argument on CLAN : Murlen

I would like to respond to Pu Lian Uk's argument.He said that 'clan' is the defining factor for identifying variousgroups in Chin Hills as one nation living in different geographicalareas. The groups here refer to the people in question - Lai, Zophei,Zotung,Mara, Lautu, Zomi, Mizo (Dulien as he repeatedly used), etc. Of course,he alsomentioned the cultural affinity and closeness we have as well. Let'sdissectone by one: LU - 1. He gave an example of Fachhai (Fachai) clan citingthe case of Dr. Lai-U Fachhai, who originated from Lautu speaking area. Icompletely agree with him when Pu Lian Uk said, even though Dr. Laiu goes toMara geographical area, he cannot disown his clan. He will still be Fachhailike all other Fachhai clans. Absolutely to the point. He also added, "buttheir geographical identity will ever changed." Very true. This statement clearly identifies one thing. That is theexistence of a clear geographical demarcation of different languagespeaking people. So, even though you have your fellow same clan people in onegeographical area - when you move to another geographical area where they speakdifferent language, you need to speak that language. This is also true with many people around the world. If welook closely at European history, we can see that there were many peoplesharing the same last names but belong to different geographical areas. Thereare many identical surnames or last names which can be taken as Clannames from many different geographical areas - England,Scotland, Nederlands, Norway– mostly these people however speak Germanic languages. It was believed thatthey must have spoken Proto-Germanic or Common Germanic language in the past.Possible period is 5th century BC to 1st Century BC. ** we will come back to this point too. Pu Lian Ukalso added, "He cannot disowned his being Fachai clan no matter wherever he andhis descendents are living brcause Fachai come from his ancestry." (Quote as itis). Very true, he cannot and he should never disown them. Thiswill play a very important role in stabilizing relationship between the two geographicalareas of Mara and Lautu too. (I bold the word geographical areafirst coined and used by Pu Lian Uk so that we can come back and seehow this will play a pivotal role in the shaping people living in it). Pu Lian Ukalso said, "Thus in cultural identity he is Fachai no mater how long he is inMara geographical area. Mara dialect isnot Fachai dialect. It is the dialect of Mara geographical area. Marageographical area could develop their geographical dialect. We are not pushingthem to adopt other areas dialect." Pu Lian Ukassumed that there is Mara dialect, we must recognize that this is hisassumption in the first place. Let's try to understand if this is true. It means,Dr. Laiu cannot speak Lautu language which his ancestor might have spoken,because he has moved to "Mara geographical area". So, the question we wanted to answer ultimately is : has Mara(language/dialect) developed enough to be counted as a language or does itremain only a dialect? We will answer this too. His Pu Lian Uk name is usedas LU hereafter. Any paragraph after LU are my response: LU -3. But what we mean is he is not a different culturalgroup from Thantlang and Haka area people. Absolutely, Dr. Laiu is not from a different cultural group.Though due to different geographical location, some sort of differentcultural form may start to appear. LU – 3. They still can practice the same culturaltradition as the people in Thantlang Haka and Matupi townships though theystill can practice their dialect by the people in the Mara geographical areathemselves though it may have minor differences in vowels with othergeographical local dialects of Thantlang Matupi and Haka townships. They don't need to take permission from anyone whether theywill practice the same cultural tradition as the people in Thantlang Haka andMatupi townships. We can see the emergence of different geographical area whichmay start to behave differently from the inhabitants of its adjacentgeographical areas. The same thing happens with Proto-Germanic people. Thoughthey may have the same common ancestor, later on they start to have a cleargeographical area inhabited by different language speaking people. English,Nordic, Dutch, Scottish, they are all from the same Proto-Germanic root. Andthis form of social change too must have occurred among our people. Ourancestor hypothetically must be the same like Germanic languages'speaking people. No social group takes any permission to speak differentlanguages or dialects. It is an inevitable phenomenon which