Aizawl: Unravelling Its Origins

Let's provide a concise explanation of the origin of the name "Aizawl" and the history of its first inhabitants.

Challenging the Historical Accuracy: Reevaluating Henrova as the First chief to Occupy Aizawl:

In 1804, Chief Henrova, who belonged to the Thahdo tribe, occupied an area known as Mission Veng tlang Hriangmual. This historical account was documented by R. Thanhlira in his book "Aw! Zawlkhawpui." Chief Henrova's rule in Hriangmual lasted from 1804 to 1810, marking the earliest known inhabitants of Aizawl based on historical records. Hriangmual is located in Mission Veng, Aizawl, which is now the site of the Synod Conference Center. The name "Hriangmual" is derived from the presence of Hriang trees in the area.

It's worth noting that Hriangmual is not exclusive to Aizawl; it extends to the Phuaibuang Mountain range, situated north of Mawmrang Mountain within the Tuivai River basin. Chief Henrova ruled over Hriangmual in that region. He was the younger brother of Chief Huhena, who governed Phuaibuang. Some writers mistakenly attribute Chief Henrova as the chief of Mission Veng tlang Hriangmualram, but historical evidence suggests that he never set foot in that specific land.

The first recorded occupant of Hriangmual in Mission Veng tlang was Ngâna, the grandfather of Mizo Subedar Pakunga, around the year 1888.

Lalsavunga: Reconsidering the First Chief of Aizawl's History:

Another significant figure in the history of Aizawl is Lalsavunga. R. Thanhlira's book "Zawlkhawpui" mentions that Lalsavunga occupied Aizawl Hill between 1810 and 1821 and hailed from Hlimen village. However, records from the Mission Veng Church History in the Hundred Years suggest that Lalsavunga was present in Aizawl in 1845-4. This contradicts common beliefs that Lalsavunga passed away around the age of 80 in 1840, with some sources even stating that his demise occurred in 1835 in Darlawng tlang. Regardless, it is clear that Lalsavunga, the Sailo chief, is recognized as the first known Mizo chief to occupy Aizawl.

After Lalsavunga the latest known Mizo chief who occupied Aizawl was Thanruma, son of Suakpuilala, the greatest chief of southern Mizoram. R. Thanhlira believes that he occupied it for 10 years. The area between Tuikhuahtlang and Assam Rifles grounds is said to be the settlement of Thanruma.  R. Thanhlira said that Thanruman had left Aizawl three years prior to the Vailian. Here Vailian is the last Vailian which happened between 1889-1890.

The Etymology and Origins of the name “Aizawl”:

Regarding the origin of the name "Aizawl," R. Thanhlira provides an account in his book "Zawlkhawpui." While the exact date of the name's creation and its composer remain unknown, it is established that Aizawl existed prior to the arrival of the British. The name itself is believed to mean "Aichhia and Aidu's place." Despite the mystery surrounding its origins and the possibility that it was not composed by a single individual, the name holds historical significance.

Additionally, Pu Paliana Hauhnar, one of Mizoram's earliest circle interpreters, who began working as a Lushai Clerk in 1907 and later ruled Aizawl as a chief, mentioned that between the Governor's office and the Governor's house, references to Aidu and Aiduchhia were abundant contributing to the name "Aizawl." A well was dug in this location, which was initiated by Mizoram Governor A. Parteons ICS. In 1983, the Governor's residence, Raj Niwas, was referred to as the Governor's Bangla. The well was located on the north side of the north gate of Raj Niwas and primarily supplied water for flowers and vegetables. After Mizoram transitioned into a Union Territory in 1972, the well was filled, and houses were built on the site. Given Aizawl's mountainous terrain, this location likely stood as one of the few flat plains or horizons. According to some elders, numerous Aichhia (wild taro) plants grew in the surrounding valleys. However, the name "Aizawl" and its association with this location remain clear.

Establishing Imperial Presence:

In 1890, Officer Dally of the Assam Police and his 400 men arrived at Aizawl to support Colonel Skinner's troops during a British military operation against the Mizo tribals. On Dally's recommendation, Aizawl was selected as the site of a fortified post that Colonel Skinner had been ordered to construct. The troops constructed stockades and buildings at the site. In 1892-95 Aizawl became accessible from Silchar by fair weather road under the supervision of Major Loch.

