Zo
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A backgrounder
As in 2023
Esha Roy, July 6, 2023: The Indian Express
‘Zo ethnic brethren’
Manipur’s Kuki-Zomi peoples — who live primarily in the districts of Churachandpur, Pherzawl, and Kangpokpi, with scattered populations in Chandel and Tengnoupal — come under the larger umbrella of the Zo ethnic tribes, one of the largest of which are the Lushei of Mizoram.
“The onset of May witnessed a brutal, untoward and uncalled-for incident in Manipur. At this very moment, 3.30 am, July the 4th, 2023, nothing seems to have changed,” Zoramthanga wrote in a long post, with a poster of himself with the words “When will it stop?”
“We are counting”, Zoramthanga said, “and today is the 62nd day.”
He called the Kuki-Zomi peoples of Manipur “my Manipuri Zo ethnic brethren”, and said he did not wish to see any more pictures or videos of churches being burnt, “brutal killings and violence of all nature”. Mizoram, Zoramthanga said, now hosts 12,000 internally displaced persons from Manipur.
Earlier, in an interview with a local television channel, ZPM president Lalduhoma said: “The vision of my party is that, there will come one day, when all the Zo people are put under one administrative unit — this is our mission.
“Under Article 3 of the Indian Constitution, this is possible, so the solution is already provided. These people are our brothers and sisters living in Manipur. If they decide to join us, they are most welcome,” Lalduhoma said.
Lalduhoma will be the ZPM’s candidate for chief minister in Assembly elections due in Mizoram later this year. The ZPM won all 11 seats in elections to the Lunglei Municipal Council, the results of which were declared early in April. Some analysts believe the results may be an indicator of the mood of the electorate ahead of the elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly.
The reunification of the Zo will be an election issue “to some extent”, Lalduhoma said.
The Chin homeland
The Chin Hills, or Indo-Chin hill ranges, is a thickly forested region with an elevation of 2,100-3,000 metres in northwestern Myanmar. The Hills are home to a large number of tribes that come under the Zo umbrella.
The Zo peoples include all tribes of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo ethnic group spread across Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh, along with many sub-tribes and clans such as the Chin, Kuki, Mizo, Lushei, Zomi, Paitei, Hmar, Ralte, Pawi, Lai, Mara, Gangte, Thadou, etc.
The tribes are believed to have migrated from China through Tibet to settle in Myanmar, and speak a group of Tibeto-Burman languages.
Constant feuds among the tribal clans and their kings (chieftains) drove many of the clans westward to modern-day Mizoram and parts of Manipur in the 17th century. They settled in new villages, but even so, remained socially and emotionally enmeshed with the Chin tribes of Myanmar.
Even before the 2021 military coup in Myanmar drove tens of thousands of Zo to Mizoram, migration across the porous international border had been constant and seamless. This is why, despite directions issued by New Delhi, Zoramthanga has refused to deport the Myanmarese refugees on “humanitarian grounds’’.
Apart from ethnicity and religion — the tribes are knit together by Christianity — the Kuki-Zomi of Manipur share the history and memories of the violent Mizo nationalist movement of the 1960s. As the Indian forces cracked down, many of them fled from Mizoram to Manipur, where they have lived ever since.
A new reunification
Most displaced people who have arrived in Mizoram from Manipur are now in the districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Serchhip. Barring a handful — about 2,500-3,000 individuals — who are in the transit camps set up by the Mizoram government, the vast majority of IDPs live with their Mizo relatives. Many have their own homes or business connections in Mizoram, and have always travelled back and forth between the two states.
The movement for “Zo reunification” has largely petered out in the face of the political implausibility of carving out areas from Manipur and Tripura, and also from Arakan in Myanmar and the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh, to integrate with Mizoram. However, the idea continues to have great emotional appeal for the people of Mizoram.
The tribes are believed to have migrated from China through Tibet to settle in Myanmar, and speak a group of Tibeto-Burman languages.
Constant feuds among the tribal clans and their kings (chieftains) drove many of the clans westward to modern-day Mizoram and parts of Manipur in the 17th century. They settled in new villages, but even so, remained socially and emotionally enmeshed with the Chin tribes of Myanmar.
Even before the 2021 military coup in Myanmar drove tens of thousands of Zo to Mizoram, migration across the porous international border had been constant and seamless. This is why, despite directions issued by New Delhi, Zoramthanga has refused to deport the Myanmarese refugees on “humanitarian grounds’’.
Apart from ethnicity and religion — the tribes are knit together by Christianity — the Kuki-Zomi of Manipur share the history and memories of the violent Mizo nationalist movement of the 1960s. As the Indian forces cracked down, many of them fled from Mizoram to Manipur, where they have lived ever since.
A new reunification
Most displaced people who have arrived in Mizoram from Manipur are now in the districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Serchhip. Barring a handful — about 2,500-3,000 individuals — who are in the transit camps set up by the Mizoram government, the vast majority of IDPs live with their Mizo relatives. Many have their own homes or business connections in Mizoram, and have always travelled back and forth between the two states.
The movement for “Zo reunification” has largely petered out in the face of the political implausibility of carving out areas from Manipur and Tripura, and also from Arakan in Myanmar and the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh, to integrate with Mizoram. However, the idea continues to have great emotional appeal for the people of Mizoram.
As such, both Zoramthanga’s Mizo National Front (MNF) and Lalduhoma’s ZPM are likely to support the demand for a separate administrative set up for the tribes of Manipur and possibly, even territorial integration with Mizoram.
