CHIN NATIONAL DAY

By S. Khup Cin Pau

Introduction

Today my theme is One People, One Identity The Chin Christian Fellowship Singapore, (Sayama Betty & Michael) has prepared to celebrate the Chin National Day by singing some old favourites of Mizo melodies, Lai tunes and Zomi songs like Zo Gam and Tun Sung Khat.

For some time I had thought of the need to emphasize solidarity and unity among our people because we have been losing our identity when those who emphasize our Zomi name and those who feel that we need to go on with our historical name lest we will marginalize our identity if we disown the name Chin at this juncture in our history.



What happened on 20 February 1948?

Very quickly let me tell you. This was referendum to find out the people’s choice of government. The Shans decided to let the Sawbwas who negotiated with Gen Aung San to lead them. The Kachins also decided the Duwas also decided those who talked with Aung San should lead them.

We knew that the mass voted with only 19 against. I remember U Khup Khan Thang now in the US writing that they exercise their “self-determination” to vote for the end of the Chief’s customary dues. Was the mass made to understand they were voting to abolish the customary dues that the chief had already decided to give up and the government would give them compensation

The 19 who were said to cast the negative votes were the educated Chins who

attended the meeting and formed an ad hoc committee to advice that the system of having Chiefs and Headmen considered as a system is yet the best for our people in their present state of political consciousness and education as the Shans and Kachins had decided.

The nineteen who signed the advice were ;

Shiah Lwe B.A.,B.Ed., S.T. Hau Go B.A.Hons, Sum Mang B.A., Sang Liana B.A.

Hons, Lal Bik B.E., Dr. Sherman L.M.P, Aung Dwe Thang Sun TTC Thang Cem

Kla Thang, HlunThan, Khai Kho Lian, Swe Zan, Huat Er , Isaac, Lian Kaar Ngun

Uk Htang Mang Tial Dum.

The mass rejected the suggestion of this committee. Whether one calls the day Chin National Day, the day Siah leh Bum was voted out, the day the chiefs had been driven out may be as one sees its significance.

The chiefs Pum Za Mang, Hlur Hmun, and Kio Mang who demanded equal rights for the Hills People and extracted Aung San’s famous bama ta kyat, chin, shan. kachin, ta kyat were defeated.

What did those elected to represent the Chins demand? Dr,Vum KoHau’s excerpts says:

The Chins at Panglong later did not ask for a separate state. They asked in stead for roads and schools and hospitals and the general development of their country(re: the only Private High School in Chin Hillls secretly founded by the Siyins at Thuklai (Fort White)1943: release of tortured Chin BDA prisoners; I did not, repeat not interpret single sentence for anybody else although I took full part of a political League Leader; VKH Remarks and relevant extracts by The Hon’ble Dr. Maung Maung JSD (Yale)LLD, Bar-at-Law, Lincolns Inn. Member Supreme Council, Union of Burma



Dr. Vum Ko Hau added: The reasonableness and modesty won the heart of Bo-gyoke Aung San at Panlong also helped to create a climate of friendliness at the meeting. (attached to the inside cover of Dr. Desmond Kelly’s book, Kelly’s Burma Campaign).



Comment: The Chins got a special division that did not even get its own budget and Gen Aung San’s approval.



If I may be allowed some more time I will discuss some of the problems we have with our unity and national identity:



The name Zo according to Dr. Vumson

I believe the late Dr. Vumson’s Zo History is the source of the belief that the Zo people have been descended by one Pu Zo progenitor and that the old Burmese name of Chin, pronounced Kh’yang, meaning “ally or friend” were speculations of Prof. Luce and Lehman. By claiming that “the word ‘Chin’ is the modern political interpretation and “Chin” meaning basket is the tradition,” Vumson is strengthening his theory of a progenitor Zo as the ancestor of the Zos of today.

The positive amicable history between the Chins and the Burmese by two respect-ed scholars being negated to prove that the word Chin means “basket” needs our serious consideration because of its possible racist tone. Besides, I believe for the sake of racial harmony this “tradition” of ‘smelling basket” should be received as harmless joking that it really is.

Taking it as harmless joke could bring much dividend considering the opposite. After all I have never heard of any Chins or myself ever taunted as smelling basket in all my twenty-seven years of serving among Burmese speaking people. I might mention though, that once a brother officer teased me, Bohmu Khup what kind of chin (basket) are you? The poor guy who rose to the rank of a Brigadier General got it both barrels from me: Yo yo Chin ba, Just an ordinary bamboo basket … the bamboo basket in Bama headgear!

Let us try to get some logical analogies. Let’s think of the analogy of two baskets of figs; one bad and one good. We always talk about the good basket or the bad basket… not the fruits We throw a way the bad fruits, not the basket. There is nothing intrinsically bad about a basket. A basket is never a symbol of evil or shame. In fact we have the pittaka baskets that one stores the scriptures …. Why throw away any basket?


The name Zo I remembered as a child

Although the word Zo applied to people and things in Tedim and Kamhau tract, as in Zo inn, Zo puan, Zo lai when it applied to people it means the sixteen zo clans in Kamhau. They are considered as a separate people distinguished from the Sim te perhps some time some what different so that Chief Hau Chin Khup said in verse:

A mipau in Sim te Zo te ci, Simte Zote ka zua khanpih sa hi

Simte Zo te ka zua khan pih sa hi, Zo leh tang sung lawh a kei niang hi’ng.

The song means that people may talk about Sim people and Zo people but Sim and Zo people are my father’s comrades; and on account of the tributes of the Zo I have enjoyed opulence.

