Social Status of Mizo Women

New article name is Social Status of Mizo Women
SOCIAL STATUS OF MIZO WOMEN.
K.LALDINPUII
Sl. Gr Lecturer,
Deptt of History
Govt . Serchhip College, Mizoram.

The Mizos are now living in the state of Mizoram, which lies in the extreme corner of North East India, bordering Myanmar in the east, Bangladesh and the state of Tripura in the west, and Cachar district of Assam and the state of Manipur in the north which provide the only passage to the rest of India. It has an area of 21,087 sq. km, and a 630 km. long international boundary. It is hilly region and the hills are steep and are separated by rivers flowing either to the north or to the south, creating deep gorges between the hill ranges. Mizoram has a pleasant climate, generally cool in summer and not very cold in winter. It rains heavily from May to September, while winter is, of course, rain-free. Aizawl, the capital is 180 kms from Silchar, Assam. Bus journey from Silchar to Aizawl normally takes about 6 hours. Mizoram is now connected by air flights from Kolkata daily and thrice a week (Tuesday,Thursday & Saturday) from Gauhati. .Mizoram has a population of 8,91,058 with density of 33 per sq. km and the sex ratio is 921 females per 1000 males. Currently Mizoram has the second highest literacy rate in India which is 88.49 %.
The Mizos had come from the East and they are certainly of Mongoloid stock.They settled in their present land by about 1730.AD. They speak Mizo language and English.and follow one religion- Christianity .Mizoram , the then Lushai Hills was annexed by the British in 1890. This was followed by the coming of Christian missionaries who played great role in shaping future Mizo society. In the past, Mizos lived in small villages and usually, each village had its own chief.

The study of the socio-economic or political history of the Mizos has been usually carried in a generalized form. Studies of society, kinship, marriage, village structures, economy etc. have been traditionally carried out without gender considerations.
The Mizo family and society is traditionally a strict patriarchal one. Hereditary and lineage pass through the males only. In a family, female members had done all household chores, including carrying of fire woods from the jungles and drawing of water from springs. As soon as a girl attained childhood, she had to help her mother in the household chores including looking after her younger siblings. She was not supposed to roam around as boys of the same age did. The responsibility of domestic works resting solely on women is remarked by J. Shakespeare, one of the Superintendents of Lushai Hills in his work ‘The Lushei Kuki Clans’ when he wrote:
“A Lushai woman has to rise early, fill her basket with empty bamboo tubes and trudge off before daylight to the spring, which is generally some way down the hill. Having conveyed her basketful to the house, she has to work cleaning the rice for the day. The necessary amount of unhusked rice has been dried on the previous day on the shelf over the hearth, and this she now proceeds to pound in a mortar in the front verandah, and window on an oval bamboo till it is clean enough for use. The breakfast of rice has then to be cooked and by the time it is ready, her husband is awake”.
The lines quoted clearly show that men did not help their wives even if they were very busy. Men seldom took part in domestic works. The main reason for them to act like this was because they were afraid of being dubbed as hen-pecked and thus would never lift their fingers to help their wives in any domestic works. On the other hand, men directed their energies towards defence, hunting and building houses.
