“A portion of my house was damaged by the army in the air strike. My family is still living with relatives in India (in the border town of Zokhawthar),” said Mawia. He returned to his village on November 17 and rebuilt the house, but many from his village will spend Christmas away from home.

But it won’t feel so alien after all.

Myanmar nationals in the border villages are from Kuki-Chin-Zo tribes and share ethnic ties with Indians. The porous border has led to cross-border marriages, business partnerships, and friendships between people from two border villages of India and Myanmar. While the river Tiao serves as an international border, people from both countries are allowed to cross the 496.53 km porous border and travel up to 16 kilometres without a visa for business, according to the free movement regime.

While the political economy of the Mizo-Chin relationship is more complicated than it looks from the outside, shaped by historical disquietude around successive refugee waves and contemporary socio-economic frictions, the Mizo identity has a political life of its own in Northeast India. This identity continues to shape not just the politics of Mizoram, but also the unique lifeworld of the India-Myanmar borderlands, Centre for Policy Research Associate Fellow Anghsuman Chaudhury wrote in HT. Nor is this the first time that Mizoram has jumped in aid for Myanmar's “kith and kin” – as a former CM of Mizoram once said during the deluge that affected over 50,000 people in Chin State in 2015.

Last month, many houses in the Myanmar villages next to the river Tiao were bombed by the military junta after rebel forces took over military posts in those villages. Thousands fled to India for safety and while most of them returned, others who feared a similar airstrike by the junta, remained in India as refugees. This Christmas will see members of families reunite, feast organisers said.

“[My family feels that] it is unsafe to assemble in the churches in our village because it could be bombed. So many people like me will visit the churches in Upper Zokhawthar (which lies in India) and celebrate there. We are more than welcome. The people there are already helping the homeless people of Myanmar, who have come from cities of Myanmar,” Mawia said.

Mawia said many like him will celebrate the festival with relatives in India. “Indian families will come over for dinner to their relatives' houses in Myanmar, the day after Christmas. Christmas in Mizoram is celebrated for almost a week,” he said.

Mizoram residents have donated rice, pulses, vegetables and clothes to the nearly 6,000 refugees living in the five camps spread across the Zokhawthar town. The Young Mizo Association (YMA), an influential civil society group, also donated a pig to each of the camps spread — pork is intrinsic to the diet of Myanmar nationals, who hail from Chin State, one of the seven ethnic states in Myanmar.

In Mizoram’s Champhai town, 45 km from Zokhawthar, a room on the first floor of a defunct industrial training institute building has been turned into a prayer hall. Six rows of freshly polished wooden benches are neatly stacked in two columns — every Sunday, the room comes alive as 300 Myanmar refugees congregate for prayer.

A majority of these residents have lived in this defunct building since 2021 when thousands of Myanmar nationals crossed over after the military coup that took place in February and toppled the democratically elected government under Aung San Suu Kyi. On Christmas Eve, refugee residents celebrated a sumptuous meal.

“Everyone has come together to ensure that the Myanmar nationals do not feel alone. At each camp, there is a feast on Monday (Christmas) and Tuesday. The locals are pitching in with what they can. Every refugee camp has a chief coordinator, who is a Myanmar national. In camps where the young ones need clothes instead of rice or pulses, the coordinator informs the village heads who come with the donation. Christmas is the main festival in Mizoram. Everyone is celebrating,” said Robert Zoremthualga, chairperson of the Champhai district refugee sub-committee. Among the refugees are also elderly people whose sons are part of the rebel forces fighting the military junta.

Medal Thanga, a government school teacher, said that refugees in small groups of around 10-15 are entering Mizoram every day. The state government estimates that before the latest cycle of violence in Myanmar, there were around 30,000 Myanmar refugees in the state. People on the ground say the number is at least two to three times higher.

Thanga, who is in charge of a camp, said, “The number is increasing every day. But the state government, locals and YMA have come together to ensure that not a single refugee is left behind. In our camp (Bethel camp), all refugees will have dinner together. The YMA helped us get a pig for the refugees. It will be cooked in the open in the middle of the camp. The locals will also be joining us. It is because of the locals that the children in the camps have new clothes. On Christmas, we are all one.”

Then some will celebrate the festival in both countries. Brauti (35), a resident of Tiao Khawmawi village of Myanmar, said she would visit her relatives on the Indian side of river Tiao.

“Our relatives are spread in India and Myanmar. When the military junta bombed a portion of my house, our family shifted to India for almost a week and lived with them. As the situation improved, we came back on November 18. Our relatives in India sheltered us during our difficult times. It is only fitting that we celebrate the good times with them too. Ideally, we would have invited them here but because of the political situation here, we cannot. But we will have joint celebrations there (India),” she said.