Published By: Thadou Community International
One thing that comes to mind when we talk about Thadou is its unique history and indigenousness to Manipur and the nation of India. Given the issue of who are the indigenous people of Manipur becoming a prominently hot topic in Manipur, let us briefly discuss and delve into the distinct identity, and the great history, of Thadou as one of the indigenous tribes of Manipur, India.
Thadou is a distinct tribe and they are a peace-loving people with their distinct language, culture, costumes and identity. Thadou has a great history spanning thousands of years, well-recorded by ancient Burmese historians, British colonial writers, Manipur and indigenous Thadou historians and various official records. Dr Ngamkhohao Haokip wrote in his book The Thadous of Manipur that ‘Khul’, the historical name of the place of the origin of Thadous, is found in the present-day Longja/Longya (Kholmunlen) village in Manipur’s Chandel district. Several historical records indicate that the Thadou language is the mother language of various Chin-Mizo languages/dialects.
The Thadous have a rich heritage, always known as Thadou, with no prefix or suffix. The Indigenous Thadou tribe was listed as one of the scheduled tribes (ST) of Manipur by the Government of India in 1956, simultaneously with all other indigenous tribes of Manipur. Thadous are recorded as Thadou in all censuses of Manipur since the first census of India in 1881, with a population of 215,913 in the 2011 census, and they have always been the single largest tribe in Manipur. We are deeply passionate about our identity and name, which holds profound meaning for our past, present, and future. We insist on being called correctly as Thadou, not by any other names, such as Kuki.
The great contribution of Thadous to India’s freedom movement is testified by the priceless sacrifice of the brave Thadous who fought against British rule during World War I (1917-19) and World War II (1939-45). The incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have in their public speeches on several occasions cited the name of the great Thadou chief, Khotinthang Sitlhou (Chief of Jampi), as a great freedom fighter of India. During his public speech at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal on January 4, 2022, Prime Minister Modi emphatically stated “Manipur is where heroes like Raja Bhagya Chandra and Pu Khotinthang Sitlhou were born”. Again, Prime Minister Modiji acknowledged Pu Khotinthang as a national war hero while addressing a public meeting at Luwangsangbam, Imphal on February 22, 2022. The honourable Union Home Minister Amit Shah also acknowledged Pu Khotinthang as one of the war heroes of India during his speech at Moirang, Manipur on January 6, 2023.
Pu Khotinthang was one of the notable Thadou war heroes of the Thadou War (1917-1919) against the colonial British empire in India; including, but not limited to, Pu Pakang Haokip, Chief of Henglep, Pu Ngulkhup Haokip, Chief of Mombi (Lonpi), Pu Chengjapao Doungel, Chief of Aisan, Pu Lhukhomang Haokip, Chief of Chahsat, Pu Pasut Singson, Chief of Kanjang, Pu Heljason Haokip, Chief of Loibol, Pu Mangkhoon Haokip, Chief of Tingkai, Pu Leothang Haokip, Chief of Goboh, Pu Lunkholal Sitlhou, Chief of Chonjang, Pu Enjakhup Kholhou, Chief of Thenjol, Pu Semchung Haokip, Chief of Ukha, Pu Tintong Haokip, Chief of Laijang, and Pu Ngulbul, Chief of Longya (Longja), who was martyred while in battlefield action, holding his little son in his arms. Many Thadous also enlisted and bravely fought under the banner of the Indian National Army (INA) in Manipur during the Second World War.
Against the backdrop of serious concerns about the influx of outsiders into Manipur with potentially increasing demographic imbalance, the issues of illegal immigrants, refugees, indigenous people, and demand for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) often rock Manipur and have been getting louder, with prominent Naga and Meitei organisations flagging ‘Kuki refugees’ or ‘illegal Kuki immigrants’ and demanding immediate implementation of NRC to identify and deport illegal immigrants, or non-Indian citizens, living in Manipur. Significantly, the Indian government has announced to fence the India-Myanmar border and to end the Free Movement Regime with Myanmar. Also, the Manipur State Government and the State Assembly have resolved to carry out the NRC exercise in Manipur, with 1961 as the base year.