no scholarscan prevent nor will be able to do so. The scholars are merely an interpreterof what is happening, if they do correctly, history will show such and their workswill be highly respected, otherwise, their works too will fade away like fallenleaves that will decay in few months, and they will not be remembered nor beever seen again. This is a historical fact no one can deny. LU – 4. And the Mara dialect could be easily transliteratednot only to Haka Thantlang township dialects as it has a natural way oftransliteration, but it could be transliterated even to Tedim and Duhliandialects too. Very true, absolutely to the point. That's why they aregrouped together under the same language family by linguistic experts andethnologists. Transliteration is always possible between the same language families.Not only Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages but others too. Even those Germanic, Romance,Khmer languages, etc too are like that too. Take any other languages,transliteration has never been difficult. There is always a natural way oftransliteration for those same language family – that's the reason why they areclubbed together. However, being able to transliterate doesn't mean that onelanguage is inferior to the other and vice versa. All Semitic languages toohave the same grammatical structure; we can transliterate them very easily. Butthey remain different languages, if we want to call those Germanic languages asdifferent dialects of German, no one will stop us. The same case happens withGermanic languages. English and Dutch can be done transliteration. But theycannot be called dialects of German language today. If some people wanted tocall English as a dialect, they do so at the risk of being laughed andridiculed at. No one will stop them to do such. English speaking people haveclear geographical area, so does Dutch speaking people. They are called England andNederland/Netherlan ds respectively. LU – 4. All culturalartifacts written in the book " The Lakhers by Parry" on Lakherwhich is changed now to Mara recently are all exactly the same as thecultural artifacts that are also used in Haka Thantlang and other parts ofMatupi township who practice the same culture. It can be true, for they came from the same culturalbackground. Kuki-Chin-Mizo people share many things. As I have establishedearlier, due to different geographical area, some sort of different culturalform may start to appear, more or less it should be the same. But to usewording like "exactly the same" may be a little too much exaggerateddescription. Some sort of different culture could appear. Remember,hypothetically we share the same root like the Proto-Germanic. LU - In language, for person like me and others as adults,all dialects within this same culturalgroup are mutually intelligible in a short period. That is the reasonwhy they are grouped under the same family language by those mentionedscholars. We will take Western Slavic languages as an example,especially Czech and Slovak – these two languages are mutually intelligible. Ihave friends from both the two language speaking people. They watch movies inboth the languages and understand them fully – a good reason for Czechoslovakia until they separated some yearsago as Czech Republicand Slovakia,two different sovereign countries. Likewise, there are many other languageswhich can be understood mutually by both the speakers, that doesn't diminishand decrease the value of one or the other. Both may be two separate languages.Slovakiais not dialect of Czech, it is a language on its own. The question we've raised so far is, is Mara a dialect ofLai hawlh or a separate language. I hope readers to check more on dialects andlanguages. The complexity of our problem is that Zyphe and Mara are very close,so does Lautu and Mara but Mara and Lai is far apart. However, within Marapeople, we have dialects. I don't know if Mara is not a language what will be! LU - Pu Lai U also understands all these dialects as theyare too close to each other. Dialects in Haka cultural people are all thesame in consonants and the difference they have is only in vowels. The name of Pu Lai U can be transliterateeasily as Lian Ukexactly like my name. Many of my relatives in Mara called me Paw Paw Lai U. I may have as many relatives in Mara as Pu Lai U has though our geographical area where we aredwelling are different as Mara local area and Zophai local area. Very true, this shows how close we are. But that doesn'tmean that our languages/dialects can never develop as a mature languages. If welook at the world history, we find that in course of