| |||||||
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Regions with significant populations | |||||||
India, Bangladesh, Myanmar | |||||||
Languages | |||||||
Kuki-Chin languages | |||||||
Religion | |||||||
Predominantly Christianity, with significant minorities following Animism, Judaism (Bnei Menashe) and Buddhism | |||||||
Related ethnic groups | |||||||
Kachin people, Meitei people, northern Naga people, Karbi people |
The Zo people is a term to denote all the speakers of the Kuki-Chin languages who inhabit northeast India, western Myanmar, and southeastern Bangladesh. The Mizo, Chin, and Kuki people are the main ethnic groups.
They are known as Chin, Kuki, Mizo, Lushai, or Naga by their surrounding people.
The dispersal across international borders resulted from a British colonial policy that drew borders on political, rather than ethnic, grounds.[1]
In the literature, the term Kuki first appeared in the writings of Rawlins when he wrote about the tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.[2] It referred to a "wild tribe" comprising numerous clans. These clans shared a common past, culture, customs and tradition. They spoke in dialects that had a common root language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman group.[3]
The origin of the name "Chin" is unknown . Later the British used the compound term "Chin-Kuki-Mizo" to group the Chin Kuki language speaking people, and the Government of India inherited this.[4] Missionaries chose to employ the term Chin to christen those on the Burmese side and the term Kuki on the Indian side of the border.[5][6] Chin nationalist leaders in Burma's Chin State popularized the term "Chin" following Burma's independence from Britain.[7]
Beginning in the 1990s, the generic names Chin have been rejected by some for "Zomi", a name used by a group speaking Northern kukis languages .[8] The speakers of the Northern Kuki languages are sometimes lumped together as the Zomi's.Some Zomi nationalists have stated that the use of the label Chin would mean subtle domination by Burmese groups.[9][10]
The term "Mizo" (poetic version of "Zomi"), was incorporated in the name of the Indian state Mizoram.[11]
In 2023, during the Manipur violence the Zo tribes of Manipur were referred to Kuki-Zo, Before it was specifically only Kuki in context of Manipur, Assam , Nagaland and Tripura.
Further information: Zomia (region) |
They are spread out in the contiguous regions of Northeast India, Northwest Burma (Myanmar), and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. In India, they are most prominent in Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Mizoram. Some fifty Kuki/Zo peoples are recognised as scheduled tribes.[12]
The first Zomi-language movie to receive a full-length theatrical debut was a 2021 English-Zomi bilingual film, written and directed by Burmese refugee Thang Mung, called Thorn in the Center of the Heart. The film first premiered in Michigan, where Mung was resettled by U.S. refugee services as a teenager.[13]