Concise History of Zo Indigenous People

- By M. Rex Khai Nou

The ZO People were then inhabitants of the undivided country of their own, roughly 91,000 square miles, covering present hill areas of the Tipperah Hills, Tripura (India); the Cachar Hills, Assam (India); the south-eastern and western hills of Manipur (India); the Lushai Hills, now called Mizoram (India); the Chittagong Hills and Hill Tracts (Bangladesh); the Arakan Hills, Chin Hills, the Lower and Upper Chindwin of Somra Tracts including the Kachin Hills (Burma, now Myanmar).

The British colonial force invaded the ZO country twice by launching the historic British Expeditions in 1871 and 1888 respectively. The invading forces in 1890 took control of the land of ZO people fiercely defended by the tribal forces under command of ZO chiefs and Pasaltha (Knights). The imperialistic colonial rulers divided the ZO country for administrative convenience and had the ZO people brought under three scattered administrative units respectively headed by the Chief Commissioner of Burma, Rangoon; the Lt. Governor of Bengal, Calcutta and the Chief Commissioner of Assam, Shillong, India. This ruling strategy is called the “Divide and Rule policy” of British-India that time.
The iron-gripped colonialists at the historic Chin-Lushai Conference in 1892 at Fort William, Calcutta, attended by senior administrators of then British-India Government passed a resolution that “the entire whole tracts of country known as the Chin-Lushai Hills should be brought under one administrative head as soon as this cab be done.” This one-line resolution even to this day assumes great importance for the divided ZO People who had later acquired different nationalities, such as Mizo, Zo, Zou, Zotung, Zophei, Laimi, Laizo, Hmar, Mara, Paite, Simte, Tedim, Hakha, Thantlang, Khomi, Matupi. Mindat, Kanpalet, Paletwa, Thadou, Kuki, Vaphei, Falam, Gangte, and many many more who were recklessly scattered in triple international boundaries of Bharatia-Hindustani-India, East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh and Burma or Myanmar.

The British India Government had declared the ZO country as “Excluded Area” from the rest of the British ruled states and enforced the laws, such as, the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890 and amended 1937 later; the Scheduled Districts Act 1884, the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 and the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873 and amended 1925 later.

The ZO People then were a free and independent people running their own simple but efficient administration headed by Chiefs and their Council of Elders till the British invaded and conquered them. The British rule came to end after the World War II following the independence of India (1947) the independence of Burma (1948) and the independence of Pakistan (1948). Consequent on the political changes about by the outcome of the WW II, one part of the ZO country under the Chief Commissioner of Assam was acceded to the India Union, the other part beneath the Chief Commissioner of Burma was acceded to the Union of Burma and the remaining third part of the ZO country underneath the Lt. Governor of Bengal had fallen to the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

In terse, the fate of the original ZO country and how the ZO people got divided, like cattle sold in the market, and they acquired different nationalities, such as Indians, Burmese, Bangladeshis. Nevertheless, divided ZO people, having the advantage of living in contiguous areas have been preserving their common ethnic identity and cultural affinity mostly through the traditional social, cultural, economic and religious interactions.

The ZO ethnic group of people had been and are still the least known people by virtue of the fact that the territory they inhabited are far-flung, land-locked hill areas where majority of the people in remote places normally perform journeys on foot due to absence of better communication and transport infrastructure. Absence of basic infrastructure for providing health care, education, security and so on had the better part of the divided ZO people to remain extremely backward and poor with no security whatsoever when modern world is amazed at the emerging advancement of Science & Technology to make their life easier and more comfortable.

The future kismet of the underdeveloped ZO people lies on a world body like United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), IPOs and other international NGOs. Without the assistance of the advanced world nations and selfless working organizations for human development, the destiny of this so-called ZO People will continue diminishing, unseen and futile indeed.

Source: http://burmadigest.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/concise-history-of-zo-indigenous-people/