Reasons For Reunification
Re-unification of the Zomi is not a matter of choice or option. Rather it is more of their rights, considering the fact that they are of the same race. Their distinct culture, customs, traditions, values, dances, dress and folktales are totally different from the surrounding and dominant plains people. The Zomi tribes speak different dialects of the same language. They shared a unique historical process, professed the same religious belief, have common traditional administrative systems, and occupy a contiguous geographical area. They were once in the hoary past one nation, lived in one country, spoke a common language, adopted self-governance without foreign interference, as a result of which they were closely knit together by a bonding spirit of common tradition, culture, customs and practices. Among themselves, they understood that they were descendants of Zo, even while calling themselves and each other by different sub-clan, clan, tribe names and other nomenclatures that varied according to time, place and sentiment.
For outsiders, confusion becomes compounded when the people who say they are the same people called themselves and responded to different nomenclatures, like Chin, Kuki, Lushai, Mizo, Zomi and others. They also do not know that of the above cited names-Chin, Kuki and Lushai-are an imposed alien names. (There are no such words in the Zo vocabulary). The use of these alien names spread far and wide because of their use by the dominant societies surrounding the segregated Zomi. And when this dominant societies came under the British, the names they gave to the Zomi got official sanction, thence into official documents, reports, literature, history and universal usages, usually long before the people themselves knew of it. Further confusion arose with one of the tribes called Zou-te was being recognised as one of the 29 ST of Manipur in 1956.
It is one of the accidents of history that the mighty pen of the British Empire drew lines that part Zomi settlements in different administrative units owing allegiance to different nations. That the British — on getting to know the people better — realised their blunder and try to undo the mistake of the past.
The British’s recognition of these mistakes and their subsequent efforts to amalgamate the entire Zo country, the preferential treatments of Zomi in administration through the various Acts and Regulations, etc speaks for itself the unique identity of the Zomi. All these factors have been discussed in the preceding sections. Here it will suffice to summarise the justifications for our claim of re-unification:
One Nation fragmented by British
The Zomi inhabited areas extend between 92°-95° E (Longitude) and 20°-25° N (Latitude). The whole area is roughly about 91,000 sq miles. The British officials called the country, “the Chin-Lushai Tract of Land.” Until the advent of the British, there had never been foreign domination. There never was an intrusion either from the Indian Rajahs or from the Burmese Kings, who all through the ages maintained a ‘Laissez-fare policy,’ and leaving the Zomi to rule themselves.
In Zo country, the ablest, among the kings or chiefs used to reign over the land from centres like Khampat, Kalemyo, where some historical evidences are still visible in caves, earthworks and others.
The British came in contact with the Zomi in 1777 A.D, and could subjugate them only in 1890 after the Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1888-1890. Three expeditionary columns, one each from Assam (India), Bengal (then East Pakistan) and Burma took over the administrative control of each respective sector thus trisecting the Zo country and the people. As for the Zomi in Manipur-Burma border, they were further fragmented as a result of the Treaty of Yandaboo, 1826 and another treaty signed by Capt Pemberton and the King of Ava in 1834. Before these fateful divisions, the Zo country had never subdued, divided or ruled by any foreign power.
Re-unification: The unfinished tasks of the British
At a certain stage of their domination, the British administrations of each sector of Zo divided country began to realise their blunder in thoughtlessly dividing and putting one people with one tradition, one culture and with one language into three administrative units in what become three different countries, viz, Burma, East Bengal (Bangladesh) and India. In recognition of the unfair consequences of splitting of the Zomi, the British Government of India held the Chin-Lushai Conference of 1892 at Fort Williams (Calcutta, West Bengal), in which they decided to ‘amalgamate the whole tract of country known as the Chin-Lushai Hills under one administrative head. The boundaries of the new administrative area should be, generally speaking, the boundaries of the tract occupied by the savages newly brought under the British control’ (Resoln 4). The unification of North and South Lushai Hills was done as the initial implementation of the Resolutions of the Conference. But time and tide left the main issue of re-unifying the whole tract of Zomi inhabited areas unfulfilled.
In 1941, His Excellency Sir Robert Reid, the Governor of Assam and High Commissioner of British India again made a proposal for re-unification of the Chin-Lushai country under one administrative head. The late Sir Winston Churchill, then a Prime Minister of Britain, had approved Sir Robert Reid’s plan in principle. But the Labour Party which came to power after World War II did not take up the matter due to lack of conversant with the ground realities.
Special Provisions given to Zomi
Although the Resolutions of the Chin-Lushai Conference of 1892 were not fully implemented, the British, in recognition of the unity and integrity of the Zomi, passed several Acts and Regulations to safeguard them. The Chin Hills Regulation, 1896; the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 amended 1925; Scheduled Districts Acts, 1874; the Government of India Act, 1935, etc are some notable legislations pertaining to the victimised people and their country. Under these regulations, the Zo country was classed as “Backward” or “Excluded Areas” in which non-natives had to obtain a Pass (ILP) to enter the region. More significantly, any Acts and Regulations applicable to India or Burma did not automatically apply to the Zo country except otherwise so declared by order in official gazette. This was true in the case of other Indo-Burma border tribes like the Nagas whose areas were ‘excluded’.
