Lian Uk
P.O. Box 26073, NW
Washington DC. 20001
When the territories, which covered today by Chin State, Mizoram, Nagaland, Naga Hills District, Manipur Hills Area, and some area of Chittagong Hills Tract were invaded as an independent territory outside India and Burma by the British, they found out that the inhabitants of this vast landmass between British-India and British-Burma were the same people by judging their way of livelihood and they being of all Mongoloid in feature with many similar affinities. The British therefore planed to make their territory as a constituent unit of administration to be under a British governor as a province in the same status as the provinces of Assam, Bengal of British India once in 1892 at Chin-Lushai Conference in 1892 and later in 1946 after WWII.
The first plan in 1892 failed because there was difficulty of communications between the east and the west due to the two rivers Tio and Kaladan or Tipi being usually flooded in the long rainy season making the east and the west impassable. But both the east and the west under several British governors were administered with the single law known as Chin Hills Regulation 1896 giving the definition of the name of the inhabitants of the territory as “Chin includes Lushai, Kuki, Naga and Chins in the Chin Hills and in its adjoining areas” till 1947/48.
The British in several publications referred the territory as Chinland or Chin –Lushailand. The second time failed because Burma and India rushed to gain their respective Country independence from British colonialism pulling each part of the “Chin” territories that had been included under the administrative area of the British on their respective side. The “Chin” leaders at that time had so many hindrances to have a time to establish their territory as a sovereign independent nation at that time though Pu A.Z. Phizo was said to have some idea of it.
When we study back today why the British could have decided the people of different localities in this vast land mass to be one people, we can see their reasons very much. The vast landmass in which this “ Chin” people inhabit all have generally the same climate and the same kind of hilly topography. Thus the same climate and the same topography of the land they inhabit made them have the same livelihood and the same native religion which has a belief of animal sacrificing to spirit and their deity and also a belief in life after death mithikhua or misi khua or pialral.
The same faith in this same belief made them have good understanding to live together in peace had there not been territorial problems between one community and the other. Some times they even fought each other like many other ancient people did the same all over the world. The many similar affinities and the similarity of their language in several dialects of their original language that was branch out from what is called Tibeto-Burman language create them to be seen as one people by the people beyond their common frontiers. Today, the people in Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur Hills, Chin State and the Chin people in other places in various local names do recognize that they are the same people. But what makes them different today is the several local names they have adopted and the demarcations of international and regional local administrative man made boundaries.
Because of their native religion being similar to Christianity belief in life after death and their belief in sacrificing animals to spirits and deity being similar to ancient Jews belief in animal sacrifice[Hebrew 10:3-10] , Christianity became a very alluring faith to the whole “Chin” people. When the foreign Christian missionaries came to their respective local areas, they could believe easily that the killing of Jesus Christ on the Cross-was the sacrifice of himself for once and for all for the people who believe in him. Therefore, they converted to believe that they need no longer sacrifice to sprit or their deity, because what Jesus Christ was killed on the cross was to free them from scarifying animals to the spirit and their deity.
Thus the whole “Chin” people have now transformed their territory to be the Christian State in Nagaland, in Mizoram, in Chin State with the majority of Christian populations of not less than 80% to 90% in each of the three sister states. It was in the Hindustan Times in India, which published in recent years, that the Christian population in Nagaland was 85% and in Mizoram was 75%. Therefore, they have the same religion in Christianity as they had the same religion and belief before Christianity in the midst of other religion of thickly populated countries around them.
Today their daily life in religion as well as in secular has been led by Christianity in the three sister states. They have all resisted British invasion to defend their national identity, which was built on their culture and religion. Today the same religion they have in Christianity still make them as a people to defend together their common religion in Christianity and culture which make them distinct people of the world to give contributions to the world peace through their national culture and faith in Christianity.
Today the people in Mizoram State, Manipur State, Nagaland State in India, Chittagong Hills Tract in Bangladesh have been separated from their beloved blood relative people in the Naga Hills (Khamti) District in Sagaing Division and the Chin State of the Union of Burma by an international boundary started from the rivers Tio and Kaladan or Tipi that join at a spot between Bungtlang village on Chin State side and Muallianpi village on Mizoram side. The two rivers join at a place while Tipi is flowing from south to north and Tio River flowing from north to south in opposite direction. It has the name Kaladan or Tipi after they join together and flow to the west and turns south entering Paletwa township of the Chin State again to the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean at Akyab sea port and the capital city of Arakan State where there are also a considerable number of the Chin population in several local names like Awah-Khumi, Sat-tu and Asho.
The water current from the two rivers joining in opposite direction usually make the river water shoot upwards in a very big volume usually forming a very big and beautiful water fall in the air when the two currents have equal force in rainy season. The waterfall at that time is so beautiful that people passing through it have to turn back to have the last sight of it before they leave it behind them. Such kind of two rivers joining directly in opposite side will be a very rare case in other parts of the world. We invite people to view the very beautiful waterfall that is formed at the joining spot on certain days in rainy season. People before Christianity were tabooed to look it back as it was said being cursed to look back like Sodom and Gomorra in the Christian Bible.
