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Zou people (Zo te) | |
|---|---|
 A Zou girl in traditional costume | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Chin Hills (Burma) | ca. 111,000 estimated |
| Manipur (India) | 27,000 (2011 cenus) |
| Languages | |
| Zou language / Zoham / Zoupao | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kuki,Tedim,Paite,Ranglong,Thadou | |
TheZou people (also spelledYo orZo orJo orJou) are an ethnic group, that is anindigenous community living along the frontier ofIndia andBurma, they are a sub-group of theKuki-Zo people. In India, they live with and are similar in language and habits to theThadou people andPaite[1] and theSimte peoples. In Burma, the Zou are counted among theChin people. They are ahill people, "Zou" may plainly means "Hills" denoting the Zous are "people of the hills" or "of the hills", and "Zou" has also a different meaning in Zou language that is "complete" or another word for it is "finish". But, the Zou people believed that they incepted the name 'Zou' from their forefather 'Zou' or 'Zo', believed to be the progenitor of the broad Chin-Kuki-Mizo people.[2]
In India, the Zou are officially recognized as one of the thirty-threeindigenous peoples within the state ofManipur,[3] and are one of theScheduled tribes.[4] According to the2001 Census, the Zou/Zo population in Manipur is around 20,000, less than 3% of the population.[5] The community is concentrated inChurachandpur andChandel districts of Manipur inNorth-East India.[6]
The early history of the Zou people is lost in myths and legends; they claim an origin somewhere in the north,[1] and some claim that they are originally the same as thePaite and were only separated at the end of theBritish Raj.[1] Linguistic and racial evidence suggest the Indo-Chinese origin of the people.[citation needed] Linguists classified the Zou language asTibeto-Burman, with only small differences between Zote and Paite.[1]
The American Baptist missionary,J.H. Cope, made an attempt to trace the pre-colonial history of theChin Hills in a church journal,Tedim Thu Kizakna Lai.[7] The journal (edited by Cope) provides a glimpse of the Zomis in Chin Hills before the arrival of British imperialism. Under the Manlun chiefs,[8]
Zou/Jou is similar to Paite.[1] It is classified as a northern Tibeto-Burman tribe. According toEthnologue, there are 20,600 speakers in India (based on the 2001 Indian census) and around 31,000 speakers in Burma (no source given).[9] TheZou/Zo language is one of the prescribed major Indian languages in the high schools.[10]
The Zou people resisted theBritish Raj and its colonial culture, includingChristian conversion. TheMaharajah of Manipur too did not permit Christian missionaries to work in the Imphal valley. However, a missionary calledWatkin Roberts arrived at Senvawn village in the southern hills of Manipur in 1910. The Zou community did not come directly in contact with any Westernmissionary. While their neighbouring communities converted to Christianity, the Zous clung on to theirtraditional religion calledSakhua. (In the Chin hills of Burma, theSakhua was also calledLawki religion). Thisindigenous form of worship is broadly and not so accurately labelled as "animism" in theethnographic literature. The oldSakhua used to provide a satisfying explanation of the pre-colonial world; but the Zou colonial encounter exposed cracks in the old system. The experience of many young Zomis as a labour corps in World War I made them more open to Western education. The NEIGMission Compound at Old Churachand became the centre of literate culture in southern Manipur since 1930. By the time of India's independence, many neo-literates among the Zous were convinced about the power ofwestern education and medicine, perceiving these things as synonymous with Christianity itself.
The paganSakhua religion was under direct assault in Southern Manipur with the establishment of NEIG Mission at Old Churachand (Mission Compound) in 1930. TheVaiphei,Hmar, Paite andThadou tribes were among the earliest advocates of Christian conversion. Along with the Simte, the Zou tribe was slow in responding to new ideas ushered in by the Christian mission. Perhaps due to theiranti-colonial legacy, the Zous became the last bastion of pagan "Sakhua" in the area. Though cultural rootedness has its own merits, it was a setback formodernization. By the 1950s, there were a handful of Christian converts among the Zous too. But the Zou converts were disorganised and scattered. The new Zou Christian converts joined differentdialectal groups, especially the Paite and Thado Christian groups. Among the intelligent sections of the Zou, there was a strong desire to stem the tide of this social crisis. Their solution was to embrace the local Church Movement by preserving the unity of the Zou community ironically through mass conversion.
