CHAPTER IV

SOCIAL AND POLITY FORMATION

Tl;le preceding chapter emphasised' the way different Naga

segments ensure that. their symbols i3re constantly activated.

Thus, their social control and further expansions are assured.

The importance of the large politico-religious systeJJI3 of

Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist had only a marginal effect upon

them. Again it ,.was the ~itish interference that Buddhist

Burmans could not hold on too long in this region. Therefore,

in this chapter, I am stating how sociological roles and

normative behaviour are explained within their society. That

is, with reference to what was locally understood and.recog­

nised symbols as derived from their. indigenous system. The

centrQJ. thruat of this chapter is to under at and the way the;1r

social structur~ 6nd codes survived' during the pre-British

period. Again, I shall discuss how, their 'motor' of polity

format.ion operated before being 'frozen' by colonial. edmi h1-

strative promulgation;and in what forms traditional codes aro

still ~produced to assert an ethnit: based political art1,.-·

culation for a composite Naga identity in the context of

modern day. political systems.

' The traditional organization of the Nagas can be viewed

as representing ,.four typologies which belongs to two extreme

191

polarities. They are exemplified by the Angami terrace

cultivators on the one hand and tpe Kony ak, Wancho arri

Nocte SWidden agriculturists on the other • Oscillating

between these two polarities are the other Naga segment a,

namely, Ao, Sangtam, Chang, Yimchunger, Khiamungan, Phom

on the one hand and Rengma, Lotha, on the other. Moreover,

Mayon-Monsang,. Anal, Lamkang, Tarao, Zeliangrong and

Tankhul bel.ongs to this third group. The other typology

is the predatory ani non-sedentary semas. In this chapter,

I shall try to reconstruct the pre-British organization of

these typologi.es and also the present day s et~up. The

expansionist politics of Angami ~he Kemevohood) and Konyak y

(Anghdom) types are discussed in detail. This historical

reconstruction involves developments of their symbolic

socio-political systems. As indicated earlier, there are

ecologic~l distinctions within the Naga blocks and ·~be ·

most important influence on their polity was the method of

utilizing their larliscape and attendant stimulus given by

valley kingpoms. The polarities indicates these elements'

as determining factors, for their developments. For ·

example, in the case of Angamis, they inhabites a region

with 800-1200 maters in height wit-h valleys suitable for

terrace cultivation ani gene ration of surplus. Moreover,

a polity expansion was. made poasi}?le by the collapse or

192

Kachari kingdom. The Anghdom of Konyaks were stimulated

by Shan and Ahom polity .formations. Besides these attribut$e,

both these social typologies could manipulate long-distance

trade, which in- turn consolidated their control over internal

trades within specific cultural belts. Beginning with the

recorded history of valley kingdoms-, thee e two polar types

continued to resist expansionist po;ticies of Ahom and

Kachari kingdom right till the time. colonial capitalism

entered Nags territories.

The two polarities o.f socio-political systems can be v

conceptual! sed as given in the chart. The characteristic~

o.f the models will mark out the variations between these I

two types. Again, the other Nags groups are represented v '

I in their specific polar types, ar.ranged according to the

ev()lutionary stage thus conceived. I

!

( i) The Angbdom and its expansion

The highest gradient of polity of Nagas is represent~c:l ;

by the A!:!gh ( KonyakY,- Lowang, (-Noc~e), Wang ( wancho)",

On,gshvet or Oung (Chang), Unger (A~) and Khi-unp;;er of

Yimchun~r. Among them the ideal social organization is the

Anghdom, through which their socio-politi~l processes m6,V

--------- --

Swiaden

-t-

[errc<l.e

0

voL<.<.n.C a.ry .. ,.,.u··w

cu.'Uure

Mt:.Mt r

Pot,'t'f

Ce•..tn-• ...U'•~:-•1.

f:eASt of Menl:

R.eJtr,Gtecl. to ffe<lf'> CJQns ~

+

over ~el"- pot..'t.; 'fr~ 0

0

""""ed 0

0

---~9~~----------------------------1 FIGu ~ e 1 ''' 1\R::...:_I_~,S:::._ _________ _

-....

0

ANGHDOIVf

\ \

I \ A.'-.JGPANG

+ 1'1E.<;ON

I l<f.kHOUIVG \

iJN~ER.j CllvCI-IANG

+ OtJNGSHOUTPOU

CHOI\IGPO 1

l I + \ A>HtSV THIIIIGR.U I I ~~~----~-----T---'

E R.WiJNC/tR.VIo/NG ._f

I I KHU~UWNG I

I

... I rl

I

·t-

0

+o

+

Narr : +-OM 'YepTe.sen~. I 0?1. t4 T,jht prese>Ue of pod.t.~£t.dt:t..,.

I,Qrd. lUcie Ch<Mi 1

inset.

194

be brought out in relief'. The Anghdo~ happens to be a

reference model for translation of political and social

behaviour of a number of Naga segments viz., Phom, Ao,

Yimchunger. Chang and the northern block of Nagas.

For want of an equivalent terminology, Anghdom both

the nomenclature and ideal social organization is used as

it had ceased to redistribute and clearly indicates a polity

different from chiefdoms. The Thendu group is identified

w1 th Anghdoms, represented by Mon, Chui, ·sangnyu, Longwa ahd

Borduria. This group is marked by a rigid stratification \'

system. And their rulers seek the principal wives from

among daughters of equivalent developed Anghdoms. Moreover,

extinct lines of Anghs are replenished by 'importing' from y

friendly and like Angpdoms. For instance in 1952 Langsam

a colony of Chanu was given a wang by Ni annu, this principle

works also for the great Anghdom ~· 7.'he wang of N1. annu

(Arunachal Pradesh) is derived from Sangnyu (Ivlon .district)

which subsequently sent out colonies and expanded either by

means of supplanting Anghs or outright demographic replacement+·

It was also achieved by acquiring trlbutes from villages

by individual _!!!2rungs controlled by H second or third grade

of Angh s, i.e., the Wang sa and Wang:Jhu grades are assigned

to offsprings of hypogamous marriagev and designed for coneQ··

lidation of power through the morung institution within a

village or outside. The nature of Anghdom control is illustrbted

in the charts, thus:

Hereditary An~s

Lesser Anghs from sangnyu

195

Exchan~ of Tributaries · Alliance Forms of Tribute Bride

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Angh Luhpong

= Alih

(Wife of Shinngh.sh Chingnyu)

~yashi a

Niaunu ( ~Ii.ano)

Longzang

ZU (vi nyu ?)

Pumau

Pongchau

Pongchau Ruka

rietti ng

Longphong

Sang sa

Tizit

Longkao

ltanu

Maihur

Pongchau

Langnyu

Langsa

Longzang ) Ruka ) . Wetting ) "' Nyashi a ) * Longphong} Zakko ) Ngangting) Sangsa ) Tizi t )

*Big fishes caught in oomm­unity fishing:Skins of game animals: Grains of paddy during Aoling; vegetables three times a year; once a year a 'cup' of rice. collected from each house-'hold; Mgll's paddy field maintailiecl in all the villages.

Chating l Longkao Wanu ** .Maihua ) Bonia

**Kill pigs in ~s name annually. A peohen l.s presented every tenure of an Angb.

Heredi t.a ry Anghs

Yanliem ~

Chongwang ~

Longwang l

Taiwang ~

Yangwane ~

Khaoba

Ato~= Aluem( wife from

~ Shangha) •

Angh Wangpong (present)= Shensa(wife from Chui)

1-96

ANGHDOM OF MON

Lesser ~s from l-ion/ SUbsidiaries

Exchange of Bride

Pongkang(Phungkong) Chui

Tanai ( Tanh::)i)

Wangla Sangha

Tiru Loq;; wa

Oting Sangnyu

l.ongtem

Lap a

Tributaries Alliances Forms of tribute

Longkai Sheangha Longwa

Lean&nyu

tianpoi

'1\limai

Pokton

Lepon5anpo

Tangken

Mokwak

(Lumpong- 10 maunds shianghah) rice per

annum

of

197

The socio-cultural identity of a Konyak emanates from

being a member of a specific morung hence, tt operates as 1~

sanction for the constituents to offer traditional services

in the form of l ~bour and tri. bute. In 1983, the four

morungs of €hui were a tightly knit system for the purpose I

of offering services to the great Angh. It is at any rate

not an exogamous system but more of a politico-administrative

set up. Besides, the control over subsidiaries of Chui by

the direct consanquin es of ~ enhances his status and

political standing. In the context of inter-polity form~t~.oh

this aspect beCOIJ!es crucial, as for instance, the possibil:H;y

of Chui Anghdom as evolved from a throw out of Ahom pressur·e ,.

is indicated by the marital alliances entered between Wakching

and the Ahom kin~1 • On the other hand, there has been endemic

hostility between them since the 13th. century till the 16th

century, punctuated by mutual plunder-promeades and truce

in order to keep their trade routes open. As in the c;:ase ot

Chui Ang}ldom, the Tobu - Hakjang route was equally essential

for the Ahoms. Iri the later part. of 17th century there appea·r

exchanges of beads, cotton and ornaments from the Aho~s and

gong, ~and spears from the Nagas. '!his is indicative of'

a period of stability between them.

198

The genea:logies of the Anghs approximntes with the

earliest forms of the Ahoms, ho·~ever the nature of Ahom

polity \"'lcS not of a coercive n~ture till the late eighteenth

century, therefore, any attempt at attributing development 2

of Anghdom directly to the Ahom 'stimulus' will be a

misnomer. Both the polities evolved simultaneously but

~n~dom could not attain maturity as the Ahoms did in tpe

later stages. The ecological conditions obviously playEld

a crucial role in this R_roce~s. The Chui Angh and his

councillors were rather vague about his genealogy beyond

Khaoba, they however indicated that Ato, his father was a

namesake of two earlier great-grandfathers who also bore

the same name.· It is interesting to note that the rule

of Ami, the fourth !!!Bh of Chui \"Jas mark~ by the entry

of British into Tamlu, a subsidiary of Chui 's sattelite

village of Wenching. This brought about an indirec;:t me~n s

of curbing further extension and development of Chui

Anghdom which began at least six generations ago • . '!be internal polity expansion was possible through

outright conquest and suplantatiori ofAnghs. Three decades· j

ago in Hangnyu (Sangnyu) a squabble between the deceased

Angh's two sons and his brother ensued for succession to

the Anghdom. Since the eldest son of the !!!gh was still ~

minor his uncle wanted to beco_me Angh with a seizable

199

following to himself. The elders sent in a requ63t. to

~ of Chui £or a pro-tem Angh, the latter however

refused the offer. Consequently, the Angh of Pomau sent

his brother, Ki~ng to officiate Ht Sangnyu. This,

unfortunc.tay 1nc,s going to be a temporc.ry affair, for

misfortunes be sett ed his rule and finall)· Au wang toc.k

over sub~equently. The Anghdom of sangnyu h<-s socio­

cultural attachments with N1 aunu of present. Aruna chol

Pradesh, so also their myth of origin and and migratiort

is common to each other. Pre~ently, Niaunu controls f~ve

villages namely, Ni au sa, Mintong, Zedua and Longphong.

The last one was annexed from Pongchau. At an earlier

stage, Pongchau seceded from Kunn:ru as it grew in polittcal

as well as demographic strength. It is also true in tht'l

case of Kankassa which brc:>ke away from Khanu. The ~

of' Pongchau currently receives tribute fro_m Bonia·, Longph~n~,

Kamhuanoksa, Kamhuanoknu and Kankassa. Interestingly

enough, Mintong of Niau-jan group is a tri but.ary to

Pongchau. Even though Mintong rF!tains its ~links wi,th

Niaunnu (providing en ~ by Nia::unu) political subserviency

is probably determined by the degree of protection that

could be avail a:i o:f by a subsidiary, however, 1 egi timacy

of Pongchau' s political control must come from Mintong' e

retaining of its ~ house comiv.tg in from Ni a.1nu.

200

Bonya (formerly Ngosa) has become a subsidiary and

remains out of Pongchau' s overbear1.ng subjugat.ion, the

former was a part of-the polit:.ico)rj.tual articulation of

Ruka. lbt as a result of an ultimatum served upon her

by Pongchau for out right. merger, the ~ went on exile

and his subjects acknowledged Pongchau' s sovereignty OVe:!r

them. However, a sort of ritual kinship apart from poli­

tical relationship was brought about by means of provicHng

an Angh (Wang' along wLth a ritual expert by Pongchau.

This politico-ritual kinship was. reinforced by presentation

of an uncastrated pig and a cock by Pongchau. However ~~o

~ (,!lang' wa.s not allowed to enter into marital allianno

with a Wangcha henceforth; this is a mechani sn to ensur~

that ~ of Bony a would not produce any pretender to the

official position of Pongcha.l An&!, at a 'latter stage. In

other words, the ruling house of .Bonia could enter marit~l.

arrange.mEilts with the WanFPen group only. The ritual kinship l• t

was meant for the first generation only, implying that t~e

succeeding generation would be degred~d hencefort~1 .;and

1nvari ably debar Bonia to ent.er into any kind of alliance.

with Angbdom' s centre of pOWE'r.

The Angh-s ot· Longkao and Maihua are always from the

Wangsu class, they are loosely supervised by Pumau, \..hlcn

1 n turn is a subsidiary of t.h e Anghdom of sangnyu. Thi EJ

201

would mean that the Wangsu cla:-.s of Longkau, Bonia and

Pumau must seek each other in contract.ing marriages.

The ~of Banfera ( Wancho) is the eldest brother of

Vlanu' s ~ and the 1 atter is a tributary of Sangnyu

( Kony ak) Anf.hdom. The \'/anchc s though cannot reckon the

time of their migration to the present habitat, i.ndicatea

five clans as th sir ori gi.nal clans viz, Ral ang, Ar ang,

Pongl a, Nivamik and Yangyo. At a point of time the Rall!M

clan seems to have attained the position of ~ (\'iang) ..

Their earliest settlement 1 s said to be Wanu. The lianghfll!l

(Angh) family migrated at a later stage and imposed An&b (~)authority upon the Wanchos.

From an evolutionary point of vi f!!tl, most of tb e

1 esser Anehs are potential great Anghdoms and upon attaiiu~ant

of such a state, the class character of their Anghs are

stressed as to restrict others to evolve and usirp 'power. -· I

Ill this respe~, Tang is a case in. point. At one point· ' ~ .

of time, Tang Anghdom rose to the strength of present

Anghdoms of Sangnyu, Sheangha, Mon and Chui. Their head . l

hunting grounds are said to have been the Sheangha, Mon

Chen, Chui and Sheong .Angdoms· It als:> had four tributc;,z·ies

then, namely, Sheangha and Longv.a to name two important

Anghdoms as of now. These two numerically outstripped

Tang and seceded. Later on Longwa rose to strength as ah

202

Anghdom. Presently 1 t 1 s in receipt of tributes from six

villages ¥deb lies beyond the administrative jur.l.sdiction

of Nagaland stat.e, i.e., in Burma. These villages ar€

namely, Hoy at; Choil ew, Longhe, Khcnmoi, l.ongwi. and Longwa

Chingnyu. Accidentally the Indo-Burmese boundary runs

right across Longwa village, however, traditional politico­

administrat1v e writ of Longwa still persist. s.

kncng the Konyaks their Tenkoh· group is represented

by a non-rigid stratification system. Basically, these

are either potential or broken Angj'ldom~. In most of thr~.t'

villages a number of fallen Angh families are consigned

to the~ class. It is best exemplified by Chow ( Towhlit)

village and ·its kinship composi t.ion thus:

Chenwangl.em ((.'hen,~ clan)

Wetorhu (offsprings of weto)

Yahorbu (offsprings of Yaho)

Kai-hilem

Lamlem

Yanwalem

Pangnyei rhu( offspring of Pangny ei) Melul em

Mokl ao 1 em ( Mokl ao cl an) Akanglem (~rom·Anghbapg) I

I was informed that most of the .!!,en cl~_ss is composed of

~families from other villages• This would be explaine4

by the oscilliation between Rhu ('offsprings') and ~

('clans') in both the classes• T:t1e latter w.:.s indicated

203

to be of ~ clasS of now non-identifiable villages or

rather tber would like to keep it that way. This submerged

pr.J.nciple.becomes a dominant fceature in the peripheral

regions of the Ang}ldoms especially in the Tengkoh group

of villages.

( a) ANGBANG OF PHOM SEGMENT

Besides the attempts made by Nocte Lowang for acqui.ri ng

a non-Naga politico-ritual legitimacy of their standin~; oe.

indicated in chapter II; the polity expansion and extension

of' the Angbdom of Chui based on an indigenous fo .rm offer~

the best example of polity formstion of this typology.

The Anghdom of Chui has developed a polity that can be

said to have already advanced beyond the redistribution o£

wealth and butteressed by the expediency of. claiming. a

'royal' status f'or their Anghs. Besides this they. alsO

extended their politico-ritual form to other adjac·~t

Naga groups, namely, the Phcm and ~ngs. Ana in a lesser I

degree to the Ao, Yimchunger and Sfingt.ams.

The Phom segmmt is formed of twenty five villages which·

lies in the second important trade' route as indicated· earii er.

The belong to a welter of sub-segments, ill, Yaong•Yachsn

(Ao); Aokching (Chang); Tamlu (Konyak) and dominated by

Hakpang village. Besides, the Piyong mount was equally

204

important to Chui Anghdom £or acquis~ion o£ ritually

sancti£i ed Mithun as was to the Ao~. The politico­

demographic composition of Tamlu village exemplifies

Chui Angpoms polity extension. Tamlu was sent an Angh apd 0

his retinue by wan chi ng (a au bsidia ry o£ Chui1 and they

form the present ~ sector comprising o£ fourty house··

holds; another group migrated £rom the Tan a bang sector o.f

Yongya village to establish the Tanha sector and subseqllent

migrations forms the Mangl. embang sector ( 'facing the pl aina t) •

The Angh clans in Taml.u are namely, Chaman~ and Yanlem, while

the Tanha sector's cl8l s are mostly o£ Shikapon"' ~'

.Noklani and Ungtumbu.

As one moves £urther away from Chui, a sharp distinction '

among the constituents emerge in the political £orm. For

instance, in Kanching there are two sectors, namely, KhanW!, I

('those who came across Dikhu') and Vqgeang (~sector).

The former is inhabited by the lineages o£ Ailing (•foremost');

Munkbao ( 'Mukhao of£ springs') Oungb: and Lokpanhu they are

all migrants from Tansa. The Ungpang sector is settled by . .

Niam, Lokpanhu and Noklang lineages! from Yongya, Yongshi ' .

and Tansa villages. Though the inhabitants of Unghpang

sector is considered to be of !n.m cla.ss, the Ailing

lineage has precedence over them in becoming Unge.r;: (Oungh).

A number of houses from the Ao Pongen clan has been assi­

milated by the Ailing~ however, th~ cannot be made head

Gaonburah or Unger.

205

In the inte.r-segment village of Anaki which falls within

the Ao territory and administrative jurisdiction of

Mokokchung, there are thirty immigrant households from

Tanhai and five houses from Phom' s Yongshi. 'nle latter

group were temporary residents of Kanching and Tamlu earlier.

They were followed by a group of twenty households from Ao

Kangtsung later. 'nle establishment of Ao Kangtsung is oi·

interest here to exemplify the type of political alliai'HI es

that emerged as a precondition for polity expansion. It

is said that one Ungerdangba ('taker of Unger's head'), son

of Rangtsung from Chubayimkum (now a segment of Longsa

village) landed up in Merangkong and met a trader from

Yachem, who infonned him of possible accomodation in Tan:.:sa

village through the latter's kinsmen, namely, Apong and

Nokchem. In T~n.: sa one Mukhao was the !!!..gb, who adopted and

assimilated Ungerdangba into his lineage. Later on the

three sons of Ungerdangba (out of his union w1 th a .widow

of Noklan.: clan) were aade to foun.;l Ao Kangtsung village.

