Zomi people

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Zomi people
Zomi Revolutionary Army Flag.png
Flag of Zomi people [1] [2]


Zomi is a collective identity adopted some of the Kuki-Chin language-speaking people in India and Myanmar. The term means "Zo people". The groups adopting the Zomi identity reject the conventional labels "Kuki" and "Chin", popularised during the British Raj, as colonial impositions. Even though "Zomi" was originally coined as an all-encompassing identity of the Kuki-Chin-speaking people, in practice, it has proved to be divisive, with considerable number of groups continuing to use the traditional labels "Kuki" and "Chin" and only certain sections adopting the Zomi identity. The groups covered in the identity has varied with time. Compound names such as "Kuki-Zo" and "Zomi Chin" are sometimes used to paper over the divisions.

Contents

Etymology

The term "Zomi" combines the ancestral name "Zo" with "mi," meaning people in Zopau, their spoken language.[ citation needed ]

Historically, the term Zo or Jo has been documented in various contexts, such as by Fan Chuo of the Tang dynasty and Father Sangermo in 1783.[ citation needed ] The British colonial administration complicated their identity by using various names like Kuki, Lushai, and Chin, terms initially employed by non-tribal plain peoples of Burma, Bangladesh, and India to refer to the "wild hill tribes" in un-administered areas. The umbrella term "Kuki-Chin-Mizo" is often used to encompass the different ethnic groups inhabiting the Chin hills and surrounding regions. [3] [ verification needed ]

Evolution of the identity

The Zo identity for the Kuki-Chin language speaking people spread across Northeast India and Myanmar's Chin State began to take shape soon after World War II. The people of the then Lushai Hills district in India (present-day Mizoram) rallied behind a "Mizo" ("Zo people") identity in 1946. [4] In 1953, the Baptist Associations of Tedim, Falam and Hakha in Myanmar's Chin State adopted Zomi ("Zo people") as their "national" name (subsuming the various tribal identities). [5] In India's Manipur state, T. Gougin formed a "United Zomi Organisation" in 1961 and "Zomi National Congress" in 1972. [6] The final step in these Zomi nationalist movements was taken in April 1993, when a Zomi Re-unification Organisation (ZRO) was formed at Phapian in Kachin State of Myanmar, under the leadership of Tedim Chins and Paites. It had the professed objective of unifying all the Kuki-Zo people divided across national borders (India, Myanmar and Bangladesh) under a united "Zomi" identity. [7]

With these antecedents, seven Kuki-Zo tribes of Churachandpur district in Manipur, that had previously declined to accept a Kuki identity, agreed to come under the banner of Zomi Re-unification Organisation in 1995. The seven tribes were Hmar, Zou, Vaiphei, Gangte, Simte, Sukte (Tedim Chins) and Paite, with the Paites leading the collection. [8] [9] Its formation day is said to be observed on 20 February every year as Zomi Nam Ni. [8] [a] By 1997, the organisation also formed an underground military wing called Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) ostensibly to defend the tribes under its umbrella from rival tribes, mainly the Thadou Kukis. [8] [12]

During 1997–1998, serious Kuki–Paite clashes developed in the Churachandpur district of Manipur, killing 350 people and displacing 13,000 people. [13] [14] At the end of the conflict, the Hmar and Gangte tribes left the Zomi group, leaving only five tribes in the collection. [15]

Diaspora

As of 2018, the Zomi are the second-largest ethnic group in the Burmese diaspora in the United States. [16] Between 7000 and 9000 Zomi live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is referred to as "Zomi Town" within the Burmese diaspora. [17] The concentration of Zomi in Tulsa is related to the fact that the Zomi are a largely Christian ethnic group and faced persecution in Myanmar under the military dictatorship. [18] The resettlement of Zomi refugees to Tulsa was in part catalyzed by Dr. Chin Do Kham, who moved to Tulsa in the 1970s to study at Oral Roberts University, a Christian institution in southern Tulsa. [19]

The first Zomi-language movie to receive a full-length theatrical debut was a 2021 English-Zomi bilingual film, written and directed by Burmese refugee Thang Mung, called Thorn in the Center of the Heart. The film first premiered in Michigan, where Mung was resettled by U.S. refugee services as a teenager. [20]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Zomi Nam Ni is translated as "Zomi national day". Its celebration started in the Churachandpur town around 1994–1995. [10] However, it was already being celebrated in Chin State to mark the day when Chins switched to a democratic system of administration on 20 February 1948, dispensing with traditional chieftancies. Starting out as "Chin National Day", the event is said to have been renamed as "Zomi National Day" in 1950. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Churachandpur district</span> District in Manipur, India

Churachandpur District, is one of the 16 districts of the Indian state of Manipur populated mainly by Kuki-Zo people. The name honours former Maharaja Sir Churachand Singh of Manipur. The district headquarters is located in the Churachandpur town, which is also locally known by the name Lamka.

