Pasaltha Khuangchera by Chhuana Sailo
- Ruata Lungchuang
Why is it that you don't often hear about Mizo freedom fighters on National media and textbooks?
Ans- The simple reason why you don't hear about Indian Freedom fighters from Mizoram is that - they are regarded as Mizo freedom fighters.
Mizoram was the last region in India to come under British rule., by the middle 19th century, Britishers and Mizos were constantly fighting over territory. The British would establish tea plantations on Mizo ancestral homeland and the Mizos would in return raid these establishments. This frequent scuffle between the Mizos and the British was called "Vai Len" - Indian Expansion ( To the Mizos, the British Empire was synonymous with India at that time) . Then in the late 19th Century, exhausted by the constant raiding party from Lushai hills, the British launched one of their last colonial incursion - The Lushai Expedition, where they invaded Lushai Hills ( Mizoram ) and finally put Mizo land into British Empire map.
The Mizos resisted the incursion so fiercely that the British had to employ Manipur Rajah to aid them in the ensuing battle. Pasaltha Khuangchera is one of the most renowned Mizo heroes of Vai Len, he died fighting the British in 1890, while the great chieftess Ropuiliani never surrendered to the British and Died in Chittagong prison, many great Mizo heroes lost their lives in the Lushai Expedition. The Central government has often time tried to honour and felicitate freedom fighters from Mizoram but it is always met with stiff opposition from the Mizos. Though most states from the Northeast have felicitated their freedom fighters as "Indian freedom Fighters", Mizoram has maintained that the Mizo heroes who were resisting British incursion were Mizo freedom fighters fighting for their land and were not fighting for India ( The idea of India was alien to them). When the Central government tried to honour Khuangchera as an Indian freedom fighter in 2016, it received strong opposition from Mizo civil societies, The Mizo Zirlai Pawl and Mizo Student Union sent a letter to PMO saying the proposal to honour him as an Indian freedom fighter is not acceptable.
At this time Union Minister Rajen Gohain was to attend an event at Ailawng to honour Khuangchera as a freedom fighter but had to cancel his visit when Mizo civil societies organised mass protest.
The Mizos are generally not against the idea of India or being an Indian, but moves like recognising Mizo freedom fighters as Indian Freedom fighters are seen as "Cultural Appropriation". Whatever way you look at it, Khuangchera and other Mizo heroes fought for Mizoram which is now India and the Indian Mizo people. They are honourable in every sense for both the Country and the Mizo people as an ethnic group.
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