Zous today preserve the best part of their traditional culture through their indigenous local church. Their customary laws related to marriage practices have been institutionalized by the church. Their tribal musical instrument (khuang made of wood and animal skin) is an integral part ofchurch music. The Bible translations and hymnals preserved the best part of their traditional vocabulary harnessed to a different purpose. According to K. S. Singh, "The introduction of a new religion [Christianity] has not made any impact on their folk songs, the institution of indongta, and customs related to marriage, bride price and the dissolution of marriage. However, ancestor worship is being abandoned."[11]
Recent scholarship, however, pointed out that Bible translations among the tribes ofNorth-East India have become a victim of dialectalchauvinism.[12] Multiplying Bible translations in closely related but slightly different dialects have canonized and hardened ethnic divisions within the tribal groups of Manipur. For instance, the Zou language itself constitutes dialectal variants like Haidawi, Khuangnung, Thangkhal, Khodai and Tungkua.[13] All these dialects contribute to Zou language in a process of give and take. Nevertheless, Haidawi is usually promoted as the standard literary language in the vernacular Bible and hymnals.[14] Meanwhile, Khuangnung is popular among urban Zou speakers and Thangkhal heavily influences traditional Zou folk songs. Tungkua and Khodai still remain confined to remote villages. The inclusion of Zou as a Major Indian Language (till Standard XII) by the government of Manipur also contributed to the evolution of Zou as a standard literary language.[14]
The Zous in Burma constitute a distinct Zou dialect influenced primarily byTedim Chin. Though the Zous in India and Burma had been using a common Bible for decades, the Zous in Burma recently came up with their ownBible translation. At present, it is difficult to assess the social impact of such translation projects.
In early 1920, Pi Lam Za Vung of Phaitu Village,Tonzang Township,Chin State,Burma (Myanmar) was converted toChristianity byEvangelist Hat Go, and became the firstChristian convert among Zo people. Access to modern education since the 1950s and 60s empowered some Zou women in the "secular" sphere and the job market. But ironically women are still discriminated in the "sacred" sphere of the church on gender basis. The Zou society, despite Christian conversion, still staunchly maintains its old patriarchal structure. The first generation of educated Zomi women, like Khan Niang and Geneve Vung Za Mawi, championed the cause of female education as late as the 1970s.[15] A handful of Zou women (such as Dim Kho Chin, Ning Hoih Kim, and Ngai Vung) graduated intheology in the 1980s. There is limited space for women theologians within the formal church structure which is jealously guarded as a privileged male enclave. The church hierarchy still excludes women from any position of authority and "ordained" offices like that ofminister orelder. Despite the advances made by women in the secular world, a recent study suggests that the status of women has been degraded (not upgraded) within the patriarchal world of the tribal church (cf. Downs 1996: 80–81).[16]
However, women are encouraged infundraising projects where they have made excellent contributions through strategies likeantang pham (handful of rice collection),thabituh (annual labour targets), andveipung (profitable micro-investment).Antang pham remains the main source of fund raising by ladies. The idea was originally imported fromMizoram where women like Chhingtei of Durtlang and Siniboni (a Khasi lady) were instrumental in introducing the practice, sometime in 1913.[17] The money collected by ladies is seldom invested in projects that benefit women as a specific group. Given the inequality of opportunities for men and women, this way of resource allocation is questionable. Recent statistics by the census of India (2001) show a significantgender gap between male and female literacy with 53.0% for female Zou and 70.2% for male Zou. Likewise, the sex ratio of the Zous in Manipur at 944 is lower than the state average of 978 (according to 2001 census). This compares poorly, for instance, with thesex ratio forSimte at 1030 and forVaiphei at 1001 during the same period.
Pu T. Gougin was the best known political leader who hailed form the Zou community. But this political entrepreneur soon transcended the narrow interests of his own 'tribe' to launch a pan-Zo or pan-Zomi solidarity movement to mobilise his co-ethnic members inManipur,Mizoram andMyanmar.[18]
| Mizoram |  Naga woman | |
|---|---|---|
| Nagaland | ||
| Meghalaya | ||
| Arunachal Pradesh | ||
| Manipur | ||
| Tripura | ||
| Assam | ||
| Sikkim | ||
| Kuki tribes including: | ||
| Naga tribes including: | ||