Ethnic Nationalism in the Cause of the Mizo Independence Movement

Abstract

It is an well-established fact that the Mizo Independence Movement had been the result of ethnic consciousness and ethnic nationalism, stemming out of the realization of a pan-Mizo identity, inclusive of all Mizo ethnic tribes as well the economic hardships suffered at the hands of the Assam and Indian Government at the peak of the severe mautam famine, that instigated the urge to fight for their autonomy. However, ethnic consciousness and issues of identity has always been a gray area in the Mizo socio-political history, with the influx of Christianity and colonial rule making great impacts and influences on the Mizo identity formation on the one hand and the imprints of the traditional social set up, norms and customs still exerting influence and reverberating across all sections of the society and polity till today. Thus, based on these two outstanding variables impacting Mizo identity formation and ethnic consciousness, the paper aims to trace the development of Mizo identity from the pre-British period to the post-colonial period, up until the outbreak of the Independence Movement in 1966 and attempts to underline how ethnic consciousness was the underlying factor that led to the outbreak of the Mizo Independence Movement.