To show their masculine superiority men hardly spoke to their wives and they infrequently conversed together. Wives were rarely consulted and knew very little of their husbands’ affairs. There have been some Mizo saying: ‘Hmeichhe finin Tuikhur ral a kai lo ( a woman’s wisdom or thought does not reach beyond the other side of the village fountain/spring); ‘Hmeichhe thu -thu ni suh, Chakai sa- sa ni suh (A woman’s word is not a word as a crab is not a real meat or treat); ‘Hmeichhia leh Pal chhia chu thlak theih’ ( Wife and old fencing can be changed) ;’ Hmeichhe vau loh leh vau sam loh chu an nasa duh’ (Unthreatened wife and untreated weeds on the side of the jhum are unbearable).Women were also often subjected to domestic violences and other hardships. They had to face beatings and other abuses especially if the husband was a drunkard. If a husband beat his wife, neighbours hardly interfered as it was against the social custom to interfere in married couples’ affairs since the wife was regarded as solely under the mercy of the husband .However, if the wife sought refuge in a neighbour’s house, it was the responsibility of the father of that house to defend her from her husband but that was also limited only inside his house. In a married life, a wife could easily be divorced by her husband by simply saying ‘ I divorce you’ and she had to leave the house immediately with just her personal belongings - whatever the cause might be and she had no right to claim ownership of her children . Another sad thing in Mizo social custom was that a husband would not be regarded as adulterer even if he had committed extra-marital affairs whereas a wife would be socially punished in a most shameful manner by hanging her clothes and other belongings in a tree at a village entrance so that anyone who saw it understood that the wife had committed adultery while her male partner -a bachelor or a husband- suffered nothing. That wife was regarded as dirty and even if she returned to her parent’s house she was discriminated as she had committed the most serious and shameful social offence. A wife, after obtaining her parent’s consent, could leave her husband by returning the bride’s price her husband had paid at the time of marriage, if she could no longer bear her husband. But this case was of rare occurrence as she would not receive welcome even from her family.
On the other hand, Mizo women took active parts in community life of the society. They participated in various festivals like Mimkut, Chapchar Kut, and Pawlkut. On those occasions even girls took part and along with boys, they collected fire-woods, drew water from village spring and helped in any way they could. On the day of the festival, women folk sang and dance with men and no restrictions were imposed upon them even to the extent of drinking Zu (rice beer ). All these festivals were related to their jhumming cultivation. Women also participated in all special occasions ; for example , when someone died in the village they were assigned to the task of sitting near the dead body and female relatives were supposed to cry over the dead..
In Mizo society, a boy could court girls freely. At night time boys were not supposed to stay at home. They would go out and court any girl they liked. The girl , while cooking for her pig’s food had to prepare and roll meizial (local cigarettes)for all her inleng(boys who came for her) for their next day consumption .The girl must not show special favour or preference to any of her inleng in particular. If any one from her inleng was disappointed because of the above incident happening, he would go to Zawlbuk, collected other boys and smash open the verandah of the girl’s house, even the chief would not interfere in this matter. The girl’s father had to hand out a pot of Zu to appease their anger and would apologize for his daughter’s misbehaviour. On the other hand a boy could and should freely show his favor and preference to any girl. It was of great pride on the part of a boy to be able to have sexual intercourse with a girl where as it became the most degrading social crime for a girl. Before the coming of Christianity, Mizos believed that when anyone died, on his or her way to the place of the dead, a certain very big man called Pawla who had a large bow would try to shoot him or her with pellets. He, however, would not shoot any man who had had sexual intercourse with a woman during his lifetime and contradictingly, a woman who was a virgin all through her life. It is quite clear from this old belief that a woman’s position in society was a difficult one as the boys would always try to have sexual relationship with the girls while the girls had to try their best best to remain chaste and virgin till marriage. Moreover society expected women to be pure and that they should not get involved with any man till they got married. If a girl was found having such kind of relationship with a boy, she was spoken of badly among people and other boys would shun her and even the same boy with whom she had had relationship could despise her. Therefore, women had to follow the norms which men valued of which the society expected of her. Miss Chapman, one of the Christian missionaries in southern Mizoram once wrote “ A woman had no right at all. Body, mind and spirit she belonged from her birth to her death, to her father and her husband. Her men folk could treat her as they liked and a man who did not beat his wife was scorned by his friends as coward”. But this seems to be a bit exaggeration because there were many husbands, even village chiefs who showed great respects for their wives and that not all husbands should not be regarded as violent and harsh. Besides it was a shameful thing for a girl to fall sick as no one would like to choose unhealthy girl for his bride. So in order to find husband a girl had to hide her sickness as far as possible.
