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Mizoram is a state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and largest city. Within India's northeast region, it is the southernmost state, sharing borders with three of the Seven Sister States, namely Tripura, Assam and Manipur, and also shares a 722-kilometre (449 mi) border with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. The state spans over an area of approximately 21,087 square kilometres, of which approximately 91% is forested. With an estimated population of 1.25 million in 2023, it is the second least populous state in the country.
Mizo Union was the first political party in Mizoram, in Northeast India. It was founded on 6 April 1946 at Aizawl as the Mizo Common People's Union. At the time of independence of India from British rule in India in 1947, the party was the only political force in the Lushai Hills. It won the first Mizoram District Council general election under the new Indian Union in 1951, and consecutively in 1957, 1962 and 1966.
The Insurgency in Northeast India involves multiple separatist and jihadist militant groups operating in some of India's northeastern states, which are connected to the rest of India by the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land as narrow as 14.29 miles (23.00 km) wide.
The Mizo people, historically known as the Lushais, are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to the state of Mizoram in India and neighbouring states of Northeast India. They speak the Tibeto-Burman language of Mizo, the official language and lingua franca of Mizoram. The state is the second most literate state in India, at more than a rate of 90%.
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.
Champhai is the third largest town in Mizoram, northeast India and is one of the oldest settlements founded by the Mizo people, that initially served as a capital for the Hmar dynasty. Located near the India–Myanmar border facilitates cross-border trade, it serves as a hub for trade and commerce in the region.
Laldenga was a Mizo separatist and politician from Mizoram in northeast India. He was the founder of the Mizo National Front, a social organisation turned political party. He was the first Chief Minister of Mizoram as a federated state, the office of which he held from 1986 to 1988.
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.
Secession in India typically refers to state secession, which is the withdrawal of one or more states from the Republic of India. Whereas, some have wanted a separate state, union territory or an autonomous administrative division within India. Many separatist movements exist with thousands of members, however, some have low local support and high voter participation in democratic elections. However, at the same time, demanding separate statehood within under the administration of Indian union from an existing state can lead to criminal charges under secession law in India. India is described as an ‘Union of States’ in Article 1 of the Indian constitution I.e "Indestructible nation of destructible states" by its father of constitution Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar where a state or Union territory of India cannot secede from India by any means and the Central Government has more powers than the respective state governments and can forcefully change the names and boundaries of the states without their permission at any time when needed for self interest and for the maintenance of integrity.
Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee is the wing of Indian National Congress serving in Mizoram. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within the state, as well as selecting candidates for local, state, and national elections in Mizoram. The current president of the Mizoram PCC is Lal Thanzara. The committee has been a major political force in Mizoram since the formation of the state in 1987, having won several state elections and held power for long periods of time.
Education in Mizoram consists of a diverse array of formal education systems ranging from elementary to university, from training institution to technical courses. The Government of India imposes mandatory education at least up to the basic level. For this public schools are made free of fees, and provided with free textbooks and school lunch.
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.
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.
The Mizoram Peace Accord, 1986 was an official agreement between the Government of India and the Mizo National Front (MNF) to end insurgency and violence in Mizoram, India, that started in 1966. The Mizo National Front was an organisation of Mizo secessionists led by Laldenga to fight for independence from India. The movement was basically due to lack of support from the government during the great famine in Mizoram in the late 1950s. Political insurgency and social unrest ensued in the next decades. After a number of negotiations, the document titled Mizoram Accord, 1986: Memorandum of Settlement was finally signed on 30 June 1986. It was signed by Laldenga for MNF, R.D. Pradhan, Home Secretary, Government of India, and Lalkhama, Chief Secretary, Government of Mizoram. It is remarked as the most and only successful peace agreement in India after its independence from British Empire in 1947.
The hill tribes of Northeast India are hill people, mostly classified as Scheduled Tribes (STs), who live in the Northeast India region. This region has the largest proportion of scheduled tribes in the country.
Aizawl, formerly known as Aijal, is the capital city and the most populous city of Mizoram, India. It is also the fourth largest city in northeast India, after Agartala and Imphal. 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.
British rule in the Lushai Hills, spanning from the late 1889 to the 1947, commenced with the Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1889-90 leading to the formal establishment of the two administrative districts in 1889 and continued through the integration of the regions into the province of Assam with both districts being merged as the Lushai Hills until India gained independence in 1947.
The Mizo District, formerly called Lushai Hills District, was an autonomous district of the Indian state of Assam from 1947 till 1972 until it was granted the status of a Union Territory. This region was a significant part of Mizo history as it formally abolished the Mizo chieftainship system in 1952. It also encountered the 1959 Mautam famine, which led to the Mizo National Front uprising and the subsequent 20-year insurgency.
Mizo chieftainship, also known as Lushai chieftainship, is a political structure used for the Mizo people, which historically operated as a gerontocracy. The chieftain system persisted among the various clans and tribes from the precolonial era through to the British colonial period and Indian independence briefly. Upon independence, Mizo intellectuals, under the choice of political direction, chose to maintain a union with India to offset the autocratic nature of the chiefs from becoming too dominant once again. The formation of the Mizo Union advocated for abolishing chieftainship in Mizoram. The chieftainships of Mizoram were eventually disbanded with the Assam-Lushai District Act in 1954.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Vanlalhmangaihsanga, R. (2023). "Role of United Mizo Freedom Organization (UMFO) in the Political Development of Mizoram" (PDF). International Journal for Research Trends and Innovation. 8 (5). Retrieved 5 October 2024.
- 1 2 3 Nag, Sajal (April 2016). The Uprising: Colonial State, Christian Missionaries and Anti-Slavery Movement in North-East India (1908-1954). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-946089-2.
{{cite book}}: Check|url=value (help) - ↑ S.K. Chaube (1999). Hill Politics in North-east India. Orient Longman. ISBN 9788125016953.
- ↑ Venkataraghavan Subha Srinivasan (27 October 2021). "The birth of Mizoram: This book details the history of how each of India's states was formed" . Retrieved 30 March 2022.
- ↑ "Statistical Report on General Election, 1951 : To the Legislative Assembly of Assam" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ↑ Holt, Benjamin (2022). "Building the state and conceiving the nation: the origins of seperatist insurgency in the Mizo Hills, 1945-61". Contemporary South Asia. 20 (3): 313–330. doi: 10.1080/09584935.2022.2072475 . Retrieved 3 October 2024.