The ‘foreigner’ being a figure of hate in many parts of the world, it’s safe to surmise that words describing that figure come up frequently for use in most Northeastern languages. It’s a fragile, ethnically diverse region that has had a long, troubled history on this front. In Mizo (or Lushai) language, the lilting, tonal speech of Mizoram’s majority tribe, that word is hnam dang mi.
But as it often happens in traditional societies, this could be applied not just to a person from another country but equally to someone from another tribe within the state. This takes us to the heart of contemporary politics, indeed, to the day’s headlines, as a tense Mizoram edges towards Assembly polls—far from the noise and caravan dust of the ‘mainland’ states.
Not that Mizoram’s elections are a serene affair. After the EC asked the principal secretary to go, the chief electoral officer has had to be changed to abate the risk of popular unrest. Why? On the surface, it’s about constitutional bodies having to be seen to be impartial.
In the only Congress-ruled state left in the Northeast, the party’s longest-serving CM, Lal Thanhawla (who has occupied the chair for two decades), is trying to beat off a rampaging saffron party. But this macro-political picture is shot through with micro-political colours. The EC has been trying to enfranchise some 36,000 voters of the Bru tribe living in abject conditions as refugees in Tripura, where they share ethnic bonds with the numerous Reang tribe.
Mizo nationalism had, in the mid-’90s, taken on an anti-Bru hue after the latter (seen as non-indigenous by the Mizos) started seeking an autonomous district. Plenty of ethnic violence ensued, as did exodus. The BJP has waded into this by branding the Bru as ‘oppressed Hindus’.
The Bru/Reang, traditionally animist, have been touched by both Christian and Vaishnav evangelism. A repatriation proposal hinges on the Bru demand for cluster villages and enough land for their traditional jhum (slash and burn) farming. That they can swing votes in about 10 of Mizoram’s 40 seats makes this a tense theatre worth watching.