&lsquo;Zoram&rsquo;, a separate country for the &lsquo;Chin-Kuki-Mizo&rsquo; tribe has become a thorn in the side of Indians. Why? All because an incumbent chief minister has dreamed of a separate country for his tribe. Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Lalduhoma raised the issue on American soil while addressing the Zo diaspora in Indianapolis on September 04, 2024. His address at the event has gone viral on several social media platforms.&nbsp;
In his speech, Lalduhoma talked about a separate country for &lsquo;his people&rsquo; and called out the injustice of being forced to live separately in three different countries namely India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.&nbsp;
Hoping to form a separate nationhood within India, Lalduhoma said, &ldquo;I want to let everyone here know that the primary reason I accepted the invitation to visit the United States is to seek a path towards unity for all of us. We are one people &mdash; brothers and sisters &mdash; and we cannot afford to be divided or apart from one another. I want us to have the conviction and confidence that one day, through the strength of God, who made us a nation, we will rise together under one leadership to achieve our destiny of nationhood. While a country may have borders, a true nation transcends such limitations. We have been unjustly divided, forced to exist under three different governments in three different countries, and this is something we can never accept.&rdquo;
The issue may lie in the hearts and minds of the tribe; they may feel deprived or harbour resentment at being meted out step-motherly treatment by the country or the central government. Such feelings can be understood, but the state government must address them on behalf of the central or federal government. The state administration must ensure that any section of a community, caste, or tribe never receives improper treatment or feels left out.
However, when the top boss (chief minister) of a state, talks of creating a separate country for his tribe on grounds of injustice and division, there is room for suspicion. What are Chief Minister Pu Lalduhoma&rsquo;s intentions? Is he speaking his mind or acting at the behest of some foreign power, which wishes to divide India?
Apart from this, several unanswered questions crop up after Lalduhoma&rsquo;s speech. First and foremost is, why Lalduhoma&rsquo;s two-month-old speech has become news in India now? That too only after right-wing publications took up the issue with the title &lsquo;Christian Country&rsquo;.&nbsp;
Why did the chief minister&rsquo;s speech not attract the attention of the central government? Had it come under scanner, would the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Union home minister or the prime minister have summoned Lalduhoma and asked for his explanation or tried to discuss the issue he had raised? The Centre&rsquo;s silence on the issue is deafening.&nbsp;
Now, let us understand who the &lsquo;Chin-Kuki-Mizo&rsquo; people are and where they are based now. The tribe is spread in three countries &mdash; India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. In Myanmar, they are called &lsquo;Chin&rsquo;, in Bangladesh&rsquo;s Chittagong Hill Tracts and parts of India they are called &lsquo;Kuki&rsquo; and in Mizoram, people from the same tribe are called &lsquo;Mizo&rsquo;. Geographically, they are divided, and so, they have different identities.
In July 2023, the World Kuki Z Intellectual Council (WKZIC) submitted a memorandum to the Secretary General of the United Nations, with a request to create a Kuki state, integrating all Kuki-Chin territories of Chin state (Myanmar/Burma), Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh) and Mizoram (India) Kuki Hills in outer Manipur.
So, is the demand for a separate country or state for the &lsquo;Chin-Kuki-Mizo&rsquo; tribe a new revelation? No. According to a three-part academic review by Dr Ankita Dutta titled, &lsquo;Separatist Movement by Kukis and Kukis Homeland in Making&rsquo;, the demand for a separate Kuki state began in 2012, when the Telangana state movement began.
In her study report, Dutta cited, &ldquo;As per the Kuki-Zomi separate homeland narrative, those areas of the North-East inhabited by the Kuki-Chin-Zo community are not yet a part of India. Hence, unlike the Naga demand for a separate country of Nagalim, the Kukis have sought a separate state for themselves within the Indian Union.&rdquo;&nbsp;
She further stated, &ldquo;The Kuki State Demand Committee (KSDC) was formed, which soon led the movement for a separate Kukiland in the North-East.&rdquo; 
Dr Dutta&rsquo;s reports were published on Castefiles.com in July 2023.
In his PhD thesis titled, &lsquo;Ethnic Nationalism and the State Response: A Study of Chin-Kuki-Mizo Movement&rsquo;, Sikkim University scholar Phairembam Newton Singh has discussed issues like &lsquo;Chin-Kuki-Mizo Identity Formation&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Zomi Struggle for Identity and Unified Struggle for Territorial Integration&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Hmar Struggle for a Separate Homeland&rsquo;.
Phairembam&rsquo;s PhD study paper was submitted to the university in July 2022.
Nazifa Nawar&rsquo;s article, published in The GeoPolitics in December 2022, is on &lsquo;Chin-Kukis-Mizo&rsquo;: Fight Against Militants and Not Community&rsquo;. It discusses parts where the community is in the majority, where they have turned violent and are running a movement for a separate state through developmental programmes. She has even discussed instability and security dynamics in the region because of armed groups&rsquo; activities.
Therefore, if researchers, journalists, and PhD scholars, have discussed and researched the subject at length years ago, why has CM Lalduhoma&rsquo;s speech attracted so much attention?&nbsp;
It seems to me that the issue grabbed the attention of mainstream media because a few right-wing publications raised the issue along religious lines. Otherwise, the on-ground situation was flaring for more than two decades, why did it not grab attention then?
As citizens of a country, we should focus on resolving such issues rather than adding fuel to the fire. It is time for the government to act and tackle this issue. No government can allow or succumb to the demand of a separate state based on caste, creed, tribe or religion.&nbsp;
The government can work to bring the &lsquo;Kuki/Mizo&rsquo; tribe into the mainstream, give them equal opportunity to grow, provide enough employment opportunities and ensure their welfare and development.&nbsp;
If foreign powers or funding are behind the &lsquo;Kuki-Chin-Mizo&rsquo; demand for separate nationhood, the government must act fast and expose those responsible without bias, prejudice or intentions of revenge.

Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Lalduhoma and draft map of Kukiland

Will a separate state for the tribe resolve the issue or add more fuel to the fire?

Mizoram CM’s demand for ‘Chin-Kuki-Mizo’ nation: Political agenda or injustice?

Will a separate state for the tribe resolve the issue or add more fuel to the fire?

November 5, 2024 | 16:25 IST