By IANS,
Aizawl : Kolkata-based Victoria Memorial Hall will publish books on Mizo history and the who’s who of the region in English and Hindi, officials said here Thursday.
“Mizoram Art and Culture Minister P.C. Zoram Sangliana Wednesday visited Victoria Memorial Hall and held a meeting with its director Chittaranjan Panda and they signed an agreement on publication of Mizo history and Mizo who’s who in English and Hindi,” a Mizoram government official told reporters.
According to the official, the Victoria Memorial Hall authority has also agreed to reprint adequate copies of five selected Mizo books containing the mountainous state’s art, culture and ethnic diversity besides sponsoring the famous Cheraw dance troupe of Mizoram in Victoria Memorial Hall later this year.
“Victoria Memorial Hall Trust would also give funds for construction of an anthropological museum in Mizoram and would send technical experts shortly in this regard,” the official added.
Victoria Memorial, built in 1906 in the memory of Queen Victoria and situated in West Bengal capital Kolkata is a prominent tourist attraction.
Mizoram is a mountainous region which became the 23rd state of the Indian Union in February, 1987. It was one of the districts of Assam till 1973 when it became a union territory.
Located between Myanmar in the east and south and Bangladesh in the west, Mizoram occupies an area of great strategic importance in northeastern India.
“Historians believes that the Mizos are a part of the green wave of the Mongolian race that spilled over into eastern and southern India centuries ago. Their sojourn in western Myanmar, into which they eventually drifted around the seventh century, is estimated to last about 10 centuries,” a Mizoram government publication said.
It said: “Mizos came under the influence of the British missionaries in the 19th century, and now most of the Mizos are Christians. One of the beneficial results of missionary activities was the spread of education. The cumulative result is the high percentage of literacy of 88.49 percent which is considered to be the second highest in India.”