AIZAWL, Sept 2 - Mizo students from different high schools of Aizawl on Monday took a pledge not to marry non-Mizos or �outsiders�.
The pledge was administered by the leaders of the state�s apex students� body, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), which has launched a campaign against inter-ethnic marriages to �protect the Mizo tribals from the danger of being overrun by non-tribals and to preserve their identity and culture�.
Addressing the students, MZP president L Ramdinliana Renthlei said, �Marriage within our own tribal community is one of the best ways to protect our existence. The Mizos are a small community and we are facing the threat of being overrun by migrants from outside the state who could one day become a majority in our state. It is high time that we consider those who are marrying non-Mizos are traitors since they are making descendants of non-tribals to grab rights of the tribals.�
He urged Mizo students to have the feeling of patriotism and make sure that they marry someone from their own community.
Renthlei further said that under the Mizo customary laws, when a girl marries a man from a non-tribal community, she automatically becomes a non-tribal and she as well as her children cannot enjoy tribal rights.
Last year, the Young Mizo Association (YMA), a powerful youth organisation in Mizoram, had demanded enactment of a law to ensure that any Mizo woman who marries a non-tribal loses her scheduled tribe status.
Such a legislation, if enacted, will take back scheduled tribe status of any Mizo woman who marries a non-tribal, it said.
