The reason for the historic meeting was to determine the destiny of the Mizo people because they knew that the British were quickly departing India and the leaders of the community believed in the principle of self-determination. The Mizo people, historically, never had any sense of togetherness with India, a country they were being slowly wedded to. The leaders of the community made it clear to the British India government, through its representative in Aizawl, that their destiny must be in their hands as it had always been.
Superintendent L.L.Peters and Assistant Sainghinga officially signed the resolution.Resolution No 2.(iii) clearly indicated the right of the Mizo people to determine what they would want at a later stage -
"Resolved that if the Lushais are to enter Indian Union their main demands are...that the Lushais will be allowed to opt out of the Indian Union, when they wish to do so subjected to a minimum period of ten years."
The 50 representatives of the Mizo community were clear and the British representative understood in no uncertain terms that for the Mizos, it was not a question of "If" but a question of "when" they would want to assert their sovereignty at a later stage. A copy of the "Proceedings of meeting of the accredited leaders, Lushai Hills" is available on http://www.zogam.org/documents.asp?article=documents_212.
The officially binding recognition of the wishes of the people of Mizoram signed by the sole representative of the British India Government L.L.Peters deserve a sincere recognition and reconsideration as the political turn of events after 10 years of the signing completely ignored the resolution.
Notwithstanding the fact that the government of India signed a Memorandum of Settlement with the then underground Mizo National Front government on the 30th June 1986, I see no reason why the 14th July 1947 resolution signed by the representative of the British India government should not be honoured.
Perhaps the time is ripe for serious historical revisionism. After all, we the Mizo people lived in self sufficiency under the rule of the sovereign Chiefs. Today, we have money given (literally) to us by the Indian government along with all the trappings of being part of India, a nation we never belonged to. Perhaps it is time we retraced our roots and rediscover our identity and destiny. Perhaps we should revise our history. Should we?
Sadly the two nation theory ignored the aspirations of the ethnic communities like mizo. At the same time, indian nationalism with its strong aryanic past was unable to subsume its minority nationalism like the mizo. And both the nationalism i.e. the indian and mizo nationalism were autonomous of each other. Both emerged in the same historical context. Indian nationalism was an elitist one driven by an elite interest seeking to fulfill their aspiration in the name of nationalism.
ReplyDeleteOn the mizo side, they recall the idea of territorial integration way back in 1872. While nationalism in the modern sense was absent but the main objective of mnf movement resonate the same demand. So decolonization was incomplete for community like the mizo as artificial boundaries go unchallenged till today. At the same time, right to self determination was denied and still denied to them.
To me, historical revision should not confine to mere revision of mizo history with all its lushai centric character but also expand its horizon by an understanding of how and why nationalism emerge.