The Paite people are an ethnic group in Northeast India, mainly living in Manipur and Mizoram. The Paites are recognized as a scheduled tribe in these two states. They are part of the larger Zo people, but also use their Zomi identity along with all the 7 tribes under "Zomi Council". "Guite" is a major clan of the Paite people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuki people</span> Ethnic group in India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar

The Kuki people, or Kuki-Zo people, are an ethnic group in the Northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, as well as the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar. The Kukis form one of the largest hill tribe communities in this region. In Northeast India, they are present in all states except Arunachal Pradesh. The Chin people of Myanmar and the Mizo people of Mizoram are kindred tribes of the Kukis. Collectively, they are termed the Zo people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zou people</span> Ethnic group living in Myanmar and Northeast India

The Zou people are an ethnic group, that is an indigenous community living along the frontier of India and Burma, they are a sub-group of the Kuki people/Zo people. In India, they live with and are similar in language and habits to the Thadou people and Paite and the Simte peoples. In Burma, the Zou are counted among the Chin people. They are a hill people, "Zou" may plainly means "Hills" denoting the Zous are "people of the hills" or "of the hills", and "Zou" has also a different meaning in Zou language that is "complete" or another word for it is "finish". But, the Zou people believed that they incepted the name 'Zou' from their forefather 'Zou' or 'Zo', believed to be the progenitor of the broad Chin-Kuki-Mizo people.

Moreh is a border town located on the India–Myanmar border in Tengnoupal district of the Indian state of Manipur. As a rapidly developing international trade point with the integrated customs and international immigration checkpoint, Moreh plays an important role in India's Look East Policy, trade and commerce under ASEAN–India Free Trade Area, India-Myanmar relationship, India–Myanmar–Thailand road connectivity, and Trans-Asian Railway connectivity.

Zo is a Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo language originating in western Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India.

Guite is the progenitor clan of Zomi people, also called Chin in Myanmar, Mizo, or Paite, or even Kuki in India. According to Zam, Nigui Guite is the elder brother of the ancestral fathers of the Thadou people, namely Thangpi, Sattawng, and Neirawng. This genealogy was recently inscribed on the tribal memorial stone at Bungmual, Lamka in the presence of each family-head of the three major clans, Doungel, Kipgen, and Haokip, on August 7, 2011. Some historians, like Shakespeare, assumed Lamlei was the Nigui Guite himself but the Guites themselves recounted Tuahciang, the father of Lamlei, as the son of Nigui Guite instead, in their social-religious rites. Regarding Guite as the born son of Songthu and his sister, Nemnep, it was the practice of ancient royalty to issue royal heir and also to keep their bloodline pure instead. Depending on local pronunciation, the clan was also called by different names such as Nguite or Vuite, Gwite, Nwite, Paihte by the Lushei. In accord with the claim of their solar origin, the Guite clan has been called nampi, meaning noble or major or even dominant people, of the region in local dialect in the past.

Churachandpur, locally known as Lamka is the second largest town in the Indian state of Manipur and the district headquarters of the Churachandpur District. The name "Churachandpur" was transferred from the earlier headquarters of the district at Songpi to the present location, and honours Churachand Singh, former maharaja of the Manipur princely state. The local people reject the name as a colonial imposition and prefer using the native name "Lamka".

The Sukte are one of the clans of Tedim Chins that mainly inhabit the Tedim district in Myanmar, with small numbers in India, in Manipur, Meghalaya and Assam states. They are recognized as a Scheduled Tribe in Manipur. From 1995, they have been part of the Zomi Re-unification Organisation in Manipur.

The Zomipeople, are a Zomi ethinic group, part of the Zo people, primarily inhabiting the Tedim District in the Chin State of Myanmar. They speak the Zomi language, a northern Kuki-Chin language.

The Kuki-Chin languages are a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family spoken in northeastern India, western Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh. Most notable Kuki-Chin-speaking ethnic groups are referred to collectively as the Zo people which includes: the Mizo of Mizoram, the Kuki of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Bangladesh and the Chin of Chin State, Myanmar.

The Kuki–Paite Conflict, also called Kuki–Zomi Conflict, was an ethnic conflict during 1997–1998 between tribal communities in Churachandpur district in Manipur, India. The conflict started when a Kuki insurgent group, KNF, mercilessly killed 10 Paite villagers of Saikul Village on June 24, 1997, which led to pitting one group that subscribed to the Kuki label against another group that subscribed to the Zomi label, the latter being led by the Paites. The conflict lasted for over a year, during which 352 people died, thousands of homes were destroyed and over 13,000 people were displaced. The Government of India sent in the Indian Army to attempt to stop the violence, but peace was restored in September–October 1998 only with the initiative of the Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zomi Revolutionary Army</span> Nationalist insurgent group

The Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) is an armed Zomi nationalist militant group formed in 1997, following an increase in ethnic tensions between the Kuki people and the Paites tribe in Churachandpur district of Manipur, India. Its parent organisation, the Zomi Re-unification Organisation, was founded in April 1993.

