HMAR NATIONAL QUESTION

HMAR NATIONAL QUESTION

By Prof Lal Dena,

Senior Fellow (ICSSR).

Several weeks back my uncle L.Keivom rang me that he was to speak on the topic “Hmar national movement”at the literary and art meet called ‘Thiemfin’ organized by Hmar Students’ Association, Jt Hqs, Delhi at Arunachal House, New Delhi on March 8, 2014. Since then the question has been engaging my thought and as a student of history, I feel tempted to say something on it even though I cannot claim any originality or authority on the subject. My basic hypothesis is that the rise and development of Hmar nationalism is the outcome of the intra-ethnic conflict among the newly emergent Hmar and Mizo elite groups.

As it happened in similar contemporary tribal societies, Mizo society also had undergone a change as a result of the contact with external forces like British colonial rule combined with the introduction of western education by the Christian missionaries. A new social group of what is called western-educated group comprising teacher-evangelists and pastors (church leaders), white-colour job holders (black coatists) and political leaders had emerged in Mizo society in addition to the traditional elites- the chiefs and their councilors. In the beginning the Mizo chiefs had resisted British colonial rule; but they were no match with the then mightiest colonial power of the period. So after what is known as Vailian in 1891, Mizoram also formed an integral part of colonial India and the Mizo chiefs were absorbed in the colonial establishment.

One cannot deny the fact that Hmars are inseparable part of Mizo society right from pre-historical period and even till today. Hmars are one of the leading ethnic groups within Mizoram and are also given separate recognition as one of the scheduled tribes of the state. At the same time, one cannot also ignore the fact that majority of Hmars live outside Mizoram in neighbouring states like Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. As a result, there are two types of Hmars: those Hmars in Mizoram who are completely assimilated (Mizoized) and those Hmars outside the state of Mizoram who are partially assimilated. It is among the second group of Hmars that the search for separate ethnic identity and self-consciousness of language is very strong.

As a matter of fact, Hmars got almost everything from their Mizo brethrens in Mizoram. They received their new religion (Christianity), education and alphabet from Mizoram. James Lorrains and F.W. Savidge, soon after they had settled at Aizawl, reduced the Lushai language to writing from 1894. As a result, all scriptures and literary works were first written or translated into Lushai. Preaching was done solely in Lushai language. In my book “In Search of Identity: Hmars of North East India, 2007” I have written thus: The Lushai evangelists and pastors dominated the church leadership. Even all the proceedings or minutes of the presbytery or assembly of the newly established Thado Kuki Pioneer Mission (TKPM) and later on the North East india General Mission (NEIGM) were recorded in Lushai. It was also insisted that the new convert had to say his prayers only in Lushai. There was even a circular that no new indigenous hymn or song should be composed in any other language than Lushai.

While leadership of the mission was confined to those Lushai-speaking leaders who came from Mizoram, a remarkable change came in the presbytery at Senvon where a new leader was to be elected. A group of selected delegates which did not include Hmars met in secret at the kitchen garden of Pastor R. Dala, the first native missionary from Mizoram. This garden was popularly known as Arthatzawl(Arthakzawl) as it was a sacrificial site where the villagers used to bring hen or cock to propitiate evil spirits that could cause harm or illness to them. It was here that a conspiracy was hatched to elect the new field superintendent of the mission from amongst one of three names - Lalnginglova, Rohmingliana and Vanchhunga. H.K. Dohnuna (father of H.K. Bawichhuaka) was deliberately not included in the panel simply because he was a Hmar. One of the most important results of this leadership conspiracy was that it marked the emergence of a Hmar leadership and the birth of Hmar national consciousness and modern literature. Commenting on this incident, L.Keivom aptly remarks thus: “Had the leadership continued without any conflict, the Hmars would definitely be heading for cultural and linguistic extinction. By then, everything including the Bible and hymns were written in Lushai language only. Had the mission continued without a leadership conflict, there would not be any single book written in Hmar and as a result, the Hmars would not have a literature of their own, and therefore consequently lost their language and culture. Therefore, the survival and development of Hmar language (including Hmar national identity) is the paradoxical outcome of the conflict over the leadership in the Mission”. Though the Hmars wanted to have their Bible translated and published in their own language through the Bible Society of India and also to bring out hymnal books in Hmar, there had been strong opposition particularly from the Lushai leadership.

This is to show that sense of separate ethnic identity originates from the claim of those Hmar elite group arguing that their language (Hmar) is slightly different from Lushai and merits protection. Paul B.Brass in his “Ethnicity and nationalism: Theory and Comparison” has maintained that there are two stages in the development of a nationality.  According to him, the first is the movement from ethnic category to community involving the creation of a self-conscious language community, among others, ultimately leading to the formation of a community-based organization or association (Paul Brass,1991:22) The second stage in the transformation of ethnic groups involves the articulation and acquisition of social, economic and political rights for the members of the group or for the group as a whole. Summing up, Paul Brass thus concludes, ”In so far as an ethnic group succeeds by its own efforts in achieving and maintaining  group rights through political action and political mobilization, it has gone beyond ethnicity to establish itself as a nationality” (ibid,p:23). Judging by the criteria set out by Paul Brass, Hmars has, in course of time, successfully moved from an obscure ethnic group to well-established community and then to nationality. In post independent India, they were given separate recognition under the Scheduled tribes/Scheduled Castes Acts of India.

In my book as I have mentioned above, I have written the development of Hmar national movement beginning from the establishment of Hmar Association (HA),1936; Mizo Integration Movement(MIM) under the leadership of Pu (late) L.Tawna, 1946-1948); Mar (Hmar) Mongolian Federation (MMF), 1948; Hmar National Congress, 1954; Hmar National Union (HNU), 1959; Hmar People’s Federation, 1977 and Hmar People’s Convention, 1986. I  therefore invite my esteemed readers to visit Lal Dena’s bloc for more detail information on the subject and my other articles like Tribalism and Detribalization, Emergence of Middle Class in Tribal Society, etc.

Tentative conclusion: At the beginning, the newly emergent different Mizo elites collaborated with colonial authority and its supporters (Christian missionaries). It is between the Lushai (Mizo) elites who believed in nothing but Mizoization and the Hmar elites who believed in protection of Hmar identity by still maintaining their Mizoity the intra-ethnic competition and conflict had originated. Therefore, the genesis of Hmar national question and its later development may be seen from this perspective of intra-ethnic conflict within the Mizo society.