time, many languagesbecome extinct however, some languages survive. LU - All people in Mara geographical area are culturally andin blood very close to and linked to Haka Thantlang Matupi areas people. Many people and clans in Mara geographicalarea are descendants of the ancestry of Haka Thantlang people. All theclans in Mara area like Cinzah(Cangza or Cozah) and Hlawnching, Hlawnceu hengmual, Tthianhlun, have their brothers in Haka, Thantlang, Matupi and Falam townships in Burma. I agree absolutely, we are very close, no doubt about it.Many Germans who have migrated to English speaking countries have a very closeand blood relationship with their counterparts in Germany but we can say they havebecome English due to their new geographical area of inhabitance. InGermanic languages speaking countries they do share the same phenomenon. Today,we have Wagners, Muhlenberg, Schurz, Hoover, etcyou will find them in Germanyas well as other Germanic languages speaking countries like England, USA, The Nederland, etc. Thegeographical area where they live is very important. Even though Hoover is Hooverwherever he goes, but he will identify himself according to the geographicalarea where he comes to live. What's the use for him to keep saying that he is aGerman when he lives in England.Even though he can participate in Germans related programmes and culturalactivities, but you can see the limitations. With time passed by, hisdescendants may say, they have German ancestry. This happens to many peoplearound the world. Most Lai (Pawi) and Mara (Lakher) officers working in innerMizoram, say Aizawl, their children often say my dad was Pawi, my dad wasLakher. We can't help them becoming Lusei speaking people, this is due togeographical area as you have rightly mentioned. I agree that your observationis very true. Geographical area perhaps is one of the most defining factor forany nations or tribes as distinct and unique people. The most important factor therefore, cannot be just languagebut it can be geographical area which will continue to shape the new language(if we may call it). It can become very different from the previous languagethey speak. What we need to understand is that if Dr Lai U is a Lautu Lai whycan't he continue to speak his language when he came to Mara geographical area?The reason perhaps is the people living in this particular geographical areatend to speak different language or dialect which Dr. Laiu can't help speaking.There is this tendency. Since there is clearly demarcated geographical area fordifferent languages/dialects, these continue to develop as time goes by. LU - Descendants of two brothers cannot be differenttribes. Actually Chin people have no tribal system. We only have clansystem and geographical dialectal groups. Descendants of two brothers can be different tribes if youbelieve the Holy Bible and the history of other people. We too are mansocially, so we may have behaved like the rest of the people in the world. Look at Isaac and Ishmael. They are two brothers but what dothey have in common today except that they are the descendants of Abraham! I amnot saying that we will become like them as almost like an enemies that theyhave become today. But for you to say that descendants of two brothers cannotbe different tribes doesn't stand the test of the past experience in humanhistory. LU - The wording "Tribal" is only used by India. It meansundeveloped people degrading those people who are thought to be undeveloped. .People sometimes even comment that India use this degrading term -tribe to oppress he national pride of the North East India people in practicing divide and rule policy on them. We do not have problems how Indians called us using anydegrading terms and words with inferior connotations. All we want isdevelopment at the same time preserving our territorial integrity and alike.. Bybeing clubbed together with the rest of tribals, we have more things to gainthat lose. LU - We request India to have mutual respect onother people which has their own definite and clear cut boundary of territory with distinct culture and language.Chin societies in different nomenclatures have only clans and not tribes. There is also only indigenouspeople in the UN Charter and no wordingof tribe in UN usage. I think our (Mizo) people in Indiaknows how to deal with Indian government at New Delhi. Thanks to you for your concernthough. The set up we have now is satisfactory, if we want more, I'm sure wehave many good leaders who will not take such cases lightly. They will surelygo ahead. The present set up as I said is something we are okay with. LU - There is