KUKI TRIBES

  • TheĀ Kukis are an ethnic groupĀ that includes multiple tribes inhabiting theĀ North-Eastern India,Ā parts ofĀ Burma,Ā andĀ SylhetĀ andĀ Chittagong hill tractsĀ of Bangladesh.
  • The Kuki people are believed to be the native to the Mizo Hills.
  • The Kukis are also known asĀ Lushai, Darlongs, RokhumsĀ and among the Burma boarder they are known asĀ Chins.
  • TheĀ major population of Kuki is in Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Myanmar. However, they are present in all NE states except Arunachal.
  • AboutĀ 50 percentĀ of the Kuki people in India are recognized asĀ scheduled tribeĀ based on the dialect spoken and region of origin.
  • TheĀ Chin people of MyanmarĀ and the Mizo people of Mizoram are kindred tribes of the Kuki and collectively known as theĀ Zo people.
  • InĀ ManipurĀ the Kuki tribe makes up aboutĀ 30 percent of the total population
  • The demand for a separate ā€œKukilandā€ dates back to the late 1980s, when the first and largest of the Kuki-Zomi insurgent groups,Ā the Kuki National Organization (KNO), came into being. The demand has surfaced periodically ever since.
  • The territory of ā€œKukilandā€ included theĀ Sadar HillsĀ (which surround the Imphal valley on three sides), theĀ Kuki-dominated ChurachandpurĀ district,Ā Chandel, which has a mix of Kuki and Naga populations, and even parts of Naga-dominated Tamenglong and Ukhrul.
  • Sections of the Kuki-Zomi community have maintained that theĀ tribal areas ā€œare yet to be a part of the Indian Unionā€.
  • They have contended that after the defeat of the king of Manipur in theĀ 1891 Anglo-Manipur war, the kingdom became a British protectorate, but the lands of the Kuki-Zomi were not part of the agreement.
  • However, unlike the Naga demand for a separate country,Ā Kuki only seeking a separate state within the Indian Union.
  • The Kukiland demand is rooted in the idea of theĀ Zale’n-gam, or ā€˜land of freedom’.
  • Some Kuki-Zomi people, especially the insurgent groups, contest the dominant narrative that theirĀ ancestors were brought from the Kuki-Chin hills of BurmaĀ by the British political agent and settled around the Imphal valley to protect the Manipur kingdom from the plundering Naga raiders of the north

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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