In 1947, when Angami Zapu Phizo raised the banner of Naga nationhood, it was based on the simple premise that the Nagas were neither under the Assamese nor Manipuri rulers and that the Britishers were the first to rule them, and by that account, when they leave the subcontinent, they should be left alone. Phizo, however, was aware that each Naga village or tribe exists as a republic of their own and that each had a different dialect and that the only visible and practical way to bring them together on a common platform was their faith in Jesus Christ. And hence the banner of Nagaland for Christ was raised in the then Naga Hills District of Assam.The Naga movement under Phizo had changed hands from Christ to Marx under Muivah’s NSCN (I-M), which since 1997 has entered into a ceasefire with the Government of India, but Christ still retains a prominent place in the Naga ethos.
Like the much-awaited second coming of Christ, which is yet to come, the second coming of the Land of Christ in the Northeast was recently announced. It was not on Indian soil but far away in America in September. And in 1947, when Phizo announced his crusade, he was not holding any post of authority within the system or otherwise, but this time it was an Indian chief minister duly elected and sworn in under the Constitution of India that made it in Indianapolis, USA. Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma was on a visit to the US when he met members of the Chin community there and made the announcement. He was talking about a unification of the various Mizo-Kuki-Chin tribes now lying scattered across India—Bangladesh and Myanmar—who are all Christians. He urged them to unite on ethnic and religious lines.
Said he, “I would like to take this opportunity to address the elephant in the room and convey my apprehension that there is a real danger of our religion—a source of disunity and division rather than one that shepherds the flock and transforms the Church into a united, strong,strong and impenetrable fortress, which it should be. He also lamented how the Church of Northeast India could not become a reality despite different denominations of Christianity uniting together to form the Church of South India and the Church of North India.
Hinting at the creation of an independent Land of Christ for the Zo people, Laduhoma said, “I want everyone here to know that the primary reason why I accepted the invitation to visit the United States is to seek a path towards unity for all of us. We are one people—brothers and we cannot afford to be divided and live apart from one another.”
He also said that he wanted the Zo people to have the conviction and confidence that one day, through the strength of God who had made them a nation, they would rise together under one leadership to achieve the destiny of nationhood.
What made Lalduhoma‘s declaration significant is the fact that prior to her ouster, Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh, had spoken about a US-backed plan of creating a Christian nation like East Timor by carving out a part of Bangladesh and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal. She had warned about this in June earlier this year.
While Lalduhoma talked about a unification of the Zo people across international borders, his predecessor and former rebel chief and chief minister of Mizoram, Ladenga, had talked about incorporating Churachandpur district into Mizoram, calling the Mizoram-Manipur boundary a colonial legacy. I recall answering his claim through the media, asserting that as an Indian Chief Minister insisting that the boundary between the State and Manipur is that of a colonial legacy, will he also support the Chinese claim that the boundary between that country and India is also a colonial legacy? He kept shut thereafter.
While the Mizoram chief minister was talking about a greater unification across international boundary lines, fissures have appeared amongst the Kuki-Z0-Chin community at present involved in a war with the Meiteis in Manipur. This was when the Thadou Community International, in their convention held at Guwahati, declared that the Thadous are not Kukis. This has sent a shock wave across the anti-Meitei Kuki bloc. In fact, the Thadous were among the first of Kuki imports into Manipur from Burma around the 1830s, when the then British Political Agent to Manipur, McCulloh, forwarded the theory of plugging in the exposed frontiers of Manipur to its ruler, Sir Chandrakriti, who gave a nod. A few got amalgamated into the Meitei society; for instance, General Balaram of the Sougaijam Clan of the Meiteis was originally a Thadou warrior.
Collectively known as the Khongjais to the Meiteis, the Kuki tribes also served as a part of the Kings’ militia, and over the years, by sheer number being over 2 lakh plus population in the 2011 census and by its own cultural traits sociologically speaking, they were considered to be the dominant tribe amongst the Khongjais or Kuki tribes of Manipur in as much as the Tangkhuls are to the group of Naga tribes of Manipur. But over time, as their dominance grew, the first time that assertion came in the public was some 20 years ago, when the now much debated Kuki rebellion of 1917-1919, then identified as Kuki Gal or Kuki War, was asked to be changed to Thadou Gal or Thadou War instead.