In the pre- British period and during the colonial period ,the entire population were agriculturists and every village was self- sufficient. While clearing the jungles for cultivation was mostly done by men, sowing seeds of rice, their staple food, maize and other vegetables were done by women. Women did a lot of hard works like weeding, harvesting and collecting harvests along with men all through the year. Weaving was only regarded as past times for women. Although men were involved in jhum works, they concentrated mainly on clearing the jungle, weeding, harvesting and transferring harvests. On their way back home from the jhum, women had to carry all their tools, vegetables, fire-woods, some leaves for their pigs etc. while men followed them empty-handed. Women were also in sole charge of making clothing for the whole family. Collecting cotton from the jhum, spinning and weaving were all done by women. Pottery was also done by women alone. They were also responsible for domestication of animal like pigs, chicken and even goats.
From the above paragraphs, it is quite evident that though Mizo women did a lot of hard works for the family and the society and also in economic processes, they did not receive due importance which they deserved and they were regarded as inferior beings. They had no right to attain status of their own and they could not maintain dignity of their own Some of the many old sayings which are quoted above clearly reveals the low social status of Mizo women in the past.
The coming of Christian missionaries in 1894 from Great Britain, however, dramatically changed Mizo society. Within a span of 30-40 years the entire Mizo population was converted to Christianity. Missionaries started schools, opened up dispensaries, taught cleanliness and hygiene etc. The first two missionaries James Herbert Lorrain and Frederick William Savidge, reducing the Mizo language into writing by using what TH Lewin had prepared of the Mizo alphabet, slightly modifying and adding some more alphabets ,opened the first Missionary school at Aijal (Aizawl ) on 1st April, 1894 with only two pupils. They also simultaneously opened Bible School. Seven years after the British occupation of Mizoram, the government established their first school on 21st August,1897. Meanwhile, the Christian missionaries paid visits to remote villages and attended to their physical as well as spiritual needs. Such was the status of women in the Mizo society that at first many parents did not find it necessary to get education for their daughters. But that attitude was gradually changed and girls, especially who were too small to work in the jhum were given primary education. Those who got through primary education were further given training on nursing and midwifery. They then became important members in the society. This greatly enhanced the social status of Mizo women. Now Mizo parents were eager to get their children educated. Moreover, some of those who passed primary or elementary education were employed by the missionaries in their mission schools at different villages. This group of educated Mizo boys and girls, salaried as they were, became elites and thereby occupied prominent and respectable status in the society wherever they were.
With their education and religion on western lines, the early elite group started to imitate their mentor missionaries in their life-style, dress and so on. They looked upon the missionaries as their guardian angels. Zawlbuk, which had served as the main centre of public deliberations, was supplanted by churches and in the year 1935 a non- political and non-government organization named Young Mizo Association (YMA) was founded wherein all Mizo boys and girls were admitted as members. Christianity decreased the importance of Zawlbuk to a great extent. Before the advent of the Christian missionaries, Zawlbuk was the nerve centre of all social activities. It served as the centre of informal education wherein customs , social law and ethics were orally instructed. Under the leadership of Mr. AG Mc Call, Superintendent of Lushai Hills (Mizoram ) , a public meeting was held at Thakthing Veng, Aizawl on 1st January,1938 to discuss the future of Zawlbuk. Here it was decided to abandon this institution. Thereafter, the institution of Zawlbuk disappeared into oblivion and only from this time the Mizo boys slept in their homes. Traditional Mizo songs and tunes were replaced by translated English songs and tunes. So far as education was concerned, there was no longer obvious discriminations between boys and girls. As more girls were educated and employed, so also the status of women in the society rose up because, now the men folk found out that women could learn equally as men did. We may say that it was because of education given by the missionaries , followed by the Independent Indian government that revolutionized the whole structure of Mizo society. On the onset of the Indian independence when the Bordoloi Sub- Committee visited Aijal(Aizawl), the capital of Lushai Hills (Mizoram ) on April 17-18,1947, to study and formulate the polical future of the Mizos in free India, we found some educated and politically conscious Mizo leaders including women representatives who appeared before the Committee. This showed that a great change had already taken place in the social status of Mizo women.
