(Rajeev Bhattacharyya’s post from THE DIPLOMAT on 24 March 2025.)
Concept of ‘Greater Mizoram’ Gets a Shot in the Arm
From Myanmar’s Spring Revolution: The coming together of areas inhabited by communities
in India’s Mizoram and Myanmar’s Chin State has New Delhi’s tacit support.
Myanmar’s junta is not amused.
Among the several unintended consequences of the
ongoing Spring Revolution in Myanmar has been the consolidation of the
historical bond between the people of the country’s Chin State and their ethnic
kin in the contiguous Indian border state of Mizoram.
The region is home to a host of communities
belonging to the Mizo-Chin-Kuki-Zo groups that share ethnic ties. They profess
Christianity and speak varied dialects but are united in their resolve to
overthrow the State Administration Council (SAC), as the military regime is
known in Myanmar.
Thousands of refugees from Chin State and Sagaing Region crossed over to Mizoram in 2021 in the months after the military coup due to disturbed conditions in the country. This was a replay of the situation that unfolded after the 1988 uprising in Myanmar.
Mizoram went all out to assist the refugees. The
government allocated land for refugee camps to be constructed across the state.
Civil society groups mobilized resources for assistance to the refugees,
estimated to number around 31,000 currently.
Mizoram shares a 510-kilometer border with Chin
State. People from both sides are
allowed to cross the border without restrictions. Only recently has the Indian
government taken steps to control the movement of people along the border.
However, New Delhi’s announcement of a plan to fence the border has triggered
opposition in Mizoram and other Indian states abutting Myanmar.
Not surprisingly, activists of Myanmar’s rebel
groups have taken shelter in Mizoram.
Mizoram’s support for the resistance movement in Chin State has been
pivotal in tilting the balance against the military regime. Currently, the
military regime controls no more than 15-20 percent of the entire Chin State,
if functionaries of some resistance groups are to be believed.
Functionaries of several resistance groups,
including the Chin National Front (CNF), whom this correspondent interacted
with several times over the past three years expressed their gratitude for the
assistance received from Mizoram.
Mizoram Factor in Myanmar
The people of Chin State have depended on Mizoram
in multiple ways long before the Spring Revolution was launched against the
military regime. The reason is the dire economic situation in Chin State, which
had the highest poverty rate among all states and regions in Myanmar about a
decade ago. A survey in 2015 revealed that almost 80 percent of households had
poor or borderline food security.
Not surprisingly, many people of Chin State,
especially those living near the border with India, have relied heavily on
Mizoram for their livelihoods. They are engaged in jobs in Mizoram or trading
in merchandise to and from the Indian state.
The Indian items exported from Mizoram range from
medicines, fuel, solar panels, vegetable oil, salt, and garments to precursor
chemicals for the manufacture of narcotics. Fuel (petrol and diesel) and
medicines exported from India to Chin State and other border regions of Myanmar
have increased manifold since the onset of the Spring Revolution because the
junta has deliberately choked supply routes from mainland Myanmar to
territories controlled by the resistance groups as part of the “Four Cuts”
strategy against the opposition.
That a severe humanitarian crisis has still not
gripped Myanmar’s Chin State (and Rakhine State) is largely due to the
continuing supply of essential commodities from Mizoram through multiple
routes. Prices have soared and the supply is at times erratic, but there is no
denying that a closer bond among the communities on both sides of the border
has been forged by the phenomenon.
“Greater Mizoram” and Chin State
The demand for a “Greater Mizoram,” which envisages
bringing together all territories inhabited by Mizo-Kuki-Zo ethnic groups in
Mizoram and the contiguous Indian states of Manipur, Assam, and Tripura under a
single administrative mechanism, has received a boost in recent years. The idea
originated several decades ago.
The Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee included the
demand for Greater Mizoram in its constitution. The Mizo National Front (MNF)
had reportedly made a case for integration of these areas when it was engaged
in talks with the Indian government that paved the way for the Mizo Accord of
1986.
The idea received a boost in the wake of ethnic
riots that erupted in May 2023 in Manipur, compelling around 10,000 people from
the Kuki-Zo communities to flee their homes and seek refuge in Mizoram. It
became a poll issue as well during the 2024 assembly elections in Mizoram, with
every political party arguing in favor of unifying all communities.
The Spring Revolution in Myanmar has had the impact
of dynamically widening the concept of Greater Mizoram to include Chin State,
which was amply evidenced by certain developments over the past couple of
years. The Mizoram government had rejected an order by India’s Union Home
Ministry in early 2021 to prevent the entry of refugees from Myanmar.
Subsequently, community and political leaders in the state took the lead in
organizing meetings in the state among Chin resistance groups for greater unity
against Myanmar’s junta.
Last year, an Aizawl-based group, the Zo
Reunification Organization (ZORO), convened a meeting to broker peace and end
the feud between two resistance groups in Chin State — the Zomi Revolutionary
Organization (ZRO) and Chin National Front (CNF) — that had engaged in sporadic
gun battles after the military coup. These efforts culminated in an agreement
and a pledge by the leaders of the two outfits to abstain from armed clashes.
Early this month, Mizoram’s Chief Minister
Lalduhoma took the lead in inviting leaders from several resistance groups in
Chin State for discussions to end the internecine squabbles among them. The
meeting led to a merger agreement between the Chinland Council and the Interim
Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC) on February 27 to form a unified
Chin National Council.
Ahead of this development was the visit to Chin
State by Mizoram Member of Parliament K. Vanlalvena to an office of the
Chinland Council in Chin State, where he invited members of the alliance to
join the Indian Union. Myanmar’s junta reacted sharply with a statement urging
Indian politicians to avoid “self-interested actions” that could harm bilateral
relations.
South Korean Connection
Strange as it may seem, the bond between Mizoram,
Chin State, and other areas inhabited by the Mizo-Kuki-Zo-Chin communities has
been strengthened by Korean movies. Local residents of Aizawl are of the view
that Korean movies became popular in Mizoram in the early 2000s when a Korean
channel called Arirag was freely broadcast in India’s northeastern region.
By the early 2010s, a local cable channel LPS in
Mizoram was broadcasting as many as 15 Korean serials. The demand was so high
that the channel was prompted to start two production houses where Korean films
were subtitled or dubbed in the Mizo language.
CDs and DVDs were produced that reached as far as
the Chin locality of Tahan at Kalay in Sagaing Region, which I saw during my
travels in the region two years ago. The consequence has been the spread and
acceptance of the Mizo language as the lingua franca of the region, where at
least 40 dialects are spoken on both sides of the border.
Myanmar’s junta will not easily be able to recover
Chin State since it has the unique advantage of active support from across the
border in Mizoram. Cross-border linkages that have been forged are now morphed
into Greater Mizoram, which is unlikely to be reversed with indications that
New Delhi is also offering tacit support.
(Blogger’s Notes: India should make
the move soon as China has been amassing the million-strong and nuclear-armed South-Western
PLA divisions on the border and ready to annex Myanmar. Just follow the Putin’s
Way in Crimea and Ukraine. Start with a UN-sponsored referendum in the Chin State since Chins already have driven out the Burmese oppressors and Chins are
totally relying on India for their survival. Also form some paramilitary Chin
Rifles, manned by the Chin Resistance forces, like Assam Rifles to guard the Burmese Border and keep the Myanmar Army
away.)
