Chin-Kuki-Mizo (CKM) in North East India and Bangladesh
By Dr. Lal Dena One of the worst victims of British imperialism and perhaps the most misunderstood ethnic groups are the Chin-Kuki-Mizo (CKM) people who are found today in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. In India’s North East alone, the CKMs are scattered in all the seven states. Naturally they are known by different names to their neighbors. Those who lived in Myanmar are called Chin and Kuki. The same group of people who lived in different parts of North East India and Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh are known as Kuki while the Chin-Kuki-Lushai inhabitants of the Lushai Hills are collectively known as Lushais during the colonial period. Even the land where these people lived was called Lushai Hills. But now the term ‘Lushai’ was later replaced by the more inclusive term ‘Mizo’, ‘mi’ means ‘man’ and ‘zo’ ‘hill’ (Mizo=hill men) and Lushai Hills was also named Mizoram.