Over and above this politico-demographic articulations, the I .

relationship between Yongy a and an~ Wanching has direct

relevance to the great Angh of Chu:i. During the Monx;u

{spring festival of Phom segment) representatives of

Wanching ~ descends upon Yongya and prest..at.ions d rice,

meat, cloths are collected; and in v~inter months after harvest

receives an amount of rupees ·five. This ramifies into

206

politico-ritual alliances of Yongya with the villages of

Tan:sa, Yongshi, Tamlu,Kanching and Meran~ong (Ao). Here

the mutual exchange of one dao and one spear or rupees two

in lieu of the above marks their alliance, and inevitably

pigs are slaughtered on such visits. I

Besides these intra-segment (Ao-Phom-Konyak) networks

as discussed, the 'core' of extended politico-ritual

alliance can be identifiEd with the Phom village of

Hakpang. It is the most dominant of Phom villages and

is indirectly allied to Chui Anghdom. The Konyaks r~'er

to this village as Tao-Longching and the Aos call it

llongtiyimbang. There are still six households following

the non-christian ways. A few generations ago the Korlyaks

entered into Kangzim ('alliance" out of an r·ndeci8ive ~~ar')

relationship with Hakpang. lt began w1 th a war betwee.rt

Longching, Jakpang and Ruka villages with Pongo. ·In thi~ l . .

war a peacemaker from Hakpang Was killed by Longching. As

a consequence for three consecutive years Longching latlds

had lain infertile. Finally, Longching requisitioned the

help of Mongnyu (Phom) and Jakpang (Konyak) to interven•

and appease Hakpang. The highest order of alliance was

arrived at by an offer of Lab (Gong), bushels of millet and

two mithuns by Longching to Hal~pang, with an understanding

between them that, "till black hens turn into wbi~e, we

207

shall be at peace". Till date during the spring ~estivals,

i.e., Aoling (Konyak) and Mongnyu (Phom), reciprocal 'me~t'

is exchanged between their representatives. The ideal

socio-political system o£ the Phom segment is represented

by Hakpang. In this village the clans are residential

groups and their politico-ritual positions are given in the

chart as under:

MORUNG SECTOR CLAN . LINEAGES PAN GSA QAO Nl3U RAH .. .

Pbenyu Angbang Oiangnak

Longkang Khakyung Panglanghu 2 nil

Nokshung Manchinghu

Poklukhu ..

Hukdok

Langyilang-bong

" Nyubaohu

' Ongi Hejan Pongobang Lungkhu

Yongjong Alunghu 3 ~ " ..

Ying-lon£.ionR;: opuhu ..

Molim Hipu Numidang- Malanghu 1 bang

Lampa.!lg :Man gl anghu

Longka ·Saponghu 5

Anganghu 2

Lon~;hu 3 Nokchen Angbabu Yachembang Lang]. ak-

Hayanok pong 3 1 Lingkang

208

'nle clan arrangements and settlement pattern is based

on politico-rl:tual domination, it is al!:C to be noted

that other lineages are included as 'floating' attaches

pending future submergence. The Angbang clan is equated

with the ~ o.f Konyak s eut here the class charecte r of

A!lgh is an exogamous principle. The ritual justification I

of ~s>ban~ clan predominence as c;i ven in a myth follows

thus: In the beginning god gave to each elan a hen each

of many colours, but to Angbsng clan only a black one.

so they asked god," why 2.!l!:L a black he'l god?". Then god

replied, "ah, Anghbang clan, you shall be the overlord of

all the other c~ an s". :Even today the wom mfolk of this

clan do not partake the flesh of cow, mithun with a white

mark on its forehead, catfish, barking deer, go::it and white

hen. I was tolc:l that Pongobang mm are expert traders while

Numidangbang is known for soothsaying and Yachembang are

generally priests. Probably a degree of functional .allo­

cation of duties were becoming instui tutionali sec:l, it is

also true that these attributes are still att.ached t·o them . .

toaay. In the administrative str~cture of Hak~ng, Pang§~

is the traditional village councillor and Gaonburahs are

present day government agents, it ts interestirg to note

that the Angl'lbang clan is not particularly interested in

having

209

The same clan arrangement is observed in Ponching

village. While the other sub-segiLents have variations,

for instance ;Aokching polity is b£1sed on Chang political

sy stan derived from Hakjang. Yaong-Yachem is definitely

based on Ao p.Qlity. The J{onyak type is prevalent in Yongya,

Tamlu and Kanching. In Pongo group of villages a difierent

arrangement is seen, thus:

MORUNG lINEAGE " Nyoukshet Phukatu

Chingsantu

Kaikungtu

Mainaku

Yongcnung Tans an

.. Pokchung Ching son

l"akp ang

Tangnam ,

i

Tangkong

Ngantu C:hingson

' Yakpang

Hi tang -

The first two morungs are inh:.bited by, altogether

a different migration group from the rest. They reckon

this with reference to the di sper·sal from Piyong mount

as separate groups, and invariably political power is

retained by the first settlers. In the case of Yaong4

a clear cut division of political power alongside social

segregation is observed·. In this village the Okping alan .

is sub-divided into !ngh and Longkong lineages and ~$ckon

themselves as equavalE!lt to Ao Imsonger (Pongen) and Jamir

clans respectively. They are graded higher to the Luni

clan which has three lineages namely Loji, Yimyaji and

Sungdok (akin to Ozukum of Aos). This clan is considered

to be an Ao Mongsen J~roup that came over to Yaong quite

some time ago. The lineages of Loji and Yimyaji are

exogamous, sungdok can enter into marital alliance w1 th

both of them. By this reckoning they are then clansmm

not by consanquinal relationship but with reference to their

roles in the.politico-administrative set-up of the village.

However, as a composite Okping ~d luni group they claim

descent f'rom Yangpir (Yongpei) g-roup that came away i'rom· I

Changsang settl emelt as discussed in Chapter II.

Besides the enf'orced solidarity of' the Phom segment

by Hakpang, it played a dominant role in articulating politi- ·

cal relationships with Trans-Dikhu Naga segments. It is

said_that those who crossed over to the west bank of I

Dikhu came to be kno Wl as Ao r ( Ao) and those 1 eft behind

were considered to be meri r. It becomes clear that the

211

ecological conditions determines the sociological division

of Ragas despite the f'act that they have kinship at'finiti~a.

Consequently, political alliances emerged acroes these

nat.ural' 'frontiers', one such relationship is the intra­

village co111munlty fishing in the Dikhu river. Hakpang has

specific weirs with Yaongyimti, Longl.a, and Chakpa villagee.

So aleo Chucbuyimlang, Salulemmang and Pomching maintaine

a coamon weir with Hakpang. In their annual fisbing-cum­

-poli tical ae et s, Hakpang men bring over an eg& and the

rest provide three to ten baskets of walnut tree roots

for poisoning the river. An Polder CJf He.kpang ritually

breaks this egg and reud omm s anu the fishing be&ins in

r~ht earnest. 'lbis relationship is thus rP.newed in thie

way every cold a~$1on preferably in January. Over and

above this, ~chuyiml.ang g1 ves a yearly prestation or

rupees £i£teen, one cow or a pig. Here a symbolic relation­

ship does not enter into an economic orbit as the a110Unt of. I.

cash hardly mattere today, in other words, social links are·

more crucial than its amount at face value. Again Ago~

and Bakpang share a pig when the latter pays an annual visit.

It is to be noted that splitting up the carcass of a pig

is significantly different from the un'!!qual tribute of a·pig

to e vi siting party by a subsidiary, or mu.tu al exchanges of

pigs. 'lbis happens to be the highest fonn of ritual kin­

ship that can be contracted between equals besid•a the

mit.hun alliance. ~ring the Ao Moatsu (spring festival) the

212

villages of Salulemang, Chuchuyiml.ang and Mongsenyimti

presents Hakpang a packet of salt after feasting the

elders. Moreover Chuchuyiml<mg and Hakpang have a number

of blood brothers among the inhab:i.tants. In the event of

hardships faced by such a 'brother' in their respective

segment's territories, the village elders will bear all

the expmses incurred in looking llfter such an individual

c:nd take over responsibility eE should be accolded to its

own citizens. This ,.as as significant in the past as of

today. This blood brother rela.t.ionship become a crucial

elemmt for safety of visiting dignitaries and tre:ders

during the internicine l-larfare that prevailed in phom

area till 1953. In the present C<}ntext, most of the

politico-economic elites of Phom segment acquired their

school education through their rltual kinsmen who spon­

sored them in the urban settlement of Mokokchung till the

1 at e 19 60' s.

(b) UNGER OF Ao

'lbe Aos are divided into two moities, viz chongli and

mongsen, they are linguistic. native socio-political as

also kinship divisions. The mongsen dialect was the

political leng\.lage of the yore and all Ao ballads (oral

tradition) are sung and expressed in mongsen dialect. It

213

is gradually giving way to christian missionary and

government sponsored chondi dialect. The villages of

Mongsenyimti, Ungma, Longsa, Longpha, Jami and all the

Langpangkong villages are chongli; while ~ngrat.s'*,

Mopungchukit and lungkhum possess both these divisions.

In the Japvokong and Changl$:ikong ranges, though there

are chongli phratri es its dialect is non-existent. In Ao

Mokokchung and Kabza villages the reverse.decandence can

be observed. The changki group of villages speaks a

variant of mongsen dialect. This linguistic phenomena c·an

be explained by th.e nature of politico-kinship articulet.ion s

of this Naga segment. The predominance given to Ungma arrl

the Lungtrok charter has brought. about. a submergence of the

Mongsen sub-segment within a composit. e Ao identity. The

mongsen ("never ending stream of humanity") belongs to the

cognate social groups viz Isongyoner, Changki, Nokrang,

Yongpir, Nokrang and possibly Molunger s. Their tradition.

indicates that Kubok settl enent. \;<..!'; disbanded by a fresh 7n

immi~r~nt g-roup th&t settled Chungliy~ .. ti pre-historic site.,

Ther~fter, an amalgamation of these two social groups

under Otte Ariju, (Morung) popularly knov.n as Sendenriju

seems t.o be the basis of their politi c.e~ poli ti co-ki.nsbi.iJ.

divisio.ns within an assumed comrn:on~en.t~i':.t.W.-. · Aft,er-~s:en&:en~

riju' s. -o:Y"erbearing consolidation~ ~· ·frri;s~m·~ idea;.t;±t:y,pt:h"e-c--

disappearance of their Ungh (headman) at their set.tl anent

of SOyim becomes significant. The present villag.e of Ungma

is named after this incident, rmd takes upon itseli custody

of Ao cult.urc:l et.hos. At Soyim the~ seems to have been

killed by a t.iger which is considert"ci a pollut.ed death

(menen) and invariably dislocat.icn and di~persal of the

inhabitants are called for. There is a concealed meani.ng

att.ached to this story convenient enough t.-o justify est.abli sh­

ment of a new social structure as against th.e An~~ ....

e.xpan sion.

The Aos could bring about four confederacies within

their segment. viz, Lungkhum and ~aromong confederacy

controlled Changkikong and Japvokong settla:uents; Longsa

and Ungma dominated over chongli villages o.f Langpangkong;

Mepongchuki t held sway over Aset.kong range s -=tt 1 ement. s;

and Changki and Ali ba were allies that pu.~ a num~r of

villag·es under their Clrms. The m~h:n± sm.s and D>d~:,;.s operandi

of alliance and subordinat.ion of weaker v:i1 i·~~--.i:Ea!s alrea.dy

b~en discussed in chapt-er III and needs n;o: rt=!poe'· i t+on here •

. '\t t.h e close of t radi t-.ional era, it waaS! ·bre:c'('!'Ilr)"'!'rJ._ clear

that the Imchen and ~ clans combine wats-a,engi~ng equally

dom.i.TIR,t A!J :the""~hu'm~~ ~rd J:-o:mfT·._czan-s":'of fn~gp-~T,!':'§ko·r:g

and La n gp an gk ong ±r.l· ~t~hte--v.±.l.l ages c:f:-~0!il1J~"CC:.m,e;k:on~g::_an d.

As et.kong ranges. ·m-,e: f:f:r·st. cl an~s-.:c:a:r;r~oJn:er-a:t::e-:;-w:e:r:P.:=::I·mr;h,en

215

and Aier of Lungkhum and Mepongchukit rPspect-:vely c;nd their

kinsmen in Mangmetong, Nokpoyimchen and Longchang. The

s second combine hailed from Ungma, Longa and Lungkhum, fll"l d ·'·

along w1. th their kinsmen in Langpangkong became virtually

undisputed in the villages on the west. bank of Dikhu river.

I3E: sj des consanquin al. links, r·i tual kinship also buttressed

these confederacies to a grec.t ext.ent ( seo: chapter III

section II). Among the dominant vill:.g~·s Lungkhum hc;d the

added advantage of havin[ both the lin@.listic divisions,

thereby giving them a leverage in Asetkon&, Langpangkonc;,

J'1pvckong and Changkikong settlen:ents along with their

kinsroP.l"' in these regions. The nc.-cure of clan co-ordination

is exemplified by a punitive action undertaken by Imchen

clc.n of I.ungkhurn about eighty years ago. In this the do­

minant Al.er clan of Mopungchukit had a quarrel hri.th rest

of her inhabitants over o·wnership of s tiger's carcass to

be mounted in their residential area. It became serious

when A1...er clan log·-drum was split apart. by the other

clans of Moputigchukit. TherP.uport, th:i.. ~ c.g~ri e.ved clan

sought the help of their '·kinsmen' at Lungkhum to so t·t. t t

out. Consequently, ImchEn,l clan descended upon MopungchtllcJ.t' s

lo'w\3r sect~r and literally tore it up. This ~ype of

punitive actions are known as p,ensep (C), chenchep (i.-;)

( "swet:ping; money") i.e. inmovablE: prop erti e.s or"' taken by

t.he raiding party after razing standing houses to ground.

216

Ungma was i"!?.knowned for this type of coersion over the

Langpangkong villages. fui s insurE-d a form of politico­

-judicial control over the Ao territory. At times territo-

rial expansions result.ed out of warfare, for instance,

Lungkhum hr.d reduced Ao settsu village to almost a non­

-entity leaving only half a dozen lun~?;khumer cl~n:: out of

the original inhabitants and a chur1k of their territory

\-las annexed. In ~er war with LongsE·, Ungms stepped in as

intermediary on the plea that. the frontier with Serna segment

could be maintain~ only with joint defence pact between

Longkhum, Ungma and Longsa.

lungkhum found Changki and Ali ba confederacy a tough

nut t.o crack, ho·wever after planting one of Yarangchang

lineages (Imchen)at Mongchen in Changkikong and with her

ally, Waromong, could jointly control Japvokong set-tlements.

':heir alliance w~s in the fonn of a ritual kinship with

Akangla, the wife of Waromong headr:,an. She was considered

as lungkhum' s ritual mother. This is an interesting

variant of slliance, presumably catering to long distance

alliance as Waromong was not adjacent to Lungkhum. Their

alliance itself brought E~bout conflicts with the Ahoms. It

is said t.hat their ~ars with Nokrang began seven generations

ago at a time when Ahoms were a nascent power. After the

dominant set.t.lemen t of Nokreng at Natusu was brokEn up by

Longkhuin with the hPlp of 1rlaromong. Nokpu village st.epped '

in to clean out. the remnant Nokrc. ngers. Consequent). y,

they got enmeshed in the K~chari and Ahom contest for

supremacy in the valley. At one time Kachari militias

seems to have aided them in their operations. Later on

the Dwar system brought this to.a halt and the Hcti~ria

dwar got identified with the vill~ges of Lungkhum, Ungma,

Mangmetong, Chungtia and others. After Nokrang settlement

was broken up, the Nokpur resettled Nokpoyimche~

( Assirlngia). 'Ihe earstwhile Mirinokpo no·w called ~!okpoy­

imchen 1 s considered to be inhabited by migrants from

Orangkong (Phom, J.P. Mills, 1926, map), however, they

claim that as an unsettlEd group that left SOyim (second

Ao settlement)' had moved over to Orangkong and thence

settlEd at Merinokpo. The Ao Nokpu people do not accept

this version and claim for themsel vee the Nokpoyimchen

(sett.lem~nt title for their village). Theee two villages

are heading for a long litigction over this issue as it

stands in 1986. Now coming back t.o Merinokpo alia::: Nokpoy­

in:che_n; the Ahom raja Gadodar sinha entered into marital

alliance with this village and called it Assiringia am

a Dwar was awarded to them. '- ( Nokpu Put.u Mend en, 1984:)

The alliance::; were concluded between villages of

particular confedere~ci es and were kno\m as Akangtep

("tough":. en"). The whole Ao country was directly linked

by this kind of treaty and were renewed periodic~lly.

~18

In the case of int rc;-s egment warfare, armi st.i c e was

concluded between frontier villages. Thi!'l system known

as Jongshi ("to better t.he best") \~as meant for equals

and operated in the Sema front. A few yee:.rs before the

British took over Ao count.ry, the Akekao !nato of

Lumitsam1 along with bucks from twenty villages tried

to break t.hrough the frontiPr Ao villages and was checked

by such a Jongshi. In this, one Temshimayang Lon~hwmer

of Lungkhum5 ( gra¢father of Senkalemba Dobashi) ex:> ncluded

this pact. of no-war bet·ween Sema and Ao segments. At

the close of the last century, a number of big men emer­

ged to consolidate their po-_-.ers over tmd above the ritually

designated clan statuses of senior clan. Another fonn of

political relationship was c~lled tepu-che ("calling

father") in \IIllich "1eaker villages paid an annual t.ribute

to dominant ones, and they were used to be visited by

Teters of the "father" villages. This re~ationship has

become redundant, for instance, in the early 1970's

LongJDisa refused to continue th1,s system with Lungkhum.

