Zale'n-gam

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Zale'n-gam" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Zale'n-gam or Zalengam (Thadou-Kuki) dialect for 'land of freedom'), also known as Kukiland is a proposed state by Kuki people, with the intention of uniting all the Kuki tribes under a single government. The proposed state's main proponents are the Kuki National Organisation and its armed wing, the Kuki National Army.^[1]

Zale'n-gam was first proposed by PS Haokip in his book by same name published in 1988.^{[citation needed]} The book has caused discomfort and often increased the rivalry with other communities living in Manipur especially the Nagas with whom Kuki had contested territories and historical rivalry.^{[citation needed]} In the wake of the 2023 Manipur violence between the Meiteis and the Kukis in Manipur, the book gain attention leading to NCSN-IM to issue statement against the claims mentioned in the book.^[2]

The territorial claims of Zale'n-gam encompass a historical region consisting of the territories traditionally inhabited by the Kukis, but which never have had their own state,^[3] including:

• In India: Parts of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and the Karbi Anglong District of Assam.
• In Burma: The Kabaw Valley and parts of Sagaing Division and Chin State.
• In Bangladesh: The Chittagong Hill Tracts

There is also a proposal to create two subdivisions of the proposed state: 'Eastern Zalengam' and 'Western Zalengam', the former within Burma and the latter in India.^[1]

• Kuki Inpi