Mizoram stands in solidarity with kin in conflicts in Manipur, Myanmar

On the evening of November 15, Roneihpuii joined hundreds of others on the streets of Aizawl, a candle flickering in her hand. Near Vanapa Hall, she stood among a solemn gathering of around 400, mourning the death of a Hmar woman, reportedly raped and killed by armed Meitei miscreants, and the loss of 10 Kuki men who, earlier that week, fell in an encounter with security forces in Manipur’s Jiribam district. Protesters claim these men were village guards, unfairly labelled as militants by the police.

“We stand in solidarity with the victims of the Zo community across Manipur, Myanmar and Bangladesh,” says Roneihpuii, a familiar face in the crowd who represented Mizoram at an international beauty pageant in Jaipur only two months ago. “Chins, Kukis and Bawms are our siblings—oppressed, tortured, burnt and killed. Borders may divide us, but our hearts remain united,” she tells ET. While Kukis mostly reside in Manipur, Chins and Bawms are from Myanmar and Bangladesh, respectively.


The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which spearheaded the operation in Jiribam, maintained that all 10 men were militants, pointing to the recovery of weapons such as AK rifles, INSAS and SLRs as proof. The Manipur Police airlifted the bodies from Silchar Medical College to Churachandpur, bypassing demands from Kuki civil society groups to transport them by road through Mizoram. Authorities feared that a road procession could stir emotions among the Mizo population.

HEAVY SOLIDARITY

Caught between the conflict zones of Manipur and Myanmar, Mizoram stands at a crossroads. The looming question is how far can the Mizos extend their hand to their ethnic kin, the Kukis and the Chins, without jeopardising the nearly fourdecade-long peace.

The candlelight gathering that had the aspiring Miss Universe stand shoulder to shoulder with her ethnic brethren was organised by the Mizo Defence League, a relatively obscure group led by Raphael Lalrinmawia. However, his fiery rhetoric sparked a controversy after he allegedly demanded that the Meiteis leave Mizoram by the month’s end, prompting a warning from the state police. While this writer could not verify the specifics of his speech delivered in Mizo, thunderous applause from the crowd left no doubt about its impact.

The local English daily Newslink ran the story under the headline: “Mizoram Govt Urges Calm, Vows Action Against Hate Speech.” The report cited a statement from the state home department and quoted a police official confirming that criminal proceedings would be initiated against Lalrinmawia.

Mizoram has a turbulent past. It was home to one of the first insurgencies in India’s Northeast that started in 1966 and was resolved in 1986. The bloody decades also saw the unprecedented bombing of Aizawl by the Indian Air Force, the only time in independent India’s history when they dropped bombs on home soil. That bombing in March 1966 came in response to the Mizo National Front (MNF) guerrillas’ siege of the hill city. The unrest came to a decisive end on June 30, 1986, when the MNF signed the landmark Mizo Accord.

PEACE AT A PREMIUM

“Mizoram’s peace is always at risk of being shaken, but I remain hopeful it continues,” says Zoramthanga, former chief minister and current MNF chief. He was once a key guerrilla under MNF founder Laldenga. “For the past 38 years, the Mizos have tasted the sweetness of peace,” he adds.

Regarding the aspirations of Kukis living in Manipur bordering Mizoram, he is unequivocal: “If they wish to merge with Mizoram, they are welcome. Should they prefer a Union territory of their own, that too is acceptable.” The former CM emphasises that both options align with the Indian Constitution, underscoring his stance on the matter.

Such ideas are not new, but they face staunch opposition from the Meiteis of the Imphal Valley — a small plain accounting for just one-tenth of Manipur’s total land, yet home to over half the state’s population. For decades, the Meiteis have fiercely resisted any proposal to divide Manipur, a deeply contentious issue that surfaced during the MNF’s push for a Greater Mizoram ahead of the 1986 peace accord. It re-emerged during the Centre’s peace talks with the Naga militant group NSCN (I-M), which seeks the establishment of Nagalim—a greater Nagaland consisting of Nagainhabited parts of Manipur and other neighbouring states.

In the past, a significant section of Kukis backed the idea of a Greater Mizoram. Notably, Demkhosiek Gangte—a prominent MNF leader who led a group of guerrillas to China for training in 1974—was himself a Kuki.