The People in Nagaland, Manipur Highland, Mizoram State and the Chittagong Hills Tract all on the west side and the Naga Hills (Khamti) District and the Chin State on the eastern side are not just a divided people on either side of the international boundary, but they are truly separated families. Most of the people in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, and Chittagong Hills Tract on western side and in Naga Hills of Burma and the Chin State on Eastern side share their family names, which means according to the regional tradition that they truly share their immediate ancestors being like born of the same parents. Both sides as true blood relatives share the several dialects, from north to south on either side of the boundary on the east and the west. The people on the border of the boundaries between the three sisters states can claim to belong to any name of the three states.
The official language of Mizoram State technically known as Duhlian which is a dialect of the Chin State and the other very widely spoken dialect of the central Chin state known technically as Falam/Haka dialect are just a family dialect in Don village in Chin State where mothers and daughters speak in Falam/Haka and fathers and sons speak in Duhlian within the same house hold and family! We can see thus how close Falam/ Haka/Duhlian dialects are to be just one single dialect or language within a household family.
The land of the people is cut of into almost two halves like an egg into two equal parts by the international boundary started from the said Tio and Tipi rivers. Had the two rivers not been made to obstruct the communication between the east (Khuachhak) and the West (Khua-thlang), the British should have made it as a province under a British governor like British Burma, Assam, and Bengal soon after the annexation of the land by the British in 1888-1896. Even then the Single Law passed by the Governor General in Council of British India as Chin Hills Regulation 1896 served as the Constitution of the land in all the territory that are today Nagaland, Mizoram, Chin State, etc.. The British still planed it to be a province under a British governor under the Crown Colony Scheme after WWII. (See Mizoram Encyclopedia. Vol. I, P. 203 ) .
Sarawak, Sabah and Malay were in the same way administered under the Crown Colony Scheme as a province under a British governor after WWII 1946 and granted the full independence as Malaysia in 1963 [Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 18, P. 164]. But the plan for the two as the land of the Chin people or Mizo people or Naga people or Kuki people failed due to India and Burma rushing to Independence of their respective countries. There could be an idea that, had the three sister states been according to the British plan ruled again under The Crown Colony Scheme soon after WWII, the sovereign independent nation of this highland could have been in existence too between India and Burma in the 1970s.
Thus, a nation destined to be a sovereign independent nation between India and Burma totally disappeared. Pu A. Z. Phizo of Nagaland and Pu Laldenga of Mizoram had attempted to redeem it in failure. The main reason for their failure was that their movement was limited only to their respective local region to be only small pieces of the land and population to be able to attract the world attention even though Pu A. Z. Phizo movement which declared independence of Nagaland direct from the British colonialism before India independence was very legitimate and legal even in the International law.
The two rivers Tio and Kaladan together with Lemro River also serve as drainage of all waters on the western side of the land into the Bay of Bengal. In the same way, all the water on the eastern side like Manipur River and Mone River drain out all the eastern water into Chindwin and Irrawaddy rivers entering into the gulf of Martaban. The water shed of the two river systems between the east and the west runs through the Secretariat of the Chin State at Tlang-hrawn block 6000 ft above sea level of Haka, the Capital city of the Chin State.
Thus “we are Chins or Nagas in the Union of Burma and Mizos or Kukis or Nagas in India” as it has been expressed as “We are Chins in Burma and Mizo in India” in the book “Love Mizoram by Rami Samuelson.” The truth that we are one people as expressed by Bertram S. Carey over a hundred years ago is undeniable by any one though we coined several nomenclatures in our respective different regional names.
So, if the three sister states still have a will to be reunited again as a nation as they were once under the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 amended up to 1927, several nations once under the British empire which have been sovereign independent states today are ready to still recognize the three sister states as a nation again.
The reason for them is that the three sister states still have a very strong evidence to show in the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 that those independent nations to day have recognized the three sister states as a nation or people under the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 while they were all together as fellow colony nations under the British rule.
Thus once those former British colonies have recognized those three sister states as a people during they were all under British colony as fellow colony people, there is still a way that those former British colony nations who are now independent sovereign nations are to still recognize the three sister states as a nation if they (the three sister states) still have the will to be reunited as an independent nation today.
The reason here again is that the Chin Hills Regulations 1896 is still serving as very strong evidence that their territory was occupied as an independent territory and ruled by the British as a nation with the same law out side British India and British Burma Provincial governments. The three sister states certainly deserved then to be left as independent or as the non-self governing territory under the UN Trusteeship system of the Unites Nations Charter by the British when it withdrew its administration from their territory.
The reason that they are separated by the international boundary as a family is without the population consent under proper democratic process of referendum or plebiscite is illegal and illegitimate. It is obvious that they should be given the human rights to decide whether they have the will to separate or to unite under proper democratic process for referendum or plebiscite.
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