Who is an indigenous person of Manipur? The Manipur Gazette No. 309 – Notification (Manipur Government – Home Department) dated 23rd September 2022 clause 2A (ii) of Manipur Inner Line Permit (Amendment) Guidelines, 2022 states “Indigenous Person” means, for this guidelines, read with the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, a person shall be deemed to be an Indigenous Person if he/she belongs to the following communities: Meitei/Meetei, Meitei Pangal, or any one of the recognised scheduled Tribes of Manipur, and if he/she, or either or both of his/her parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, was/were continuously and permanently residing in the State of Manipur, not later than 31st December 1961 to be supported by Record of residence in the State of Manipur.
The indigenous tribal population of Manipur is broadly divided into Naga, about 20%, and non-Naga, or Zo, about 20%. The 29 indigenous tribes of Manipur listed in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes Lists (Modification) Order, 1956 are: Aimol, Anal, Angami, Chiru, Chothe, Gangte, Hmar, Kabui (Rongmei), Kacha Naga, Khoirao, Koireng, Kom, Lamgang, Any Mizo (Lushai), Maram, Maring, Mao, Monsang, Moyon, Paite, Purum, Ralte, Sema, Simte, Suhte, Tangkhul, Thadou, Vaiphei, and Zou. Some new tribes were added later on after 2000, including the fake Kuki tribe (‘Any Kuki tribes’) in 2003.
In Myanmar, where there is no scheduled tribe classification like in India, the Chin group of native ethnic people of Myanmar consists of 53 sub-groups including Thadou and various cognate communities. Even Naga and Meitei (Meithei; Kathe) are included under the Chin ethnic umbrella in Myanmar. Whereas Kuki is not a recognised ethnic people in Myanmar, Thadou is, and Thadou has its own ethnic group/census code (Number 427) as a recognised native people under the broader Chin ethnic group. All these native communities of Myanmar are indigenous to the land and the country and they all are bonafide citizens of Myanmar. Myanmar has a separate population/census code called ‘Other’ for non-native, non-native, non-recognised people, or illegal immigrants.
It is common for many ethnic groups of the world to be found in different adjoining countries, separated by different political boundaries, like the case of Chin-Zo, Naga or Meitei. It would be wrong to assume or call anyone from these communities to be an illegal immigrant in Manipur, India, or in Myanmar, unless there are specific evidence of individual cases. Under normal circumstances, no ordinary citizens or legal residents of any country would want to infiltrate into another country to become an illegal immigrant and run the risk of being imprisoned and deported. They would naturally rather want to live freely in their own country.
The demand for deletion of the improper tribe called ‘Any Kuki tribes’ has merits due to the potential of this particular tribe being misused by any group of people from any culture anywhere in the world at the cost of the indigenous or native people. The Manipur state government decision (dated 8th February 2023) to delete this ‘Any Kuki tribes’ from the ST list of Manipur is a significant step forward to right a wrong. Moreover, it cannot be changed to the Kuki tribe simply because there is no such thing as the Kuki tribe. There is baseless false and deceitful propaganda by some ignorant or unscrupulous people that this ‘any Kuki tribe’ of 2003 is the same as the already deleted ‘Any Kuki tribe’ of 1951-56. The fact is that tribes of Manipur were broadly simply grouped into ‘Any Naga’, ‘Any Kuki’ and ‘Any Mizo’ in 1951 as a temporary arrangement for the time being only for 5 years during the process of the linguistic survey of individual tribes of Manipur.
Accordingly, with the completion of the said linguistic survey for scheduling of every individual tribe as a separate scheduled tribe, the ‘Any Naga’ and ‘Any Kuki’ were deleted permanently in 1956 and they ceased to exist since then. All the original 29 indigenous linguistic and cultural tribes of Manipur were listed as scheduled tribes of Manipur under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes Lists (Modification) Order, 1956. The ‘Any Mizo’ was changed to ‘Any Mizo (Lushai) on account of Lushai being an individual linguistic tribe.
Since the creation of the fake Kuki tribe (Any Kuki tribes) in 2002-2003 the concept of Kuki as a collective nomenclature of tribes is completely dead. Make no mistake, Kuki is not the same as Naga because, unlike Kuki, Naga is a collective nomenclature of several or many tribes. There should be no confusion about this. Whereas Thadou is an indigenous tribe with its distinct language, costumes, culture, traditions and rich heritage and history, the fake Kuki tribe (Any Kuki tribes) was created in 2002, and fraudulently added to the Scheduled Tribes list of Manipur in 2003, so that their leaders could exploit this separatist movement for their own personal wealth creation and political control.