In t.~s a plot of land rJaa 11lloted "ritually" to Lungkhum

and designated as t.hel.r 'territory' \~ithin Longmisa land, '

and it ue:~ to fetch a luli ("field·.·purchaRe"=rent) of

rupees .fifteen per annum after currency was introduced,

before that it· was in terms of rice. In the changed

poli t.i co-Ad~ri ni strati ve si tuat.ion Longmi sa' s a ctiun could

not be chc;llenged at all. There h:!re other forms of .

aksu ("pig-kill") called Ki<!_<?_l}£_Cik.§.~ ("'clan") and

Tinu ~ksu (''blood-brotherhood"). !:n the fot'·m·=-r ty~e

of relc. tionship, clansmen us8d to visit ec: ch oth~r to

discu~s genealogies, rights <:::nd ottl(:r <::ffairs and were

fee:sted upon by sl3u.ghtering pigs. In the later forw,

(ritual kinship mostly) big men u~~d to visit the-ir

ritual ~insmen in different v).llag(:'!s. This system was

discon~inued after the Ao studPnts 1 conference protes~ ~

against it., 3S it entailed ct~ipplin.~ expenditure on the

part of the bi~en' s count.erpsrt and the village. IvloreovPr,

the diplom::ot,ic role of big me!'l beccme unnecessary in the

in~er-village relationship after the Dobashi institution

w2s introduced. The syc.tem was abolished in late 1920' 5·

Besides the dyn.::mics of ident-ity P.Xpansion and con-

solidation, even today, a persistent. charscter of the Ao

political system exists without much alterc.tion and it is

exemplifi erl by the Putu Menden_ ( "genere:tion seat"). The

Aos have a standardised cycle of flve &enere:t.ions, i,e.,

~ in a polit-ical sen~e i3 different ~rom ~or

biological generation. ~ach and every citizen induded

into a putu becomes a member of a ruling generation for

a period of30 years (Chon~i), 15 years (ITtO!'lf:Sen) and

6 years i., Longmisa village. The Ao ~'s are as under~

220

Mechensan::;er ( c) Ivi ech-en changer ( M) .... ( 'these who do not run away

MupongsangP.r ( C) I•lU?ongch ang -:r ( :f\.1) ••• ( ' v.i. n d people')

Kosh~sanger ( C) Kochachang~r 0\) •.•• ('broken pe Oi=tle')

Riongsang'@r ( C) Riongchanger (;•l) •••• ('many people')

Medemsanger (C) 1,~ ed emchanger ( M) •.•. ('equal people')

This sy~tem is directly linked with the Ariju induc­

tion of young boys int.o i t.s z.unga~ every year. The eye& e

begins with Medemsanger which coincides with simult.l.:lneows

induction to Zungas and continues till one of the indue··

tees procreate a son. Then mendc:.1g ( "se<:~t blocking") ----occurs and the said generation is considered to be

complete and a ·new put.u starts, in this case the Mupong­

sanger put.u starts inducting zungas. In t-.his way c.

group of zungas or age-set completes a generaticn and

the follow up age-sets in the Ad.j,~ fills up the rest of

Putu -s. Here the demographic attribute plays an import ant

role, as one generation may have four zungas or even six

Zunga-s depending on how early the members get rna rri e..1

and procreate sons. Nonetheless, on no account the fixed

cyclic generation government is hindered, that is, even

if a generation has six age-groups, when their tu·m comes

for power, t.h e first and second .:age group might have died

out and the rest will take up the Tatar mend en ('councillor

post') of' a particular ruling generation. ·,.,'hen an old

221

generation goes out of ofi"ice after every thirty years a

ceremony marks the occasion knowon as Atsungtepba ("pushing

out"). In this ritual every member of the incoming putu

mu 5t contribute a pig each or else he forfeits his

right to have a say in decisive matters taken up by his

putu.

The ruling generation then throws up elders to fill

up official posts in the Tatar menden (C) and Samen (M).

