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The British Northeast Frontier Policy and the Kukis-2

November 6th, 2006 + 8:11 AM  ·  haokip

Among the hill tribes of the British Northeast frontier region the Kukis were one of the dominant community. They are, to use Mackenzie’s word, ‘a hardworking’, ‘self-reliant race’, and the only hillmen in their neighborhood who can hold their own against the other powerful hill tribes. The tribes Aimol, Anal, Chiru, Chongloi, Chothe, Doungel, Guite, Gangte, Hangsing, Haokip, Hmar, Kipgen, Kom, Lhungdim, Lamkang, Lunkim, Changsan, Lenthang, Thangeo, Kolhen, Lhangum, Lhanghal, Milhem, Maring, Mate, Mozo-Monshang, Paite, Sitlhou, Lhouvum, Singsit, Simte, Baite Tarao, Touthang, Vaphei, Zou, etc., may loosely be put under one egalitarian ethnic entity called Kukis. They have freedom and sovereignty in their land. Their territory stretch from the Chindwin River in the east, the Naga Hills in the north, North Cachar Hills in the west and the Chittagong hill tracts in the south. Till the beginning of the twentieth century these hills were not largely populated and the Kukis reigned supreme all over these hills and wandered about freely all over these lands.
The Kukis use bows and arrows instead of spears, ready at once to avenge an inroad, and therefore were much respected by the powerful Angami Nagas. The British, as early as the first half of the nineteenth century, recognize the strength of the Kukis and therefore proposals were frequently made in British India Government to utilize the Kukis as a buffer or screen between the timid British subjects like the Cacharis/Kacharis (Bodos, Dimasas, etc.), Mikirs (Karbis) and Aroong Nagas (Zaliengs) and the offensive Angamis. In 1856-57 lands were assigned rent-free for ten and afterwards for twenty five years to any Kukis who would settle in this designated buffer areas and fire arms and ammunitions to be given free by the British Government. Apart from the already settled Kukis in North Cachar, many Kukis from the south accepted free settlement on these terms and by 1860 the colony contained 1,356 inhabitants in seven villages. These colonists had risen to almost 2000 as more immigrants came from Manipur. With the settlement of substantial Kuki population in these buffer zones the British Government stopped supplying arms and the Angamis too stopped incursions in these areas. It was a great relief to the British Government and the weaker tribes like the Cacharis, Karbis and Zaliengs. In 1880 a Kuki militia, 100 strong was raised as a protection against Angami raids and under a British officer this militia was used for more effective control of the different tribes. But with the establishment of the Naga Hills District, the Kukis in these buffer areas were deprived of much of their political interests. The saddest part is that for the past two decades, most of the warring tribes whom the Kukis protected against repeated onslaughts and their possible extinction consider the Kukis as immigrants (even though they are also a migrant themselves) and butcher, instead of recognising their contributions to peace and tranquility in the past.


A Labour Corps was raised by British Government for France in 1916 among various clans of Nagas, Lushais and others, as Colonel L. W. Shakespear mentioned, ‘who willingly came in, having in many cases done this short of work for (British) Government before in border expeditions, and knew the work and good pay.’ In 1917 more Labour Corps were needed and to supply it the British Government felt that it was necessary to draw from other sources, viz the various Kuki clans inhabiting the hill regions of the native state of Manipur, the people who had never left their hills and knew little of British people and their ways. The strong optimism among higher authorities in British Government was turned down at the first attempts. In their repeated attempts to raise Labour Corps among the Kuki clans violence erupted and the world began to witness the Kuki War of Independence in December 1917. The Kukis adopted guerilla and jungle warfare techniques, where the war lasted for one and half year. The war could have still continued had not the British went rampaging the Kuki villages by destroying houses and paddy stocks, finding the weaknesses of a Kuki man who has a great love and responsibility to his family. The Kuki chiefs and warriors fearing an impending outbreak of famine surrendered to the British and this marked the end of the war. Many of the Kuki chiefs and warriors in Burma were imprisoned in Taungkyi Jail while those in the British India, in Sadiya Jail in Assam. The Bravery of the Kukis made Shakespear to comment that the Kuki Rebellion was ‘the largest series of military operations conducted on this side (Northeastern Region) of India.’ An Indian linguist, M.S. Thirumalai, also made an observation that: ‘The 1917 Thadou Rebellion or the Kuki Rebellion against the Britishers is a special and significant event in the history of the Indian freedom movement.’

During the 1930s, British India separated Burma from India and therefore divided the Kukis into two halves. The Partition of British India in 1947 and subsequent political events brought the cutting and restriction of old routes of mobility in the Northeastern region, as well as major demographic mobility shifts: together these two forces give Northeast India the shape and location we see today. Further, there are popular movements after 1947 which attempts to close off and regulate national borders more rigorously than ever before with a goal to defend national territory against foreign threats and to secure national territory against internal disruption that might be fed by forces across the border. All these forces worked against the interests of the freedom loving Kukis, who were segregated into parts (India, Burma and Bangladesh), weakened and restrained their freedom of movement in their own ancestral lands.

The British policy against the Kukis in particular and the Northeast Frontier people in general can be termed as a policy of segregation, exploitation and divide and rule. All these policies were responsible for the indifferent attitude and resentment to the gospel. They have left a number of communities in the region being alienated in their own land, with untold miseries and tears unnoticed. The Britishers were also responsible for the integration of this region into India and putting away from its historical position as the cultural and ecological crossroads of South and Southeast Asia, and making them almost engulfed in this vast Aryan world, neither their voice heard nor their miseries understood.

References:
1. Peter Kunstadter. (ed.). Southeast Asian Tribes, Minorities and Nations. Vol. 1, N.J. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967.
2. David Ludden. Where is Assam? Using Geographical History to Locate Current Social Realities. CENISEAS Papers 1, Guwahati, India: Centre for Northeast India, South and Southeast Asia Studies, 2003.
3. S. K. Chaube. Hill Politics in Northeast India. Patna: Orient Longman, 1999.
4. S.K. Sharma and Usha Sharma (eds.). Discovery of North-East India, Vol. 1. New Delhi: Mittal, 2005.
5. Colonel L. W. Shakespear. History of the Assam Rifles. Calcutta: Firma KLM Pvt. Ltd., 1977.
6. Alexander Mackenzie. History of the Government with the Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier of Bengal. Calcutta, 1884.

Published at Ahsijolneng Annual Issue 2006


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