Colonial annexation meant that the hill people were now ruled from the plains – an entirely new experience for them. The first few decades after 1891 brought serious self-reflexion and reorientation. They had to adapt to new overlords, new political institutions and new procedures. But most of all, they had to come to a new understanding of their place in the world. This required vigorous cultural adaptation.

They stood at a fork in the road: would they find inspiration for cultural innovation in the models offered by their neighbours in the plains? Or would they reject these and strike out in another direction? They chose the latter path. This was not self-evident. Although the early literature stresses inimical relationships and fear between hill and plains people, there were many longstanding friendly contacts between them as well, notably by means of trade in salt, rubber, cotton, tobacco, fruits, wax and guns. People from the plains sometimes sought and were given refuge in the hills: British sources reported on subjects from the plains fleeing to the safety of the hills and taking part, alongside Mizos, in raids on the plains. Some hill people had adopted cultural forms from the plains, such as elements of Hinduism (among the Bru) and Buddhism (among the Chakmas), but the Mizos had hardly done so. Therefore, for them, adapting to plains models would have been a cultural revolution. They distinguished clearly between themselves and vai – their term for people from the plains, later extended to denote foreigners. Nevertheless, there are indications that some Mizos had an interest in ‘plains models’. For example, an early Mizo Christian newspaper article warned: