Art & culture minister C. Lalsawivunga iaugurates Mizo History Association Conference

Mizoram art & culture minister C. Lalsawivunga on Thursday said that plan is afoot to conduct a comprehensive research on the history of the Mizos as there are many missing links in the Mizo history written by historians earlier. Inaugurating Mizo History Association (MHA) conference cum seminar held at Pachhunga University College in Aizawl, Lalsawivunga said there seems to be some parts of the history being missing like the history of Pachuau, Fanai and Hualngo chieftains. Mizo history writers mainly concentrated on the history of Sailo chiefs who ruled over the majority Lusei tribes as well as minority tribes.

“The background history of Laltuaka, a Sailo chief who was one of the first Mizo chiefs to migrate to the present Mizoram, is also hardly followed and written by the historians,” he lamented. He said that the state government has been making efforts to receive funds from the central government for the purpose of panoramic research on Mizo history. “We think that funding to the tune of Rs 200 lakh will be able to meet the expenses of historians/researchers and facilitating visits of important and historical places during the research,” the minister said.

Origin of the Mizos, now living in India’s north eastern states of Mizoram, Assam, Manipur and Tripura as well as Chin hills in Myanmar and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, is traced by the historians to a place called Chhinlung or Sinlung in Tibet province of China. The language and different dialects of the ethnic Mizos are part of the Tibeto-Burman language spoken by people in south east Asia. EOM