no area which should monopolize Lai to be theonly name for the area concern as all dialects in Matupi, Haka, Thantlang callthemselves as Laimi, Lia mi, Lemi meaning being the same people from the center of the Universe. Hm, Marasnever called themselves Lia mi - this is very foreign to them when it comes totheir common name. If there is Lai language and the rest are considereddialects then we can see how monopoly takes place. You don't say, but you didit in action. Which one is more dangerous. If all the languages are Lai - thenwe may called them Lai languages. But there will be confusion because there isLai hawlh. Why should Lai hawlh only becomes a language and others will notbecome a language. Who is monopolizing here? I hope readers will judge. Intrying to promote Lai hawlh as a language, you have reduced all other languagesto a dialect. This is very unfair on your part. Perhaps you are afraid that wecan't achieve unity if the rest too are accepted as languages. Zophei may be spoken only in 14 villages (12 in Burma, 2 in India)but Mara is a language spoken by 100 villages/towns in India(40) and Burma (60) and they have differentdialects which they mutually understand. One doesn't need to grow up (become anadult like you mentioned) to learn the different dialects. We understand oneanother. Any language one needs to learn perhaps is not a dialect (for commonman's understanding) . English spoken in USAand Englandare not the same, they are clearly two dialects. Likewise, Koreans in theNorth(Democratic People's Republic of Korea)and South (Korea Republic) LU - Salai STLN seems not to know that all local areas ofthe various dialects mentioned here all have Lai, Laimi for their national namein their respective dialects. I seriosly doubt this. Maras never say they are Le-faw(Ngiaphia) Le-saw(Tlosai) . Like Mizos, they have adopted Mara to be their name.You are trying to justify the word 'Lai' to cover the whole people groups inthis area. In practice it is not. When certain people in Chin states say theyare Lai, it cannot cover the whole people groups living in this area. It is thesame as Hmar (North). Hmar cannot cover Lushais, Paites, and others. Lai(Center) means the center. What about those in the South? East and West? AmongKuki-Chin-Mizo people, Lais were perhaps the most powerful people, who weremore advanced than the rest they had gun (silai in Mizo) first and are proud tocalled themselves being in the center. This however, does not signify theirnational name. Smaller groups like Zophei, only with 14 villages were perhapsall the time the subjects of Lais and since they say too close to them, thereis this inseparable link compounded by political compulsion and othernecessities that they want to accept Lai as their national name. Perhaps,others too can share such identity if they have more things to gain. But theymay never call themselves as Lai. LU - We have to see here Lailenpi is in Mara "Lelaipi". Here "Le" in Mara means Laiin Haka/Falam and other dialects, and"lai" in Mara means "lian" in Haka/Falamand other local dialects. It means "Central or large, and "pi" means grand in almost all the Chin dialects . So it is obvious thatMara geographical area in their local dialect also has for center "Le", and for large "lai", and "pi" for grand. Thus "Lemi" or "Lefaw" in Mara also is Laimi or Laifa inthe dialects of other areas of Matupi, Thantlang Haka/Falam, Tedim and Duhlian.So no group or no area is sub of the other , and no group or area is the mainof the others. They are all equally Laimi or Lemi or Liami at the same time all together. "Liami" is in Lautu for Laimi in Haka/Falam and other dialects. A very good insight. The problem though is Lelaipi is justthe name of a town/village, not a tribe name whereas Lai is a tribe or nationalname as you seem to want to project which we disagree. LU - I can understand or speak all these dialects though Ihave never take special times to learn them. It is such simple and easy Chindifferent dialects. This tells us how close we are and this should always beviewed and taken as an advantage for all future endeavours. However, it takespain for someone like me who doesn't live in sandwiched geographical 'tiny'Zophei area who can hear regularly most of the languages spoken in the area.. Inthis regard Zopheis are blessed people, who can link others. I bet they musthave been a good interlocutors and negotiators in the past for differentspeaking people groups in this part of the world. I do not understand Lai atall, if I learn perhaps I can. But what is more difficult is for any Laispeaking people to understand me. Whenever