Then came the Naga’s Kuki War between 1992 and 1995, during which some 900 Kukis lost their lives and thousands uprooted, scattered, and regrouped. At the height of that war, the Paites asserted their difference from the Kukis to the extent that former Minister and Paite leader Phunzathong Tonsing openly declared that the Paites are not Kukis. Then the Gangte tribe also announced that they are a part of the Mizo tribe of Mizoram. The forerunner to the claim of the Gangtes could be the fact that it was Dhemkhosai Gangte who led a group of 500 Kuki youths and went across to Mizoram to join Lal Denga’s Mizo National Front’s fight against India. The Paites are what are called Chins in Myanmar in today’s parlance.Then came the Kuki-Paite war beginning in 1996, which continued for about a year and saw about 300 plus Paites killed and an odd 200 Kujkis also lose their lives.
Then came the Kuki’s war on the Meiteis, beginning on the 3rd of May 2023. The Meitei response was to treat the Kukis, Paites, Gangtes and Hmars as all belonging to the same camp; this had brought disparate Kuki tribes under one umbrella termed the Kuki-Chin-Zo group. They speak different dialects, although each can understand each other. Only this time it was not the descendants of the original Kukis who came in the 1830s onwards but neo-Kukis or Kuki-Zo-Chin illegal immigrants who had arrived in lakhs from across Myanmar during the last decade and had established hundreds of new unrecognised villages and had laid the forests bare, transforming into poppy fields churning out thousands of crores of rupees annually through their opium harvest. and is suspected to have funded the elections of 10 including seven BJP legislators during the last elections in 2022.
Apart from the firefights between the Meiteis and the Kuki bloc with an exceptional attack on central forces by the Kukis, the state’s response has been on two planks. That of implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur, by which account the recent arrivals would be combed out and maybe defranchised, and secondly, the war on drugs. The second aims at sapping their source of revenue as poppy plantations came to be cut down across the hill districts.
The Thadou’s assertion that they are not only Kukis but also endorse the Manipur Government’s assertion to implement the NRC and support the War on Drugs seems to have thrown a spanner in the works amongst the Kuki-Chin-Zo bloc. Ironically, many of the armed outfits and civil society organisations of this bloc are headed by Thadou tribesmen. They have also debunked criticism of their new stance and have described them as turncoats. Then they announced the formation of the Thadou Impi Manipur, marking their departure from the Kuki Impi Manipur, which has so far been the apex body of the Kuki tribes of Manipur. The move by the Thadous has been lauded by major Meitei organisations, including radical groups, even as they foresee a totally new alignment in the ongoing war.
But all these moves and tussles apart, the Meiteis in the valley burst into life filled with gaiety. On the second day of the lunar Manipuri month of Hiyangei, which fell on the 1st of November, was the Ningol Chakouba, the day when Manipuri maidens are invited home by their parents and brothers and are feted upon and given feasts of fish curries. This tradition of brothers being called by their sisters was changed during the reign of Sir Chandrakriti in the mid-1880s, and sisters came and daughters came to be called for the occasion. It is a day when every married Meitei woman would dress up in the best of their fineries and bedecked with jewellery and head home with simple gifts of fruits. At home, they would be fed sumptuous meals during which the choice of fish would be served. After the meals, they used to be gifted with items ranging from Kashmiri shawls to two-wheelers to cars, depending on the affluence of their hosts. But this year, following the ongoing war, the emphasis has been on indigenously produced products, mainly textiles, which has been a boon for local producers so much so that supply could not meet the demand. The government, on its part, organises the Fish Fair. This year the first prize went to a fish farmer who produced more than 1.5 lakh kilograms of fish. Luckily, the Kukis also held their fire on this auspicious day, which was not observed last year on account of the ongoing conflict.
All said, the second coming of the land of Christ and the move by the dominant tribe of the Kukis, namely the Thadous, away from the Kuki camp would open up a whole new set of permutations and combinations, but peace is still a far cry in Manipur at the moment.
The writer is a senior journalist at The Statesman