Mizoram
Mizoram’s tensions are largely due to the simmering Assamese domination and the neglect of the Mizo people. In 1986, the Mizo accord was which brought peace to the region. Insurgency status is classified as Partially Active.
Mizoram belongs to the Seven Sisters Region of Southeast Asia, which consists of
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. With an area of
21,081 square kilometres Mizoram, once a district of Assam, was made into a Union
Territory in 1972 and attained full statehood in February, 1987. Although its size is bigger
than those of Manipur and Tripura, its population is smaller. The Mizos are a sturdy people.
Their traditional society and culture have been characterised by certain distinctive features:
Mizoram’s two main species of bamboo flower every fifty years (one 18 years after the other), attracting hordes of rats and boosting their fertility rate fourfold. The rats devour crops in the fields, leaving famine in their wake. The first time this happened after Independence, in 1959, unpreparedness and apparent callousness on the part of Delhi and Assam led Laldenga, a clerk on the District Council, to found the Mizo Famine Front (MFF). Set up at first simply to fight the famine, it gradually transformed into the Mizo National Front (MNF), a guerrilla group fighting for Independent Mizoram.
The government’s heavy-handed response in 1967, rounding up Mizos from their homes into guarded villages under curfew, not only boosted support for the MNF, but also wiped out the traditional Mizo way of life at a stroke. Bangladeshi independence was a bitter blow to the MNF, who relied on Pakistan’s moral support, and moderates on both sides eventually brought them to the negotiating table, where statehood was granted in 1986 in return for an end to the armed national liberation struggle. Laldenga became chief minister of the new state, but his administration proved rather a damp squib, and he lost to Congress in the following elections. The MNF have been in peaceful opposition ever since. A few diehards tried to continue the armed struggle, but without their leader, and with no popular support, they did not last for long.
Insurgent Groups
Hmar People’s Convention-Democracy, HPC(D): The Peoples Convention- Democracy as formed in 1995 to create an independent Hmar State. Its the off-spring of Hmar Peoples Convention (HPC) that entered into agreement with the Government of Mizoram which results in the formation of Sinlung Hills Development Council. But of late they have merged with other Hmar revolutionary groups in neighbouring Manipur and Assam with the am of bringing the Hmars under one administrative unit.
BNLF: The Bru National Liberation Front was formed in 1997 to protect the rights and dignity of the Reangs. The BNLF have surrendered with 757 of their comrades to the Mizoram Government on October 21, 2006.
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