The Zo people is a term to denote the ethnolinguistically related speakers of the Kuki-Chin languages who primarily inhabit northeastern India, western Myanmar, and southeastern Bangladesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neihsial</span> Ethnic group

The Neihsial is an ethnic group found in northeastern India and parts of Myanmar. Members of this group are largely concentrated in the Churachandpur, Senapati, Chandel District and Tamenglong district of the Indian state of Manipur. There is also a sizable population in the neighboring Chin State of Myanmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zomi Congress for Democracy</span> Political party in Myanmar

The Zomi Congress for Democracy, formerly Zomi National Congress, is a political party in Myanmar. Originally formed in Manipur, India, most of its current support comes from Chin State, where the party was originally headquartered. The party is most popular in the Tonzang, Tedim, and Kalay Townships where their headquarters and strongholds are. The party has 15,000 members in Chin State.

Northern Kuki-Chin is a branch of Kuki-Chin languages. It is called Northeastern Kuki-Chin by Peterson (2017) to distinguish it from the Northwestern Kuki-Chin languages. VanBik (2009:31) also calls the branch Northern Chin or Zo.

Ciimnuai was the legendary city-state of Zomi, who are mostly referred to as Chins in Myanmar, Mizo, Kuki in India, and Bawmzo in Bangladesh. Being their birthplace, Ciimnuai bears many accounts of myths and legends of Zomi. Carey and Tuck even called the city "Eden of the Chins".

Kangvai is a village in the Churachandpur district of Manipur, India. It is on the bank of the Kangvai stream that flows down from the eastern slopes of the Thangjing Hill. It is also the headquarters of the Kangvai Subdivision in the Churachandpur district. In the 2011 census, Kangvai had a population of 939 people. According to many sources, the 2023–2024 Manipur violence began at Kangvai, causing most residents to abandon the village.

Ukha Loikhai is a village in the Churachandpur district of Manipur, India. It is on the western slopes of the Thangjing Hill and has ongoing claims to the top of the hill itself. In the 2011 census, Ukha Loikhai had a population of 418 people. Ukha was one of the leading villages in the Kuki Rebellion of 1917–1919.

References

  1. ↑ "Zomi flag vai gencian na". 13 June 2024.
  2. ↑ "Zogam Zomi Flag - TangThu Gen na - Pu KingMang". 10 May 2024.
  3. ↑ Suantak, Vumson (1 January 1986). Zo history: With an introduction to Zo culture, economy, religion and their status as an ethnic minority in India, Burma, and Bangladesh. Vumson. p. 1-7.
  4. ↑ Suan, Rethinking 'tribe' identities (2011), p. 176.
  5. ↑ Go, Zo Chronicles (2008), pp. 185–187.
  6. ↑ Zou, A Historical Study of the 'Zo' Struggle (2010), p. 61.
  7. ↑ Suan, Rethinking 'tribe' identities (2011), p. 180.
  8. 1 2 3 Haokip, The Kuki-Paite Conflict (2007), p. 191.
  9. ↑ Suan, Rethinking 'tribe' identities (2011), pp. 180–181.
  10. ↑ Zou, Emergent Micro-National Communities (2012), p. 322.
  11. ↑ Zomi National Day: 20th February, Zogam.com, retrieved 6 May 2024.
  12. ↑ Rammohan, Blueprint for Counterinsurgency in Manipur (2002).
  13. ↑ Choudhury, Sanghamitra (2016), Women and Conflict in India, Routledge, pp. 38–39, ISBN   9781317553625
  14. ↑ Rodger, Alison J; Mike Toole; Baby Lalnuntluangi; V. Muana; Peter Deutschmann (2002). "DOTS-based tuberculosis treatment and control during civil conflict and an HIV epidemic, Churachandpur District, India". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 80 (6).
  15. ↑ Haokip, The Kuki-Paite Conflict (2007), p. 205.
  16. ↑ Mung, Daniel (2018). The promised land : Zomi diaspora in Tulsa (Thesis).
  17. ↑ Krishna, Priya (27 June 2022). "In Tulsa, a Burmese Cooking Tradition Takes the Spotlight". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  18. ↑ "Zomi USA: How a city in Oklahoma became home to an ethnic group from Southeast Asia". NBC News. 6 December 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  19. ↑ Writer, TIM STANLEY World Staff (16 October 2013). "Former ORU professor, Myanmar native Chin Do Kham dies at 54". Tulsa World. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  20. ↑ Shields, Lauren (30 August 2021). ""Thorn in the Center of the Heart" will be Grand Ledge Sun Theatre's first showing since COVID". Fox 47 News. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2021.

Bibliography

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