Aizawl, Dec. 9 -- Mizoram Art and Culture Minister C. Lalsawivunga has urged scholars to "rethink borders, question colonial archives, and restore the voices of highland communities" ashe delivered a thought-provoking address at the opening of a three-day international seminar at Mizoram University.
In a wide-ranging speech, Lalsawivunga said the histories of highland societies across Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Myanmar and neighbouring Himalayan regions had long been "written not by the people themselves, but by outsiders whose brief encounters created distortions that still colour our understanding today."He said early writings by colonial officials, occasional anthropologists and state administrators were often based on limite...