Identity

   

The simplification of term Zomi into English is Zo People. Zo people who occupied part of India, Burma and Bangladesh are considered to be indigenous people. Zomi settled down in large part of Churachanpur district, Chandel disrict of Manipur State, India. The brethren, Thado-Kuki especially in India adopted the name Kuki which means hill people in Bengali language. Similarly Zomi in Burma are called Chin initially by the Burmans around 700 AD for the first time, and subsequently by the British. Zomi who live in Mizoram State of India referred themselves as Mizo, although the two terms Zomi and Mizo simply mean "Zo People". Basically Zo people covered the whole Chin State of Burma, the whole Mizoram State of India, part of Manipur State of India called Lamka District, part of Sagaing Division in Burma, part of Chittagong Hill Tracts[2], Bangladesh, part of Rakhine State in Burma. The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about 13,184 kmē, which is approximately one-tenth of the total area of Bangladesh. It is believed that there are about 1 million Zo people in Mizoram, 5-700 thousands in Chin State, 300 thousands in Lamka district or Churachanpur district, and 2 million in the plain areas of Sagaing Division, Magway Division, Chittagong Hill Tracts,[3],and Rakhine State. The numbers of Bawm Zo[4] [5] in Bangladesh is believed to be around 6000.[6]

Zomi who settled down at the central part of Chin State are known to themselves as Lai Zo, because of the central location of their inhabitance. Additionally, the Lai Zo were fond of the idea of exclusiveness from the Zophei, Zokhua and Zotung people. Hence, the idea of dichotomisation was applied by using US-THEM method of segregation for centuries, in this segmentation. The LaiZo, later dismantled the word "Zo" from LaiZo and use only Laimi, however they are very much part of "Zo" or "Zomi". Nevertheless, the word "Laimi" only covers a small numbers of people at the center part of Chin State. On the other hand, the name "Zomi" or "Zo" covers people who called themselves Mizo, Zomi, Kuki, [Bawm] Zo and Chin as a whole.

The southern part of Chin State, Burma occupied by Asho, Cho people, nonetheless, the words simply are the indication of their beings as southern Zomi (Zo People).

 

Source: Taken partially from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zomi