I visit Lai (Pawi) speaking area in India theycan't understand me a bit. What a dialects! LU - 13. Since time immemorial, before and afterBritish administration, Zathang and Cinzah chieftains coveredruling most of the villages in Haka township, Thantlang township andMatupi township. Lailenpi village which is supposed to be the center ofMara local area was ruled by Zathang chieftains though other Mara geographicalareas like Sabongpi area, Ngaiphaipi area, Capi area were mostly under theCinzah chieftains. Saiha district council area and LongtlaiDistrict council area on India side in Mizoram were also ruled by royalfamilies of Hlawnceu, Cinzah, Zathang and Hlawnching, the names all beingtransliterated from Mara local geographical dialects of the two, Lailenpi dialect and Tlosai dialect. Absolutely, true. The Kings/Chiefswho ruled over much of Mara geographical area were Hlychho (Hlawching),Chozah(Cinzah) , Zawtha (Zathang) shared the same Clans of other powerfulKings/Chiefs of Lai. It cannot be a coincidence. Even though there are moreMara Kings/Chiefs whose clans (Khuhly, Azyu, Bohia, Notlia, Lava, Alapi,Mathipi) may not be found among Lais (Pawis), perhaps they may be found amongother Chins. The reason can be explained inmany ways. Firstly, as we have established earlier, these people are from thesame root. Therefore, perhaps they continue to keep the same clan name whereverthey move. Secondly, Maras were lessnumerous, meaning less powerful in many ways, and it makes sense for them tohave Kings/Chiefs from powerful clans, morever, Mara Chiefs used to marry thedaughters of Lai Chiefs thus forming an alliance against enemies and alsoreduced the chance of one invading the others. Let's take the Duke of Normandy asan example. They were the rulers of what we now know as Norman, French andBritish. They are the same people who ruled in Franceand Britain,due to their smartness and good ruling skills they ruled many countries likethis, but they cannot make them one people. So, when these rulers rule thosedifferent countries – their subjects speak different languages, not differentdialects. They too have to communicate to their subjects in the language of thesubjects. Rulers may keep changing but the language remains the same. Hypothetically let's say MaraChiefs who belong to Cinzah, Hlawnching, Zathang come down from Lai (Pawi) and establishtheir Chiefdom or Kingdom, why should they speak a very different dialectswhich their Lais counterparts cannot even understand them. Perhaps we may saythey were they from the same people group who have evolved to speak a slightlydifferent dialects, as time goes by the difference becomes bigger and biggerand all the dialects including Lai hawlh dialect evolve into what we have todayas different languages. This is a hypothetical assumption like you did for Laisas covering the whole Chin groups. They may share the same clansafter all their roots are the same. But to say that Mara Chiefs are sub-tribeof Lais is not only acceptable but wrong interpretation of the facts. Whatabout we say this way – Lais are the descendants of Maras as you can see the similarities in manyforms? It is unfair for Marasto do the same thing. Lais are Lais, Maras are Maras. Lautus are Lautus, none of them aresub-tribe of the other. The main problem with us is our unifiedidentity – name, we do not have one. Owing to the stated reasons, Maras arenot Lais. I do not know about Zotung, Zophei, Lautu and others. The term Laimi,Lai is unacceptable for our common – unified name for all Chins for Marapeople. As we move down to point no.19 I will explain more. LU - 16. The term "Lai" in many of the Chin dialects includingDuhlian, Tedim and Kuki, comes from navels from which our umbilical cords arecut at birth. It has the meaning of center. All the people who has different geographicalidentities among these different geographical areas as Senthang, Lautu , Zophai, Thor, Khualhringtlang, Vanzang tlang, Zanak tlang, Bual, Zotung,Mara calledthis navel Lai or Le or Lia. Mara of Lailenpi area call it "a le le". T husthey all call their nationalname inrtheirrespective dialects Laimi or Liami or Lemi . It all means the center people. Hm, this one village name cannotbe used by Marasto call themselves as Lai. This does not amount to all Maras calling themselves Lai. A good point toestablish your argument though. The closeness we share in many forms areundeniable and one can establish this view or that view as per he deems fit,but the practical usages cannot be denied. LU - 17. Any people around theworld thus can claim that they are people from the center of the