We, the People and Our Land:The Need of Geo-political Consciousness among the Zou people

-S. Thangboi Zou

Who are we?: Who are ‘we’ or who are the Zou? Okay, there is nothing wrong finding out once and again who we really are, what we are and what are some exciting and unexciting facts about us as well, though it seems unnecessary, at least, for this moment - present fast globalised society. Several clans and sub-clans both in India and Burma or other parts of the world (If one really exists) compose the Zou tribe. For this matter, one is not so sure of the fact that who the ‘real’ Zou are and who are ‘imaginary’ Zou, who are the ‘pure’ Zou and who are the ‘diluted’ ones or ‘the duplicate’.

As for me, there is no real, no pure or no cocktailed Zou as far as this composite trait of the Zou is concerned: a group of people, speaking almost the same language, follow the same custom and tradition, organized (though poorly organized) under one social and political umbrella. In fact, the tribe Zou is no particular one’s inheritance or father’s property as such, but composed of some close and crossed clans and dialects. The Zou language is a beautiful blend of more than four dialects: Haidawi, Khuangnung, Thangkhal, Gun-gal, Khodai, etc. Lamka-Zou could also become another distinct dialect of Zou as it has a close affinity not only with the rest but also with other sister tribes which is why some people jokingly called ‘Zou-Thai’ dialect. Thanks to the persons who had ingeniously invented and propagated another ‘Zou dialect’. One cannot be denied of or forced to use any of the mentioned dialects/ascent basing the standpoint on the concept of originality. We cannot call a group as original and the rest duplicate or anything. It would be a naïve to do so. The Zou language is still in the process of dynamic evolution, which means that a lot more variety is yet to come or assimilated into our language. Any person can be called Zou as long as he or she chooses so, provided his or her identity reveals it. Simply, a person may claim the identity of Zou tribe even if he or she does not speak any of the Zou dialects but belongs to one of the so called - Zou clans. ‘Blood is thicker than water’ and identity is one thing we can’t afford to ignore as long we live as human beings.

Our Land – the Grand Inheritance

George (1881) gave dramatic description on the value of land: “Land is necessary to all production, no matter what the kind of form; land is a standing place, the workshop, the store house of labour; it is to the human being the only means by which he can obtain access to material universe or utilize its power. Without land man cannot exist. To whom the ownership of land is given, to him is given the virtual ownership of men who must live upon it”.

While not overlooking our identity, let us turn our attention to the geographical area where we live and flourish. Viewing the spatial extent of our inhabited area, we could have realized that Almighty God has been so kind and loving to us for bestowing us such a wonderful, rich and vast extent of land. Such vast area extending down the southern two districts of Manipur – Churachandpur and Chandel bordering Myanmar, where the majestic Imphal (Gun-lui), Khuga (Tuitha), Tuivel and Tuining are draining the entire region and forming rich alluvial valleys that spread below and around the huge sentry-like undulating hills and the great monsoon showers its heavenly downpour to give bumper crops to the people, this is the land of ‘milk and honey’ – Zougam, the land inhabited by the Zou people. All the great ancient civilizations of the world such as Egyptian, Harappan, Roman, Greek, Chinese, etc. flourished near or in the river banks. This rightly indicates that economic prosperity goes side by side with natural prosperity. Not to sideline the hill areas, we are lucky to be bestowed with thick jungles with abundant woods, timber and other plant species with various medicinal values; and wonderful lateritic soils where we, though not advisable, still carry on jhum culture.

According to a figure given by Paunou (Zopatong: Jan-Mar 2007, pp 3,4), the Zou villages settling in and around the Khuga River are around 30 in numbers. They fall under Churachandpur and Singhat sub-divisions. The Tuivai stream running almost parallel to the Myanmar border sustains about 14 Zou villages. Some of the prominent villages along the Tuivai are Singat, Behiang, Tangpizawl, Zabellei, Hiangtam, etc. There 5 and 6 villages in Tuivel and Tuila kuol (peripheral area) respectively. Tuining valley sustains about 12 villages while the Tuipi (Barak), Mawngkai and Tuila pang (bank) together cover 11 villages. The Tuivel bank has only 6 villages. The Guun and Kana valleys support around 18 Zou villages out of which Sugnu-Zoveng, Singtom, Sachih and Paldai are some of the larger villages. There are around 9 localities in Lamka town area. The total population of Zou in India according to 1991 census was 15,887 and 20567 in 2001 (Census of India, 1991 &2001). We share only 2.8 % of all ST population in Manipur. About 61 % of the population is literate where male population accounts for 73% and female 53% only. We stood 8th position in terms of literacy of all Scheduled Tribes of Manipur. Politically, Singat is the one and only Assembly Constituency we have in Manipur. In fact, it is the only compact area where we are settling. Of recent, due to out-migration from rural to urban areas our population in the urban areas has increased extensively that we are ranking the third place in terms of number of population in Lamka town.

