Revisiting the Zomi Political Identity and Movement in India (Manipur)

There are a few general misconceptions about the history of Zomi as a political identity in India. Heightened by political and tribal oppositions, half truths, fake social media accounts, and anonymous channel admins that try to sow division and hatred among the Zomis, this is a brief correction to our historical memory in the times of whatsapp University.

A few misconceptions illustrated below -

1. Many believe that Zomi as a political identity emerged in 1997 due to the Kuki-Zomi conflict, and the resultant Kuki-Zomi Peace Treaty.

2. Many others less aware and prone to misinformation biases in social media think the Zomi emerged as an ideological movement in Burma and then entered India, monopolizing certain tribes for its cause.

3. Others believe it emerged as political identity in 1993 with the founding of the ZRO/ZRA by K Guite.

4. Still others believe that it emerged in 1972 with the founding of the Zomi National Congress (ZNC) by T Gougin.

These are all misconceptions: some of them are half-truths mixed with ignorance, others are outright lies targeted to de-legitimize the Zomi movement, usually emerging out of contemporary political oppositions for whom the truth of existence of the Zomis as political identity is inconvenient to their hegemony, and usually not emerging out of sound historical fact-checking.

Let us now really trace the Zomi as a political identity and   deconstruct these baseless arguments.

1. The term Zomi was acknowledged by the PNC (now, PTC) as far back as 1949 during its founding meetings (see picture), as the "general term of self identification of tribes".

2. The term Paite was used to refer to those who branched out and moved away from their brethren Kamhau-Suktes, and speaking the group of dialects like Dapzar, Lamzang. Lousau, Bukpi, etc collectively called Paite, thus referring to the _Paite speaking group among the Zomis_.

3. Some may say, why did they not use 'Zomi' from that point on?

- It's because the Khul Union had already existed as a Political conglomerate of Zo ethnic tribes. Sadly, despite its popularity, the Khul Union's policy of oppositions against the Chiefs at the time when the Kuki National Assembly (KNA) found its support base from the then ruling chiefs close to the Manipur Kingdom, it fell apart. 

- There was also a rise in 'tribe' consciousness, and the rising Naga movement that engulfed a section of the Chandel Zo ethnic tribes. 

[Note: At that time, the non-Kuki Zo ethnic tribes were all facing the brunt of Kuki-ization and the first priority of the tribes was protection against this forced assimilation.]

4. Some may say then, why did they not come together under the banner of UZO when it still used the term 'Zomi'?

- It's because UZO was initially formed as Jou National Congress (JNC), renamed as UMJO [United Manipur Jou Organization] in 1955, referring only to the Zou (Haidawi dialect) speaking group among the Zomis. It was later renamed as UZO [United Zomi Organization] in 1960-61; spearheaded by T Gougin with the intention of Uniting the Zomis. But this did not work out for two reasons - 

- First because the other tribes now already had their own organizations, usually older than UMJO, and could not accept being swallowed by this newly formed Organization.

- Second, internally the Zou dialect (Haidawi dialect) speaking group could not accept what they saw as the 'hijacking' of their Organization by other dialect groups. The UZO was again renamed as *United Zou Organization* in 2007.

4. Thus, T Gougin launched a new organization, leaving his role as President of UZO, and forming the Zomi National Congress (ZNC) in 1972.

5. Many argue that the Paite were against the Zomi movement during ZNC days. This is completely baseless and false. Possibly the largest recorded ZNC conference was held in Kangkap, a Paite village. Almost a majority [arguable] of the songs and slogans during the ZNC days were composed in Paite. 

Note: The current Zomi Congress for Democracy (ZCD) Party, previously also known as ZNC in Maynmar was formed with the consultation and inspiration of the Zomi National Congress (ZNC) leaders in India. *[Quite the opposite to the mainstream propaganda that Zomi is a Burmese concept, and other ridiculous accusations]*

- What did go wrong was the political miscalculation by ZNC leaders that the tribes would, willingly throw away their 'tribe' identities and suddenly choose to become only Zomi. The tribe identities like Paite, Zou, Kuki, Hmar, Vaiphei, etc had already become too entrenched into the psyche of the people.  This led to electoral confrontations against the PNC which was the ruling civil society organization that dictated at the time. This misunderstanding between the PNC and ZNC were however purely electoral and organizational instead of having any tribal or ethnic colours.

6. This mistake of the ZNC was properly taken into account by future leaders. The formation of the ZRO/ZRA in 1993 thus, marks the first actual pragmatic step towards rejuvenating Zomi nationalism by shifting its policy, instead of eradicating already recognized tribes (as was pushed by the ZNC) into establishing a tribe-based Federal system. This was done in 1996 with the swearing in of Vaiphei, Paite, Simte and Tedim tribe leaders as being Zomi in Tuithapi village, with their 'tribes' as only outer shells that mask the Zomi beneath. This was formalized with the formation of the Zomi Council [ZC] in 1997. Over time, other tribes also recognized their Zomi identity and joined the Zomi Council.

Our 'tribe' identities like Paite, Zou, Vaiphei, Thadou, Kuki, Gangte, Hmar, etc are not our real identities. They are the categories through which we avail government services. That is, in all practical measures, they are simply a means to an end. But we cannot overlook our 'tribe' categories because of functional reasons.

However, Zomi has always been our actual identity, *both social as well as political.*

'Mizos' as our linguistically R-group brethren call it, and

'Zomi' as we the linguistically G-group call it are both decolonial political movements.

This ofcourse comes with the Pragmatic need of meeting real world limitations with the ideal of Zomi nationalism. And in this, let us remember the visions of our early leaders while also adjusting and maneuvering through oppositions together.

Let us therefore not fall prey to the constant taunts of those who oppose our movement and instead focus on what we can do for the Zomi Nation.

#Takheh_Zomi

Source: TheZomite

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