Manipur’s current crisis erupted in May last year, unleashing violent clashes between Meiteis and Kukis, driven largely by disputes over land and reservation. The unrest has claimed over 250 lives and displaced thousands and still continues, albeit with less intensity. The demand of Meiteis—currently categorised as Other Backward Classes (OBC)—for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status has been staunchly opposed by the Kukis. Adding to the fire is religious fuel: Meiteis are mostly Hindus while the Kukis, like the Mizos, are predominantly Christians, and are already categorised as STs.

BURNING EMBERS

The latest wave of violence in Jiribam district claimed the lives of six members of a Meitei family, including a 10-month-old infant, believed to be killed by armed Kuki groups. The tragedy sparked outrage across the Imphal Valley, with enraged mobs setting fire to the homes of ministers and MLAs for their perceived inaction.

While the fallout of Manipur’s unrest is evident on the ground, Mizoram bears the brunt of yet another escalating conflict in its neighbourhood. In Myanmar’s Chin State, rebels pushed back the army last November, triggering a fierce retaliation as Naypyidaw unleashed aerial bombings. The fallout has driven thousands of Chin refugees across the border into Mizoram. The state has also grappled with a surge in the smuggling of drugs and exotic animals from Myanmar in recent years.

Meanwhile, New Delhi has maintained a studied neutrality on Myanmar’s deepening crisis, even as Beijing is openly arming the United Wa State Army (UWSA)—a powerful rebel faction descended from the Mao-inspired and now-defunct Communist Party of Burma (CPB).

The twin crises in Manipur and Myanmar have reignited momentum for the Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), a movement that began in 1988 under the leadership of retired Indian Army brigadier and former Mizoram chief minister T Sailo. “ZORO has long championed a nonviolent campaign for reunification,” says Jangkhongam Doungel, professor of political science at Mizoram University. “Civil society and political parties, including national parties, support this vision of uniting various tribes and their ancestral lands,” he adds.

Doungel traces the roots of the idea to the British era. “In 1892, the Chin-Lushai Conference passed a resolution to unify the entire Chin-Lushai Hills under a single administrative province. Unfortunately, that resolution was never implemented,” he says. The Zo identity encompasses a constellation of allied tribes with shared dialects and cultural ties, including the Mizo (formerly called Lushai), Chin, Kuki, Bawm and others.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma’s contentious remarks in Indianapolis, US, this September must be viewed against the backdrop of the growing political sentiment for Zo reunification. Lalduhoma, an IPS officerturned-politician and leader of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM, with Zoram signifying the land of the Zo people), spoke passionately about the theory of “a true nation” that transcends borders. “We have been unjustly divided, forced to exist under three different governments in three different countries, (India, Myanmar and Bangladesh) and this is something we can never accept,” he declared, sparking a wave of debate. The remarks raised pointed questions about whether the chief minister’s rhetoric veered dangerously close to the language of secession of the MNF era.

Lalmuanpuia Punte, an MLA from the ruling ZPM and political adviser to the chief minister, argues that Lalduhoma’s remarks in the US have been grossly misinterpreted. “The chief minister never spoke of secession,” Punte clarifies, adding, “In fact, he advocated for an expansion of India into Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh and Chin State in Myanmar.”

Punte, who also serves as vice-president of ZORO, defends the feasibility of such a vision. When asked whether it is plausible for New Delhi to annex parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh to unify the Zo tribes, he responds sharply: “Goa, a Portuguese colony, joined India in 1961, and Sikkim merged in 1975. Redrawing borders is not unprecedented.” The chief minister declined ET’s request for an interview.

Then there is another elephant in the room: New Delhi’s plan to fence the 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border, which was officially announced in February this year. It is strongly opposed by the likes of Punte, who represented ZORO at the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva in 2002 and 2003. “Civil societies and political parties are firmly against this move. I can confirm that no construction of the proposed fence has begun on the ground,” he says.

Professor Doungel echoes the sentiment, warning that any attempt to impose a fence on traditional lands is certain to face resistance. “If the fencing is built by force, its impact won’t be good,” he cautions.

Zoramthanga recalls explaining the deeprooted connection between the Mizos and Myanmar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister. “Look at my own family, I told the PM,” says the former CM, “Two of my maternal uncles chose to live and die in Myanmar whereas my mother and her sister lived and died in India. To me, refugees coming from Myanmar are like family—my own cousins.”