Review of Puia’s Nationalism in the Vernacular: State, Tribes, and the Politics of Peace in Northeast India | P Kham Sian Muan Zou

BOOK REVIEW

Nationalism in the Vernacular: State, Tribes, and the Politics of Peace in Northeast India

by Roluah Puia

Cambridge University Press
2023
ISBN: 9781009346078

Reviewed by P Kham Sian Muan Zou

Roluahpuia’s Nationalism in the Vernacular explains Mizo nationalism, tracing its evolution from the colonial period to its significant impact on India’s national security following the Mizo National Front’s declaration of independence in 1966. The Indian government responded with military action that led to a series of human rights violations. The causes of the Mizo uprising can be partly attributed to the failure of the then-Assam government to tackle the famine. The book examines how Mizo oral culture reconfigured nationalist discourses and contested the state and its coercive apparatus. The book also addresses the “tribal question” in contemporary India by taking the northeastern tribes as a topic of study and questioning the existing greed and grievance theory in conflict studies. Using a qualitative ethnographic methodology based on in-depth interviews, archival analysis and field observations, it examines Mizo nationalism extensively.

The opening chapter reports on a political event in 2018 that saw protests against S. B. Shashank, the state’s chief electoral officer. He was accused of allowing voting rights to the Bru people, which many Mizos believed was a pathway for the BJP to gain power in the state. Roluahpuia points out two important aspects of this protest: it was hnam hnatlang (a nationwide call) to protect the Mizo identity/nation, and the protesters used hnam hla (nationalist songs), which were fundamental to gaining mass support. The author reflects on how the word hnam, variously translated as “nation”, “tribe”, or “clan”, constitutes the very essence of the Mizo people’s identity. He focuses on Mizo oral traditions and how the hla (song) shapes culture and nationalism. This way, national songs could be one mode of political participation that could help comprehend Mizo’s history and identity.

In the succeeding section, Roluahpuia takes us through the issues of tribal integration into the Indian Union after independence. He talks about the Ghurye-Elwin Debate, whereby G. S. Ghurye believed in assimilating "tribes" into mainstream Hindu society, while Verrier Elwin called for an isolation/integration policy for the tribal population. Roluahpuia cites "national integration" as an idea that often marginalizes the tribes as "outsiders"; it not only disregards tribal self-determination over their land but also their rights over resources, which deepened their marginalization since the time of colonialism to date.

It sums up in prose how the tribals felt a dire need for self-government where neither assimilation nor integration policies succeeded. Roluahpuia goes a step further to analyze the integration of North Eastern Tribes, particularly the resistant nature of the Naga community to the Nationalist integration project of India and presents the variations in responses among tribal groups for statehood and its inclusion in the Sixth Scheduled list. Hence, it underlies the continuous tension that national integration policies face vis-à-vis these groups’ particular identity and political aspirations by harking New Delhi to rework its stance towards the nationalism happening along the groups like Mizos.

The book then discusses the rise of nationalism among the Mizo community between 1946 and 1951, a significant period for political mobilization in northeast India. It highlights the Mizo Union’s (MU) critical role in expressing political aspirations and gathering support against colonial governance and traditional chieftainship, demonstrated by the renaming of Lushai Hills to Mizo Hills and the dissolution of chieftainship. The book underscores the importance of party songs in fostering a democratic ethos and promoting MU’s political ideologies, contributing to a unified Mizo identity. The MU’s agenda aimed for autonomy and the unification of Mizo inhabited regions into a single administrative unit, presenting a challenge to existing traditional authority. The growth of democratic politics under MU finally undermined the British indirect rule and opened the way for the establishment of a District Council in place of chieftainship. This story represents how MU played an important role in arousing political consciousness and recasting the modern Mizo identity by adopting the term "Mizo" as the common name of the community.

In addition, one can find a detailed analysis of Mizo nationalism from 1961 to 1965 under the MNF leadership, which emerged as a reaction to the Mautam (bamboo) famine. The MNF’s success in gaining general public support was attributed to factors like wide usage of vernacular songs, print media such as the newsletter Mizo Aw (voice), and writings of personalities like Laldenga in promoting nationalism. It grew from an armed conflict to a declaration of independence in 1966, aiming to incorporate all Mizo-populated territories. Roluahpuia attempts to emphasize that the struggle was fought not only on the political front but also on the cultural and religious front, with Christianity being the major religion that shaped the Mizo sense of self. He believes that Mizo nationalistic expressions in both Lushai and other languages were primarily verbal and performative phrases that epitomized the impact of exposure on the ideology, with songs pinnacle among them during the nationalist movement.

The author further discusses the counter-insurgency strategies employed by India in the Mizo Hills during the 1960s. There were untold stories of human rights violations, including forcible relocation of Mizo villagers into larger settlements to identify the rebels. New Delhi defended its actions and legitimized its use of violence by invoking a "national threat". Likewise, if the state sought to gloss over the human cost, the Mizo people found avenues to stand in opposition and manage to articulate their horrific experiences in an oral form as “rambuai hla” (troubled/turmoil) songs, which themed the consequences of violence and loss of home, on most occasions. The book concludes with the growing rightist nationalism in the world today and its association with India, particularly northeast India.

The book overwhelmingly focuses on Mizo experiences within the existing contours of Mizoram, especially in the northern region and urban centres. Hence, it carries within it the risk of a partial representation of the Mizo political struggle at the cost of the active participation of other kin groups, such as Kuki-Zo and larger geographic dimensions of the movement. Despite these exclusions, the book provides a plausible account of Mizo nationalism in post-independent India and represents an essential contribution toward the recent debate over politics and peace in Northeast India.

(Reviewer: P Kham Sian Muan Zou, doctoral candidate at the school of Law, Governance and Citizenship at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, New Delhi.)