These seats are alloted according to clan seniority and

is marked by special piece of meat carcass which is reserved

for a particular position in the council. These right a

to relev-ant portions of meat are large-ly symbolic of ones

status. .~mong the chong!i these offices are as given under:

~~~ CLAN .L•1EArnPORTION DUTY

Pongener/ h - ~ , Head council head ge,r .. .. .. Yimsunger > ;, ~ ~ .... {!>. < c:-~). ~"Ill' ..v Lungkhumer Head, if a Deputy of ..,,

"'""" number of Unger pigs are. killed

.-. ... --···-

Tazun~ur Junior line- ExecutiYe 4) ages of above Hump iuan b era.

and Jamir Clan ---·--::--.3upply meat it1 Tokongpur '"'do- Neck pre stat ions,

feasts and sacrifices

Shosanglak/ -do- stomach Di stri bution of Chitanundang meat during

festivals.

-·- - - .. -

222

Amo~ the Mongsen moiety their 1::ouncil is designated

as Minchen and the manbers as a group are collectively

called ~ - Minchen (meat seat ) • '!be offices in this

moiety are, viz 'l'zungba which corresponds to the chongli

Ungex: and is hereditary for the Mon.gsentsunger clan or the

first phc-atry. It is followed by 'fonglu an equival.ent of

Tong1u of Chongli and is reserved for the Longchar clan.

There are four other senior manbers occupying the SamE!'t

and among them the seniarmo st is designated as Chuchang

which is a counterpart of TazangpuJ;: of Chon&li system.

Below them are the Tokong ("neck") manb ers and seniormost

mEmber is called Tokongtuzumbar ("neck elder") arxi the

rest of samen in the lowest heirar,!hy are collectively

known as Chami.tzar. These position:3 are assigned on the

basis of seniority of clans, and every clan designate

have a right to nominate as many representatives as there

.~re seats allot ed to them.

After a ruli_ng generation relinquishes its office, the

members of earstwhile Tatar menden and Samen Minchen becomes

Put.ir (C) Patir (M) ie., priests. The religious head of

the Mongsen moiety is called Patir. Tsungba and is heriditary MPfJJ&sent:sunP:er clan

toJ7 I e 1n tn_e <'!liQjfgli series Pu t~lr Unger is fixed on

Pongener or Yimsunger clans. Currently, the role of' Putirf

Patir bas been· taken over by chri ~;:;ian priests, however,

223

the authority of Putu mend en/ sam m minch en is still

supreme in all the village polit.ico-adir.inistrative

sffai rs. 'the dynamics ef this generation cycle 1 s

best exemplified by Lungkhum at it starri in 1986.

r-------------------------·------------·-·------·----·-CHCNGLI MONGSEN .------.....::..::=-::..:..===------------.------=-=-==::::.:...:.------- ------------

edemsange~, Ist zunga entered arf"ju 2nd zunga in the offi~\ (7eration incOmplete).

Riongsanger · Mej ens anger 5 zunga-s( complete) not yet bom

and previous generation all di ei • ( no began

osasanger unga-s(co~ete)Mopungsanger

~unga-s(complete) RULING GENERATION

Medemchanger ~ 5 zu a a-s ( compl et -· ~

Riongchanger 5/zunga-s( complete)

'

-.\1

Medemchar·· ger 5~ungaa . cpml?)

Kocha hanger MepungchangFr ~unga -s( complete) ~unga of l t~at RULING GENERATiow-cycle 1 eft,

Ist zunga 2nd zung._. 3nd zunga has entered .Ari ·u. 1 nco

There are variants of this cyclic generation in Ao

vi.llages, however, the principle remains the same. An

important dimension has been a tided by the int roduc1:.1on

of red blanket institu-t-ion of Q§onburah and Dobashi by

224

the external powers. A fission process is discernible

in the form of creating new Put.u menden over and above

the tradi tional.ly fixed number of such aut.hori ty struc­

tures. For example, 1 n Ungma yimlang (lower sector) a

new putu mend en got established basic ally designed to

acquire legitimacy from the present government. It iss

form of according recognition to an interest group

persumably for politico-economic gc.ins. In this arti-I

cul~tion the clan conglomerates are represented in the

new putu menden in accordance with traditionally accepted ,

norms. The government has only to appoint a dobashi or

gaonburah from this new entity &nd its existence is normally

accepted by the village. It follo ~.s then, tho t t.he

deprived junior lineages or ritually att.~ched ones are

behind tbi s internal dissention who uses traditional codes

to express their interests in the modern context. The se.li'

same phenom ma has came out in Longchang, $.lngrat su and

Mongsenyimti as late as 1985. In these villages 'also,

the 'deprived' groups simply_ declare 'sece8siot'l' from

their parent Putumenden; and often than not, are sponsored

by rival political parties. In the case of Ungma it was

the NNDP that encouraged creation of a new putumenden as

again.st the Congress (I) domination of village decision

225

making body, thi~ runs true in all these villages a~

mentioned above. However, n~ sc1id it does not effect

the traditional principle of power ailocation to speci­

fic phratry or clans as originally conceived of in 1lo

society. Even though it is still a localised phenomm a

and confined to specific village territory, it certainly

reveals a lot of submerged dissent that finds a w<:Jy out

with new leiitim:.: ations readily in hand in the form uf

-political parties, interest groups and a centralisE:td

state. In Ungma putumenden there are seventy membera ln all rApresenting all its clans, while Ao Mokokchung vi.~i~~!li

has a putu mend en for each of its re sid enti a1. sectors of

Which its upper sector boasts of the biggest number of

councillors. The office of Unger and Chuchang represP.nt. e a kind of internal stratification system, however, it

involves mor.e of prestige rather than power in its obl.'lolUte

sense of tenn. In the chongli dominated villages, Unger. .

appears to resemble a hereditary chief and it does rP..flept,;

at any rate, .an overflo't'i of .A.nghdom influence as rAferehoo

point of power structure among J,os.

( C) OU NGH OF CHANGS

In June 1888 the Ao ,villages of I•longsenyimti and

Longkhung were raided by '1\lensang confederacy comprising

of Noksen, Li tim, Longl a, S2ngd::-k, Longd.ang and '1\1 en sang.

226

They were invariably opening up a corridor through the

Ao villages which did not come w1. thin the orbit of alli.­

ances of Hakiang (Phom). On the other hand, th~ west

bank villages of Yaongyimti and Chakpa are socially

close to the Noksen group of villages and had Pauyim

( "alliance") wit~ Hak~ang. This indirectly t.i ed them

up with Ao villages of Salulemang and Chuchuyirnlang.

tgsin Alisopore (Sangt.am) had a thirty mithun alliance

with Chuchu. In between these n~works of overlapp1nfll

alliances a va cuum occurred geographically as well a~

socially in this frontier. 1v1oreover, at this stEifta,

the Ao political system was undergoing a traumatic chah~e

under the christian missionary sctivities and their

precarious balance of power was about to collapse esp eci..-

~lly in Ungma confederacy gr01 .. 1p.

Economically the trans-polity trade was confined to

those segments living close to the Assam plains, nnd t~1e

Changs did not come into contact vd th the val~ ey till

very recently. Consequently, the Changs started using

large iron plates knOW'l as Lah for trading and the AoE~

hsd a counterpart currency called Jabili. Again the

salt spring.called Tuensang ~near Tuensang village

and another known locally as ~ang chem near Changsang

produced ju~t enough salt to barter for goods from the

227

plains vi a Ao and Phom traders, especially through Longmisat

village. Therefore, with the absence of a centralised

political structure among Ao s ani restricted long di stan co

trading for Changs a serious crises ••as imminent. Moreover

the need for a stimulus to internal cohesion of Chsngs and

polity expansion brought about this invasion.

Intemal solidarity among the Chi3ng segment was given

by the Oungh clan; which is a priestly clan and every

village must undoubtedly have one of them. They are

normally spokEn of with contempt and "doubtless represents

a conquered populat.ior. arid acquaintt3d with gods of the

soil" (Hutton, 1922: p xx.xiii) • However, thE reverse

could alro be true and presumably Oungh clan is an

extention of an.Anfth group as a dominant politico-ritual

lineage in '1\.lensang and Hakj ang. Th1 s linkage could be

established through oral tradition, a Chang story speaks

of the creation of Oungphaysem village by war 1 eaders,

namely seang and· Thongdi Yongp en of fungh and Kudemshi

clans respectively. This settlemE!'l\~ is a deserted place

now which lies between Tobu and Nyenem and is said to have

been established before '1\.lensang vJas founded from Changsang.

This village went to war with Changsang over right o:f

possession of a ·killed barking deer. In the contest that

ensued Changsang was worst.ed as to make them abandon their

settlelftent. The ounghpaysem led by Oungpang clan deserted

228

their village also and descended to upper Konyak and

settled Anghbang village (now deserted) near present

Tobu about six hund,red years ago.

A detail discussion was made on segmentation and con-

solidation of Changs in Chapter II in which the two variants

of their polity was given, represented by 'fuensang on one

hand and Noksen on the other. The 1\tensang socio-political

system is illustriated thus:

---------------------~----------------- ·--·-··-· ... s .... e"""c;..;t;..;o_r;;.._ __ _..;;;Cl~a.;;;..n;.,o,._ ____ Li.......,n_ea.....,glo,.;e;.,._ ____ o;;...;f.:....f;;....;i.:....c.:....e.::;;..__. ____ _..;;;;Du~t.JLy ___________ -·-

Pelashi i ( i &. ii) Oungh

Olonganshe Konanshe

Pongenshi Ongokshe Nogong •••

Kanchu ii Kangshu losumchab4 sangtishi Tsadangy­impou Hakiong

Jongpou iii Jongpou Sangpuokishi Youloshi

Loumou i v Lomou

S enyoun gsh e Loangshe Okagshi

Tesou Ao sakshi Aoyokmat Yachi ~i

Head hunter' hands wilJ be washed and act as peacQ maker between villages on warpath; ab::tain fro01 partake of the meat of .

Onshutpou stag,goat, co'·" and fi elct-rttt.

Kongtenpou

Kipungung­pou

Jempung­nakpou

village crier and h1 s house 1 o the admini at·• rCitive seat of councill.OJ"!;i

Broadcast first seedling of paddy, maize and m1Liot., at least one member is required by a new vil.J ag8.

collect new food grairiG from each household for fut.ure prosperity.

In the case of Hakjang, there are three sectors,

namely, Pongensangmang ("mount sec~or") :• Sangdenyunyukong •.

("plain se.ct.o~) and Langpishang ( "to;var.ds field sector")

229

and inhabited by Kangshu, Loumou and ~ (Oun&h) clans.

Th e1. r poli ti co-administrative set up is identical to

Tuensang village. The clans of this sub-segment as develop•3d

in their first settlement at Chang3ang (reckoned to hsve

been settled for fifty one generat:lons or Mudens, one

muden is equivalent of one hundred years.) ar·e said to bo,

!!.!:, Oungh, Kanf,shu, Hakeoungh, Lo~mou, Kuthemshi, Yculou~~'"'

senyoungshi, Loangshi, Okagshi, !£!~loshi (the last five

are lineages of Jongpou clan in 'fu pnsang.} Ti so-hongang,

Henjoshi and Hongang. Among t.hem the Ti so-ho.~~ng and • Zj

Hongang seems to be later attachments and are found in ol.i

Chang villages other than Tumsang and H&kj::.ng. In the

other villages there exists another functionary alongside

the Kangshu clan, i.e., the Kuthem:;hi .-.no sets fire to

the paddy field j_l}umlctl)~· Again the Hongang clansmen

are village criers and are associs1~ed with sun worship.

This links them with a Chang myth of origin und migrntion~

according to this version the Chane:s are said to have

migrated from the east (east means chatli) which might

explain for their \":Orship of sun •. Moreover, Hcng in

Chang dialect means foreigner. It might also be true

that T1 so-hongang are submerged Yimchunger stock as one

may ref'lect back t.o changsang myth of migration of Tiso­

tiyon& group identi:fiable w-.1.th t.he Yimchunger. In fact

there is a seizabl e number of intel:'[nixtl.i.re c.mon& Chang and

Yimchunge r .segments in Tuensane; vi.ll ~ge as indicc;ted in

Chapter II.

230

'lhoe polity in the Noksen group of vill3gt:s clearly

resembles the Ao putu mE!'lden, however, they at+- ribute

starting of this system to one sumaknok of Jongpou clan

(tpey consider this as akin to J.:.mir cl.:;n of .Aos). This

tradition says i;hat-. he had killeQ a tiger and for taking

it home, age groups got instituted thereon, ard inevi­

tably t.hei r ve r1 ant of putu mend en began and call 1 t

mendensetshang which has a twenty two years cycle.

Presently, in Noksen village there are eighty six mudef2

setshang ·members and th~ are cla~sified into three gf'l·l(.lf:>!:,,

viz, Shit w1 grade is composed of youngm e1 of tMenty YElfl rs and above; Yap m grade belongs to the middl efeged to si:x ty

years of age, and Senjovi 1 ~ filled up by young boys !rpm

six years onwards. In this system the younger elen1a'lt~

in ShitWi grade are elecf".ed and by the time they att.a~n th~

age of forty or so they enter Yeipen grade and does all

menial \'.Orks,in the village. '•Vhile Shiti~Ji are leode!rt:.

of all the ~ge grou.ps and grades, t.h e: Senjovi fnffio ber c. are

basically socigl servants who run.s messagP.s and the lilce.

This system is convenient for a military nature of ~ffEl~f~i

unlik.e the Ao system of leadership devolving on elders 6 •

The nature of Chang polity formation entails both the

elements d ~pansion and migration in order to annex

lands or even colonise villages.. Therefore, it dependt·d

231

upon the Changs;:;ng charter t.o retain their diffused

groups and also discourage fi ssfor.. It becomes clear

that the Noksen group could not orbit out of t.his arrange'"'

ment because of ecological constraints in the foitn of

Dikhu river. However, Chsngs could not retain Aokching

(Phoni which was situated on the west. bank of Yongpi river,

though it was very much a part of Hakjang socio-poli ~i cbl

system.

The intra-segment relationship and boundary main-

tenance was made possible throu6h alliances. In the Sanf~t.qm

frontier, a war broke out between Noksen and Perahiri dur·tn~

the time of warleaders namely, Mone;ti sung and Zachutlnt.r.•

In this war the warriors of Noksen took Mont:i,;ti sung' a he~:~d.

and Perahirl was worsted. Leat er on in the time of seliu,0n~

(grandson ·of Mongtisung) of Perahi:ri, a peace pact w<,;~

arrived at between than on the agreement that Noksen shOl.qd

receive a tribute of one cow and a pig thereon. This

relationship continued till the British administrat~on pLLt.

t.o sn end to thi ~· However, there h ss be en no peace bE:~t .. ween

Chari and Litem end memory is such t.hat. when one Saku, a

headman of Chari went to Litem h'ith some Alisopore me·n, he

was refused the customary reception normally accorded to

visiting 'dignit.aries. In fact, c!: told to me, he was not

allowed to enter their houses even, tt>..is incident occured

in 1978. The Sangtam vilJet.e of .t~isopore is socially

232

very close to Litem, Yaongyimti (now Ao) and Noksen

and it did not enter Hskj ang' s sphere of i nflu enc e.

It 1 s of great i{!iport to note that the Sangtam, Phoru,

Yimchunger, Chang and Konyak segments manufacture their

0\'41. gun-powder and muzzle loaders and this technoloca

did not, however, spill over to adjacent segments. The

manufacture of muzzle loaders is still a well kept

secret among them as it must have been so tor ~unpowder-"7.

This trade secret obviously did a lot. for a 'we' feeling

among them. · 'll'le present administration collects a tax

of rupees five per annum for each muzzle loader,

Previously the Anghdom controlled this technology i.e.

in the manufacture of muskets and gunpov.der, and also

its distribution.

(D) KHI -UNGER OF ~~.C~!JJ-lGEl:_l

The Yimchunger segment has identical polity for­

mation as that of Chang, .Ao, Sangtam and Phom and· as

discussed earlier and the Langa transit settlanent

brought about a great deal of admixture among these

Naga segments. This segmmt approximates to a perip­

heral group of Anghdom expan sicn i~ the light of th el. r

233

political structure. 'Ihe villages near est to the Sangtam

an4 Chang frontier seems to be the core of Yimchl.rlger

identity, while in the s:>uth and south-east a ccnstant

pull factor is discerned which emanates from Mc-kwari

village (now falls under Burma) situated on the eastern I

~lope of Saramati peak. This has become a ref~rence point

for· a fission process among the Yimchunger se~ent and

the di~sent ~ub-segmE!'lt now consider themselve ~·to be

Tikir and Mogu.ri or Makwari as separate i'rom t~eir parent

segment. A new identity has surf c.c ecVstyl ~ t !i e Tim a chi r

comprising of Tikir and Mogurl. sub-segmmts as late as

1970's. Till the late 1940's the composite Yimchunger

segment had ceremonial and social links with,;thel.r kins­

mEI'l in BJ.rma which reside in thirty two vill1ages 1 ed

by dominant villages of' Makwari, Laktir, Kolar and

Metonger •. However, with the boundary dema~ation that

was done bet.·,.,een India and furma in 1967, a politico­

··adm.inistrative restriction on movements end social

int.~raction hos set in and social dislocation is, there~ore

in evi t abJ e.

Among the Yimchunger clan, Khi -Unger ( "khi -Kbimup!T)

seeltls to be an articulation almost identical to Unger/

pungh position· with a local cannotation. Presumably

~heir myth of origin at Kimuphu is a necessary condition

·234

to retain a regional as well as segmentary solidarity.

Their ideal politico-administrative structure is as follows:

Clans Lineage Office /).l t. y Approximate to others

Khi-Unger Kongpo •••• Olongpo Morung admi- Pong en er( Ao) i Kosenkhi- nistrator, pungh ( Chang unger priest to Angb ang ( Phom~ • Okchi-er wash head-

hunter's hands.

Jager Jager Yangten- SOwer of first Jamir ( Ao) Longpur pou seedling, fire- Jongpou( Chang) (exists in -maker in NUmidangbang( P

Lungkhum) Jhum cleC:Irance~ Jongpujager starts bridge ( Jongpou of making, worship

chang) sprirg.

Khipur Khipur Kissor Shunakpur none Lungkhumed Ao: (exists in

Serna and sa ngtam)

Jankh~unger Dan~ang none Lemtur ~ Ao) Jankhiung Loumou( Chang)

L-imchunger none ~udi r ( Ao)

(11) Meson of Khiamungans

., 'l1le erstwhile Kalyo-Kenyu now known as Khiamungan

basically comes under three dominant villages namely, Nokl ak,

235

Pathso and Nokho. This segment did not come under Chang­

sang's influence as such that they will be ... con:sidered as

belonging to a different ty_pology. Their socio-political

type can be exemplified by Noklak village, thus:

Clan Lineage Office Characteri sties/ Gaonburah duty_

n Meson Wash hani s of head-

{nos)

Meya 5biomeya •• hun~1;ers, enemy sk- 1. but no·ne from

Lammeya .. ull wash Ed & clea- Shiomeya ned,fiel.d worship. Lammeya.

Chojameya •. Orang Priest for defence.

Chio Lpngsenchio. ·head Predominantly · of warriors 2 Phiandongchio .. Kam ( Leying)

Yiasonshio

Lam Lamthai Most of 0

Lamnya them are Head big mm

Lamthiu of { Tset-Kam ameme) 3

Semaolam

Nokthanla m

La.mshing

Shontsol am

Their village council is always 1 ed by Lam and Chio

clans, and a great deal of' decentralization in the power

structure is found among them. This is posSible through

semi-autonomous ~~oh .which is a ~n& of' sorts. In

ard

236

each sector, called Kam a fixed group of namEd lineages

takes up residence and in each of these ~. a Kampaoh

is established, W'lich is basically designei for twenty

or more house holds. (refer also to Chapter III.iii)

and is always under the control of an elder from either

~or Lam clans. This principle extends also to the

Meya residential sector, in this Meya Kamp~oh a lineage of

Lam clan has takm residence i.e. Lamthai. In other words

the Meya clan does not have an independent politico-admini­

strative power even in its residential section. E.ven

though a degree of autonomy is given to all the Kampoahs,

the centre of political authority seems to emanate from

Kam and Kam~~ sectors where Kampaohai and Tsatao meya

(morun~ elders) of Chio c.:.~n re~o.ea. 'fney ov·ersee the

socio-politic·:..l affairs of the village as a whole. '!'he

absence of Gaonburahs in Shio meya and Larruneya lineagee is

very significant in the sense that traditional ritual

functionaries are yet to renconcile ·\vi th alien authority

structures, it is not a matter of deprivation but a quest ion

of retentive power of native socio-political structure as

it stands till date (in fact to be precise in 1986).

( U.i) Yangchachar of Sangtams

The Sangtam ("Pirr") segment is skin to Ao mongsen

group in their linguistic as well as polity charact eri sti cs.

237

They are the most. f ragmmt.ed segmmt among the Nagas from

a geographii:cal point of view as described in chapter II.

They were variously knOMl as 'fukomi or southern Bangtam

and western Sangtam till they got t.hemselves amalgamated

into a compact Naga segment. It is said that during one

of the British expeditions, these two groups accidentally

met in their labour corp camp, presumably hearing Sangtam

speech being spoken 1n their campfires, got together and

started recounting their stories. Till then a vague

( almo 5t a myth so to say) mmtion of their earlier di ~­

per sal in the wake of Sema migration was being made in

their house-hold hearth S•

There are six clans in the :western ·sangtam group,

nc:mely, Thongru, Langthithongru, Chingru, Anar, Mongsur

and Ruth\hongru. The first two clans are said to· have {

been exogamous .before but not now. The first clan, i.e.

Thongru are village E.ri ests and pole erectors during Morung

construction. The men of Langthithongru are basically

field path worshippers, while Chingru mm are assistant

to both the clans. 'lbe .Anar clan has got no specif'ic

function~ while Mongsur clan is mark Ed by predominance of

soothsayers among 1 ts members. The Ruththongru art!

natural pathfinders and keeps an eye on enemy movements.

238

The Sangtam Yangchachar (headman) almost always

hails from thon&ru clan and the encumbEJ'lt must have three

qualities, according to them namely, anthropong (~ar-

1 eader') ; Alipong ("big-man) and Ymithipong ("diplomatic

speaker").

The southern Sangtam social struct.ure is based on

emergence from a stone through "''hich clan prerogative and

funct.ions are determined accordingly, thus:

Clan Lin eag_e Of fie eLduty_

Chinger Chinger;chingerthuru; First cutting of Ruthi thungru;l>1cngru. Jhumland

-

Thongru Shonakkuru; Thonr;ru First sower of paddy Yangpi thungru, Langki- seed. thungru

i

.Among this group, t.he village administration is under the

chinger clan and during festivals meat is alloted equally

to' both the grain sower and the Jhumland cutter. The

eldest member of Chinger clan 1 s designated as Asiru

chingru (headman). It seems that their proximity to

Semas and admixture has altered their social structure a

great deal, end the propensity of b!"feaking and establishment

of ne\i villages is not dissimilar to Semas. As for in-

stance, in Sanchuri village there are five sectors,

namely Yangtiru of chinger and Rut.hi-thungru clans;

Yongpiton,€;Y-a of yungpithungru clan; Thangt.horu of

Langki thongr':!; Yangmedemru of Yun gpithungru lineage and

