Mizoram is a landlocked state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its capital and largest city. It covers an area of 21,087 square kilometres which 91% of the area is covered by forests, making it the most heavily forested state in India. With an estimated population of 1.25 million in 2023, it is the second least populated state in India. With an urbanisation rate of 51.5% it is the most urbanised state in northeast India, ranking fifth in urbanisation nationwide. It shares 722-kilometre (449 mi) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar to the east and south, with domestic borders with the Indian states of Assam, Manipur, and Tripura. One of the two official languages and most widely spoken tongue is Mizo, which serves as a lingua franca among various ethnic communities who speak a variety of other Tibeto-Burman or Indo-Aryan languages. Mizoram is home to the highest percentage of scheduled tribes in India, with the Mizo people forming the majority.
The history of Mizoram encompasses the history of Mizoram which lies in the southernmost part of northeast India. It is a conglomerate history of several ethnic groups of Chin people who migrated from Chin State of Burma. But information of their patterns of westward migration are based on oral history and archaeological inferences, hence nothing definite can be said. The recorded history started relatively recently around the mid-19th century when the adjoining regions were occupied by the British monarchy. Following religious, political and cultural revolutions in the mid-20th century majority of the people agglomerated into a super tribe, Mizo. Hence the officially recognised settlement of the Mizos became Mizoram.
Mizo is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Mizoram, where it is the official language and lingua franca. It is the mother tongue of the Mizo people and some members of the Mizo diaspora. Other than Mizoram, it is also spoken in Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, and Assam states of India, Sagaing Region and Chin State in Myanmar, and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. It is mainly based on the Lusei dialect but it has also derived many words from its surrounding Mizo clans.
Mizoram Presbyterian ChurchSynod is the largest Christian denomination in Mizoram, northeast India. It was a direct progeny of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Wales. It is one of the two churches founded by the missionaries and is now one of the constituent bodies of a larger denomination Presbyterian Church of India (PCI), which has its headquarters in Shillong, Meghalaya. The administrative body called the Mizoram Synod has its headquarters at Mission Veng, Aizawl. As the first church, it remains the largest denomination in Mizoram.
Brigadier Ṭhenphunga Sailo, AVSM (1922–2015) was an Indian military officer and politician who served as the 2nd Chief Minister of Mizoram. He founded the Mizoram People's Conference, one of the major political parties in Mizoram. He was a recipient of Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Padma Shri for his military service and humanitarian works, and the Mizo Award for his lifetime achievements.
The Young Mizo Association (YMA) is the largest and most comprehensive non-profit, secular, nongovernmental organisation of the Mizo people. It was established on 15 June 1935, originally as the Young Lushai Association (YLA), which was later renamed as the "Young Mizo Association" in 1947. It was initiated by the Welsh Christian missionaries who understood the need of cultural conservation of the Mizo tribe, who were under pressure of political and social modernisations. In 1977, it was registered under Indian Societies Registration Act.
The Mizo National Front uprising was a revolt against the government of India aimed at establishing a sovereign nation state for the Mizo people, which started on 28 February 1966. On 1 March 1966, the Mizo National Front (MNF) made a declaration of independence, after launching coordinated attacks on the Government offices and security forces post in different parts of the Mizo district in Assam. The government retaliated and recaptured all the places seized by the MNF by 25 March 1966.
Mizo literature is the literature written in Mizo ṭawng, the principal language of the Mizo peoples, which has both written and oral traditions. It has undergone a considerable change in the 20th century. The language developed mainly from the Lushai language, with significant influence from Pawi language, Paite language and Hmar language, especially at the literary level.
William Williams was a Welsh Presbyterian missionary to Khasi Hills, northeast India, in the late 19th century. He was a son of a ship captain in Nanternis, a small village in Wales. Following his father's footstep he became a sailor for five years. Then he took a profession in carpentry for two years. After graduating in theology from East London Missionary Training Institute he became a pastor. Pursuing his ambition he became a missionary of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Mission to Khasi people in India from 1887 until his death. He died of typhoid in 1892.
Zairema was a Presbyterian minister, and a pioneer in theology and literature among the Mizo people of northeast India. He was the first Mizo to obtain the degrees of BSc and BD. He died of cardiac problem on the morning of 17 December 2008 at his residence in Aizawl at the age of 91. He is best remembered as the "father of Mizoram Synod".
Solomon's Temple is a church located in Aizawl Mizoram, India.
The history of Christianity in Mizoram covers the origin and development of all forms of Christianity in Mizoram since the British occupation at the end of the 19th century until Indian Independance. Christianity arrived due to British intervention in tribal warfare, raids of British plantations. The ensuing punitive British military expedition was called the Lushai Expedition of 1871. The subsequent annexation of the erstwhile Lushai Hills to the British Empire opened the gateway for British Christian missions to evangelise the Mizo people.
Sângthankima is a humanitarian and social worker in Mizoram, India. He is the founder of Thutak Nunpuitu Team (TNT), a voluntary organisation, which runs the largest charitable institution in Mizoram. His institution, a registered society since 1991 under the Firms and Societies in India, started as a rehabilitation society for alcoholics in Champhai town. With donation of a plot of land in Aizawl city, it expanded into an orphanage with formal school, health centre, and sanatorium. He received the Padma Shri Award in 2024.
Laltluangliana Khiangte is a Mizo academic, playwright and poet of Mizo literature. He was the principal of the Serampore College and a former professor at Pachhunga University College and the North Eastern Hill University. He is presently serving as the senior most professor at the Department of Mizo at Mizoram University. He is a recipient of the Pu Buanga Award, the highest literary award of the Mizo Academy of Letters. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian literature.
The culture of the Mizo people has been heavily influenced by Christianity during the colonial era of the British Raj and the rise of Mizo nationalism with the Mizo Insurgency of 1966-1986. Mizo culture is rooted in the arts and ways of life of Mizos in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Mizo culture has developed in plurality with historical settlements and migrations starting from Southern China to the Shan states of Burma, the Kabaw valley and the state of Mizoram under the British and Indian administrations.
Rokunga was a traditional writer and composer from Mizoram, India.
Michael Malsawmzela Sailo, also known as Ace Man, was a rap singer from Mizoram, India. He introduced rap music in Mizoram.
Aizawl, formerly known as Aijal, is the capital city and the most populous city of Mizoram, India. It is also the third largest city in northeast India. It is situated atop a series of ridges, with an average elevation of around 1,132 metres above sea level. In 2024, the city has an estimated population of 405,000 people.
Hnahthial district is one of the eleven districts of Mizoram state in India. The creation of Hnahthial District was first notified on 12 September 2008 but until 2020, it remained non-functional despite a number of promises made by top political leaders and an all-out effort by Hnahthial District Function Demand Committee to let the state government make it functional. Hnahthial district was made functional only 12 years later on 3 June 2019 with the creation of the office of the Deputy Commissioner.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mizoram is formally organised as the Mizo Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. It is one of the conferences of the Northeast India Union of Seventh-day Adventists under the Southern Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists. It currently has 81 Churches and 22,446 members.
