As societies around the world continue to grapple with issues of diversity and inclusion, the Mizo community’s approach toward gender politics and ideas deserves greater attention and understanding.
Despite often being taunted as a liberal yet religious society, I believe that Mizoram offers an interesting insight into how a semi-conservative society in the 21st century deals with its queer minorities.
Although many other societies are conservative, the Mizo society is exceptionally interesting here, as the community, despite being considered conservative in some aspects, is also quite liberal and progressive in many respects. For one, the Mizo politics and idea of a fair government are fairly liberal and lean closer towards a welfare state looked after by a large government.
The Mizo society functions in a way that is not based on status or a strict code of matrimonial practice but rather on a very progressive setup where everyone within a Mizo society participates in every social activity and everyone is also expected to contribute.
The more conservative aspect of the Mizo community comes into play on the religious side of things as Mizo Christianity has matured and has become an integral part of Mizo ideology and practice.
Despite the relaxed attitude in some areas, Mizos, both as a community and as individuals, find the need to protect the tenants and the beliefs of Mizo Christianity.
It appears that the Mizo community has always been this way for much of its history, and this phenomenon of having dual characteristics doesn’t seem to be an innovation. Take the practice of slavery, for example. Mizos practised a form of slavery called the Bawi system even into the 19th century. Everyone can agree that slavery is one of the most backward and evil practices, and the Mizos were practising it until it was banned by the British Empire.
Yet, the Bawi system among the Mizos was extremely liberal and progressive, at least compared to how it was practised in other societies. Bawi and Sal, as it is called among the Mizos while being the property of their masters, were also part of a family. Mizo monarchs were known to frequently give their name to their Bawis, and through this, many Bawis who were technically slaves rose to prominence, some even becoming Lal themselves.
This characteristic of bipolarity among the Mizos was also seen in their treatment of Queer people. Based on historical records and oral narrations we can gather, queer people in Mizoram in the pre-modern era were treated as outcasts and as someone with a disability and it appears that they were also tolerated and allowed to be part of the community as people with “problems”.
Throughout pre-modern Mizo history, there, seemed to have been transgender people who performed roles opposite to their biological genders. One important aspect we must remember, however, is that “tolerance” is the right term here for there was no such thing as respect for queer identity or traditions attached to it nor were there Gay marriage or homoerotic ideas and stories in the Mizo literature.
The queer romance was not seen as something normal, Queer sexuality was outlawed. Yet, historical records and oral histories still seemed to suggest the existence of the third gender within society. This is incredibly interesting considering the rigid social norms the Mizos had in place.
Gender roles are fixed in Mizo culture, and men and women are expected to perform their gender roles, failing of which was a shame, and neither gender attempted to perform the roles of the opposite sex, except again for the queer individuals who appeared to have dressed as the opposite biological sexes and performed roles opposite to their biological gender and were tolerated. An article published in the Wide World Magazine titled “Among the Headhunters of Lushai,” in 1899 provides a glimpse into the lives of the people inhabiting the Lushai Hills.
The article was written by James Herbert Lorrain and Frederick William Savidge, two pioneer missionaries to Mizoram, the article describes a photograph of a person whom the authors refer to as a “man-woman.”
The individual did not shave, but rather plucked out every facial hair and dressed like a Lushai woman, performing what is traditionally considered women’s work the authors described. The authors also noted that the person was the tidiest among the villagers, offering a kind of dark humour that suggests the person appeared most civilised in the Lushai village. The article also mentions women dressed as men across the Lushai Hills.
Although the authors did not give the person in the photo a Mizo title, it is likely that the person was a Tuai, as a decade later, the superintendent of Lushai Hills, HWG Cole, on April 22, 1909, ordered every “Tuai” to begin dressing up as men and perform forced labour like every other Lushai man.
There are claims of non-Queer Mizo men who dressed up as “Tuai” to escape forced labour, but the person in the photo was taken on the eve of British occupation of the Lushai hills, suggesting that he was not one of these “Tuai” pretenders that oral history often mentions.
Whatever the case was, the presence of queer people among the pre-modern Mizos cannot be contested, considering the very existence of the word “Tuai” and a phenomenon called “Tuai khaw fang,” attested by oral tradition, which claims that it was a practice among Tuais to travel around villages in leisure and leech on the kindness of villagers.
We cannot be sure of the purpose of this supposed tradition among the Tuais or the legitimacy of the claim, but it is clear that “Tuai” and “Patil” (Mizo term for a biologically female Queer person) were not in a position of respect, considering the claims that when they died, they were buried facing the ground. It is extremely rare to find mentions of queer people in Mizo oral literature and written history.