All indigenous ethnic communities and tribes of Manipur who call Manipur home should stop fighting over who is Indigenous and who is an illegal immigrant, but they should co-exist and live together peacefully with a sense of mutual respect and understanding. No community should be treated more or less Indigenous, Manipuri, or Indian, than another. Those who claim to be Any Kuki tribes, but not illegal immigrants, should have no reason for concern, for they can go back to their original tribe if they are not illegal immigrants or foreigners, but indeed belong to one of the indigenous tribes of Manipur and/or are Indian citizens.
Government authorities must address any apprehensions or genuine concerns about permissible documents as proof of citizenship or permanent residency before carrying out the NRC exercise in Manipur. And the cases of illegal immigrants must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis as per relevant established laws without making it a communal issue. It is in this context that TSA issued a position statement on August 30, 2023, to say Thadous, as an indigenous tribe/people of Manipur are not afraid of NRC if the exercise is going to be done fairly without excluding any genuine Indian citizens and native inhabitants of Manipur, or without targeting any of the Indigenous tribes or communities of Manipur.
There has been a lot of confusion between the terms Thadou and Kuki, or between Kuki and Zomi/Mizo, or Zo. A clear distinction between these terms needs to be made for the sake of clear understanding. Kuki is a colonial terminology, first used casually by the British colonists from what is believed to be a Bengali reference, originally to refer to some unspecified groups of primitive people whom they did not know by their name, not necessarily of the same people, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
The language, culture and religion of some tribal groups in Tripura who were recorded as Kuki are different to the tribes of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram who were also wrongly recorded as ‘Kuki’ but they call themselves Mizo, Zomi or Zo, with the word ‘Zo’ literally meaning ‘father or progenitor’ or ‘hill’ and ‘Mi’ meaning people. Significantly, on September 7, 2023, all the 10 Zo tribal MLAs from Manipur, major civil society organisations, tribe leaders and armed group leaders adopted ‘Zo United’ as the only coordinating platform for the Zo tribal people.
There is a growing acceptance and popularity among the Zo tribal people to adopt ‘Zo’ or ‘Mizo’ as their collective nomenclature. Today, the term Kuki, often used out of ignorance or imposed by the media and others, is rejected by most of the same tribal people who are mistakenly referred to as Kuki as they claim it is an imposed divisive and derogatory term, and they consider being called Kuki disrespectful and insulting.
The use of the term ‘Kuki’ is akin to the continuation of colonialism, undermining our indigenous identity and being racist, to be frank. It is rather abusive, disrespectful and traumatising to be called Kuki, and hence should be avoided when referring to the authentic Thadou and any other Mizo or Zo tribes. At best, it only applies to the controversial ‘Any Kuki tribes’ of 2003, which had a population of 28,342 in the 2011 Manipur census.
We fervently urge everyone, including the media, organizations, government authorities, institutions, individuals and other communities, to stop calling the Thadous as Kuki or any other name, and to refer to us only as Thadou. Similarly, other Mizo/Zo tribes in Manipur and other Indian states should be called by their proper tribal names individually, and Mizo/Zo collectively.
Bearing remarkable characteristics of being a God’s own tribe, Thadou is one of the world’s oldest living and continuing cultures. Despite concerted attempts by anti-Thadou forces, or Kuki supremacists, to annihilate Thadou tribe since the 1970s, and more vigorously since the creation of the fake ‘Any Kuki tribes’ in 2003, Thadou remains a distinct tribe with all its distinct characteristics and identity. Today, Thadou diasporas live in different parts of the world including, the USA, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Norway, Macau, Malaysia, Australia, etc., and they continue to grow and thrive as a community within a multicultural, multiethnic society.
The Thadous have suffered rampant persecution and human rights abuse, and are being forced to reject their own identity, their indigenous tribal name, Thadou. However, with God’s strength, we will not only continue to survive as one of the oldest living indigenous cultures and people but also excel and prosper as a people and community. Hopefully, this article helps to have a clearer understanding of the Thadou tribe, its uniqueness and distinct ethnic identity and its indigenousness to Manipur and India.
Note: This evidence-based article was written for publication in Sinkhup 2.0 (the souvenir booklet of Hun – Thadou Cultural Festival, 2024 at New Delhi on April 7, 2024). It may be redistributed in full, or in part, without any alteration of the content, for public awareness about Thadou tribe, their unique identity and indigenousness.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the NEA.