Universe. Butnot many people in the world we know of claim like our ancestors to be the people from the center of theUniverse except Chinain the term Tsungxua also is said to mean people from the center of the Universe. Chinese thought they are in thecenter of the world and Chinaas you'd mentioned stands for that. But I haven't heard any Maras claiming this and calling themselvesLe-faw or Lia-saw. If someone doesn't call themselves, we can't FORCE them. LU - 18. Our ancestors thereforesubstitute Laimi for Chins when the British rulers adopt the Chins for ournational nomenclature in the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 as the first modernconstitution of the Chin territory with which it was ruled from 1896 to 1948till independence of Indiaand Burma.The term Chins in the law was defined as Chins includes Lushai, Kukis, Nagas,Chins in the Chin Hills and any person whoadopt the Chins culture and language. Opposite is the truth. Ourancestors did not substitute but when British rulers must have adopted thisChin name rather than Laimi. Perhaps it was controversial as it is today andthe Britishers must have kept that in mind the fact that it can be monopoly bycertain groups. Even if they have used Lai State,other Chin brothers will not say they are Laimi, but will say I am Lautu, I amMara, I am Zotung, etc while Laimis will continue to say I am Laimi. I hope Idon't need to go too far here. Laimi is the term Mizos will neveraccept, then why we should be so obsessed on imposing using the term Laimi toother Chins. All of us accept that even Mizos are one and the same ethnic groupas others including Lais and Maras.You have even included Duhlian/Dulien as part of Laimi due to your generosityas you try to expand the meaning of Lai to all. But in reality, Mizos willnever accept Laimi as their name. No matter how many doctorate degrees we pileup using such papers, I don't think it will convince anyone in Mizoram. If thatis the case, why should we so obsessed with imposing Laimi to be the NATIONAL namefor all Chins? Laimi simply doesn't cover the whole nor is an accepted name formany including Mizos. You cannot use different yardstick for Mizos and Maras. That's the reasonwhy I said earlier that promoting Laimi being equal to Chin has this hiddenpolitical agenda. We can still achieve this political agenda even if Maras donot say they are Laimi. This should solve some problems. LU - 18. We do not want to imposeon any of the people in the term that Chins should be substituted with Laimi. What you said is far from thetruth you have exposed above. In other words, it soundslike let those who wantto become Laimi become Laimi, who doesn't want will see the consequences. If we clearly say, Laimi is notequal to Chin and Laimi is not an acceptable name for our shared common name,if you keep trying to establish all those wishful assumptions, it is there forall to see that you are imposing it. LU - 18. We accept that our national name is Chins though westill call it in our local dialect Laimi for Chins. The river name Chindwin is given after the Chin people that it waswithin the Chin country. Thus Chindwin is inseparable from the national nameChins and thus Chindwin is for Chins like what Jordanis for Israel and Jordan people. This is a very clever way to impose Laimi for all the Chins.The tragedy among our people is that we do not have this common name contraryto what you wanted to project as Laimi. This is really a sad thing. However,how sad it appears, we need to live through. Thus, when people say Chin, that person can be Laimi orMara, Zotung or Lautu, Senthang, Kuki, etc. It is not necessary for that guy tobe first Laimi and then his sub-tribe name. There is no such sub-tribeespecially for Maras.They are an equal partners and brothers. LU- 19. Thus when thename of the territory of the Chins can be known in several names depending oninwhat language and dialect is it refered to, it is like in the case of Indiawhich is known as Bharat in Hindi and, Hindustan in Urdu and India is the name in alternative in differentlanguages. So, Chins can have severalnames according to the several dialects of the people in the Chins definition. So, do you mean Chin = India, a common usage for Indians andthe world and Bharat/Hindustan is like the national name used by Hindi and Urduspeaking people, will it be Laimi for us? Those Hindi and Urdu speaking peoplehave been calling their country as Bharat and Hindustanrespectively. We Marashave not identify such land to be Lailand or Laimiland or Lairam, we have beencalling our land as Mararah or Maraland. Why Bharat and Hindustanstand