeast India in those days. But we envied nobody and nobody envied us.

The rural furnace
Village life in remote hill areas was simple and idyllic as it was tough, rough and toilsome. It’s a constant struggle for survival. January came and the task of clearing jungle thickets for the new jhum site began. The cut trees, bamboos and undergrowth called ‘vahchap or chap’ was left to dry for a month or so and then it was burnt by end March or beginning of April. The more the burnt and scorched the soil, the better. The fiery heat left thick ashes to fertilize the soil and killed many embedded seeds thereby making weeding easier. Unseasoned rain could play havoc as wet ‘chap’ would not burn well leaving no ashes but only half burnt debris that had to be cleared with much labor. It also left the embedded seeds in the soil in tact and the unwanted seeds would spring up at the first drop of rain making weeding extremely a difficult task.

This was followed by a tormentous season of sowing under heat and dust and four months of weeding under rain and sun. Then came the autumn, a season of rest and recreation which most villagers spent collecting house building materials from the forest and also household provisions from outside the village. Soon, winter and harvest season arrived and if the jhums were far from the village, all working hands would stay at a temporary hut built in or near the jhum till harvest was over and then only returned to the village just on time for Christmas and New Year celebrations. Then, the monotonous cycle began all over again in January.

Village life started at the break of dawn. Our reliable alarm clocks were the ubiquitous village cocks. They crowed about five times between dusk and dawn. At the fifth crowing, women got up to start their daily chores of carrying water from the spring, winnowing of unhusked rice at the mortar and cooking for the family. It was impossible for a single hand to perform all these tasks simultaneously. In a subsistence economy based purely on manual labor, a large family was therefore a boon as it had a better chance of survival. It is now the opposite for those living on a white-collar job. Less has become a boon and more a curse.

We normally ate our morning meal at sunrise. Then, all the working hands carrying packed lunch left for the jhum to work all day long and returned at dusk. Our school started at 7.a.m and closed at 1.p.m when we would return home, had lunch and then helped in household works like carrying rice paddy from the jungle barn, fetching water from the far distant spring, collecting firewood from the jungle, making or repairing kitchen gardens, tending domestic animals and preparing dinner for the family. On Saturdays and holidays, we helped our family at jhum and at home. Therefore, most students of my generation from the hills knew jhuming and related works including jungle clearing, sowing, weeding and harvesting apart from house building, basket making and setting all kinds of traps to catch wild animals, fowls and birds. We had learned the art of survival and the value of manual labor in practice.

My generation was shaped and molded in this rural furnace. It was this rough and tough but practical training in real life drama that we had had in our impressionable years that stood by me in the difficult stages of life’s journey. When faced with problems and challenges, my village experience has always become a handy survival kit.

War broke our Eden
When I was born on July 15, 1939 Adolf Hitler had already invaded and taken over Czechoslovakia and was on his way to overrunning Poland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and France, thus inaugurating the bloodiest war ever fought in the history of our planet. In Asia, Japan had already taken Korea, Manchuria, and large chunks of China and was planning to invade and conquer Philippines, Indo-China (Vietnam), Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and British colonies in Asia as far as Burma. By May 1942 Japan had already occupied Burma, bringing the war to our doorsteps. Our world never remained the same again since the baptism of gunfire and bombs.

Before the war, only birds, bats, bees, butterflies and other flying insects monopolized our solemn air space with the hovering skylark commanding the blue sky. It was a sight so divine and tranquil as to give you instant inner peace untranslatable in any human tongue and art form. Nature’s peace flowed into you and you were one with nature. This was what William Wordsworth wrote in his eternal poem,

The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell’d in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.

World War 2 broke that tranquility. The noisy birds called fighter planes came and rent our serene air. Dogfights between the Allied and the Japanese fighter planes became a common sight, chasing each other like birds of prey. I still vividly remember that afternoon in 1944 when I accompanied my mother to the nearby forest to collect firewood. A transport plane suddenly appeared in the blue sky frightening not only us but also the birds and the beasts. The plane hovered lower and lower and dropped rations on our school hill for the arriving army battalion. On return from the forest, we saw several gunny bags scattered all around our school and also few broken tombstones hit by the falling bags. This was our closest encounter with the big bird.

Our village school
I was brought up in that atmosphere. I attended the village middle school, which ran classes from ABC Grade to Class VI with two teachers. Our headmaster was Class VIII passed and our Second Master was Lower Primary (Class II) passed. The school building consisted of only a medium-size hall in which they put rows of roughly hewn benches and desks for Class II and above and the lower classes had only wooden benches but not desks. At every period, our headmaster had to take five different classes and the rest by his assistant. We were taught to memorize or learn by heart every subject except mathematics of which we had to learn the formula. The Mission Board of Examinations conducted exams for the Lower Primary (Class II) and Class VI exams and the rest by the school. I topped at the Lower Primary Examination in 1949 and scored full marks in most subjects.

It was a proud moment. We invited the entire village folks for a celebration in our house, one of the biggest in the village measuring 15X6 Mizo ‘hlams’. It was packed to the brim. I was asked to say a few words in English. Apart from being only 10 in age, I was a shy boy and speech was not and never is my cup of tea. But I had to say something in English. So I mustered up courage and recited a piece from our English text as eloquent as a senior priest would deliver his well-versed incantation or benediction. My maiden speech was crowned with thunderous applause. The simple village folks did not bother whether I delivered a Tertullian speech or recited lines that I memorized from my textbooks. The meaning of what I said did not matter to them at all. For them, to hear a foreign tongue coming out of my lips was a joy. The fact that I uttered words of English was all that they would like to hear. I proved their point and met their expectations of me. The sound of their thunderous applause remained an encouragement till this day.