Kiur of mixed lineages. However, very recently the last

239

secededfrom Sanchuri as a new village. In the midst of

this group, a new village, called Nitoi of Sema origin has

come up t!nd er p rot.ecf:.ion of Yan~ekyu village. Moreover,

the villages of Si timi, Khuvukhu, Hcikiya, Satoi are

inhabited by both Sema and Sangtam segments.

There has been no ~ar among the western sangtam

villages as they consider themselves off~hoots,bf Perahiri

settlement which was known to Aos as Lupenyimchen ("old

village on Jhumland regrowth"). For peace in the Ao

front.ier t.hey entered into Aksu allisnce w1 th adjoining

Ao villages, notably, bet\-Jeen Chari and Chuchuyimbang. Ao

mokokchung and· Lon@lisa has identified weir.s. with Chari

in the Dikhu for intra-village fishing. Again there is

still a three times a year Aksu alliance between Longsa and

Chari. The.ee relations arP. buttressed by co-habitation

of Ao and Sangtam households in the six sectors of Chari

vilJ.age. These sectors are, namely, ·rmsen (christian

sec~or); Pongen {thongru) Longkum (Anar); Mangkoterong

(l\~ango+.ing lineage) ; .Aol en den ( Ao) ; Ao mepu ( Ao) • · They

have a thirty years putu mmden with a so sang heading the

council of the Ao households and RunuRosang ( sangtam)

from the thongru clan as .sangtam representative head in

the joint. village council. The Ao immigrants acknowledge

Sangtam identity though they have retained Ao political

240

struc'f:.ure. The present gaonburah and an elder councillor

of Chari, one Sakulepden informed •e the:at they ·migrated

from Longsa and his grandmother was of Yarangchang lineage

of Imchen clan of Lungkhum. And according to him t.he

vilJ. e:ges of Mongt.ikang, Lit em, Yachem and Yangpi are

offshoots of Koridang settlemmt (di·spersal point of Ao

v111ages). The Aos after crossing Dikhu river settled

soyim and Koridang successively end di ~ersed and the

mentioned villages on the east bank of Dikhu were settled

by a group that recrossed Dikhu~·, They are said to have .

first sett.led Sangpangkong a deserted place located just

be+ow chuchuyimbang, it seems as though it was used for

rallying those 'merir' group that \OoS s left. behind in the

initial crossing and of the overflow from Koridang

set1-,lement c:nd thence to sett.le tho~e named villages. The

nome1clature given by Aos to all tho~e living on the east

bank is ~1er!,r:, literally it means bypassing a well trodden

path i.e. moving side ways on the east bank. Th1 s appelli:tion

has become to an extent a derogatory t.erm to signify

"less civilised" humanity as compared to the Aos.

The natur:~ of Sangtam bounde:ry expansion \v<,; s by

means of war.fare which beg~n right after they sett.l ai

Perahiri. During their Yangchachar (chLef) Hunchutsung's

rule a war ensued with Longsa. In this confrontation,

241

bot.h the vill ege s agreed to meet at s chosen spot and do

battle to· de<::id e their territorial bounde.ry. If Perahiri

got better of Lon6sa their lancfhould e..xtend up to Tsutsung

stream {a trl butary of Dikhu, nort.h'lr!eE"t of Longsa), cther­

wi se, Longsa would have the previlege cf annexing up to

Tsumey a { Tzumera st. ream, see, chapter V court cc. ~e) st. ream.

The skirmir:h ended up in a draw, hc·,,·evt::r, Lcng82- bucks

entered Perahi ri by steal t.h and took head of Hunchut ~ung

and informed the deceased son, Lichasi of their feat at

the heat of another battle. Upon seeing his father's

unnatural physic<;l fcrmation of ti-we.lve toes and twelve

fingers tsk a:. al r•eady by Lon gsa bucks, withdrew from b5'r t.l e

declaring war by stealth henceforth. Later , aiter

establishment of Chad anger, Mengaki and Chari settlements

nearer to Longsa, the latter could not. st.and the predatory

raids of these set-.tl ements. '!hereupon, Long sa despatched

a peacemaker bearing two Tsungkotepsu (warrior shawl) to

effect an armistice. Consequently, an alliance ~Jas arrived

at by ·r.hi ch the shawl wcs returned to Long sa and an exchange

of dao, salt and cotton took place and inevitably Aksu

at cou~cillors level wc:s initiated. This allionce i.s still

maintained till date.

Besides the boundary maintenance under Perahiri with

adjoining segments, they could effectively blunt Angdom

expansionist tendencies. This was ef'f'ecti vely buttressed

242

by the Akekaodom of Sema segment. In other words, an

effective pres~ure wzs maintained by the Semas which could

not break through an equally strong Tuensang confederacy.

HovJever, this made for a precarious balance of power in this

frontier. The major thru~t of Serna Akek_a,o~om, then, turned

to~1ards the west bank of Dikhu so as to press Ungma, Lcngsa

and Lungkhum vil}ages. This was the politico-milit.<::xy condi-

t.ion that existed in this rP-gion when British fcrces entered

Naga country.

(iv) THE AKEKAO-DOM

1b.e Semas were late entrants to t.he degraded secondary

gro·wt.h areas of centrel Nagal and.· An environmental ci rcumspe­

ction occurred delimited both by ecological conditions as

well as re~istar.ce by other social units reprcesented by

t~e seden.tc:ry ~Ao, Angami, Lot.ha, a.nd Rengma segments which

virtually brought Ebout development of the Akekao-dom. It is

understood that sedentarisation trigg.er.s a population growt.h

and co related pressure on resources 1 eads to centralization

o.f a given poli.ty. However in the case o.f the Semas, a

• migratory instinct is indicated in the proliferation of

new settlements, and villages h£s households ranging any­

thing .from .five to a hundred only. These bandlik e and rapid

moving village~ were under an Akekao with an attached

'

243

Mug!lumi bound by a system of land tenure. This in itself

1 ai to a fonn. of centralization, even then economic sur­

plus could not be generated with the application of work

gangs per force. It will be a misplaced argument th&t

intensificction of demands made by the heirarchical auth-

ority as associated vJith larger settlements like Anghdoms

could al ~ be applied to Ak ekao-dom. It was then a syst an

peculiar to itself and at any rate reflect:::: what might

have be en in the c&se of other Nc;ga segrr.En ts in their

eerliE?.r migrations, a~ exemplified by the Letha Ekyungs

(chapter II, ii).

Interestingly enough, t.he .Ak ekao-doms developed only

in the Ao Sangt.am, Letha and Rengma regicns as combined

Serna villa~es tried to break through t,o escape ecological

depletion, i.e., in the northern frontier of the Semas.

Whereas i.n the southern set.tlements aroun~ the .Angami,

.Chake8ang areas t)l,ey have set.tlei down to a 'democratic'

polit.ical f~m and sedent.arization. Lazami vil1 ege is a

case in point, in this village there is no office of

Akekao1 ~ t.hi s is also true of Seromi and Sat ami villages.

It is also noted that in Philimi and Rotomi settlements

free labour (either voluntary or enforced) is non-existent.

The Ak ekao is a secular official without any pret entions

of a cosmological legitimacy of his standing C:l s in the ca ~E

244

of other Naga segments. Among than .A woe is a religious

functionary to initiate all agricultural activities and

is considered to be a very important eleuent among them,

he is followed by Amthao ("first reaper"), Lapu or Amishou

("the hurler of dead") and Ashipu ("butcher of sacrificial

animc.ls"). These offices are not hereditary, except in

Tukomi clan settlements where ~hipu is invariably the

Akekao himself (Hutton, 1921 : 216) • This act is however

looked upon with disdain by Aos and mu8t use an adopted son

or a 'slave' to slaughter all sacrificial animals.

I am hesi st. ant t.o consider chiefdom as equivalent to

Akekaodom, for in terms of polity formar.ion they were essen-

tially a clan group or most of the members were potential

recruits into its kinship structure led by a warleader

desi gne:i for predat.ory wa·r conditions:· They were yet to

settle down as sedentary and centralised social i'onlls·

Therefore centralization in this case is loosely defined

as opposed to higher pol.ity articulations. I am not sug­

ge~ting the the Akekaodom rests at the rock bottom o£ Naga

typologies, but emphasising its pecularlties in contradiction

with f:.he mechanical assumption of a "peasant-militia" or a

"manorial" ~ttri butes as Hutton himself was not sure of.

(Hutton, 1921·: 144). This Akekaodom can be equated wihh . the migratory Mizo che}-doms, however, the use of native

term would be more apt in this a·spect.

245

A d e+.ail di scussi:on on the nature of recruitment to

Mughumi has been done in chapter II already, it is clear

t.hat none is turned away if an individual seek refuge and

call an Akekao his 'father'. And a gift of paddy, a spea.r

·and a dao is considered sufficient enough .to become

ritual kinsmen of an Akekao. Moreover, acquisition of

a wife (purchased) and a tie of land tenure brings to an

individual all the paraphernalia of rights attached to a

consanquine member of the Akakao. It is alsO noted that

every menber of the village including those non-Mugl'lumi

are expected to give service of four to sixteen days in

a year in Akekao's jhum fiel_d. (Hutton, 1921: 148). To

our mind it reminds us of an overgrown Morung system of

other Naga segment S• In t.hi s case·· the surplus thus gene­

rated is confined in the Akekao's granary, ho..wever, it

perpetuates a fonn of droit de sigpeur, noblese obl.i.gse,

in other words, 1 t means redistribution at a 1 ater st:c:g_e.}

which is not a~"·characteristi c of Anghdom·s. The poi.nt I

am making here is that the rel aticnship betA'.een Akekao and

his Anulikesimi does not reflect an a-rchai.c 'form o.f

slavery. The Akekao is assisted by a nominated body kno~

as Chochomi ("elders") and his kinsmen's council i.e.,

Kekami together gives them a stable basis for village

admini strat.ion1•

The Semas are considered to be akin to the Koirao group

of the Mao segment, and as they moved northward a blockade

in the fonn of Angami resi$tance dissuaded their intended

westward migration. After their conflict with the Angamis

near Swemi, they entered the Doyang catchment area and a

group that crossed over to the west bank are found settled

in predominantly Asumi clan villages of ~azami group, namely,

Lponomi, Pugpboto, Natsemi, Tsapimi, Asukika Kitami and

Chokimi. They have a democratic fonn of polity, and

identification is closer to the Angami political form, as

such that in 1986, the public of Pugoboto su~-divi~ion made

a plea to the government that they should be retaine:l. under

Kohima district and not Zunhe boto. ~!here as the S em as were

dP...manding an amalgamat.ion of all Serna areas under ZU.nheboto

district, it seems that Pugoboto group is more closer to

Angami s than their Sema kinsmen.

In their northV\ard. march a ,·,eak resistanc·e was given by

the Ren'gmas as such that Khomo·m;:;'s expansionist designs

were checked. and had to ve·er to its 1 eft flank represented

by the Nzonteri-phenyu (Rengma) and colonize present Karbi

Anglong region. Again the Yephotomi and Ayimi clans ascen­

ded the Tizu and T1ta river catchment areas and underwent

247

admixtures with Sangtam and Rengma segments after splitting

them apart. Meanwhile the· Zhumomi, Awomi, Chi silimi and

Kinimi clans took a center. posi t.ion and pushed Ao villages

northward, ho:.wever, thEU were checked by dominant Ao villages

further north. Moreover, the expansion of Anghdom ani

Khiamungan political stabili_ty checked further movements,

this in tum created a backlock in the region of present

Phek district as to create a group of villages

without a dominant polity. '!hat is where the Brii:.ish

administration created an adm.inistrative'tribe' for their

convenience. In this a mention may be made of Matikhru

village which happens to be a Tankhul village and represents

by all means an expansion of the southernmost Naga block.

Besides this village, the Serna set.tlements of Swemi, Nahatomi

gnd Tehehumi are now a part of composite Chakesang identity.

The elder generations in these villages still speak Sema,

b:.1t for ail practical purpose, Ker.a and Chokre dialect is

so:c>io-polit;:ica.l struct.ucre .in :rts pristi.ne form is undoubtly

the· Aik'~a:O an.d bi.s lifu:ghu:.mf..,, Which accidentally got 'frozen'

by an .ad,mini strati ve promulgation in the form of appointing

Akekaos either as Dobashi s or Gaonburahs. And this political

form in essence will continue as ideal Serna social system

for times to come. <

248

(v) THE KEMEVOHOOD

A number of confederacies emerged in the third block

of Nagas which gave the most effective resistance to the

Anglo-saxon colon! al. interest in the last part of the

nineteenth century. The dominant among them was the Khonoma

confederacy consisting of Khonoma, Sachema, Mezoma, Jotsoma,

Kigwema and their offshoots, namely Thekrezenama and Sachno­

bama. The other confederacy was led by Kohima village and

it comprised of all the northern settlements, while Viswema

had the Zonnuo-Keyhonou group of villages. The villages

nearer to Dinepur plains are collectively known as ~roma

consisting of Raz ephema, Chimuk edima, Si tikina, Piphim~,

Medziphima etc., which are direct offshoots of both Khonoma

and Kohima. East of the Viswema sub-segment and hemmed

in by Chokre ( chakrima ) , Tengima and Mao (memi) segmmt

·are the Keza village&, they were considered to be 'demili­

tsxised' and came under politico-ritual control of Keza­

kenom-a.. While the Qlc.kre sub-segment is a boundary main­

t:en~an:C\e grou.p and a co~ate to Kezas. lhe Mao segment 1 s

basica+ly 'the ritual head o£ this welt~. er q£ segments and

Khonoma can be considered as the most dominant political

element among them.

We can dis cern two types of 1 egi tim ation of' their '--·

politico-ritual articulations lli, Makhel/Maikhel and

249

Kezakenoma. They are no doubt so~rces of or.l.gin of the

composite Angami segment as well as allied politico­

kinship segments like Rengma (especially Nzongteri-phenYi)

and also of polit.ical extensions to I.o+:has. The first

charter has a domination over Angami s in a ritual -

sense of term, and it becomes more assertive among the

Dzunokeh eno Zonnuo-keyhcnuo. This sub-segment while

remaining a part of Angami continue to assert a distinct

entity, which includ.es a single genealogical structure

and a compact territory. Moreover their land tenure is

closely link~ with the kinship system and an overbearing

importance is given to their ancestress, namely, Dzuli

Mosuro.

'lhi s ·becomes important

in the light of their dual inheritance system despite

existence of a patt:iarchal arrangemEnt o£ kinship stru.ct:u.re·•

In this system, the Kayie (estate) bel.on.gs to a ;particailc:r

lineage (a corporate group) and all 1!'\'he...r.it,enc:e i,n,clr:rrl;;ES

bot.h sel.f-acquired property and an.cest-.=r-l. p;_~p,e.rty.. ~'Ill:£

"division of ancestral and self-acqui.red property· i:.~s·;d~one<i.n

the lifetime of parents, though it. should be ideally based

on patrilineal principle, two women, i.e., the widow and

the daughter are included in the priorlt.y for choice of

heirs in order of precedence. This division of prOperty

is a part of a wider system of inheritance. '!bus, a group

250

of agnates (including women) are in possession of a kayie.

Provided that a women (married with her children) has _

taken up residence in her partilineage locality, she and

her children are entitled to a share in the Kayie. The

second type of legitim· ation comes from the Kezakenoma

dolmen in the form of a political charter which is asserted

by Khonoma, Kohima, Chokre and Keza sub-segments. About this

political charter, Hutton has observed that it does "not

fit in with the story of the origin of the exogamous clans ••.

(c;f Angamis) •.. but it is a logic<=_l position which it is

perhaps too much to expect of any race". However, I shall

differ ~ith him that it was a deliberate and conscious

articulation to legit.imise thE'! expansionist designs of

Khonoma and Kohima confederacies by the expediency of main­

taining real or ritual kinship with other s~gments, ~,

Lot-.ha, se.ma and Rengma.

Th:e- sc:c:i,o-poli tical segments that co·me under the t.wo

ch:a-rt.er"s can he- :bracketed under what I shall call the

Mev-oho:Od (kemovo'hood) as it has a direct relevance to .. acquisition of status as well a.s polity formation. In this

aspect, the reference point is the Kemevo. He is al~\'ays

from a founder lineage and directs all public ceremonies,

so also is the reposi tor of ge~ealogi eel and hi storicc..l

2 51

' tradi +.ion of his village. The very nature of his sacro-

sanctity makes him imnune from enemy attacks during war.

The kemevo selects and builds the first house aft.er all

necessary rituals are conduct. eel for establishment of a

village. 'lhe most significant ;~ti)ect is the dei tification

of the Tehuba (round st.one sitting place) stone circle which

contains the graves of deceased Kemovos underneath, and

public affairs Cire conducted from this sacred place. The

Khonoma group has a kemovo for conductill?; public rituals

and a lesser placed Zhevo assigned to individual's ritucJ..

needs, i.e., mithun sacrifice etc.,. Th.e Kemevo is heri

ditary to the Kepezoma division. On thanks giving festival

called Terhunyi (held for ten, thirteen and seven days

in Khonoma, Kohirna and Viswema group of vilJ.a~ges respec+i­

vely) the whole village offers a portion of their crop to

Kemovo or Zhevo as a token of his service to the coJBDunit.y.

The~ among the !bo segDtent was made. ineffective by the

Gaon burah in sti tu.tion in seeul.a r affairs. He is t.be cu st.O<iia:n

of villag·e agric:u.ltural. 'calendar besides ac+ing as ritual

head and considered. to be responsible for the gener-a'i be·alt·h

of the village. An elderly person from a founder lineage is

alw~ys the ~or Morohvocho. In the bigger villages there

are two or more 'secular' headmen subordinate to the pivotal

Morohvocho who controls both secular and ritual affairs. 'lhese les·

ser pl~ced headmen are called ~zumovoh who are mostly big mED

252

of the village. The Mevo is ~either a warrior nor a wealthy

person, on the contrary, there is a belief, current among

~that the prosperity of' the head stands opposed t.o the

general v..elfare and prosperity of the

l.nhabit.ants. Again the rituel. taboos and his services to

the conununi t,y effects his agricultural acti vi t.i e::; as to

deplete his economic resources and standing, and they prefer

it to be left so.

Tile Mevo among the Keza sub-segment should neither

be killed in war nor engage in agricultural activities. In

Kezakenoma the Mevo is always from Tseme clan, however,

this principle does not ext.ent to ot.her villages. It is

mo~t.ly status holders that assume powers of Mevo in those

villages other t.ha n Kezck enoma.

'lbe ke:nevo assumes an i.mporta.nt entity -whe!l .it b-e,com~e:s

a reference point for big mer to acqui.re l~~m-a:cy o:f tb~eLr-

etatu se ~. This status c~n be at t a"' n-ed or a:Bproxi 'm"'it eci b}'"

'secular Kemovohood' thus acquired woui.d bri-ng th-e bj;g· oren

-not only enhanced social statu~ but ritual kinship with

like 'secular kemovo s' of' other villages. The Kemevo in his

of' fi ci al. hereditary po si ti on has a standing in specific

village territory where as the 'secular kemevo' status holder

253

invariably uses the same principle of nEUtrality in intra­

-villege feuds to consolidate trans-village peace and

alliances. This mech<;lnisn facilitated the conditions for

the emergence of confederacies. Both the qual.ities of a

\ovarrior and big man coincides in almost all the cases. Thus

the se:,cul.ar Kemovo enters into Chuza (peace treaty) with

neighbouring vilJ.ages by sacrificing bulls of m.it.hun,

buff~;lo an·d pigf.• Hencefort.h, it is taboo to perform head

hunting amongst the participants of Chuza. In ot.her words,

no one dares to hunt for their heads for t.he simple reaf:on

that s ro robin ed wrath of a. number of secular Kemovo s "'ould

descend upon such perpetrat.ors. This socio-political ty­

pology is essen~ially a variant oi' the conically structured

Nags polities, ho\,•ever, it is unique in its oo,..n right.

Mel"'f:.icn may be made of the observations made by Hutton

(1921:197) on the control of Morovochc of Makh:remei (.Mao)

vil:Leg.e over tb€ agri cul tu.ral calendar of t.:h:e l>ugamt ·a:n~d

~ga:zt.e segments. Obvio; ... u:::ly, thi~ ref.ere:'!'..::ce· .is rel e~art:t

to ~ecul c:r KemoVOf' of Angam.i esp eci.E.lly fo.r ~ b:i.g .m..en .o:f

Kbo·noma and Kohima conf ederaci ef:, and f't· ·g.o;-es ·to· ~Sb:o:,;..t t-;h=at

the administratively segmented 'tribe:F'' a:-.re quite inade·­

qu at.e in understanding Naga poli t.y fo rmat.ion S• Certainly,

Kemovohood (morovocho, ~) extended its p..r.ln.ciple o-:v.e.r a

greater territorial jurisdiction in the past.

254

There are seve n sequences in an Angami feast o£ merit

open to all individuals for status mobility. Among the

Kohima group a person after performing chi su (highest order

of merit) can declare himself a kemovo,the same status

is attained by a reast giver in Khonoma group also.

The community functions like Sekrenyi festival held in

February is designed for invocation of a good year; it is

also known as Phasanye (purification ceremony) for all the

male inhabitants and a time for re-affirmat.ion of intra-

-village relationship through exchange of mutual visits

of village representatives or of clans. It is also marked lJj

bridge pulling or erection of new village gate. On thi 5

ocas5ion, Mithun or bui'faloes do not enter into their ritual

relationship, instead dog' 5 meat is distritn.lted and eaten

in plenty. This aspect as-sum_es an i..m:p¢.rtEnt meaning, fo.r in

Nags cosmol.ngy dog '18 rituaily Em age:n_t- £.: and

p erpetu r--1. 0!! of lU' -e

)

as opposed to

The Angami feast o£ -merit begins with a preliminary of

three feasts followed by lBOre elaborate and expm.si"Tl! ones

as g1 ven in the chart thus:

255

_ F ea~t. r"'ood~tuffJUsed Persons in·v·olved Entitl snent EQuivalent Tei"l

LHIGE GEl (marking harvest of 100 baskets

1 pig Kinsmen ard affiness - -of paddy)

,. '

KRIEGA GEl Brush hair straight (marking harvest 2 pigs

' -do- down instead of

of 100 of baskets ,. ' tyi~in a knot. -' ' PI CHU PELHIE 1 cow - Elders or ·{for blessing) 4 Mithun .

4 Zhevos - -..

CHUGHA 40 maunds ',, Free distri but.ion of Thatching grass in ( pe rf o rm ai t wi c e) rice,6 mit- meat to villagers arxi split bamboo in the CHESA

hun. 2 pigs feasted. front porch. ( Kohima)

Iv!EROCHU or - r·ilcncli t.h erection •• t•

Kesia - · Unspecified ·-do- in honour of dec.e- - . It ancestor. •·~orship) ased ancestors

. ''

ZH.ACHU 00 maunds of rice TNo planks affixed I (Performed twice) 8 mi thun/ cow/ Feast villagers to th e front gable

" bu!'faloes,4 pigs. and others. of his house and ZHACHE :

wear Zhavaklr~e Cloth { Kohima) ..

Affix the Kika LISHU ; 120 maunds of rice (dragging two' 10 mithun/cow/ · (house hom) and