In 1890, Officer Dally of the Assam Police and his 400 men arrived at Aizawl to support Colonel Skinner's troops during a British military operation against the Mizo tribals, it was an abandoned village site. The invaders decided that it was a good location to establish a fortified post. On Dally's recommendation, Aizawl was selected as the site of a fortified post that Colonel Skinner had been ordered to construct. The troops constructed stockades and buildings at the site. In 1892-95 Aizawl became accessible from Silchar by fair weather road under the supervision of Major Loch.

On top of a mountain, cleared of trees, with excellent views of the surroundings  and a fairly good water supply, it was a safe position from which to launch  military operations. Equally important was the fact that it was relatively  well connected with the British-controlled plains. A path led down some 20 kilometres to Changsil (or Bepari Bazar), a small trading post on the Tlawng river. This post had been established in the early 1870s and was under the control of Suakpuilala, the chief of Reiek. It boasted a few shops, run by Bengali traders. After the army ‘blasted away the numerous huge boulders which obstructed the river traffic above Changsil’, the market moved upriver to Sairang, 14 kilometres from Aizawl. From here a flat-bottomed boat could take you down the Tlawng (or Dhaleshwari) river to Silchar, the nearest British town in the plains to the north. After some years a bridle path was made, connecting Aizawl and Silchar by the land route; it took 8 days on pony to cover the 130-kilometer distance.

 Construction of a double stockade round the new British stronghold began right away because ‘the clans round [Aizawl] were not exactly in a submissive state of mind’. Immediately it proved relevant because, even before the second stockade was ready, the chiefs combined and attacked both Aizawl and Changsil. It took 4 months to quell the revolt. More military detachments were posted at both places, and the commander of the troops at Aizawl, Captain C. H. Loch, ‘an engineer by inclination, though a soldier by profession’, took charge of construction activities.

Soon barracks came up to house hundreds of troops, as well as a military depot (or quarter guard).Officials moved into newly built masonry bungalows and the hill began to take on the semblance of a settlement.

A post and telegraph office soon provided an essential lifeline to the outside world, but for years there was no money available to make a proper building. The Superintendent who arrived in 1897 observed:

“The Post Office, when I arrived in Aijal was a most decrepit kutcha [non-brick] erection. The Department refused to find money for a stone building, till I sent a photograph of the office to Shillong that shamed the Department into sanctioning the stone building. There was fire in the building once and an energetic fool handed up a tin of kerosene, thinking it was water, to a fellow on the roof who threw it over the flames with no good results.

 Two serious problems soon presented themselves. One was a lack of level ground, an issue all over Mizoram. The troops needed level ground to practise,so Loch decided to flatten a knoll to create a parade ground. Military labour made it possible to take on this huge task, which took 5 years to complete:

The labour for the parade ground was formed by the sepoys [soldiers]. Loch gave out contracts, which were much sought after. To get the spoil away from the tract of the hill to the edge of the ground, the men worked in pairs, one wheeled the barrow, the other filled it, at the spot where the stuff had to be tipped, a Gurkha Officer stood with a bag of paisa and paid for each barrow according to the length of the load.

The money for all this was provided by the Canteen Fund, which was largely produced by the sums which the workers paid to satisfy the thirst produced by their labours. The only cost to government was Rs.1,200/-. The range was also made by sepoy labour. Mostly on Saturdays when every man from the commandant to the last joined recruit put in about 8 hours Kamjarri [work], Loch’s battalion was the only one in which there was never any trouble about Kamjarri, the reason being that there was very little except on Saturdays when every one worked. When the work was done, the parade ground ‘had a sheer cliff of 60 feet or more on one side, and 150 feet of filling in on the other’. The cliff face of this field, now known as the Assam Rifles.