My ultimate ambition at that time was to pass Matriculation and become a teacher in our Middle School. My second ambition was to visit Imphal at least once before I died. These were wishful dreams then, a classic case of building a castle in the air. But my second dream was fulfilled in early 1955 when I went to Churachandpur for the first time and then visited Imphal. Churachandpur was then a three-day walk from Pherzawl. I had already then finished Class IX. And it was for the first time that I saw a bus! My first dream came true four years later. But my ambition grew at every climb of a step. My desire to go further up increased. I gradually began to realize that one step was enough for each move forward and another step for the next move but every stepping stone I carved should be solid and firm.

Our chief Pu Dolura, my maternal uncle, was a farsighted man. He was once a teacher himself and knew the value of education. So he established Pherzawl High School in February 1951, the first ever high school in Churachandpur District with Thanglora as headmaster. Thanglora was a born teacher who could make every subject intelligible and interesting. Students from Mizoram, Tripura, Cachar and many parts of Manipur came to study and a fusion of Zo culture began to take place with students from Mizoram playing a major role. It was during this time that I picked up many songs in Lushai as it was then known as also the dialect itself. Much later, I realized that my vision of a strong, united Zo nation was born unconsciously during those formative years but it took many years to develop into a concrete shape. My Zoram Khawvel serial is the product of that vision.

From failure to a long leap
I finished schooling from Pherzawl High School in 1959 after two frightful flops in Matriculation examinations in 1957 and 1958. It was a terrible demeaning experience I would not like to repeat even in my dream. I had learned a good lesson from that experience and never let myself failed again in exams since. It was easier to succeed than to fail. The amount of hard work I had put in to succeed was much easier to bear than the heavy burden of failure and shame. Luckily, I had also discovered that failure could be made to a very good use. During the two solitary and traumatic years when I had to bear the shame of my stupidity and neglect with self-imposed dignity, I turned and searched within myself to find out who I was and whether I was blessed with any latent ability. In the process, I landed up composing a few memorable songs, wrote my first novel and learned tonic solfa to the core. I discovered a very big part of myself.

I graduated from D. M. College, Imphal in 1963 without even having an opportunity to see a train! I am therefore holder of a very rare honor called ‘Rêl lu hmu loa B.A tling sartifiket’, one of my proud possessions in life. And after two years of post-graduate study at Guwahati University and a year’s stint at Sielmat Christian College as Lecturer, I joined Indian Revenue Service in 1967 and Indian Foreign Service in 1970 leaving my pet dream of establishing a world-class institute to be called Institute of Tribalogy in the northeast. And then I went abroad in 1976 for more than two decades to serve in four continents in the pomp and glittery of a diplomatic society considered to be the most honored profession on this planet. It was a long shot from Pherzawl, too long a jump difficult for any normal person to fully absorb its impact, culturally and psychologically.

Our new world
Our century is by far the bloodiest and the fastest growing century in human history. It practically began with World War I followed closely by World War II and then the Cold War years that produced stockpiles of nuclear arsenal enough to annihilate the human race several times over. Localized wars and ethnic violence in its worst brutal form continued throughout claming many thousands of lives. The pace of scientific advancement exceeded all other centuries combined, especially in the field of electronics with small computer chips ruling the roost. I can now converse with my children in Wellington, London and New York at the touch of a button. I only hope that we shy away from further computerizing at least some pleasures of life like kissing, making love, drinking and eating which, if Biblical writers are right, they have already done in heaven where the inhabitants no longer suffer from pains, hunger, sickness, loneliness, tears and hate! Heaven has a meaning and an attraction because of the existence of hell. Could there then be a pleasure without pain? Fulfillment without want? Smile without tear? Love without hate? Positive without negative? Yes without No? I really wonder!

Pherzawl prism and yardstick
Everything in life is relative, a measurement from a certain point to another. Happiness is measured from a certain point of pain or pleasure or expectation. For me, the yardstick of my life is drawn from Pherzawl from where I measure the ups and downs of my life and how far I have traveled in life’s journey. Even after my profession landed me in the upper echelons of international society to hobnob with the VVIPs and dignitaries of other countries, I remained firmly attached to my roots knowing that if I did not, I would be quickly dehumanized with no face and identity and be drifting in the human ocean like a broken reed in a vast lake with no roots to hang on. I can never appreciate what I am to day unless I knew what I had been before.

At the same time, I also now see our world from many viewpoints. Depending on how one looks at it, our world can be very small or very big. In one way, it is an extended global village peopled by various races and tongues that formed themselves into separate nationalities like many ‘vengs’ in a big village or town who are competing with each other. Our world shrinks at every improvement of communication system. In my childhood, Delhi was many months journey from Pherzawl but I can now reach in three hours from Imphal by air. The world looks even smaller if you observed it from a faraway galactic station. You will then find out that it is not even a small village but a tiny speck among the many billion stars in an ever-expanding universe. Likewise, I could see the meaning of my life clearer when I measure it from my Pherzawl window.

I may not be far wrong in claiming that my generation of hill boys and girls jumped from almost a zero point to the pinnacle of elite services in India and elsewhere. We have expanded Zoram khawvel to the far corners of India and abroad. Despite various culture shocks that we have to encounter and also the many layers of civilization that we have to absorb within a short span of our services, virtually all of us have faithfully clung to our roots and remained a force in preserving our unique identity. We have survived and still remained so of our own self. The reason to me is that every one has his or her Pherzawl as the Jews have their Jerusalem to cling to. A person who is certain of his or her identity can withstand and absorb any cultural onslaught, howsoever powerful that may be.