posts, )ne buffaloes -do- a ss ume title : LICHU

forked 5 oi .e:s. Kikeikepfuma { Kohima) ----·

KETSESHE 100 maunds of rice (pulling a mono- · 12 mithun/cow/ CHISU lith for buffaloes :'de- -erection) : ;

256

There are two types of feast of merit among the Mao

segment, namely, Mozu and Yoso. The former is a feast

held during December, whereas the Yo so marks the erec~ion

of monoliths. On such occasiOns all the clan represent.ati ve s

of a particular village will gather in the feost giver's

house (or big man). They will di~cuss and reviS~J their

customary laws and amend relevant conventions if found

necesr.ary, thereafter, the elders will announce to public

these changes. '!be changes that can be made in th Ed. r

customary usages and re gulat:lons by an assembly indicates

to an extend the declining status of the M,""lrovocho in a

secular sense. He has been confined to maintaining the

agricultural calendar or control over !!§Pi (ritual cere­

monial dc.ys) only.

It can be said that the ritually fixed statuses is the

st.imulus for big men ·to emerge and consequ mtly a dynamic I

polity emerges among these Naga segments under discussion.

The most notable polity development and extension is repre­

sented by the Khonoma confederacy. A remarkable influence

of this polity is found .. among the Rengma segment, e~pecially

in Tseminyu, Phensenyu, Sendenyu, Tsok••nyu and Tsewnyu

group of village~. Among the Tserninyu linguistic group,

the villages of Tsokwnyu and Choshingu are basically of Angami

stock. 1'-loreover, Cl tradition is current among the Sendenyu

257

people t.hat. their ancestor was one Tsemi and along with

his kinsmen, Ka~ and Puherile made camp near about the '

present Nerhema. The tradftion also indicates t.hat Kahi

and Puherile established Kohima and Nerhema respectively.

(one cf Kohimas sectors). Again Phensenyu was established

in its present political form by one Kselie of Khonoma, he

is reputed to have made a round stone seat~ presumably in

the fashion of Kemovo' s seat at Khonoma. It is highly

suggestive of planting Khonoma's politicc.l form, though

not ne~essarily a wholesale migration of populat.ion to

this village. Moreover, the Kent clan of Tsemi~yu is

identified with Tsutonami (·T khel.) clan of Kohima, and

it is closely akin to SOpfuma clan of Mao segment. It is

also noted that Tsownyu village is partly inhabited by

Angami s.

'l't.Le political author! ty of Rengma villages called / '

the Kokhugu or Kekhoung ( "headma~") represents a very

fluid type of power structure. Even though t.hi s headship

is heredit.ary t.o a founder clan, a gross mish.and.,ling of

&ffairs ·will deprive the whole clan of this right (Mills,

1937: 138-139). As a case in point, the Tepinyu clan was

deprived of Kokhugu-ship by Khinyonyu clan for a period of

seven years in the light oi' their ineffectual administ­

ration. Then 1 t reverted back to them an~l ed. for

nearly seven generations t.lll the British Gaonburah and

Dob::tshi institut.ions mcsde than insignificant. The sume

process was observed in Tesophenyu between Kentennen~~

(kent) a_nd Mhatongza clan~ by rJti.lls (1-lills, 1937:139).

The power struggles between clCils can be best explai­

ned by the nature of their cosmological conditionihgs

and legitimacy thereof. As referred to earlier !n Qh~f!te.r

III, the Mao, Angami and their cogeneres like Rengtnas•

mu~ literally do battle with the Naga version of 8t..Peter

ani enter the kingdom of hRaven by force. Thin is unt·.hln1c­

able in the case of other Naga segments. This c.ruo:l.u1

element cont ri but-:ed a lot in the forl18 tion of a d,ynF.lrn:i. o

socio-political structure &nd polity expansion oi' ·this

block of Nagas.

In the earst.while Eastern Rengma (now a part oi' J'oohur·¥)

group of villages viz Mel uri , Lephori and- Sahunyu th erf:t .1. a

no secular head man as such that -their political lifu :l. s

run by big men. '!hey have a religious functio.n&ry kilown

as Kachi\ia/Kuzesha]Pensengo, however in Meluri villMge,

the Kachiwa takes over the morung administration ar¥:1

another official, namely, Tzuozari functions as the village

priest. Their polity functions as given under:

259

,.....------------------------------'- ---··-----·---CLAN OFFICE FUNCTION _.---.=;::..;;.;;:.:...._ _____ --=-.::...=...;::...;:;.;;=------------=-~;;..;;..;;;.::...;:;.;;.;.. _____ ,,,,_ .. _______ .

· Tshori

Nyuwri

Kachiwa Tzuozari

Kachiwelo

~lorun g chi ef

Initiates cuttirfif'61''-·-~ jungle and setting :t.·t afire in JhUJtUltir'lg

1'"------------------------------· ........ ~---·- . Ngori Nyusor.i. Nuthiri

Atsuo-Kevi tewa First to h a tv est pad.dy

'1-------------------------· __ , -· -' --------Phojiri A shipiwa First, sower o.f ~ee& grain

'--:-----------------------------·---·-' ---.,-'-4

Though their polity· is closely identifie.i \·,ith Angantt

:system, the Iseni-kotseneu group had underweht ad&ii:lxtur·efi

with Letha segment. As indicated earlier, ttle J-1el.ur:L

~roup of villages were cut off from mcP.nbodf of Rer)ghi~:~~

by the Sema movements in Tizu area, as a consequen<J~ ·~•1

expansion could not take place in this direction. 1l'hie

constraint probably gave ·the necessary impetus for J<)\Onotucl

and allied confederacies to tum west, represented at ~ny

rate by Nzonteri-Phenyu segment and their migration to

present Diphy division of Karbi Anglong district of At~oern.

The politico-economic interest~ of the Nagas ·in the

valley of Assam can best be explained by British recordA8 ,

\"hich suggest that-. the North-Cachar HilJ s and adjoinini

areas suppliecl to Bengal a number of product-.s and animola,

namely, timber, precious wood. (including sandal), cane.

rubber, cotton, ~ilk and elephant tusks. It is also

2Qo

knOWl that Kajali-ban in central Cachar was an important

source oi' f'..leph&nts as FersiCI'l records9 testify. Other

records10 also indicate that Rajas of cachar controlled

the external trade and levied duty on the transit stations.

0\rer and above this, the Maibong brine spring and market

was an essential stimulus for the po·wer st ruggl. e between

the Dimasa rulers and the .Ahoms; there are evidences to

suggest that the animosity and frontier clashes bet-ween

Ahoms and Dimasas invariably dragged in the hill dwellers

into this region. The trans-polity trade among the Nagas

in this region was controlled by Khonoma, therefore it

was es~enti~l .for them to send out colonies, which can

be identified with the Nzote;I"i-Phenyu settlement of the

valley area. Thi.s sub-segment came under t.he .Ahom

political netwerk,. and as discussed earlier, the Phukanship

was conf e·rn~d t:rp:on the mo·st do min ant headmen of thi s

sub-sega·er·rt c.f R.en.&m:as. T.hi s post became hereditary end

the lc.st. t:i:t:l e ,l;i,o·~ held by o:rre Pfu..ka of P·s·nchi.rep vil.ls:g.e

c:-cill.:y .d:oldn;an.'t· ±:nha:b:i-t:ant:s ,o:t· :present .K~ Ang}on:g,, mEE:el. y,

t·he. ·Ka:rbios . .(.ea;r=st;wih''rJ,eMfld:r.s;)i ·ap~. -no doubt. a part of t:b.e

w:e:ste'rn Nia;g~a:s ;g;.r.o:q~h· ~yaii. :sab:s~t:aat"i.a'-t,e.s this v.:Le,w po.in t

t;he:;t. -&"'€· ;M"Fk'fxs· ;(;ka?rbf;s~r s~n.e: ;no~t· ;orf:' iBOx.=oJ :«>.r l(a;cilarl. sto:ck:

"form the connecting link between the Nagas and the Kuki-chin"3nd the pre­ponderance of their affinities lie~ with the latter of these two races, especially t .ho se dwelling in the south of the Arakan Yoma range, where the Chin tends to merge into ~he Burman of Irawady valley". (Lyall, 1908:151-165).

They wer t:> sett.l a:l in/strength in the region north of the

Bar .. ·ail range and were directly in contact with the Angarni

and Zeliangrongs. At the close of the Ahem rule, the

Karbis were knoivn as Mikir Nagas (Gait, 1905, l"lap). It

can be safely stated thst: they were then a periph c-~ral

Naga group not unlike the Pakans of Tengnoup al district

of Manipur who were designated as Old-Kuki s. The l.G tte r

group as a politico-soc:icJ.. identity as Nagas is unquest.ion­

c: bl e now, however the Karbi s orbited out of this Naga

id-entity r.ct. by choice but out of colonial interests in

thE valley and the pol.icy of divide de empir~ TI-.ds is

oJ: K1--~onoma w.ere t.he Zemi, T.ia-ngme:: anrl Ket:c±=e ,Ze:~an.g..Y'Q!l6J·

Amc:ng .J~ ::e Zelld..s d aot tl1 Cc:ch:ar h::i1...:. ~, t-b eir &depeo

( h~dm-anj h a:il s .f ~-m the f cr.:m der cJ. an 1 ~d thee ret-i c sll y . ail v:D.J....ag e l.and:.s a~ and er h:i ~ eo rol ere e:p ing ~ eci fi c

cLan l.an-d~ (tk>wer·s, 1951; 72). In the case o.f the Kaoois,

262

political authority is diffused, as George Watt des­

cribes their village as "a sort of minature republic"

and "without laws or lerw giver, without even an elective

governing body, they live in peace and happiness, the

headmen sitting in council only when a crime is comrni­

tted". They have age groups and grades {Ao system)

v1hich has direct relationship with political status,

.hov1ever, a conical clan structure is not discernible

among then, that is, the clans carry no distinction in

matters relating to socio-political ctatus. The Kabui

society is divided into thr~e socinl institutions, nomely,

Khangchu, Ganchang-Koibang and Banza-Kaibang. And each

male cit,iz en is a member of these institutions at dif-

fecent. stages of one's life. The entry point is the

Khangchu vii t.hin which there are three age grad·es, viz

~ (juniormost)D Ganpi and Khangbon~ Through the

Cl§rta grade an ~ndi vidual's entry to morung is effect. ed. I

as he attains the age of seven, in ganpi grade there

are t\'1'0 sub-grades, vi;_~, ~anpi chakphongmei {"unmarried v

yongmen") and Qampi kaijibmei ("married men"). The 1 . ··- •

Khangbon grade is composed of middle aged men and their

Khangchu (morung) comes under their direct control, it is

at t,his e;rade that an individuCJl enters the political

lii' e o1' t.he village. They are no vJ con.fi rmed as Ganchang

and lnter as Banz~ ( seniormo st. el<lers). The Banzas them-

263

-selves hc;ve two or three senior elders dealing sp6cifi­

cc.lly \Aiith religious affairs, end the Ganchangs throw up

four of their members to oversee the secular matterso And

t.hese two groups of elders have a joint aut.hority in their

polity. These bodies approximate the ;.~O rulling generation

and t.h eir executive body is known as P ei -kai an equi­

valent of Ao :eutu menden, however, their polity is not

based on seniority and juniority of clans as in the case

of' Aos. In their case a group of clans may have a great,er

say in the village affairs by right of founding their

settlement. They are collectively called the Nhampou­

.Nhamp ei ("founders") • The :eei -kai does not impose any

form of tax or remuneration for themselves. When the

MP.it.hie state apparat,us extended its influence over them,

a set of adrni.ni strati ve functions got institutional! sed

in the Pei -kai, namely Khunbu-Khullak, Lulak and Mant ri.

I The Zeliangs have a council of elders knovm as Pai.

headed by an elderly statesman who is preferably from one

of the founder clans called Tinku:. He is assisted by an

execut.i·~e body i.e., Changloi whose members are nominated

from Pai.

The decline of Khonoma co~ederacy is directly linked

With the entry of British forces into t.he Zemi and Rengma

territ.ories j_n t.he valley. The Angamis then had a control

264

over t.he se:l t trade in Zemi areas which \-Jas in itself a

stimulus to her polity forrnat.ion and expansion. However,

\>hen their 'territorial control' (on the deed bed of Ahom

and Dirnasa kingdoms) got restricted by administrative

promulgations, demographic manipulations and colonial

economic interests, a clash with the British became

inevitable c:md 1 ed to the Naga w&rs with the colonial

forces.

11 The brine springs that dotted the Mao and Tankhul

regions were meeting places of all sorts of native trc.ders·

The traders from Khonoma, Jotsoma 2nd ·somra villages

descended upon this place and the salt that was crudely

manufactured reached even the Ao villages in the north I

through a .series of intermediaries. They used to ca;J.l

the salt brought up from south as Teretlong ("bone stone")

and the Ao mongsen group happens to wear.ornaments iden­

tical with somra tan-:..:khul women, pt-esumably these arti­

cles used t.o come up along with salt. However, t.his

affinity may not end with simple economic transact.ions

as t.hei r socio-e:ul tural attr.i. but es are identical to

each other. Presumably, the Sema migration is responsible

265

for split.ting up these two Naga segments. The T'dn_:-~hul

village head man is called the Av,rung\"da/Wuggwa and it is

a hereditary position meant for founder clans, the

village land comes under his control and is responsible

for distribution of Jhumlands for cultivation in consul­

tation with the Hangva ("councillors,. The Rephei group

has emerged as the ideal-type representative of Tan~khul

polity and their dialect is now the lin~a franca among

them. This dialect was partially enforced by christian

missionaries who were stationed at Ukhrul settlement a

few decades ago. In this group Ukhrul village is the most

dominant and among its thirty two clans {there are twenty

six gaonburahs) at least six clans do not have voting

rights in the Hangva. This c;~t any rate represents an

extreme case of political deprivation. The official

position in Hangva as well as Awungva are identified with I

specific portion of meat car_-cass. i.e, the head goes to

the Awu...n..gy~. The deputy heads viz, 'Kasaruvo and Kasomwo

get hind legs each. The oth~r functionaries, namely,

Nga~awoi and Shimzingwo are also alloted a hind leg each.

The religious head is k!lO\vn as Awungashi who hails from

the Hungpur awungwa clan, his agricultural function,

besides other duties, is to plant first seedlings in the

jhumland. The Horam and Changsi clans are considered to

be priestly· in their reckoning. The Awungwa/Awt.maBhi is·

266

the politico-ritual head of the villageg however in his

absence any warrior of repute may seek signs and omens

for the general welfare of the villageo

The intra-village confederacy was maintained by a

council of representatives nominated by a group of Awun~as called the ~ngva. An important mechanism for Tankhul

interaction v~a s holding of fairs, and such a day was

designated Khasho and the fair itself was known an Leigh

khangapha. The moE=t popular fair was the Ukhrul market

which used to be held during Luira, their spring festivalo

It was followed by Paowi market in August and Phadang

village fair. These meets were designed not only for

bartet· of goods but for m-eeting and feasting amongst kins­

men of outlaying villages, such feastings were called

Rasha khanga~hang. Another form of binding relationship

was inter-village marital links that were normally con-. I

I tracted bet\~een families of big men and Awungva. A woman

of this marriage was known as :eukreila and she used to be

go-between of two warring villages with an unrestricted

access to both these villages at war. The killing of

such a peace maker was considered dangerous as it meant

raikashe or reversal in waro

..... ;dithin the Tan khul confederacies, the stat.us of

Awungya was unquestioned as only they could become members

267

or Longva and big men were virtually excluded from this

council o This was made possible by a ritual known as

I·Jiarankasa marking the erect.ion of meghalithso It. \-Jas an

erect.ion of five logs of \vood with its branches carefully

pol ared and their front side bore caricatures of buffalo

head, animal footprln·cs etc. vvhich were either grooved or

raised by c.hiseling. All the other clans other than the

.Awungya clan were debarred from performing this ceremony.

At times long standing feuds between two Awungvas were resolved

by performing marankasa, a form of competition without resor­

ting to warfare. 'fuis could alsO take the form of e-recting

monoliths and the Awungva used to feed the villagers for a

considerable period of time till these stone monoliths were

brought out from the forest and erectedo This performance

was marked by a fixed quota to be slaughtered viz twelve

buffaloes, one cow, ten pigs, five dogs and an unspecif'i erl

number of cocks. I

In order to perform this Marankasa an Av-rungva must have

built to himself a Longcheng shim (akin to secular Kemevo's

house) \vhich was made of planks and/wooden shing.1es in the

roof. The front of this house was adorned with long eaves

(Lengchengkui). In the case of big men, they could build

Longcheng shem along with a SUmkok {"long bed 11 ) about

2;; feet long and $-<).fee.t wide at one end and 6 feet on the

other end which was hewn out of a single tree trunko

268

. This bed could accomodate more than twenty persons at one

time. SUch big men who could build both the houses and bed

were entitled t.o be guardians of a Lengnao · (morung). These

customary practices ~re ·no longer found in the Tankhul country

todayo

(vii) THE KHUL·GROUP TYPOLOGIES .._.

The Maring segment is composed of three distinct groups»

namely, the Ramyang represented by Narum, Saibol and Yongkhul

(north); the Uipu.-.-a group with Bij ang, Khoibou _and Yangmclching.

villages and the third group represents all the other Maring

villages. Among the last group their polity is arranged st.ri­

ct.ly in accordance wi-th clan· seniority based on their emergence

from the Khul, as given under:

CLAN

Charang

Kangso\-..B

Makunga

Dan gsa

LINEAGE

Charangtang Lamthaka Munleiya

Kansout~ng Tontanga You t.uwa

Yungl.ama Wairock Makowa

Thangsa Karungrang Dang sa

OFFICE__,

Khulpu Saupulrui

I

YoutuvJaw khulak

Khulak

puTY

supervise naming c er e.any, n.aming,construction of house, insert reed pipes in jobs­~.ears beer and close all c eremoni es o

Serve the pri est in all functions.

Pour water in jobs ·:.ears beer and offer prayers, . first serving done by this lineage during festival

worship villege gate (lamal)

The administrative structure in the Ramyang group of

villages is thus:

CLAN LINEAGE OFFICE DUTY

Mangsha (dal'lgsa) 6 Kbulak Criminal cases are

disposed off

Marin ( Inpi,

Kangsowa) Luml.ak Deputy of Khulak

.Thoupong - - -'

Thouman - - -

Makhu - - -Narhang

\

( ronglu) - Khulpu Village prei st

.. Charang - I - -

I

Among the Maring segment ·official designation and clan

ide:'0tification \·Jit.h it is closely linked with the tussle

that took place in their underworld settlement. Originally,·

Mailembu is the secular head and Khulpu takes care of

religious affairs and .it seems to have changed bands

betitJeen different clans over time. The khullaka}2.§_ or

Khulak is a Meithie administrative functionary. It is

-

270

interesting to note that the Khulak post is no·w cc?lerminus ------ ~

with the function of gate worship in Kurau Khunou village,

moreover fixation of 'alien' administrative post like

Khullakpa to a specific clan i:s signific.::nt. In the Maring

t radit.ional arrangement, Em adopted individual cannot claim

the posts of Khulpu and Mailambu even todayo The represen­

tat:.ive villages of the three groups of Marings show an even

di speraal of clans, t.hu s:

GROUP VILLAGE CLANS

Ramyang Yongkhul ·Tangtanga Khongsa (Kangsawa,Kansou) Khel-li ng( i npi) Dc.n gsav-;;:; (Dang sa) Shaka ( thouman) Angsa (dangsa)

-do- Saibol . Charang Iv1aku Da~ang Ka owa IVlakhu ( ext.in ct) Langmai thel ( exti net_} - -

-do- Narum Nang sa ~ aangsa )· Marum (kangsawai kansou) Thoupong

I Thounam I•Jiakhu -Narh(\ang Charang Thangtanga (marim)

Uipu v1a Khoi bu G.harang Khongsa Khel-ling Dangsawa Shaka :

Rung-io ( Narhang) Khulpuwa

Others Larnlong Dangsawa Tangtanga

Khuleri Khulpuwa

-do·- Khudei Dangsawa Tangtanga H~yowa K , SO\va Lamthaka

- -- -----·-- ---

271

The fir.st t\vO groups have different dialects and

their myth of origin also varies, however, t.hey ha~e

retainerl their clan structures in its prestine fonns.

But in the last group~ the identificati:ob of Khulpuwa '1t1ith

Ningthong_.i.§. and Dangsawa with Arongja (t\-vO chiefly

lineages of Meith ei s) seems quite significant. Here, the

~haran_g clan does not exist and its relation with Khulpuwa

is not clear or was it submerged within the Khulpu.v12?.

'l"hat is,in the process of its identification with the

Meithi e clans a kinship nomenc'Jc.ture became a part of

politico-administrative entity. Gimson (MIA, 1926:39)

has indicated a food taboo (goat meat) as a characteristic

of this Khullakpa. 'classv and as a non-traditional admini­

strative post, \vhich clearl·y i,ndicates a polity formation

emanating out of their int erection w:ith the Meithei st. ate

apparatus, and this articulation is found in those villages ,

nearest to the vall~y of Manipur.

The Anals of the Khul group have two moities viz, t.he

muchal choko and chanang mu!:Um with a numb:'er of clans. The

Khuru wng_ (headman) 1 ~ now an e1 ecti ve post. P revi ou ~1 y it

was from SUnru~oi.ng clan of murum rnoitie and became hereditary

But. no·w a flexibility comes in the form of' big men taking

up this post after offering feast of merit. Thi£: Khuru~r~g

272

is assisted by Mirung £or defence of the village and the

Pamrung officiates over al~ the agricultural activities, \

·while Donrung keeps a tally of domestic animals in posses-

sion of the villagers. The Khuruwng designate must

sacrifice a Mithun and distribute its meat and seven big

jare of rice-beer to the villagers, this condition keeps

the door open £or big rnen to assume o£fi ce" thc.t is, economic

well being is an essential G_ualificc;tion. The most dominant

villages are, nc-;melyp Anal k·hulen, Lampou-pasna and Lamphou -

charu and retain most of the traditional ~11ays. The ~ieithei

::;tate expan:;ion did not make much headway in this Naga seg-

ment.

The other s~5ments, namely, Moyon-~-1onsang and Taran

still retains a conical clan arr·angement, however, they

have ident.i£ierl themselves ·with the Meithie P<?litic·al form

to a great extent. In the Moyon segment there are two /

moities, namely, Sumphuw ~nd Jungvain and the Irhrung (headman)

post goes t.o the former moiety, and the Khurfu (rit~al

head) is reserved for the latter. The traditional admini-

strati ve structure has the Irwung heading a council com­

prised of Khurfu, Vangkhra (aide to Khurfu), Pakhanglak,

_NingonlakpaGnd Nahalakpa (controllers o.f young boys, girls

and youth respectively), Jup an and Laoching (caret akers o£

273

rice beer for elders in session), § erang ard Kei rung

(tax collectors) and Changlu (village crier/announcer) •

The Moyons achieved a chiefdom of sorts alongside the

earstwhil e Moirang. segment of the Manipuri 3· l'hi s

cr.iefdom emer~ged around t.h e seventh century .h. .D. under

one Kurkham Ngariit.i (ngoru clan) a.nd is said to have

controlled twelve Mon villages. Later it became a tri­

butary t.o the Meithei King. This brought about an infusion

of the functionary posts of the latter. The present offices

ar~ arranged thus.:

Designation lVleat Duties