As discussed earlier, there has been drastic changes in Mizo society. Now women came forward in matters relating to their welfare and started to take part even in politics. An Organization of women called Mizo Hmeichhe Tangrual Pawl was formed on 16th July, 1946 with a view to promoting the status of women in the society. In the first election to the District Advisory Council held on 15th April,1948, the President of the Mizo Hmeichhe Tangrual Pi Lalsangpuii contested from Aizawl and she was elected and Pi Zami from Lunglei who lost it. This organization also met the Bordoloi Committee separately and put forward their desires. Again when District Council was inaugurated on 26th April, 1952 and followed by election there on ,the above organization demanded two seats for women in the Council . They were , however, given one seat in it. In short, right from the inception of political developments, Mizo women were taking active parts till today.
Changes in the social status of Mizo women has been taking its own course alongwith socio-polical developments. With the spread of education which resulted in good reasoning and the influence of christianity, domestic violence as well as social degradation of women slowly but steadily declined. Equal education gave them almost equal social status. Interests in women’s position in the past has grown as women’s liberation has grown. This may be due to the fact that many women within the society have superseded men in the fields of education, career-building, business etc. and thereby conduct studies in the status of women in the past. In Mizoram today we have more number of women doing business of various kinds, big or small . Girls are tend to be more adventurous and courageous than boys. There are more number of Mizo young girls coming to the plains and even to foreign countries in search of career than boys. So far as general education is concerned, girls topple boys .Recently , in technical education also , there are almost equal number of candidates of boys and girls.
At home also, it is noticeably clear that in today’s Mizo family there is no more distinction between boys and girls. However, having such customary background, boys generally don’t do domestic works even today. It is taken for granted that a girl should clean the dishes , sweep and wipe the floor etc. even till date. But in many cases Mizo girls seem to be enjoying a great privilege in the family. This may be due to great changes that have been happening in the economic and political developments in Mizoram especially in the post- colonial period. Carryng home of fire wood or fetching of water from the nearby stream is no longer nesserary because of development processes . Under Ditrict Coucil government of Assam, which was inaugurated in 1952, only a little number of women joined the government services. When Mizoram was given the status of Union Territory in 1972 ,there opened a great job opportunity in the local government. Here, as there were already almost equal number of educated women to men, many women got government jobs and earn not only living for themselves but also for the whole family. In today’s Mizoram state government offices, we find more number of women employees than men. Same is the case in various educational institutions. As mentioned earlier, if you go to market places in the capital Aizawl today , you will find that almost 95% of shops run by women. Men , unless government employed, are more or less part-time helpers . Thus, women become the economic backbone of Mizoram.
Though women have been playing important parts in the society and economy of Mizoram and enjoy more or less dignity in the society today, there are certain traces of the past traditional practices. Heredity and lineage still pass through males only. However, so far as heredity is concerned, there are now many families giving their daughters shares in their ancestral lands and properties, though sons are supposed to get the lion’s share. The church, which is the nerve centre of social dignity, still do not allow women theologians to be ordained ministers till today, even though they have acquired all necessary qualifications for it. All family properties are registered in the name of the father even if the wife is the one who play greater role in the economic processes of the family. In Mizo custom, in case of divorce, a woman lost all that she had been earning and she could take out from her husband’s house what she had brought in during the marriage . In a dowry-free Mizo marriage a bride take into her husband’s house her bedding, personal clothes and necessities ,Em (a bamboo basket), and in today some suitcases in stead of Thingrem (a wooden box ) of the past, certain number of Puan (under garment woven by both men and women in the past, but now only by women). This Puans are to be distributed among the husband’s family and relatives. In case of late divorce and the wife’ bridal properties being worn out, the wife could take out with her ,besides her present clothings, a Quilt or a Blanket in lieu of her bridal quilt. A ‘not very welcoming practice’ has come into today’s Mizo wedding in which we find daughter of well-to do family taking along with her wardrope, steel almirah ,washing machine, computer etc. as her bridal property which is causing great headache to those family who cannot afford to do so in a very close knit Mizo society. Mo (Bride) is no longer exploited and she enjoy a good relationship with her in-laws. In short, though there are some remnants of social discrimination of women in Mizo society we find emancipated and empowered women in Mizoram today. The present Chairman of Mizoram Public Service Commission is a woman.

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