Nevertheless, we also find a good number of Zou settlements in Myanmar too. In fact, roughly around 30% of the Zou population is found in India and the rest 70% in Myanmar. It is estimated that the Zou population in Burma is around 50 to 60 thousands The Zou are mostly found in Northern Chin State and in the Kabaw Valley of Western Sagaing Division of Myanmar. They are also one of the official ethnic tribes in Myanmar. The Zou in Burma called themselves ‘Zo’, which is supposedly a generic term used for the Chin-Kuki-Lushai people (myanmartravelinformation.com/mti-myanmar-people/zo.htm).

People in the dwindling Land: deep Introspection

Glancing at the vast Tuining, Khuga, Kana, Behiang and Guun valleys, we could see how rich and stupendous is the land we posses. These valleys are more than less the extension of the Imphal valley, which serves as the rice bowl of Manipur. The same way, these valleys of ours could also be definitely called our rice bowl. However, this might have been a true statement of 10 or 20 years ago, and no more now! Can we just pose a plain query to ourselves that if we still own those mentioned great valleys. If the answer is ‘yes’, then, how big in size? How many hectares of land and forests had been owned by the Zou once upon a time in these particular valleys, and now how much of them are still in our hands and how many of our villages have been transferred to ‘other’ people? This question calls for a genuine answer. Has it not been clearly visible to our own eyes that so many Zou chieftains have sold out their forefathers’ lands?

There were times when we were self-sufficient in our land thanks to the abundant resources. Our grandfathers and mothers, let alone our forefathers, had never fell short of anything they required. They toiled hard, reaped plenty, partied, jollified and enjoyed life to the fullest. They inherited bountiful ‘treasures’ (land) to us – their sons and daughters. However, within no time the world has changed so much so that, we cannot seemingly update ourselves with the changing environment. Before we could possibly realize, we have been hard-pressed from all directions and have been shrunk to a small size just left to be pushed out of the existing space. Now, the resources of livelihood have almost exhausted and we are living at this present pathetic condition. Indeed, it is our own making. No?

One is not destined to lag or fall behind others in any work of life. So aren’t we. Viewing based on personal experiment, we can safely declare that we virtually lag behind others in the socio-economic spheres of life. This statement bears of true testimony when referred particularly to our rural social and economic status. Many of our sister tribes who were displaced into our land and settled next to our villages just yesterday, have fared much far ahead of us in all works of life. No wonder, we are the natives who have been living since our fore-fathers’ time. While, not very few of our villages have seen centenary most have crossed golden jubilee so far. We have been over-taken in the race of progress by someone who came in to the picture just recently. The real factor behind this could be lethargy, lack of opportunity, lack of diligence, lack of vision or not in the least, lack of moral and ethical conduct on our part. Almost all of them seem to be appropriately fitted to us. A big chasm has found itself between the old and new generations today in our Zou social context. We might talk big of the past glory as well as the achievements that our forefathers - not we - had made. We do talk boastfully of the great Zougal which they fought valiantly to defend their land from outsiders (British). Little did ever come to our mind that they were fighting for us, for their sons and daughters who are now not only enjoying it but also wasting the fruit of their hard labour. We have to ask ourselves this crucial question: are we doing justice to our fathers’ inheritance and intending to treasure it for our sons and daughters tomorrow?

