Chin State
(2000 pop. 532,000). The Chin State in northwestern Myanmar (Burma) comprises some of the least developed hill regions in the country. Formerly governed under the British Frontier Areas Administration, a Chin Special Division was created from these mostly forested highlands at independence (1948). In 1974 the division was politically upgraded into a Chin State, measuring 36,019 square kilometers (13,907 square miles) in area. Consisting of 9 townships and 505 wards or village-tracts, the capital is located at Haka in the northern part of the state. Other towns include Falam, Tiddim, and Paletwa.
With an estimated population of only 410,000 people (1990), Chin State's population density is one of the lowest in Myanmar. Most of the inhabitants are ethnic Chins, although there are ten thousand Rakhines, who mainly inhabit the Kaladan River valley in the west of the state. Other ethnic groups include Nagas and Burmans.
The difficult geography of the state historically has played a dominating role in political and economic life. Many communities live at subsistence level. Despite its borderland location, there are few road or communication links with either central Myanmar or its international neighbors. To the west lies Bangladesh, to the north the Mizoram and Manipur states of India, to the east the Sagaing and Magwe (Magway) Divisions, while to the south is the modern-day Rakhine State. The highest peak is Mount Victoria (3,053 meters [10,200 feet]), which is situated in the southeast near the Magwe (Magway) Division border.
Timber—teak, cane, pine, and other woods—is the state's most valuable natural resource. Economic modernization, however, has largely bypassed the territory. Farming, including swidden (slash-and-burn) cultivation, is the main economic activity for most inhabitants. The principal crops are rice, maize, and millet, as well as local planting of wheat, chilies, groundnuts, cotton, sugarcane, apples, oranges, and other garden fruits. During the twentieth century, attempts were made to increase agricultural production through methods such as irrigation, terraced farming, and the use of fertilizers and insecticides, but the total acreage under cultivation remained low.
In the first decades after independence from Britain in 1948, the Chin State was infrequently disrupted by insurgencies. From the late 1980s, however, ethnic discontent increased, manifested by the formation in 1987 of the Chin National Front—which carried out guerrilla strikes in the Indo-Bangladesh border region—as well as the victory of Chin opposition candidates in the 1990 general election. Demands included calls for greater autonomy as well as the right to develop closer economic and cultural linkages with Chin communities living outside the state's borders.
Further Reading
Images Asia, Karen Human Rights Group, and the Open Society Institute's Burma Project. (1998) All Quiet on the Western Front?: The Situation in Chin State and Sagaing Division, Burma. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Images Asia.
Lehman, Frederick K. (1963) The Structure of Chin Society. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Smith, Martin. (1999) Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. 2d ed. London: Zed Books.
Vumson. (1986) Zo History. Aizawl, India: N.T. Thawnga.
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