MIZORAM

state, northeastern India, established in 1987 from the Mizoram union territory, which was formerly the Mizo Hills district. The state has an area of 8,140 square miles (21,081 square km). The territory was set up to satisfy the national aspirations of the Mizo (Lushai) tribes, which had been in sporadic revolt against India for several decades. The formation of Mizoram as a union territory in 1972 failed to end the Mizo secessionist insurgency, which continued throughout the 1970s. The formation of Mizoram as an Indian state and the election of a Mizo-led state government in 1987 seemed to mark the settlement of the conflict. Mizoram is bounded by Myanmar (Burma; east), Tripura state (west), Manipur state (northeast), Bangladesh (south), and Assam state (north). The state is largely mountainous, the Mizo Hills being the main physiographic feature. Numerous streams flow south-north. The Kaladan River system drains south into Myanmar; the northern rivers flow north to the Kusiyara River, entering the Ganges delta in Bangladesh. The population is composed of numerous ethnic groups, loosely called the Mizo, a local term meaning highlander. They speak a variety of Tibeto-Burman dialects, some of which are mutually unintelligible. English also is spoken. Missionaries were formerly active in the area; most of the population is Christian, and about three-fifths is literate. Nearly two-thirds of Mizoram is forested. Agriculture is extensively practiced; the chief crop is rice. Some sugarcane and (on the higher slopes) potatoes are grown. There is little trade or commerce, but the tribesmen are skillful weavers; cottage industries produce fine woolen carpets, cane hats, and baskets. The territorial capital is Aizawl. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 686,217. state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country and has an area of 8,140 square miles (21,081 square kilometres). It is bounded by Myanmar (Burma) to the east and south and Bangladesh to the west and by the states of Tripura to the northwest, Assam to the north, and Manipur to the northeast. The capital is Aizawl. Mizoram (Land of the Mizos) became a state in 1987. Formerly the Lushai Hills District of Assam, it was renamed the Mizo Hills District in 1954. Between 1972 and 1987 it was a centrally administered union territory under the name of Mizoram. Additional reading Suhas Chaterjee, Mizoram Encyclopaedia, 3 vol. (1990), provides information on important people, places, and historical events. K.K. Upadhyaya, Development Problems and Prospects of Mizoram (1986); and V.S. Mahajan, Economic Development of Border States of India (1988), focus on the economy, the latter covering Punjab as well as Mizoram. Historical works include Suhas Chatterjee, Mizoram Under the British Rule (1985); and Animesh Ray, Mizoram: Dynamics of Change (1982). Political history from the advent of the British to the present is discussed in R.N. Prasad, Government and Politics in Mizoram (1987). History Little is known of Mizoram's early history. Between 1750 and 1850 the Mizo (formerly called Lushai) tribes migrated from the nearby Chin Hills and subjugated the indigenous population; these similar tribes were assimilated into their own society. The Mizo developed an autocratic political system based on some 300 hereditary chieftanships. The tribes of Mizoram remained unaffected by foreign political influence until the British annexed Assam in 1826 under the Treaty of Yandabo. During the next decades, Mizo raids into British territory led to occasional punitive expeditions by the British. Although not formally annexed until the early 1890s, the region had come under British control two decades earlier. Initially administered as the North Lushai Hills (in the province of Assam) and South Lushai Hills (within the Bengal Presidency), the region was united as the Lushai Hills District of Assam in 1898. The district had come under the government's Inner Line Regulations in 1873, which prohibited the movement of people from the plains into the hills. In 1935 the Lushai Hills was declared an excluded areai.e., the provincial legislature was stripped of its jurisdiction over the area, and responsibility for the district's administration was placed directly in the hands of the governor of Assam. Following India's independence in 1947, the district continued as part of Assam. Increasing discontent among the Mizo, however, led to a declaration of independence by the Mizo National Front in 1966. The ensuing armed rebellion compelled India's union (central) government to assume Mizoram's administration and to make it a union territory in 1972. The insurgency continued until the signing of the Mizoram Peace Accord in 1986. As a result of this accord, Mizoram was granted statehood in 1987, but other terms of the agreement were not implemented, resulting in renewed unrest among the Mizo. Deryck O. Lodrick