Introducing Geo-Politics

Do we ever have a political vision? In the first place, can we have a light glance of our geo-political vantage? We have quite mentioned in length the geographical extent that we are being ‘inherited’. However, due to our ignorance about the real value of land and its treasures-resources, we are in the process of loosening our grip without developing any second thought to save it for our descendants. Almost all politics of the world have their underlying geographical implications, concisely termed ‘geo-politics’. We relatively have a strategic geographical advantage to unite ourselves into a strong political entity, thanks to our compact settlement in Singhat area/subdivision. Mackinder, a British Geographer, propounded the famous ‘Heartland Theory’ where he divided the world into three main parts: Pivotal area or Heartland, Inner Cresent and Outer Cresent. He termed the core of Eurasian (Europe & Asia) continent as the Pivotal/Heartland area. He considered this area as the natural fortress because of its vast size, central location and resource potentialities. He says, “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland, who rules the Heartland commands the world Island, who rules the World Island commands the World” (Taylor, 2000, p.54). Here, we want to infer the idea that geographical locations naturally give rise to a favourable political as well as economic ‘landscape’ for a group of people. As a matter of fact, we the Zou have this opportunity which is imaginably envied and begrudged by many.

We are fortunate to live in the border areas with Burma. Behiang is our village that has the potential to develop into a medium-scale trading hub between India and Burma. Business infrastructure, especially, proper road connectivity from Lamka via Singat to Behiang is a pre-requisite to realize this beautiful dream of ours. The second important thing is, we need to settle in an around the areas (read village) as much as we can. Migrating out from our areas for certain reasons - although genuine – will be a disadvantage that could cost us dearly in future. Here, we are not trying to glorify a village life, mentality or its backwardness, but we are attempting to throw lights on the importance of settling together in compact order so that one can enjoy any sort of social, economic and political bounty coming out of it. This region (read Singat) too is our one and only political region from where we elect and send a member to represent us in the State’s Assembly – no matter if he/she whole-heartedly represents and work for us or not. That is the good reason why we could shout aloud that we are specially blessed. But also, we feel equally apprehensive to say that we might have been the wrong people in the right place!!

Possessing a land is not the end in itself, but a means to an end. One needs to find ways to living it, ways to taking good care of it, developing and preserving it for generations. The past as well as present conflicts of the world have been over land and land alone. People do not want to part with a single inch of their land; instead, they do dare to sacrifice their life to save it. The present outcry in West Bengal, Gujarat, Imphal, etc. are all over lands - where some people are planning to set up a special economic activities in the area and the land owners are deadly against it. While supporting the move to develop a particular areas through the initiatives of private/public entrepreneurship, we are not blindfolded of the people and their imminent hardship they are to face had their lands been taken over by the former arbitrarily. Arguments against and in favour of it is bound to occur. Let us side with none to be politically correct!! Even such a situation of developmental activities (Khuga Project) and its consequences have occurred in our place. The wide difference of the price of our lands and others that we’d mentioned were so high and so awful to note. Our land that was our only source of living and our only place of living - our beautiful ecological niche - have been compromised with a little notes of rupees.

So sad! Let us present it with an illustration. Mr. Lalboi Zou (name changed) and his family owned a 3 acre size of land somewhere around Khuga valley. However, according to the Govt. official record it was only 2 acres. Since his land had been affected by the Project he was entitled to get Rs. 80,000 as compensation from the Govt. But he actually got only Rs. 60,000 (Rs. 20,000 taken away by the dealer/middleman) and that too, after two years from the date of announcement. Besides, there are the “land-keepers”-the UGs, to claim their share of the cake from that meager amount. Lalboi and his family have been unable to plow their paddy field for the past two consecutive years already before getting a single paise as compensation for the loss of their land. What a justice! The net amount obtained by the family for the cost of their inherited land was not even sufficient to buy a half plot of land somewhere in the town or its peripheries. The same size of land in Gujarat or West Bengal could not have been settled with less than 1 crore rupees. We are not kidding, for heaven’s sake.

Nevertheless, we do not mean to cause worry to anyone. A day will surely arrive when the cost of land will be as high as skyscrapers in our place too. Rather it is just that, if we would ever own any piece of land when the price of it would be such high, is a cause of concern. All politics have their origin from and over land. People, as we said, are ready to sacrifice their lives over their land than to lose an inch, while, we people seems to be ignorant about the value of our inherited land. Should our politics be stable, strong and lasting, then we ought to start paying attention from our land including all that is inside, in the first place. George (1881) said that without land man cannot exist. We now say, ‘without our land our politics cannot exist’. It cannot continue to survive without our land too. We fear that we might end up our present era as a history of distress-migrants, scattered and confused.