Iruv1ung Cocks head» head and Overall head of the tongue of animals village

killed · 'Senapati -ao- C:tnd COCKS stomacl1 M~lit~a mobilization

\

Khullakpa -do- and liver of cock Social welfare of the village.

'

Lulakpa -do- Deputy t.o Khullakpa. I -I -

' I

Mantri -do- the right hand man .•. of Iru\=mg

. ..

Khurfu Agri cul tu rc.l priest.

. Chi ngsangl akpe External affairs. >

Mithiramfhu Deputy o.I' chin.e:sanlakpe ·

Vankhrah Helper to serial lifo. o l>akhanglak, Nin- Controllers Of.' boys, gonl c.kpc; & girls and Youth Nahalakpa resP ect.i vely Juban & Lacching Caretaker of wine

during feast

..

Serung &. J{ei run~.<; Finane e controller & tax~ Ch&nf-'.lU Vill af":e crier/ c.n nounc er.

274

The Monsang segiD:ent has identical clan division and

is also exogamous with equivalent Moyon clans as shown

under:

MOYON J.VIONSANG

Sumphur Ngoru Ngierii . ( clan) Charu Se rbum Sippuwti( clan) Ki erii (Lineages

Buwngjar Thhumthee 'fur lip Chalhii

Jungvain Reel Reennheti Rohin (clan) \~!angl. ar ' (clan) Wang,l.aar

Chini r (Lineages) Nungchum (Lineages) Kartu Khaartu Sheshong Thhehsong Hungam . Hongam Shongshir Shonsheer

\

II. 111E PROCESS OF SOCIAL AND POLITY FORMATION BEFORE THE ENCAPSULATION PROCESS.

The Naga sccio•p9litical systems do indicate a trans­

ient form oi' early stages of state -ronnation. Thus the

theoretical implications of this aspect is obviously sh.own

by the various N8 ga typologies as attested by the data just

discussed. It can _be assumed that further developments were

arrested by the British interference and to an extent their

or.:tginal che;rc:ct.eristics are still retained.

Tv!o clear cut developments could be di seemed, one 1-Jas -

the process o;f demographic expansion in areas wher~ swi.dden

275

agriculturP- was practised and a corelated need for inten-

sified labour input as exemplified by .Anghdoms, ~-,hile the

Angamis ~i.th their terraced cult.ivation needed territorial . a

expansion, this necessitated acquisition of slaves or a

continued migration and assimilation of alien population

as in the case of Mughumi systemo The other dElVelopment

v~as an ecological constraint coupl eri \"~ith socic;l blockade

for territorial expansion of t./ariou s Naga segments; which

led to a long t.erm degradation of ecology. (best exempl:i.fied

by Akekaodom). This stimulated a process for emergence cf

larg~ exogamous and acephalous clans, 'i'mere the headmen/

chiefs were replaced by big men and village councils. The

vertical structure or conical clan system virtually colla­

psed as shown by Mao, Angami; Moyon, Monsang, Anal and

others; however the original arrangement seemed to have

persisted in the Ao, Letha, Phom, Chang, Yimchunger, sangtam

and Khiamungan segments. In the former group of Naga

segments, the 'originalg clans \vere consigned to non-entities

or made into me·re ritual heads with attendant economic

disabilities as i .. s in the case of MevQ/Mevorocho and

Kemevo. Ho ... ,ever, they retained their segmentary principle

as far as senior/junior clans were concerned at least in a

ritual sense of the term. The most extreme case is that

276

o.1!." t.he Tan~khul Awungva, who could manage to restrict

big men to scale up the social ladder or to appro'2-mate

his status. In the case of the Anghdoms the process of

redist.ribution ceased altogether, and various forms of . .

dependence, exploitatiron existed side by side, i.e.

slavery, clientele and compulsory labour which became

a dominant feature of this .typology. It was certainly a

potential feudal element which got 9 frozen 9 in its track.

The Angh also had a slave for his executions of criminals

:md had the previl ege of autocratic power over the life of

his subjects. In Chui Anghdom P the executioner was known

as Kaoba from War1gsu class of Liangha lineage. The banks

of river Tapi was used for executions, in other Anghdoms 8

the Ngo (pri sst) functio·n ed, as executioner, he ~as nor­

mally a son born of a woman (Ben class)who accompanies

the Angh 9 s wife when she enters into marital attachment I .

with the great ~· Moreover, individual village poli-

ties ceased to exist as it got subsumed under a larger

political unit, i.e. Anghdom. Though these large polities

were imperfect, still they could assume the status of native

statehood. The process of subordination of lesser Anghs and

extension of political influence to peripheral areas (Ao,

Chang, Yimchunger, Phom) brought about a tightly woven

network of ext erna.l alliances and polity consolidation. The

277

efforts to maintain a centralised politico-economic organi­

zation can be disceme:i in the light of their control over

external t:.rade and keeping such trade routes open. It was

the Anghdom that had the c.apacity to maintain a considerable

circu.l ation of wealth in the economy of a large area, the

same could be said of the J{ernevohood.

(b)

The Naga cosmology could accornodate head-hunting and

corelated feast of merit as a way of life. It was a necessary

condition for moving up the social seale and an essential

'motor' for polity formation a Mill has aptly summed it up,

thus:

"to acquir.e merit and status in the world and hereafter one must give a series of feasts, details strictly pr€sC~ibed .•• (has therefrom) ••• right

·to wear special cloths and encrease · in splendour and elabora:teness of embroideryo. (and) ••• embellish his· house with carved posts and beams ••• (and) .•• headhunting gives glory to himself and magical benefits to his village, not only that \:ears special ornaments" (Mills, Man, 1935:132) --

This was directly linked wi. t h trading politics and trans-

polity trade was stimulated by these basic and social needs,

and regulated by dominant villages especially the Ang}ldom

278

and Angamis controlled this over compact territories.

Thereforep this trading politics was an extension of head

hunting itself and necessita,ted acquisition of ornaments,

~"hich in turn created economic and social inequalities as

much as social change and shifting of political alliances.

As regards the currency prevalent f-,hat t,ime, salt, \'Jas an

important ingredient for household consumption as well as

for trading as a currencyo The ba~ter me::iiums \vere the

30 medium Lah I slave

I bi(g lah I !!li thun -J. small lah I cow ......_..

I Jabili I day's wage

I packet of salt( 1 ikg) 5 baskets of paddy/one

I mi:"thun 5 cows/a pair of Ivory J 3 cows 5 conch shells

I bamboo tube ot' salt (small) I dao/ spearhead

dao

arral et s

The iron plates were 'designated as Lah or Jabili and

were currencies in the first two northern blocks of Nagas

and in the third block conch C~nd cowrie shells were standard

exchange mediums. The Khonoma traders are reported to have

extorted cowrie shells from their dominated Zemi areas and

also traded o.ff slaves to Bengali merchants. The trading

279

entrepots were Semker in Mahor stream of present North

cachar hills and a flourishing salt market at Maibong.

These markets were of pa:ramount interest to Khonoma for

internal trade inside Naga country as well as her polity

expansion. Their barter trade-cum-political control over

Zerni area stimulated a profusion of big men and attendant

polity expansiono The need for petrified necklaces and

on ornaments were met by .Angami and Konyak traders. (Butler,

JASB, 1875; McCosh JASB, 1936}.

It becomes clear that the 4fl.A~ had transcended

the state of chiefdoms and achieved a centralised political

structure, based on a hereditary and heirarchical class

arrangement with aristocratic ethos •. .It also had a formal

1 egal apparatus for for~eful repression and right over life

of its ·citizens/subjects. Here the 'administrators' were \

appointed. and kin.ship values became marginal as the Morung~ I

viere essentially/politico-administrative set-ups rather

than a kinship or exogamous clan recruiting points as seen

among other Naga segments. This polity is marked by the

absence of status validating feast of merit and redistri­

bution by Anghs. The Anghs had control over supralocal

popul <:~tion through specific functionaries, that is, a few

hig.~ ranking Anghs emerged in the scene in tantem T.vith the

evolving valley kingdomso In the case of' the JmgamiG i.oeo

Mevohood/KE¥llevohood, a di.f.feren t type emerged but.tress ed

by terrace cul t-,i vat ion technique essent.i al .for generation

28o

of surplus and polity development.. Among the Anghs a

rigid stratification system insulated them from the

commoner class and within: themselves a series of rankings

occurred which ~;ere designed for politico-administrative

functions. There wal'l obsolutely no way in which hy­

pergamy could allO\·l an individual to scale up the class

heirarchy. In a lesser degree the Awungva of Tankhuls

approximate this typology, as it \-vas only the Awungva that

could become a member of Longva and perfonm the highest

order of feast of merit. The reverse vJas in the case of

Kemovohood, this typolo~· is marked by an attempt to re­

pudiate the Pi:" ivileges of inherited social rank of spe­

cific clans i.e., Kemevo/M~· This was done by the

simple expediency of crippling (economically and politically}

the 'ritual 1 Mevo/Kemevo and' devolution of political

authority on the 'secular' KemeY£IMevo for contracting

alli :me es ou t,sid e 1a village terri t,ory and forming con­

feder~ci es. In the case of the Aos (and othe.~· .. coni:cal

structured systems), the dominant clans were emerging

as dominant powers either as traditionally ritual status

hold~rs (~r & tmchen) or as big men (Lungkhumer and'

Jamir} \lr.i.thin specific regions. It happened in Naga

segments ~rhere feast of merl t was not restri c'f".ed to senior

or junior clans.

28:1

Following these arguments as detai~ed in the prece.­

ding pages, it follows that there is status ranking in

~movohood and class rank in Anghdomso In othe~ words,

the measure of status ranking obtainErl in Ivlevohood as

also seen among5t Naga segments with segmentary polities,

\vhil e autocracy was a dominant principle in Anghdom and

concomitantly greater emphasis is laid upon the class

rank. The Serna Akekao 11dth his capacity to exact labour

from his Mughumi and also ability to muster followers in

raidj.ng e.'<peditions was ho\vever, not a stable polity at

all. The Akekaodom and ~levohood \vere at different levels

th ensel ves as well as with the Jl.nghdom in terms ·or ace ess

to competitive pOl-~Jer and economic attributeso

282

III INTERACTION lff!TH ENCAPSULATING SYSTEIVIS

(a) NAGAS A~~ THE VALLEY' KINGDOMS

The archaeological remains in the north-east of India

leaves much to be deciphered, \"'hile the politico-economic

history is \llrapped up in mythologies begining with the

Hindui~ation of Ahom, · Meithei. and Kachari valley king-

doms. ·Reference is given by Ammianus Marcillinus, (xxii,vi)

who left accounts of a place called Nazavicium which now

approximate ... with Naga countryo Ptolemy has refered to this

region as inhabited by Nagalogoeo This is the earliest

mention made of this region and her people. Tht s vJould

also imply that they cam~ v.d.thin the ancient trading orbit.

Again the land known as Seres or Thina seems to have

extented from Sadiya region to the south-east of present

Bengalo Then by:first. or second century A.D. it must have

acted as a conduit for trading between valley kingdom kno \11\'l

as Kamurapa and hill d\'Jellers on the one hand and long

distance tradingo

The Nagas came into the chronicles of the .Ahoms

( 1228-1819) however~ it was with reference to only the two

northern blocks of ~ gc,s, viz, Nocte, Wanchoo, Konyak, Lotha

and the Aos. Their I 31 .::t;ion ship ~ .bretched over a period of

nearly 450 years has a chequered history. Although Nagas

were "never subjugated by the Ahoms" (Gait, 1905:336),

the strategic location of their habitat and economic in-

t erest of the Ahoms brought them under the mutual orbit

of Ahom confederacy against external aggressions periodi­

cally. Such relations were translated into mutual defence

pacts and trading; the most significant aspect. of their

rel af-.ionship has been the kinship that was articulated

bettveen the Ahom and Nocte ruling houses which might not

have been of a political nature onlyo

.Again to cement the relationships permanent embankments

k~o ~ as Ladoiga_.'h line and the Naga-bunds vJere raised on

ground as boundary in the present Sibsagarh and Lakhi.mpur

di ~trictso

'!he entry of Shans into northern Assam brought about

a change in the Naga traditional intercourse with Tibetian

trade via the present Arunachal Pradesh inhabitants. It is

said that .sukapa, an adventurer left Maulung in 121"5 A.D. 0

heading a force of eight hundred 1Nith 300 horses and t.wo

elephants and entered Naga territory enrout.e to t-he Assam

valley. In the process of his advance, Nagas suffered defeat

and hostility continued till the late 16th century A.D.

Later a fragile form of peace was maintaj. ned during the

reigns of SuchinP...§. (1644-164S) and Jayadhraj Sinha

284

(1648-1663)· ':Phere was also a considerable exchange of

presentations which also brought about an advanced polity

formation among the f·i rst block of Nagas. Moreover, trading

intensified so as to effect material cultures of Nagas.

The exchanges ~lerP-, viz ivory, gongs, zpears and dao from

the Nagas and ear-rings and beads besides cot.ton from the

Ahoms, clearly their relationship was becoming symbiotic

and it lasted till the later period of 18th century. The

last contest for supremacy was during the reign of Purandar

singha 1832-38) and subsequently the Ahom territory was

invaded by the Burmanso

The most significc:nt of their relationship is shO\vn

by the institutionalization of Dwars and Khats earmarked

for politico-economic. i·nte,rcourse. To each of the Dwars

was attached a Kotoki, who were the spokesmen between the

Ahoms and N~5as and supervised the grants i.e. Khats held /

by the Nagas of each Dwar. In each of the Khats three

distinct professional groups,were settled by the Ahoms,

viz, the peasants, traders and blacksmiths. They ·catered

to the needs of the Nagas in transit either on tJ"ading

expeditions or in militia movements in aid of the Ahoms

during external. and internal ·threats. In 1873 the follov.d.ng

~a~ were f:Ound held by th Nagas as under:

Naga villages

1. Kanjang, Lapt ang, Nowgaong, Ho edam, So bang

'l'akami c., BorkherD.a, Lanchs, Boontell, Longthon, Hank an, To:t- ee, Dh c:mdon, Sorokhoorma, Polung, Kymy e an~ Sorogaon.

2. Bonf era, Onoo, Nak rc:m g and Longhoo ah

Jabuka,Borotho(Yannu),Lungling

Panee Deorea

Bor f'llothon, Sorro mothon, Khoolon g Mothoon

Sangloi,Buragaong(Sangsa),Betur Namsang, So rogB.ong, NavoJgong monee.

Namsang

Bor

Banf era

Jabuka

Panee

Mothon

3. Dorgaon g,Molung-, N::nvgong, Pylong · ·~ ( Hung;pcj_ J 'l~ nthak, Jylong and Lakhmao Teru

Jaktungnees, Kcngan, Tablong and Seema

4.Namsang,Kengching,Nengta &. Tangsa • I

5 .r'-1olutopi;:. (Mepongchuki t), Lone;chang, Orbong, Bol··ymong,Dekehe:imcn.gUiolung), S el aju ( Sl,l.ngrat su), Boralahge, sousoo ( Chuchuyimlang), Bhugalage,Longta-ng, J.;khc-i a, Ch angtongya, Luraogean g and Merangkong.

Khepam

Keleki

Dupdur

Nooof Segment Kotoki

3 Nocte

2 -do-

3 'tiancho

2 -do-

2 -do-

2 -do-

3 Konyak

-do-

4 Ph om

Ao

7 -do-

Assi ringi a( Nokpoyimch en), Lache, Kam, Poongen, Soolooti a, Noi.vgaong, Booragaong, Monsan(Mongchen) and Khari .Assiringia 3 -do-

Japhy ,Mookee, Bor-doobea( Debuia) ,Ali ba, So r·aoll ep c:, Ku bz.a, flllangmeton g, Lungkhum, Ungma, Khensa, ChungtiE: and Mekuli o Hatiguri a 2

6.Jangpang( Champ an g) Soreegaon,Mal see, Muhum,Lakhuti,Saneegaon,Nesanggaon, Longtang, Bogaon, Seelegaon, Bedaree, Nowgaon and Khabong. Doyang 26

Soonaregaon,Nowgaon,Peeta,Longkong, Koroee, Teel, Changkha, Kha r, Runga and Toria Panipata 20

-do-

Loth a

Loth a

' -----------------·--------------------~

286

Before the institutionalization of the Dwars, the

Nagas had already establi,shed a region-wide barter syst~m

where channels of communication and a standardised demand

existed catering to her specific politico-economic and

cultural belt. The practiceof head-hunting was rather a

stimulus to its growth and ensured a regular circulation

of wealth and demand for such goods encrea sed. lt'o r instance,

the brass and beads came from Tibet and Burma respectively,

and were closely connected with regional systems of feast-of­

merit and statuses. Welsh report on Assam in 1794 (Alexander

Ivlackenzi e, 1979. Rep:387) shows various segments of Nagas

be sides others having trading relationships with the .Ahoms

in the later part of the 18th century. so also Elwin refers

to a later stage of trading between tribals and plainsmen \

(Elwin, 1959) ., It is indicated that the highlanders exchanged··

their surplus produce for their cultural necessities from

Tibet and Burma: /Some of the neighbouring highlanders

acted as intermediaries and prevented direct trading relations

with either the traders of Assam, T1. bet ·and Burma. ·Thus the·

Mi shmi, Memba and Khamtis haci direct access to Tibet and

this was link erl up with Ang·ami traders for internal cir­

culation among the Nagas. Again the Kachins of Burma had

a virtual monopoly in the east, till the Singpos took over

from 12th century onwards, and had direct links with the

287.

Nagas of first block. This interpolity trade could be

meaningfully located with reference to ext ern al barter

trade with Burma and Tibet in understanding polity for­

mation of the Nagas. It became marked when the Ahoms

monopolised the Ti beti an links for transaction of goods.

The trans-himalayan trade was as essential as that

of Burma and were dispersed inside Naga areas through

either the Konyc.ks and Angamis. Hence, so·me of the tribes

acted as intermediaries and prevented other Nagas living

in the interior to have direct, trading relations with

either the t.raders of Burma or Tibet. Thus bringing in

a semblance of inner cohesion among them. As a medium

of exchange cowrie was considered more convenient form

of payment in interpolity trade and bart.er exchanges

operated among the Nagas.

I

Salt became/a politico-economic item in the Ahom-Naga

relationship as it was a scarce commodity in the plains of

Assam. The Ahoms since Sukhapa had considered Naga areas

imp~rtant for strategic and economic reasons. The brine:

springs of Namsang and Borduria were indispensable in their 12

relations. The explorations of Wilcox and Me Cosh

reveals that, "on the river Disung» (Disang) there are

about 20 of these brine springs from which Nagas are in

the habit of making salt". so also Pemberton stated that

288

't.he salt imported from Bengal was of inferior quality than

that was acquired in the salt springs of Borhat and Sadhiya

( El \l.d.n, 1969) • The Buranji of 'Ka shinath Tamuli Puk an informs •

of the important salt wells at Mohong which were occupied

during· Suhumung reign (L.Debi, 1964:33) o These were situated

bet\'1/een Borhat and Namsang and Buranji records Ahom-Nag~ '·

relations as basically gea:p-ed to retain or capture these . ....,

bring springs till the entry of F}lst India Company in 1838.

In these Khat sa the Ahoms derived a large amount of

revenue from imported salt of the hillso This necessiated

maintenance of friendly relations with Nagas, and they could

effectively intervene in Namsang-Borduria internal conflicts

in the interest of regular ~.al t production o Otherwise

internal feuds had · repurcussions in the plains. - B~sides

sc:lt~ items such as mithun, tusk~, goat's hair were also

bartered through these Khat s.

I

The Ahom-Naga 1~olitical rF!lationship varied from peace

to unstable ski'rmishes, punit.ive expeditions and full scale

warfarf?• F·or instance, in tJ!epungchukit. village, there ·is a

collection of Ahom arms and armaments it is said that the

Ahom~ were,worst.ed and left them t.here. This village is

a good three day~ march from Sibsagarh in interior Ao area.

During Pratap Sinha reign (1603-41) Nag,?~ garh or ramparts.

289·.

were erected in the Nocte-1:\fc.ncho frontier. .Again during

Gadadar Sinha reign ( 16S1796) Namsang tried to wrest a·way

a salt mine in 1 692 0 followed by yet another raid on a

salt mine located near Borh~t in 1701. South of t.hi s

lies the Ladoig,C!_ h line \AJhich approximates the revenue

area of Sibsagarh di~trict and the Naga frontier. These

boundary marks did institut.ionalise the territorial rights

of Ahoms and Nagas. The early hi~tory of Ahom-Naga is

confined more of less to the account of interaction between

the first block, the Ao and Lotha Nagas and the valley

Ahoms. South.of them, the Rengma and Zemi Nagas came into

the scene at the close of Kamaleshwar Sinha's reigpo

The Njjonyu ( Rengma) of Nzongtre-Phenyu group migrated \

to present Karbi Anglong district (Diphy division) during th1

unst.able political situation prevailing in. the Ahom capital

under Kamaleshwar 1Sinha. 'l'hey belong to a northern flank

of Khonoma expansion. During the close of. Ahom rule, their

chief Kehang was conferred Bor Phukan· invariably to f'ill up

a vacuum created by the collapse of the Kachari kingdom.

Simultaneously the Kotokis were withdrawn from service in

this region. The powers and functions of ~or Phukan is

described. in detail by E.A.Gait (1963:246).

290

The Zemis migrated and settled in North cachar hills

up to the Kopili river and were subjected to Khonoma's

control. The politico-economic importanee is indicated

by F.!l. win ( 19 (:Jj :231) and others. Here~ Semker settlement

was a flourishing centre for slave trading, as there 11 1vas

widespread slavery and were sold to Bengalee merchant. s, 13

Moneepores were sold for Rs.3;" a salt market was also

located in IVlaibong. The central Cachar division was also

a fert.ile region for surplus extraction from agriculture

and We• s directly linked with North Cachar, Manipu r, Naga

hills, Assam and Jaintia hills. The kopili route connected

it v.d.th Sylhet, and a considerable trade passed through this

route and was linked with Burma through the Old Cachar

route, which was located in present Tengnoupal district

and in Zeliangrong te~rit6ry. Jenkins and Pemberton1 4

also noticed the big market in .r.lohun-Dijua which was visited

by a large number pf traders from out side and were highly

impressed by economic stability there.

These conditions favoured the Kacharis to establish

"an independd'lt state after their expulsion from Kamrup"

and had their capital at Dimapur1 5. At. the advent of the

Ahoms, they were pushed out to North-Cachar hills and es-

tablish.=d capital at Maibong. Then the Ahoms maintc;ined

<~·. 291

pressure to wrest the Kopili-Doyang-Dhansiri valleys and

this animosity and frontier clashes continued till they were

superseded by the Burman~ and 1 ater the British in 19th

century 16.

The Kachari rulers of IVlaibong are said to have sub­

due:l a number of Angami villages. .Aoout this Angami-Kachari

