Songpi/New Delhi: Mizoram’s political history is set to get its most comprehensive telling yet with a new biography of its longest-serving Chief Minister, Lal Thanhawla. Authored by noted writer-journalist Sanjoy Hazarika, the book titled ‘Lal Thanhawla: The Boy from Zarkawt and the Making of Mizoram’ will hit stands on August 27, Westland Books announced on Monday.
Priced at Rs 799, the book is now available for pre-order online. Publisher Westland described it as both an intimate life story and a political history of India’s youngest Northeastern state.
The biography is built on two years of research, hundreds of interviews with political leaders, bureaucrats, insurgents, journalists and family members, and rare archival documents from private collections and government records. Hazarika says the book is not just about a man, but about a frontier.
Lal Thanhawla, born May 19, 1942 at the Presbyterian Synod Hospital in Durtlang, started his public life far from the corridors of power. After working as a recorder and then as an assistant at the Assam Co-operative Apex Bank, he was drawn to the rising Mizo nationalist movement. In 1966, he joined the underground Mizo National Front under Laldenga and served as its Foreign Secretary.
His stint underground was short-lived. He was arrested in 1967 on sedition charges by the Assam government and spent nearly two years in jails in Silchar and Nowgong. It was in prison that his political ideology shifted.
Immediately after his release in 1969, he formally joined the Indian National Congress. His organizing ability was spotted early – he became Chief Organiser of the Aizawl District Congress in 1967 and by 1973, at just 31, became President of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee. He would lead the state Congress for 48 years till December 2021, one of the longest such tenures in India.
Hazarika traces Thanhawla’s first electoral breakthrough to 1978 when he won from Champhai on the Myanmar frontier, winning again in 1979. But his biggest moment came in 1984. Riding an anti-incumbency wave against Brig. T. Sailo’s People’s Conference, the Congress under Thanhawla won power and he became Mizoram’s third Chief Minister.
Two years later came the decision that defined his legacy. After Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and MNF chief Laldenga signed the historic Mizo Peace Accord on June 30, 1986, ending 20 years of insurgency, Thanhawla agreed to step down as Chief Minister and served as Deputy Chief Minister under Laldenga in the interim coalition government from 1986 to 1987. Hazarika notes it is rare in Indian politics for a sitting CM to vacate office for peace.
Statehood followed on February 20, 1987. In the first Assembly elections of the new state in 1987, the MNF won. Thanhawla moved to the Opposition. The Laldenga ministry collapsed in September 1988, leading to President’s Rule. In the 1989 polls, Thanhawla returned as Chief Minister, this time with support from the MNF (Democrat) breakaway faction, and repeated his victory in 1993.
The book does not gloss over the setbacks. In 1998, the Congress suffered its worst defeat as Zoramthanga’s MNF swept to power. Thanhawla himself lost his bastion Serchhip to K. Thangzuala and was out of the Assembly for five years, operating as PCC chief while facing corruption charges and factionalism.
He scripted a remarkable comeback. As Leader of the Opposition from 2003, he rebuilt the party and in 2008 led Congress to 32 out of 40 seats, becoming Chief Minister for the fourth time. In 2013, he bettered it with 34 seats, securing his fifth term and ruling till December 2018, making him Mizoram’s longest-serving CM with over 10 years in office.
Beyond politics, Hazarika portrays Thanhawla as a journalist – he was founder president of the Mizoram Journalists Association – a music aficionado, a devout Presbyterian, and a key interlocutor who kept Delhi’s trust during Mizoram’s transition. The narrative follows Mizoram’s journey from the British Lushai Hills district, through the 1959 Mautam famine, the 1966 bombings of Aizawl, the village regrouping, and finally to peace.
Commenting on the book, Hazarika said: “The Boy from Zarkawt is a compelling story that has long fascinated me; I wanted to bring the colour, drama and challenges of a remote outpost on India’s eastern border to a larger Indian audience, mirroring the contemporary history of a tiny state seen through the eyes of its longest-serving chief minister.”
Westland said the biography is essential reading to understand the Mizo peace model, often called India’s only truly successful insurgency resolution, and the political evolution of the Northeast.
