India’s North-east is home to numerous tribal groups, many of whom have their cognate groups spread across the international borders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. Official colonial writings are befuddled by the seemingly diverse diversities of these tribal groups. Enumeration of tribes under various colonial projects tends to give various misleading nomenclatures to otherwise one tribe/people making them appear as if they were different peoples. The case of Zo people, commonly known in British colonial historiography as Kuki-Chin-Lushai, is one among them. Considered to be one of the largest tribal groups in South and South-East Asia, the Zo people are now making concerted efforts to transcend these colonial categories to preserve, protect and uphold their unique identity and culture. Unification movement of this kind has immense potential to question and redefine international borders across Bangladesh, India and Myanmar where they are spread. In Zo Chronicles, the author gainfully uses his experience and scholarship to glean rare documents available from exclusive sources including the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK. A pioneering collection of its kind, it provides invaluable information and guide to understand the socio-cultural and political history of the Zo people. It reorients our understanding to the whole matrix of trans-border identity, culture and politics and begs us to explore the larger issue of protection of minority rights engendered by a ‘nation without a state.’ The book will be of interest to students, scholars, researchers and practitioners of history and politics, anthropology and sociology having avowed interest in issues especially of identity, culture autonomy, and minority rights.
There are no reviews yet.