Who is responsible for the realization of this socio-economic and political imagination? In fact it is all in everyone’s hand, whether concerned or not. It will all depend on how much we take steps forward and get equipped with the knowledge/technology to explore our man-power and natural resources and use them for our wealth creation which will ultimately usher in the so much prized economic and political development in our land – for the people. May be we have not arrived this ‘visionary’ stage, but soon and sure we will come to this point one fine day. So, this is the reason why we need to retain our very land.

Secondly, development bus will also be escorted in to our land by other people – outside investors. In fact, we cannot just invent development by ourselves. Someone has to come inside to introduce and initiate it to us while our duty is to welcome them and try to learn from them, if necessary. Notwithstanding a lengthy talk of protectionism in regard to our land, we do not mean to emphasize the ideology of closed economy/society or Isolationism as a whole. No, never! Policy of isolation has already been shot down by the idea of globalization. No one, including us, can live alone, but need someone to share and fare with. Ushering in outsiders for investing their capital does not mean that we shall be robbed of our lands and properties. We would rather be made wealthier. This underscores the logic that our geo-politics should not be compromised with the proposed ‘geo-economics’. This should take into account the importance of certain limitation on every step we move. Nothing excess is good.

Let’s play a saved game

Today, who is responsible to save our so called geo-politics from vanishing, make our geopolitics vital and strong again, and finally make it insurmountable giant for any possible aggressor? Is it the common people? To some extent they may be. However, it is the village authority or Chieftainship, who have owned lands from their ancestors have the first obligation to save their tracts of lands – vast or small. They are the real property owners in our Zougam and we the villagers or the common people are their subjects, in strict sense of terms. It may be wisely advisable that they do not dispose of their lands to ‘other’ people. In the second place, the politicians and social leaders carry the large share of duty towards our ‘gam’. Politicians are definitely the MLA (s) we have to give voice on our behalf in political affairs. The social leaders consist mainly of those personalities in UZO, ZYO, ZSP and other organisations in our name. Social leaders, in wide purview, also include our religious leaders who also have divine obligation to save their people and the land they live as well. On this regard, the UZO leaders have done a good work rushing to Delhi camp in order to clear the cloud of recent issues of delimitation which Singngat A/C was supposed to be affected badly. We wish them to play again the same role in the same vigor when the need arise. Our politicians should be on their guard against playing power-crazy-politics.

Money can do everything in this world, except raise the dead body up or give eternal life. When our nam leaders get transformed from a selfless, dedicated and humble sheep to selfish and gluttonous beasts, it is certainly the people and the land that start to bear the brunt. In this regard, the siren of the accidents at Ngasuan Lui and Behiang are still fresh in our memories. They are yet too soon to forget. No doubt, this is the fruit of our misdeed (mismanagement). It is high time that we do love our land and people with utmost devotion. If one proclaims to love his land (Zougam), he/she would love everything in it and see that all important infrastructures and lifelines - road connectivity, education, health systems, welfare of the people, etc. - are maintained. But the selfish and voracious leaders would not concern about what happens, who dies or who lives, as long as they fills their belly. We are scared to have any such personality in our society. They love neither our land nor the people as such. True nationalism implies the love for both land and the people together.

The educated youths shoulder great deal of responsibility to save our land. A saying goes, ‘youth are the pillar of the nation’. To become a strong nation (Zou) we have to be able to present ourselves in all works of life. We need to undergo diverse line in education. The youths have to be aware and informed of various issues pertaining to socio-political and economic matters outside and within our community. We will not be able to save our land with the barrel of cannon alone, but mostly with brain power and wisdom. For all these, we need to cultivate unity within us and revitalize our social bodies – UZO, ZSP, ZYO, Churches, etc. Above all, we lack the most important thing – fear God. Have we ever cared at all to give thanks to our God Almighty for bestowing us such blessed lands?

(This article is extracted from Silver Jubilee Souvenir of the ZSP Shillong)

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