Mizoram

Mizoram, state (2001 provisional pop. 891,058), c.8,000 sq mi (20,720 sq km), NE India, in the Mizo Hills, bordered on the east and south by Myanmar, on the west by Bangladesh and Tripura, on the northeast by Manipur, and on the north by Assam. The capital is Aizawl. The Mizos, the main ethnic group, are closely related to the Chins of Myanmar. More than 80% of the population is Christian. Mizoram is governed by a chief minister and a cabinet responsible to a unicameral elected legislature and by a governor appointed by the president of India. Once part of Assam state, Mizoram became a union territory in 1972 and a state in 1986. Secessionist factions have been active in Mizoram; before the creation of Bangladesh, India accused Pakistan of aiding secessionist movements in the area. The Mizo rebellion was officially ended by negotiated settlement in 1985. Smaller ethnic groups have complained of domination by the Mizos, which has fueled armed anti-Mizo movements in the state.

Capital 				Aizawl
Largest city 			Aizawl 
Abbreviation 			IN-MZ 
Official languages 		Mizo, English 
Formation 			1987-02-20 
Area 				21,081 km� (24th) 
Population (2001) 		891,058 (27th) 
Density 			42/km� 
Districts 			8 

Mizoram is a state in northeastern India. Its population at the 2001 census stood at approximately 890,000. Mizoram boasts a literacy rate of 89 percent - the second highest among all the states of India, after Kerala.

Ethnic groups

The great majority of Mizoram's population is comprised of ethnic Mizos. The Mizos are divided into numerous tribes, the largest of which is the Lushai, which comprises almost two-thirds of the state's population. Other major Mizo tribes include the Ralte, the Hmar, the Paihte, the Poi, the Mara, and the Pawi. The Chakma, a non-Mizo tribe, is of Arakanese origin.

Religion

Some 85 percent of the population (including almost all ethnic Mizos) is Christian, mostly Presbyterian and Baptist. This Christian heritage is shared by a majority in the nearby states of Nagaland and Meghalaya, and by a large minority in neighbouring Manipur.

The Chakma practice Theravada Buddhism, mixed with elements of Hinduism and Animism.

A minority of the Mizos have recently begun observing Judaism following the announcement of a local researcher that the Mizos were one of the Lost Tribes of Israel (see Bnei Menashe). There is evidence that the so called Bnei Menashe belong to a group of Jews that were converted by Christian Missionaries in the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. Approximately 5,000 Mizos and Kukis, a related ethnic group, began to convert to Judaism during the mid-1980's. The state's powerful churches, which hold great sway over the lives of 750,000 Mizos�who are almost wholly Christian�dismiss this belief.

On 1 April 2005, the Chief Rabbi of Sephardic Jews in Israel, Shlomo Amar, recognized the Jewish community as authentic descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The decision coupled with a gesture to send a contingent of Rabbis to India to perform formal Orthodox Jewish conversions. With the conversions, the Mizo Jews, who claim ancestry to the Tribe of Manasseh, would be allowed to move to Israel under Israel's Law of Return. Although the male side of the group was found not to have ancestral links (see Y-chromosomal_Aaron), the female side of the tribe has distinct Middle Eastern features. The difference between the masculine and feminine sides may be explained by the marriage of one of the mothers of the tribe, who came from the Middle East, to a local native.