God’s shadow over Mizoram peace | M.R. Narayan Swamy

BOOK REVIEW

From Guerrilla Fighter to Chief Minister: A Memoir
by Zoramthanga

Penguin/Eight; Pages: xvi + 443; Price: Rs 599

In an age when politicians take credit for everything they do even while spending the tax payers’ money, it is heartening to see a guerrilla-turned-political leader give full marks to God for turning Mizoram from one of the most disturbed regions into India’s most peaceful state.

Zoramthanga, a pioneer of the once feared Mizo National Front (MNF) who was later Mizoram’s chief minister for 15 long years, is not one to turn to God only in crisis. He does so repeatedly in this book, the first authentic account by an insider of an insurgency which jolted India before wisdom dawned on both New Delhi and the Mizo leadership.

Peace did not come to Mizoram easily. Violence plagued the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh and Burma for two full decades during which the MNF befriended Pakistan and China for arms and money. A lot of blood was shed before the Indian military got the upper hand, in part thanks to the then East Pakistan seceding to become a free India-friendly country. The MNF also witnessed discord within, and its bumpy path to peace criss-crossed Dhaka, Rangoon, Beijing, Islamabad, Kabul, London, Bangkok and Geneva.

Like in most places around the world, insurgency took roots in Mizoram over popular grievances, in this case over the region’s economic neglect. The killer 1959 famine led to the Mizo National Famine Front that metamorphosed into the MNF. No foreign hand engineered the revolt; the cause and effect were home-made.

The MNF’s early military strikes were devastating. At one point, almost every district in Mizoram, then a part of Assam, fell into rebel hands barring capital Aizawl. Instead of despairing, Zoramthanga thanks God for this failure. If Aizawl had been taken, millions of rupees in the treasury and a huge arsenal of weapons would have been seized by the MNF. This could have derailed the movement. “Money breeds jealousy, envy and bitter fights – even among close comrades. Perhaps, in a strange way, it was a blessing that we did not succeed.”

Now 81, Zoramthanga returns to the theme repeatedly in his pulsating book. The MNF’s founding fathers, he says, were simple, rustic and poor people – an ex-soldier (Laldenga), a potter, a motor mechanic, a cobbler, one man repaired watches, and another cigarette lighters. “God chose them as an instrument to carry the torch of the nationalist movement.”

Zoramthanga also praises God for Pakistani military dictator Ayub Khan’s refusal to allow MNF fighters to remain in East Pakistan, forcing them to return to Mizoram; otherwise, ordinary Mizos would have cursed the MNF for taking on the Indian army and then fleeing. Similarly, he thanks God for helping hundreds of Mizo guerrillas to escape from East Pakistan after thousands of Pakistani troops surrendered to India in 1971 and find refuge with communists in Burma. He also sees a divine hand that just when the Burmese Reds could not host them anymore, military generals inimical to India seized power in Dhaka in 1975 and let the MNF to take refuge again.

His devotion to divinity is astounding. “Time and again, when the path seemed blocked, God opened a way… The MNF remains the oldest surviving political party in Mizoram, still carrying the torch of nationalism. For that, and for every step of deliverance, I give all glory and praise to the Almighty God.”

Zoramthanga talks freely about the MNF’s long association with Pakistan’s deep state, and the money and weaponry provided by Islamabad and Beijing, at times in collusion. He also refers to the problems with the Inter-Services Intelligence when the Pakistani intelligence agency was not yet the monster it eventually became. His and Laldenga’s adventures with Pakistan (Laldenga lived for years in Dhaka and Islamabad), the secret parleys with the Indian intelligence in Kabul and elsewhere, the ups and downs with New Delhi during peace talks, and the eventual decision to shake hands with India – everything is gripping.

This is a truly memorable autobiography by one who battled poverty while young, and whose life journey took him from obscurity to resistance and from exile to leadership. And for everything he and his comrades achieved, he grants, from the core of his heart, “boundless gratitude to my Lord God”.