Dressed in Western formals and topped up with an attractively embroidered waistcoat with traditional motifs, Samuel Haokip left the venue of Chavang Kut in the Churachandpur district of Manipur towards the border town of Moreh. Born and raised in Churachandpur, Haokip, who spent much of his youth in Manipur, found his love across the border in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar. Now a married man in his mid-forties, he serves as a pastor of the Baptist Church of Teijang, a Kuki-Chin village under Homalin township, abutting the Chin state of Myanmar and Manipur of India.
One among several invitees from neighbouring Myanmar, he spent a couple of days indulging in the festivities of Chavang Kut, an annual post-harvest festival of the greater Kuki-Chin-Zo community aimed at fostering fraternity among Kuki-Chin-Zo tribes divided by international borders. Guests from Bangladesh had arrived as well.
It is, however, not a yearly homecoming ritual for him. In 2017 alone, he had driven over a dozen times to Churachandpur to see family, meet friends and for treatment of a medical condition.
Coming home to his parents and going back to his wife’s was, until recently, a smooth process involving showing an ordinary permit at the immigration outpost granted under the Free Movement Regime (FMR) in place along the whole length of Indo-Myanmar border approved by the Indian government and its Burmese counterpart to facilitate movement of people with kinsmen on both sides of the border. “I am a person with one foot in India and another in Myanmar. Both, however, in the Kuki Homeland,” said the pastor with a smile.
Free movement a thing of the past?
An almost seven-decade-old regime, free movement along the 1,643 km stretch of Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh has been permitted by both the post-colonial Indian and Burmese nations, taking into account the unique issue of tribal communities with social, cultural and economic ties who regularly cross over to the other side.
Apart from the small 10 km fenced stretch in the state of Manipur, vast swathes of the border in the other three states lay bare with numbers of formal and informal entry and exit points helping the movement of people and goods.
M. Khiamniungan, 32, from Chiu village of Naga Self-Administered Zone (NSAZ) in Myanmar is a farmer and parent of two daughters. Chiu is the closest Khiamniungan Naga village on the Myanmar side and can be seen at all times from Dan, a border checkpoint and an International Trade Center (ITC).
Like other Eastern Naga tribes, Khiamniungan customary territories extend to the lush hill tracts of the Naga Self-Administered Zone in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar.
While crossing over to the Indian side to partake in extended family gatherings, tending to jhum fields on the other side of the border and buying food and other essential supplies are taken for granted by most Burmese Nagas from the nearby villages.
Khiamniungan recalls one incident which he thinks might have ended badly for his infant daughter had he not been able to get her checked up at the newly ramped up government healthcare facility in Noklak town, the district headquarters of the then freshly declared Noklak district by the Nagaland government which redrew existing district borders to ensure delimitation respecting traditional land laws.
In the summer of 2019, he recounts riding his Kenbo, an all-weather, underbone motorcycle manufactured in China with his severely ill daughter and wife back to Noklak town to seek urgent medical attention for his daughter. “Doctors at the Noklak hospital said had we been a day or two late, my daughter would not have survived,” he said.
Popularly dubbed as Hill Kings, Kenbos are ubiquitous in the frontier hill districts of India, within the range permitted under FMR. In Myanmar, Kenbos are a popular mode of transport in the hill states.
Even for a Kenbo, however, navigating hilly terrain in monsoon is not a small deal. The nearest healthcare facility in Myanmar from Chiu village is situated in Lahe and riding through dirt roads leading up to the town in monsoon is an achievement of sorts.
The Free Movement Regime which has been in place since 1953, starting with the formal boundary demarcations between India and Myanmar, was notified by the Indian government in 1950, in response to the Burmese government’s ruling of 1948 that allowed ‘hill tribes’ undocumented migration up to 40 km into the Burmese territory.
With a porous border, the four hill states see streams of material flow. It’s not just the Kenbos. Mulai, a shopkeeper in Noklak town sells Mikko, a Burmese cereal snack, packets of Burmese cigarettes and other food items that come from across the border.
Fenced Border, Clamped Movement
Three years after Myanmar Junta’s armoured vehicles and tanks rolled into Naypyidaw, announcing a military coup d’etat, the Indian government this year, had decided to abrogate the free movement regime and to fence the border with Myanmar.
