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MizoThe Mizos are a scheduled tribe in northeastern India, primarily in the state of Mizoram, of which they are in the majority. The Mizos are divided into numerous tribes, the largest of which is the Lushai, which comprises almost two-thirds of the state's population. Other major Mizo tribes include the Ralte, the Hmar, the Paihte, the Poi, and the Pawi. Their languages (of which the largest is again Lushai) belong to the Tibeto-Burman family, and are closely related to those of the Chin in the adjacent Chin State of Burma, as well as those of the Nagas. Kukis and others. Mizos have long complained of political isolation and neglect from India, and these sentiments have fueled aspirations for independence or greater autonomy. The Mizo National Front, which espouses such goals, has become the leading political party among Mizos and is currently the strongest player in the Mizoram government. There are also smaller numbers of Mizos in Burma (chiefly in Chin State) and Bangladesh (chiefly in the Chittagong Hill Tracts). Religion Almost all ethnic Mizos are Christian, mostly Presbyterian and Baptist. They adopted Christianity thanks primarily to the efforts of 19th century British and other Western missionaries. A minority of the Mizos have recently been observing Judaism following the announcement of a local researcher that the Mizos were one of the Lost Tribes of Israel (see Bnei Menashe). Roughly 5,000 Mizos and Kukis, a related ethnic group, have become or are the children of those who began to convert to Judaism during the mid-1980's. The state's powerful churches, which hold great sway over the lives of 750,000 Mizos—who are almost wholly Christian—dismisses this belief. On 1 April 2005, the Chief Rabbi of Sephardic Jews in Israel, Shlomo Amar, recognized the Jewish community as authentic descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The decision coupled with a gesture to send a contingent of Rabbis to India to perform formal Orthodox Jewish conversions. With the conversions, the Mizo Jews, who claim ancestry to the Tribe of Manasseh, would be allowed to move to Israel under Israel's Law of Return.
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