The other issue was that, as Aizawl grew, the water supply became insufficient for the needs of settlement. To resolve this difficulty, the troops were set to work on creating a water reservoir. They created what became known as the ‘crater’. As former Superintendent Shakespear remembered years later:

This was the first effort made in the days of McCabe [Superintendent from 1890 to 1892] to solve the water supplying question. He had a big excavation made in a circular knoll that stood opposite the house, the spoils being thrown outwards. Then he cut a number of shallow drains on the face of the hill below the Assistant Commandant’s house all joining into one channel from which by a corrugated iron aqueduct he carried through the drainage of that hill over the road, into his ‘crater’. The first burst. The Civil Surgeon whose house then stood on the north side of the ‘crater’ complained of the dampness resulting from the experiment. So the aqueduct was removed and the ‘crater’ remained till Cole succeeded me [in 1899], and the road round it was included in his gardens, at least so I have been told. The next effort to improve the water supply was made by Loch and myself throwing a bund across the valley south of his house. This too was a failure for as in the first case the water would not stay, but run away under the embankment. Before I left finally a little water did remain as the  silt filled up the leaks.

The Early Mizo Inhabitants of Aizawl: Tracing the Region's Indigenous Population:

In cultural terms, early Aizawl was a typical colonial garrison town that was not interested in the way of life of its rural neighbours. The small British community – government officials, army officers and missionaries – ruled the roost. They introduced their imperial version of ‘Western civilization’ at a time when Europeans had no doubts about its superiority. They felt that they had a great deal to offer in terms of lifestyle and saw their public behaviour as an object lesson to the natives. In this spirit they would, for example, go out on picnics, dressed in clothes that were fashionable (or at least not too long out of fashion) back ‘Home’ but that must have looked outlandish, misplaced and uncomfortable to local observers.

 The hill people were fascinated by the physical appearance of Europeans:

As soon as they [missionaries Savidge and Lorrain] commenced to cut down the undergrowth, a number of Lushais came running towards them, and squatting down on their heels, watched them with interest, but without offering any help. One youngster, when he thought that Mr. Savidge was not looking, came up behind, and touched him on the heel. When Mr. Savidge turned he ran for his life. Some time later, a more impudent boy lifted up the bottom of one of the missionaries’ trouser legs and shouted, ‘A ngo bawk. Ava mak em.’ And then he too rushed off. Later they discovered that he was announcing the astonishing fact that their legs were white like their hands and faces.

Even though Aizawl was the command centre of British rule in Mizoram, most inhabitants were not British but came from other parts of South Asia. A list of Aizawl people who donated contributions to the World War I effort revealed names from Assam, Bengal, Meghalaya, Marwar, Nagaland, North India and Nepal. By far the largest group consisted of soldiers of the occupying Indian Army stationed in Aizawl. By 1910 there were 777 army personnel in Mizoram: 663 common soldiers, 15 trumpeters, 82 havildars, 9 jamadars and 8 subadars. These troops came from different parts of North India as well as from Nepal, which was not part of the British Empire. Culturally they were very diverse. They followed various religions and spoke many different languages, none of them familiar to the local people: most soldiers were Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims and the primary army language was Hindi. Particularly prominent among them were the Gurkha troops from Nepal. 

Gurkhas would eventually settle down in Aizawl and form a small permanent community there. This was remarkable in view of the fact that one of the earliest British policy decisions had been to declare an ‘inner line’ barring outsiders from entering Mizoram without a permit. This regulation has acted as a fairly effective separator of hill people and vai (outsiders) since the 1870s and remains in force today. Unlike other outsiders, the Gurkhas were permitted to stay on and, as the following images show, they kept their cultural distinctiveness and visibility in town.

In summary, Aizawl's history, marked by its nomenclature's enigmatic origins, unfolds a narrative that interweaves the footprints of early inhabitants and British military presence, offering insights into the city's formative years as a colonial outpost amidst the scenic splendor of Mizoram's hills.

This article is for information only, no part of this writing can be copied/re-written without proper permission from the author and the publishers. 

Reference: 

1. The Camera as Witness: A Social History of Mizoram, Northeast India by Joy LK Pachuau and Willem Ven Schendel, Cambridge University Press.

2. Aw! Zawlkhawpui by Thanhlira

3. "Aizawl hming hi le" by Lalhruaitluanga Ralte, Vanglaini 30th July 2021.