There appeared to be no “Tuai” and “Patil” characters in Mizo oral tales; however, this is sometimes challenged and questioned by some Mizo academics. Dr Zothanchhingi Khiangte’s article “Maintaining a Conspiracy of Silence: The Tuai in Mizo Culture” explores a lesser-known version of a popular Mizo folktale and taking from that article we can understand that while there is no direct mention of a “Tuai” person in Mizo folk tales, a line of traditional narrative, for example, claims that Tuaisiala, the younger brother of Liandova from the classic Mizo tale “Liandova and his brother,” was allegedly a Tuai.
Some other oral sources even further suggest that Tuai in his name is to be pronounced the way Tuai (Queer men) is pronounced and that he died while travelling across Mizoram (some suggest he was performing Tuai khaw fang). Mainstream traditions hold that Tuaisiala died in a wrestling match with the young men of a village he was travelling to; however, an alternative traditional narrative suggests that he died as he was violated by a gang of men.
While these alternative traditional narratives exist, we must remember that these narratives could also be an attempt at besmirching Tuaisiala’s name by his enemies, considering the status of queer people in the period.
According to the book Mizo-History by Hrangthiauva, one of the 18th-century Mizo Lals, Lalkanglova, was a Tuai and wore the female puan. Interestingly, the fact that he was a Tuai did not stop him from becoming a Lal.
Needless to say, he was often mocked by other Lals over his choice of dress. (Mizo History by Hrangțhiauva, pg. 170) The practice of cross-dressing and being a “Tuai” in Lushai Hills (Mizoram) was first outlawed by the British, who saw it as a waste of manpower. However, according to some accounts, some innovative non-queer men began dressing up as women to escape forced labour, which became a problem for the British.
The Mizo society remained reviled but tolerant of the queer community, as “Tuais” continued to exist, and are often subjects of conversations, and in modern Mizo society, they have a place as a form of comedic characters. Tuai comedy is a popular form of comedy genre in Mizoram, where the supposed behaviour and action of Tuai are mocked and imitated. The church is not at all supportive of their life choice, but it does not overtly condemn queer individuals aside from teaching that it is wrong and sometimes releasing statements on the “evil of the LGBT movement.”
Still, churches in Mizoram accept Tuais as members of the church, and they are expected to perform church duties like everyone else. The church may, however, discipline a Tuai or a Patil if they openly live with a partner outside of the church mandate, just like the church disciplines people who have eloped.
The church in Mizoram does not have any specific rules or approaches on queer people, they are expected to follow the church tenant and authority like everybody else and are dealt with as per common laws and doctrines.
In modern Mizo society, instances of violence against queer individuals or denying them business happen very rarely, despite their lifestyle being openly condemned. Both the church and society in Mizoram advise people to have a lenient approach towards queer people and help them cure their “condition” instead of calling for their heads. While Tuai or queer comedy, remains a popular genre among the people of Mizoram, there are also attempts to bring out their version of their story and highlight the many genuine challenges, such as depression and discrimination, that the queer community in Mizoram faces. For example, the short film, Eleision by the renowned Mizo screenwriter and film director Raymond Remlalmuana explores the story of two lesbians in love who are trying to commit suicide due to depression.
The film explores how the two dealt with the thought of killing themselves, while one found solace in religion, the other went further into the pit. Interestingly, the film highlights an important modern Mizo idea about homosexuality and queerness: one of being born that way and the other from one’s undertaking, such as losing ways following traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse or the pressure of wanting to be hip and cool. It is an interesting and thought-provoking film filled with visual symbolism and exploration of a much lesser-covered topic in Mizo art, for which it was selected for screening at the prestigious North East Film Festival, Mumbai.
Several “tuai” and “patil” in Mizoram have come out and made a name for themselves in the booming entertainment industry and social media. Although their fame is limited and not having the best reputation, they are followed by a large number of people, most of whom do not agree with their lifestyle, again the Mizo mantra of ‘tolerance’ appear to be at play here.
The rise of modern progressivism and woke culture appears to have had its effect on the Mizos, but the Mizos have their unique approach, that of being conservative and liberal at the same time over many things. It appears that the present arrangement will remain in practice among the Mizos for the foreseeable future, which appears to be working quite well for the Mizo community, after all, no one should tell a community what it must do. Cultures and traditions develop over a long course of history, and they exist for reasons.
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Queerness, despite being tolerated, was never seen as something normal or respected, and we cannot know if all of the claims made by different people surrounding queer people in Mizoram are true. Both the woke brigade and the ultra-conservatives must realize that condemning the Mizos for their approach to queerness and rewriting the history of queer people will not only do injustice to the Mizo people as a whole but also erase the history and story of Mizo queer people.
Views expressed are personal.
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