Accordingly, necessary orders and rules under the Acts and Regulations were enforced from time to time. For instance, Lushai Hills was placed in the hands of what was called “Superintendent of Lushai Hills” and not under a Collector or Deputy Commissioner as designated elsewhere. The Superintendent was a representative of the King or Queen of Great Britain. Similarly, the Zomi inhabited areas in the Hills of Manipur remained the special responsibility of the British ICS officer who was the President of the Maharaja’s Darbar (later: Manipur State Durbar), but never came under the Maharaja’s direct control.
All these facts clearly evidenced that the hill people, including the Zomi, are distinct from the majority plains people, and that the British government never thought of merging them with India or Burma’s mainstream.
Re-unification: A century old struggle of the Zomi
T
he struggle for the re-unification of Zomi is over 70 years old. In 1933, Pu Than Pet Mang @ Vuam Thu Maung formed ‘Chin National Union’ and submitted a memorandum to the British government in Rangoon demanding self-rule for themselves. They also demanded their own independence as and when Burma was given independence.
Another organisation called “Chin Leaders Freedom League” was formed during the Japanese occupation of Zo country to free themselves from Japanese oppression. The organisation later merged with the Sukte Independence Army to form “Free Chin (Zomi)”. On the Indian side of the border, a representative of the Zomi submitted a memorandum to Sir Robert Reid in 1940, urging him to take steps for territorial re-unification of all their inhabited areas in the spirit of the Chin-Lushai Conference (1892).
During the Second World War, the Chiefs of the Lushai Hills had separately and independently declared war against the Japanese forces and resolved to fight the war side by side with the Allied Forces. The Chins of the Chin Hills also made an independent declaration of war in favour of the Allied Forces. In recognition of the Chin (Zomi) support, the Burmese Constitution provided the people of Chin Hills and other frontier hill tracts with the right of secession after 10 years (see documents). The then Superintendent of Lushai Hills, Mr. Mc Call, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, made a declaration providing Lushais (Zomi) friendship and protection as would ensure that ‘the destiny of the Lushai (Zomi) passes to no other hand without the consent of the Lushai people (Zomi).’
At the time when Indian independence was under process, the Mizo Union submitted a memorandum to His Majesty’s Government of India on 26th April, 1947 demanding ‘territorial integrity and self-determination’. In the same year, representatives of Zomi leaders held a meeting under the Chairmanship of L. L. Peters, Superintendent of Lushai Hills, in which they decided to enter Indian Union on the condition that ‘the Lushai Hills’ will be allowed to opt out of the Indian Union, when they wish to do so subjected to a minimum period of 10 years. The Zomi in Burma also signed the historic ‘Panglong Accord, 1947’ in which they agreed to join the Union of Burma with the condition that ‘they should be given the right to secede from Burma when they wish to do so’.
The struggle for unification continued after independence. In the 1960s, both Mizo National Front and Paite National Council submitted memorandum to the Indian Government for ‘unification and integration’ of their people. On May 20, 1995 the ZORO submitted another memorandum to the Secretary-General of the United National and other world leaders for re-unification of the Zo people, for restoration of their fundamental rights that existed before tripartite division of Zoram/Zogam, and bring the Zo people under one administrative head. Today, both the ZRO and ZORO are struggling for re-unification as one people in the spirit of the Chin-Lushai Conference of 1892. Nevertheless, the people and their country remain divided with the indigenous tribes of the same people separated by international boundaries as well as state boundaries. The Zomi lost their national self-respect following deprivation of their fundamental rights regardless of supreme sacrifices made over the past 70 years, for the cause of re-unification.
Re-unification in accordance with International norms
At the outset of World War–II, the Atlantic Charter was signed in Aug. 1941 in which the British and the Americans played major roles. The Zomi in Lushai Hills and Chin Hills, took side with the Allied Forces by offering total resistance and would therefore be entitled to every share in the victory over Japanese (Axis). As participants in World War II, the Zomi had every right to choose the form of government which found expression in term of re-unification of their divided country for restoration of their fundamental rights. Moreover, ‘the Charter of the United Nations’ also declares restoration of “Rights of Minorities (Indigenous Peoples)” in the world by the turn of the 21st Century.
Re-unification is another trend in the moulding of nations today. There are peoples in the world even today who are being involuntarily yoked together as one nation under one imperialistic authority despite the fact that these peoples are of different origin and different nationalities. The re-unification of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, East Germany and West Germany, and more recently the efforts made by North Korea and South Korea have been the source of inspiration and encouragement to Zomi who have for more than hundred years been deprived of these fundamental rights of re-unification. Be that as it may, the struggle for re-unification shall continue till the whole ancestral homeland of the indigenous Zomi is brought under one administration in the spirit of the Chin-Lushai Conference, 1892.
It was not the people who derived their name ZO from the high altitude of their abode, but on the contrary it was the high lands and especially the farm lands there, called ‘Zo Lo’ which derived their name from the Zo people who cultivated the farms’