ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to trace the construction of the category ‘Zo’ back to its beginning in order to understand how East India Company men divided them into the Chin and the Lushai, as well as the Kuki. Through a history of the Northearn Arakan and a critical analysis of historical sources, this chapter shows that much of the information used to construct the Zo was based on the early accounts of colonial officers and their informants, on whose reports Company officials put a lot of credence. British colonial officers did not write from first-hand experience but relied on informants who were often un-reliable, misinformed, who often repeated preconceptions and out-dated sources, and whose identity they generally concealed. This chapter shows how this led them to ignore the overarching nomenclature of Zo across all the highlanders of the Northern Arakan Yomas extending from the Chin Hills of Burma, the former Lushai Hills as well as to the highlands of areas within Manipur and the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