The Indian Home Ministry had recommended fencing the border in view of internal security and to check demographic imbalance in the hill districts, said the Home Minister. In 2023, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh requested the central government to expedite the fencing of Manipur’s international border and to freeze visa-free entries amidst the devastating ethnic violence in the state between the Meitei and Kuki communities.
After the 2021 coup in Myanmar and the resistance and violence that came with it, thousands of refugees poured over to the Indian side. These Kuki-Chin-Zo refugees with ethnic ties were sheltered and taken care of in Mizoram and Manipur, who found some respite from Myanmar military’s aerial bombings and scorched earth campaigns.
It must be pointed out that even during peak insurgency-related violence in the 90s and early 2002s, the free movement zone was reduced to 16 km on both sides, down from 40 km of permitted travel previously. But it was never halted.
Education of Nagas in jeopardy?
The Naga tribes in Nagaland and across the border in Myanmar are predominantly Christian and religious interactions are common.
Thumong, 37, a resident of Lahe township of Myanmar and pastor of the Khiamniungan Church in Lahe travels to Noklak in Nagaland often. “I come to Noklak to attend religious congregations, to meet family friends and to shop for goods,” he said.
Over the years, several Christian missions from Nagaland have trekked hills to spread the gospel among their brethren.
The Straightaway Mission school in Dan along the international boundary was established in 2010 and serves as an important educational institute in the rugged hills of the Saramati range at the junction of India and Myanmar. Even though the enrollment of Khiamniungan Naga students from the Indian side is higher than their Burmese counterparts, Burmese Khiamniungans constitute about 40% of the total students.
In the dire absence of English education in the Naga Self-Administered Zone, Straightaway Mission school caters to the educational aspirations of many students from the neighbouring villages in Myanmar as well as students from Lahe, Layshi and Nanyun townships.
Schools in the Myanmar side of Naga Hills are few and far between. “Most importantly, schools here are ill-equipped and understaffed. Moreover, parents nowadays want their children to get an English education” Thumong said. In Myanmar, the medium of instruction in government-run schools is Burmese and English is taught as a subject/foreign language.
Noklak has emerged as a hub of education, after its upgradation to a district in 2018 and immigration from Myanmar, in the form of students has increased. Many, in the previous years, have enrolled at the residential schools in Noklak town. Z. Win, 16, lives with her uncle in Noklak town and attends St. Paul’s High School.
Hailing from Pounyiu village in Myanmar, she speaks fluent Nagamese and English. “I am thankful to my uncle’s family for taking me in and sponsoring my education. Not everyone in my village can afford it,” she said.
Win likes literature and aspires to be a teacher. She also lends a hand to her uncle’s farm fields.
Worried and disgruntled kin
Notwithstanding the Manipur government, Mizoram and Nagaland have voiced their opposition to the cancellation of the free movement regime. In February, the 40-member Mizoram assembly adopted a resolution asking the Centre to reconsider the decision regarding fencing the border, terming it unacceptable. Instead, he asked the central government to take steps towards ensuring the togetherness of Zo ethnic groups in their ancestral land.
Similarly, the Nagaland government had adopted a resolution that said revoking FMR would cause economic hardships to Naga people living on the border as the traditional land-holding system straddles the international border and people cross over regularly for cultivation activities.
Naga Students Organisation, Myanmar (NSO), a student body vocal about social and political issues concerning Naga tribes of Myanmar in a press release stated “Naga people staunchly assert their inherent rights to move freely across fields, farmlands and villages without the imposition of passport or visas.” The organisation warned New Delhi and Naypyidaw that any attempt to control the free movement of Naga people within their homeland would face fierce opposition and robust retaliation.
Tonyei Phawang, the head Angh of Longwa village in Mon district, whose house is divided between two nation-states said the village has 8 jhum fields and two community reserves. Half of each is divided between the two countries. About 6000 people of the village live in two countries but under one Angh and one church, he pointed out.
For Samuel Haokip, the thought of not being able to come home is daunting. For the past year, the formal immigration outpost in Moreh remained suspended due to clashes between the Myanmar military and People’s Defense Groups aided by Ethnic Armed Organisations.
“If we need passports to cross, most of us will not be able to go. Being from Sagaing and an ethnic Chin means navigating through mazes of bureaucracy which, for most of us, isn’t easy. I hope the government will reconsider it,” commented Haokip.
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