The Zos who made up some sixteen clans of the fifty five clans in Kamhau got

the full benefit of pax kamhaunica and a certain renaissance of songs and dance during

Chief Hau Chin Khup’s time gave us such song and dance as saipi khuk su in the kum

cin vuisai or yearly elephant hunt. However it’ll be wrong at attach too much importance

when some one would describe the Zos as taa zaw or of older civilization or “superior”

to other Kamhau tribes.


Those who want the “Chin’ name

I was once condemned in the Zonet because for not disowning the name Chin.

Throw away the name Chin because it means basket? Where is the logic, the rationale?

All right you throw away the name Chin. Will that stop anyone from calling you basket? Suppose the basket was woven by grand-father or given to you be a favourite aunt?

Tradition is how the military in known by. The 1st Bn Chin Rifles won the Aungan Thuriya, a Thiha thura and four thuras in defence of Rangoon in 1948. Can we say that the 1st Bn Zo Rifles won the honours? Well, is Zo History has So History Save Burma,(p 207) right historically? By the way, the names of Chin Rifles are changed to LIB’s (Light Infantry Battalions). Any one happy?



ZO genealogy

Our Chin genealogies are recorded from memory, well within les than a hundred years. Zo History (p. 57) has ZO the father KIPMANG and CIINHIL with the curious [There may be many generations missing]. There goes the theory that one Pu Zo was the father of all the Zos. In the context of Dr. Vumson’s challenge of Professors Luce and Lehman one must also question his theory of the Zo that may have generations missing between Zo and Kipmang and Ciinhil.



ZO PEOPLE NATIONAL DAY

Now that we should feel no need to throw away one’s name nor feel that one tribe among Kamhau is much older or superior over others we may feel that we are all Zo in some way or another or by choice of name. Thus Lai, Matupi, Kanpet let as well as the plains Chin like the Ashos could belong to the family of Zo. All these amount to those who want to be known as Zomi can be organized accordingly.

Having said that I must say that there are some today who cannot celebrate the Chin National Day because we have adopted the name Zomi to be our “proprietary” name when the Zomi Baptist Convention was founded in 1953 with the aspiration to make the Zo name to unite us who have been known as Chin, Lai. Zomi, Mizo, Asho, Kuki and others.



20TH FEBRUARY 1948

In conclusion I urge you all to think for a while what happened in Falam 62 years ago. That was referendum day for the people to decide what kind of govermnet they wanted to have. I was the first time the people were to exercise their right to vote It is known by the grand words “self determination.” But did the individual understand what they were to decide. Writing about it someone said 5000 voted to end the chiefs’ customary dues with only 19 against.

The nineteen were the educated class who put up a suggestion that “the people ion their state of political consciousness and education having no knowledge should choose the experienced chiefs and headmen. Obviously the majority did not understand and voted for the unknown be rejecting the chiefs and headmen. .

Unbeknownst to them the chiefs managed to wring out the promise from General Aung San that they and fellow hills peoples would get full equity in the new government they would form.



The Chins at Panglong later did not ask for a separate state. They asked in stead for roads and schools and hospitals and the general development of their country(re: the only Private High School in Chin Hillls secretly founded by the Siyins at Thuklai (Fort White)1943: release of tortured Chin BDA prisoners; I did not, repeat not interpret single sentence for anybody else although I took full part of a political League Leader; VKH Remarks and relevant extracts by The Hon’ble Dr. Maung Maung JSD (Yale)LLD, Bar-at-Law, Lincolns Inn. Member Supreme Council, Union of Burma

(attached to the inner Cover of Dr Kelly’s Burma Campaign).


MEMORANDUM of ad hoc committee

1. That the system of having Chiefs and Headmen considered as a system is yet the best for our people in their present state of political consciousness and education.

2. That the following modification in the system to meet many popular demands as maybe made without completely dislocating the administrative machinery be made:

a) customary dues be done away and chiefs and headmen given salary by the Government

b) that the hereditary principle be relaxed so that a chief or headman who fails t command the confidence of the people may be replaced

c) that chiefs and headmen be advised by UPAS (elders)

d) more stringent and effective control be exercise over Chiefs and headmen

3. The chieftainship as a system is not just political and administrative institution but as a social and cultural institution closely linked to our national tradition and customs; and therefore its abrupt abolition is bound to lead to serious dislocation of our social life.

4. the complete abolition of the system, is not justified

5. gradual change directed towards complete democratization of the existing system will serve the best interest of the people as a whole as they 2will be afforded the time and opportunity to politically educated themselves for this end.

Respectfully submitted for serious consideration.


Sum Mang B.A. S.T.Hau Go BA (Hons).
Mr Lal Bik B.E. Mr Shiah Lwe B.A., B.Ed. Sang Liana B.A. Hons Sum Mang B.A. S.T.Hau Go B.A. Hons Aung Dwe Thang Sun TTC Dr Sherman LMP Thang Cem Kla Thang HlunThan Khai Kho Lian Swe Zan Huat Er Isaac Lian Kaar Ngun Uk Htang Mang Tial Dum




Conclusion

Today, known by our choice as Zomi, Lai or Chins we are looking for our an identity. Those who want to disavow the name Chins should ask themselves how they feel because our erstwhile pride, the famous Chin Rifle battalions were no longer called Chin battalions. There is no more tradition or history to remember the gallant role they play in the building of the nation and their defence of the union when it was threatened by insurgents. Those who have served our country as soldiers of course feel more nostalgia than who never knew the story of our own Chin soldiers who were once synonymous with the Gurkhas as soldier’s soldiers. As for the name Chin I see no reason at all to be ashamed of it nor should anyone..



S.Khup Chin Pau 18 -2- 2010 - 1052 hrs