tall, because they are used by the people. In SouthIndia, those terms are rather foreign to them. So, we can'tinterprete ours completely based on this model. Your assumption is good but that is only a POSSIBILITY notthe fact used by the people. The MAIN PROBLEM is that we do not have ONE name. This canbe a unique case and it should dealt uniquely as well. These are two different views and opinions, we may AGREE toDISAGREE. We will continue to present our views to our people, they are veryrational people, they will think which view is more acceptable to them. We aremerely players. LU 20. As we see inthe paragraph # 18 above, the term Chins is most inclusive of all thelocal nomenclatures to identify these people and it is also the onlynomenclature that is legally and officially ever recognized by the colonynations of the British Empire which are all now sovereign independent nationsas the UN members and by the international law as the law of the British empireonce in the long lasting history. Yes, very true. We should just use CHIN, not LAIMI. Theproblem is why are you trying then to equate Chin = Laimi then? Laimi is justone part of the greater Chin. For Maras,being Chin doesn't mean they have to become Laimi first. They are Chin alreadyand they don't need to go through Laimi to be Chin. The same goes with otherstoo. LU - 21. It is hoped that those who are educated in legalsense certainly understand the special position of the nomenclature"Chins" for all the people under thedefinition of it given by the Chin Hills Regulation 1896 and the Chin SpecialDivision Act 1948. The Chin special Division Act 1948 is also thestatute of the Union of Burma recognized by the international law as the legitimate law passed by theParliament of a UN member nation, the Union of Burma. True, the word CHIN is, but not LAIMI. LU - 23. If people under the Chin defition ever have the desire to share a singlenomenclature as many people have the opinion on it, what the people under thedefinition of Chins could consider as the first step is: our nationalnomenclature could be either Naga or Mizo or Chins as the three states havebeen each in distinct and definite clear cut boundary of territory and alsoKuki could be one of our national name as the people who accept Kuki as ournational nomenclature could have their clear cut definite boundary of territory in the future. But Not LAIMI. CHIN is an already established word which weall accept so far. But not LAIMI. If we think that for Marasnot to call themselves LAIMI amount for them not wanting to share a singlenomenclature, it is not true. It is not our fault that we are Maras today. It is God's given identity andlanguage. The problem is not with Laimi either, it is God who made things thisway. We accept it or deny the truth, the price will be paid by us. CONCLUSION:I wonder some of us(you) we are so worried that Maras and other Chins arenot Lai dialect speaking people as reflected in your writings. And they mustcalled themselves Laimi. If some groups want to accept that, well we shouldwish them good luck. To tell you the truth, I wish we all speak the SAME languagewith different dialects so that I won't have problem understanding thelanguages whether I travel to Thantlang or Saikao, Lelaipi or Bualpui NG. Butthe reality is not the same. These languages have evolved so differently that Ican't understand them anymore. I need to learn or hear often. If we speak the SAME LANGUAGE it will makemuch more sense for our unity, as a nation we will be stronger with biggerpopulation, the plus points are endless. But just for the sake of that we can'tignore the ground reality. This unique reality must be dealt uniquely as well. The reality is that we speak different languages, fromZophei man view point it may not sound very different but for us it is and wedon't want to cry why God didn't make us to speak English orMizo(Lushai/ Dulien) or Lai Hawlh. We accept what God gives us and we recognizethat in the interest of the larger Kuki-Chin-Mizo group, we always try tocooperate with them. But if such goodwill are taken for granted, Maras will always standfor who they are, why they are and how they are. For any political gain, I believe no one should twist thefact and try to portray if Chin people speak the SAME LANGUAGE. Chin peoplespeak many different languages – such as Lai hawlh, Mara, Zotung, Zophei,Lautu, Zomi, etc. Once again Laimi is not equal to Chin. I have just responded to whatever claims you made. I'll behappy to respond to any other response as I see deem fit. Therefore, these two are two opposing views, that willcontinue to compete.