relations, Hutton ( 1921:13) refers to a legend suggesting

that "when Bhim raJa ( Bhimadarpanarayana 1615-3$) built his

great Kheddah at Sonapur ••• he fell in love with a Nagini

whom he found in the jungle and who became the ancestress

of the Diger Kachari s, who pride themselves on their des­

cent" The Khonoma village Sanyu lineage se-ems to be in­

volved here. Their tradition point to receipt of goats

as bride price from the Kach,aris. By Naga standard, goat

represents the lowliest of re.Lationship that can be con­

tracted. The Mithun is the highest form, followed by

buffalo, cow,fish: pigs, cock, ·hen and go~s in that order.

This clan 1 s yet to get rid of thi s stigma· and is the

butt of jokes in Khonoma. Again till today Ninu village

pays a tribut-.e of two goats to Namsang, which reflects

abject subservience. It was Namsang that brought. about a

reconciliativn of sorts between Ninu and British forces

af·ter the latter was worsted in a battle. (Srivastava,

1973 :1 04).

292

The Ahoms also entered into marital alliances with

the Nagas. Gadadhar Sinha ( 16e1) took one \'latlong of I

i'Vakching, another, Sent± shila( Ao) and a Loth a girl. This

invariably led to extensions of 'most favoured village'

statuses by the Ahoms in the form of land grants to

those wive-givers group. Local recoJ.ds confirm that

Sentichila alias Changtongyala was taken by stealth by

the Ahoms and called her Talime and land grants were

given to Nokpu village (Assiringia) and a Dwar got

institutionalised thereon called the Assi ringia DV>Iar.

Under t.he British, the Tea garden of Naganijan encro-

ached upon this land and a considerable compensaL.on

was given to Nokpu village, they were also given land

revenue by the Assam government till 1974. (Nokpu putu

1985: 2 6ff) •

293

I shall now deal with the Naga~Meit~ei relationship

Which will :tndi cat e hov,r ecological conditions would deter­

mine alienation of composite group S• Leach ( 19 54} and

Lehman ( 19 67) has indicated that the valley dwellers were

essentially a Naga group that descended into the plain·s

and establishe1 themselves into a s1-at.e. The State of

Manipur covers an area of 22,356 square kilometers, of

\.vhich 1/10 i.e. 1843 kilometers comprises the valley area

and four of its hill districts are now occupied by Naga

segments. In the valley six groups reside, namely the

IVJ.eit.hei, Loi/.Chakpa and Yaithibi(indigenous segments) and

politico-ritual. groups viz, Brahman, Bishnupriy~ and ..

Pangan. T~e first segment occupy the fertil·e northern

plains. The I.oi/chakpa segment seems to have been super­

ceded by the MAithei segment at a certain period in their

feuds to control. this valley. Within the I"leithei segment I

the Ningthouja clan articulated the political domination

over the others and the nomenclature became not so much as

a political entity but. also as an ethnic term, a neces~ary

condition for founding the Meithei state. By 1.Sth century

this Meithei state acquired legitim... ation from the ·-Vaishnavite chaitanya religious body of Hindus. This

brought about. a sharp distinction bet. ween the highland Nagal:

and valley "hindu-s".

294

It is interesting to note that the coronation ceremony

of Manipur raj a must be validated by use of Nag<:: warrior

dress, dao and spear. The coronation hall of the raja is

a+ro decorated with material elements of Naga houses·

(Hodson, 1908) • The presentation and genealogical articu-

1 ations that existed b etv~een the ll w1.1ngva of Hundung can not

be just poli1·.ical in nature. (Horam; 1975: 42). The

~tate structure, thus established was now in a position

to 'degrade' the cognate highlanders 9 within the Hindu

reckoning of purity and pollution henceforth. In this

matter, Brown (H~7.4) has reported of the use of Tangkhul

captives as gardeners in raja's palace and as .[eis (slaves)~

The Tarao segment was also assigned the menial task of

tending betel leaves for th,e raja~. It. is also said that . .

Kabuis were brought in as scavengers or sweepers by this

raj a after resisting the Bri.ti sh in their lo·~dand set.tl ements

of Nort,h-Cachar tAsoso Yonou, 1983) and a 'serious thin .. -

king' was given for deporting the Merhuma sector of

Khonoma in the same manner by the British after the· second

.Anglc-~!<:iga war of 1886.

(b) NAGAS AND THE BRITISH COLONIAL CAPITALISM

The ~scendancy of Brit.ish in Nagaland was both i'or

stratP.gic and economic reasons. A contest between valley

~

kingdoms and king of Burma was a grand tussle over

essentially a ·South-East J~sian population within a

Hindu framework of soutli-asia and Buddhist Burman ef"forts

to bring them under its control. The Burmans assumed

power over Assam in 1822, while Manipur and Cachar were

overrun in 1821 and 1824 respectivel~· The strategic

importance to British culminated in the Anglo-Burmese war

of 1824. By the treaty of Yandabo, Assam virtually came

under British rule but Manipur' s independence ha~ horvi')Ver,

guarant.eed. The main causes of Anglo-Naga wars were the

attempts made by the British governmB'lt for establishing

direct communication vdth Manipur from Assom. But more

important issue was made in the interest of Manipur.

Because Gumbir Singh was desirous of strengthening his

hands against furma and for' having a continued intimate

trade-rela·t_ions with Assam. Ho•..vever, theo efforts of Tula-'

ram, the chief of,· Cachar and the Raja of Manipu r to exact /.

reparation from the Nagas for their resistance to opening

a route in 1832 proved futile. During this period, _the

Nagas of the third block were expanding and came into direct.

confrontation \'lith colonial interest-s. Therefore, t.he British

h;;d to take over the Naga territ.ory gradually after having

failed ~o appease them by following a policy of non-inter­

t·erence. At first., a foothold was e.stablished in Naga area

296 .\

by constit-uting a small territory into a sub-division

under the Nowgong district, with Asaloo as the sub-divisional

headquarters. This was basically meant to accelerate

tee: cultivation. Hen cefO'rth, any encroachments by Nage: s

were considered acts of aggression. C0nsequa1tly, Brit.:lsh

rule extented further into Naga territory t.o bring 'pec.ce'

to the lowlands. The history of wars and annexations of

Naga territ.ory can be divided into four periods, thus:

(i) the period of exploration, (ii) the period of

control (1£~39-46) by a system of sho·w of force from out­

side and from 1847 onwards by establishing outposts within

the hills (iii) the period of absolute non-interference

(1851-65) and (iv) the period of extended annexations

from. 1866 and onwards.

' . Period of_ exploratton: In January H~32 a team was led

by captain Jenkirt~ and Pefuberton 17. They surveyed a route

from Manipur to .Assam \vith outmost trepitat.ions, c1nd

suffered loses at the hands of Nagas. This exploration

period ·ended in 1838 with the British decision to bring

them under their purvi-ew.

Per·iod of control: one of the first group. of Nagas,i.e.

Nzo!'lE;.t eri P~-~l!~ segment of' Rengmas met Lt. Grange in 18

1S39 at ~·1ohung Dehoa.. This was the first detachment

t.llat entered Naga-land f'or military expedit.ion. The

297

follo·;p:ing expeditions were led ·into this area:

i . Mr.Grange's first t~xpedition January 1839

ii. Mr.Grange'~ second expedi t.ion January 1840

iii. 3igg' s exp edit. ion expedition January 1841

iv. El.d' s e.xp edi t'ion December H344

.v. Butler's expedition November 1845

vi. Butler's second expedition November 1846

r It vvc;s only during Gange's second expedition that a

'\

form of truce-c:greement could be arrived at, by which they

were required to pay annual tributes to the British.

But in 1844, the first year's tribute was refused to be

paid by the Nagas. Henceforth, punitive military actions

v-Jere undertaken vvhen raids were continued in the British.

frontiers, ctn experiment or' establi slung outpo:ts from

1847 and 1850 was attempted, the first one vlas. planted

at Samaguti~g an~ later on one at Mozuma and another at

Khonoma for brief periods. During this time a series of

expeditions were carried out.; as under:

i. Bogchand Da rogh' s. fir st. expedition March 1847

ii. Bogchc:nd Darogh 9 s· second expedition April 1849.

iii. Vincent's first expedition li'Jin ter 1849-50

vi. Vincenf:.' s second e.xp edi t.i on !VI~r ch 18 50

During t..hese periods i .. e. 1839 and 1850 no less than

ten military expeditions were ce:;rried out mostly in the I

Angarni t.erritory llvithout :bec.ring any tangible result:s.

These expeditia.ns were immediate results of ~ain+.aining

t-l<::nipur' s interest in the British policy. When Purandar

Sinha was reinstated as puppet ruJer ':.11' upPer .Acsam,

c.fter the t.reaty of Yandaboo, a separate treaty was also

executed in 1833 ~vi.th Gumbir Singh of lVlanipur. Tha term

of that treaty suggested that the raja might not be precluded

from annexing thepills into his territory. But it forbade

him implicitly-· to descend into the plains of Assam.

Captain Jenkins and Pemberton proposed the goverqment to

give all interests in the hills between the Doyang and

·Dhan'siri difinitely to Manipur. Thereby in 1835, the

forests between these rivers were declared to be boundary

bef:.vJeen As_sam Dnd ~anipur! After signing the treaty of

Yandaboo the British di~continu ed support to the Manipurl

kj n g, their relation ship is indicated thus: "Short.ly

afterwards the British governmmt discontinued the payment

of the Manipur levy, but still furnished ammunition for the

reduct:.ion of refrc.ctory hill tribes; and further ~upplied

3,000 muskets and sets of accoutrements, eon the condition

t.hat the rajah should raise the Manipu r 1 evy to the same

number" 19. Later, in the year 1833, the Britidl t.hought

it expedient to expand its territories by annexing more··

.299

hill c. rea s without much sue cess. Therefore, another

treaty was arrived at after t-heir failure in the v1estern

part of Naga areas. Amon~ other things, the third clause '

of t.he treaty with the Raja of Manipur reads thus;

"The rajah will in no _way prevent the Nagas, lnhabiting

t,he KalanagA and Noon-j ai range, of M.ll s, from selling

or bartering ginger, cotton, pepper and. every ot.hc: arti­

cles the produce of their country in the plains of

Cachar, at the Banshandee bazar, e1 s has been their custom".

Bu. t soon after this Gum be r Singh di ed in 1834 'rJhic h

was followed by a series of intermittent wars for the

successio.n to the throne ( 1$34-1S50). In the process an

un.disturbed existence of the Nagas ensued. And only

c:ft er a 1 apse of 18 years, Captain Macculock (who 1 ater \

became the first political agent of M.anipur) cautioned the

governm61t of possible descending of the hill people

into Manipur valley~ The situation prevailing then,

re.flects that. Manipur \11as torn by strifes in the valley,

and hills v-;ere left out from· the pu rvi e\·J of the Mei t~ administration. In the 1 ater part of 19t.h cent.ury, t}?.e

Eri'l:.is~l through it8 political agent, tried to es~ablish

a semblance of admin~ strat.ion, but 'nominal'. allegiances

to the Brit.ish government was often interrupted by the

r?aga hostilir.y against "tl}em in the hill areas. Late in

300

1891, Manipur was formally annexed to the British

Empire.

The British came into contact with the Angami Nagas

t:.hrough their acquisition of c:achar \\li.t.h it.s hills run­

ning upto the -Angami country. The du~.y of controlling

the Nagas devolved jointly on 'fuluram of Cachar and

the raj a of Manipur in the hillsv the British were

still inclined that Manipuris were de-facto masters of

the hills. Among the Nagas in this region the most

dominant village were Mozuma, Khonoma, Jotsoma, Kohima

and Kekrima. The .Kl1onoma, Mozuma and Kekrima Conf edera-

cies being nearest to British borders, were a thorn on

their sides. The strength of the warriors shows reasons

for .repeated failures of British expeditions. But the

const.itumts were mostly clan groupings and alliances

v.;ithout a compa~t .village going to war as such. Each

village opposing the British contained the f'ollowing

numbers of warriors, as under:

Villa~e Clan No.of warriors

Mozuma Nil holy 1 6:l

Khonoma Pelho 200

Chedema Pelho 200

Jot soma Pelho 300 Total 860

.301

In addition to this, wi. thin th ei. r confederacies

the fo~lo·wing villages opposed the British:

Village

Kerima

Tip am a

Piphima

Pekrema

Techima

Kidema

Kekrima

No. of houses

100

40

50

700

300

1000 ()

warriors per hou:se.

2250 x 2 = 4500 warriors

The tenth JTlili tary expedition of 18 50 1 ed to the \

first bat.tle of Khonoma in December 1850. In this

battle Khonoma confederacy was worsted. But. immediately

after this a policy.'of 'non-interference' was intro-

duced and lasted a period of 15 years. This was meant

to secure an insurance from Khonoma' s expansion and

control over lowland Cachar and Rengma areas. Meanwhile

to keep the colonial inter.es.ts going, a sub-division of

Nowgong •.vas constituted in the year 1852, with Asaloo

as the headquarters. The Naga hills district was formed

in H~66 with Samaguting as the new district headquarters.

302

The major portion of the then Asaloo sub-division was

inhabited by Zemis (at that time they were better knoW'l

as· Aroong Nagas). After formation of this hills district,

the Asaloo sub-division vJas abolished and the area divided

and apportioned to the contiguous areas of Khasi and

J ainti a Hill o, No wgong and Cachar 1 eaving a small det­

achment to keep peace among the Aroong Nagas. Thu~. t.his

portion of territory inhabited by Nagas was transferred to

Cachar.Di~trict. But it became neces$ary to re-establish

-t.his sub-division from 1870 onwards for the security of tJ

the British territory. Later on the Naga hills district

headquarters was shifted to Kohima. There..fore it was

found much more convenient to administer the Zerni terri-

tory from a nearer adrnini st.r6ti ve cen t.re of Cachar. This

is the first, Naga territ.ocy transferred out from Naga Hills

to a district in Assam. 20

Meanwhile, du'ring the subsistence of the non-interference

polic-y, in March, 1854 a Manipuri detachment raided the

Angarni·.count-ry. Consequently, 22 villages sought British

help. 'Ihi s plec. was,· ho~tsever, rejected as Nagas were not

British subJects· at least in the hills. Since 1848 t.he

Rengmas of' lo\donds were paying revenues and were for all

purpose British subjects. J.ny raid on them by the hill

303

e dwllers amounted now to an interference in British admini-, stration. During this period no less than 22 raids were

commi~d in which 55 persons were killed and 113 taken

a:: captives. The .Angami confederacies were the least

bothered about a foreign power's exercise of legalities

over their territory. This in effect let to an absolute

decision to abandon the policy of non-interference in

1866·. The boundary betwe€n Manipur and Naga hills c;s

vJas demarcated in 1842 received little respect from the

Manipuris. As~ result Mhonoma and Mozuma brough~ to the.

British notice of attempts by Mc,nipur to levy cont.ribut.ions

inside the Naga hills. So, in 1869-70 'hinter, Captain

Butler, the then Deputy Commissioner of Naga hills and

Dr. Brown, the Political agent of Manipur met at Mao t.hana.

But upon fai.l.ure to arrive at a viable boundary line; a

commission was endorsed t.o 't rae e out' the present existing

boundary bet\veen Naga Hills and J.l.lanipur. To effect this, . // .

l~IC~jcr Godwin Austen was deputed to conduct survey operations

and explore a boundary up to the Patkoi • I-1eantNhil e, another ...

part.y was ordered under Lance to survey the northern boundary

from Lakhimpur and Sibsagarh districts. The unexplored trac.£'

was thus, planned to be opena:l up by two parties. 'this marke<

a change of policy and a gradual c•nd systemc.tic survey of

the hills was now undertaken.

3Q4;_ .

Consequently, captain Butler with a military detach­

ment entered Wokha; the chief village of Lot.has in

January 1875 follov-.ed by: a visit to the dominetnt Pan5"ti

village. This was resisted by Nagas, hence an out. post

was established in 1878. These surveys and establishment

of mili.tary posts led to an assessment for imposit-ion of

revenu ef.• Initially, the colonia..i.. powers' appropriation

of low-1 ands for economic exploitat.ion led to a need

to protect their front.i ers, which in turn made acquisition u

and protection of Naga subjects a paramont. issue. The '

mechanism of subjuge:tion from a politic~l point of view

was the imposition of house-tax. Since in the opinion

of British officers, "'Ihe s~vage who pays revenue con­

siders himself a British subject, bound to carry out all

orders given to him while no savage who do not pay revenues-

. d h. elf . d d 2 1 consl. -ers 1.ms · l.n epen ent.

The most. orga,nised resistance was offered by Khonoma

confederacy when they beseiged the British stockad-e at

Kohima on 27 October.1879. The influence 'of Khonoma

iucreased and many Angami villages entered.into common

allinces designed to overthrow British administration.

But this sei ge wa.s li~ted and the second battle of Khonoma

was fought. on 22nd November t.he same year which marked the

fall of Naga resistance to superior British firepower.

Follo-v.d.n g this, the frontier moved forward for

reasons of 'protecting' Brit.ish subject.s in interior \

Naga hills. This dragged the British into interfering

in internal feuds of adjacent dominantvillage·s. Inter-

n eci?e warfare among Nagas seems to have wok·en up the

Brit.ish conscience. Later, their concern for 'humanity·'

extended the frontier further. They also rationalized

that from "moral considerat,ion could not <:dlow them.

( Nagas) ••• to remain in their present condition of bar­

barity". This brought. about \-.that is kno~n as politicc.l

control areas subject to later annex.at.ionso The "18 ga

block in north-west adjoining SibsagC~rh di:'trict. cc.me

under this arrangement especially the Aos. In 18$6,

the Ao Naga controlled area was defined to include all

the ·count.ry, west of Dikhu river to t.he Sibsagarh

borders in the plains. This area came under the juris-·

dict;,ion of t.he Deputy Commissioner of K?hima, but not I

until 1889 it remained in::corpor~ted int.o the Naga hills

district. This District wae: controlled at first from

Samagut.ing. And in 187 5 shifted to 1tlokh a in order to

pro"t-.ect adjoining Nowgong and Sibsagarh districts from

Naga raids. Fin<:3lly, the politic<:il capital \'Jas trans­

f.' ered to Kohima in 1878 o With this Kohima and I•.okha

arens were designated as Naga hills districto

The Ao political control area thus identified is

prP.mi sed in the follo\'dng definition as given by captain '

1;'1~ .:rv1. Kennedy, the co.mmi ss ion er of Ass am, that:

"The area of political control and the policy to be adopted in the administ­ration thereof were decided by the Government of India in F~bruary 1886: The political cont.rol area at that time included the Ao Naga Sub-division. The said arf'!a was constituted in order to stop raids and crimes of viol mce along the borders of the Naga hills and Sibsagarh districts which of course, had an un set1~lin g effect, on those Tribes directly under our rule as well as to interpose a barrier between our settled di st.ri ct s c:nd the wild tribes beyond. Officers are not supposed to interfere much in the internal-affairs of village~ in a political control area. It was only a bligat.ory of punish murder cases but officers may settle inte~village dispute if they can. Such village pay no revenue and pre not· even guaranteed protection against raids by independent tribes from beyond the boundary of our control. It is laid do·v.n that "protection must depend on proxi­mity and conveni encen.

I

Ivle an'vJhil e political alliances o.f Aos under dominant

Lv.ngkhum, Ungma, ?Jlepungchuki t. and Changki \~ere under­

going changes due to proselytism of Americ on Baptists

from 1872 onwards. I.t marked a bret3kdc~n of their

precariouly ord~red 'verility' as to be subjected to

combined at1· ack on Mongsf'!nyimti and Longkhung villages

by 'I\.lenseng confederacy villages o:f Noksen, I.itam and

307.

songtak in July 1888. This brought about establishment

of a military post at Mongsenyiruti in August 1888. Conse-

qu ently a confront.ation between Tuensang confederacy

and the British became inevitable, and a successful

expedition was carried out against this trans - Dikhu

Naga_ confederacy. Consequently, in March 1889, <m

outpost-. w~s established at Mokokchung and the follo~-d.ng

year Ao count.ry was incorpor<::~t.ed into Naga Hills dist-

rict. But. for all purposes, Dikhu vJas considered the

.fu rt.hest . extent. ion of British territory t.ill they 1 eft

the sub-oontinen t.

The country lying between the Dikhu and Dihing

riveL's,. cccupied by the Konyak Naga was not politically

incorporated into the Naga hills district and the '

British had not attempted to subvert the status of

independence of :those Nagas. Though this part of the I

country was mapped .out for geographical strategy, the

independent.··An_g_<:!_oms "·ere left to their own devices·

But since inter village f'i:uds were discouraged it· invari­

ably cont.rolled t.he AngdQ:~ ;tendencies for expansion

and consolidation. It was t.h en more or 1 ess a .status

guo situation for this block of Nagas not unlike Angami

expansionist and polity formation that was left totally

crippled. The polit.ico-economic aspect of Anglo-Naga

rel at.ion ship was identical t.o that of previous .J\hom

- Naga relationships. But colonial capit.ali::;m came in

a big way, one wo s the salt policy and another was the

extensions of tea plantation and exploitation of forest

resources. The symbiotic relation ship of north-·.lestern

Naga~ c;nd Ahoms collapsed when the puppetA regime of

Purandc.r Singha at Jorhat was disposed

of in H~38, and his kingdom annexed into British Empire.

~he English gradually interfered in Naga affairs as

indicated by Capt. Holroyds' (Political) agent to

Sibsagarh) successful settlement of a dispute between

Namsang and Borduria over the share of tribute from

6 villages. Besides this, Major Jenking Commissioner

of Assam reported that salt produced at Namsang was

considered superior to ·specimens from brine wells of

New York22 •

However, _this '.salt policy' v~as of a politica

nature. It was .br.Miles Bronson, an American Baptist I

missionary, v~ho suggested control of the brine-wells to

l\1ajo r Jenkins. But t.he supreme government had to await

the receipt of Strong's report. in 1841.. Later, erst­

while territory of Purbandor Sinha, was resumsi by the

supreme government on September 16, 1838. It was felt

by the local authorities that a British officer should

be placed i.n charge of the sclt-wells, and annex the

309

"Naga country .from the su.fry and all the country south

of the Buri-dihing to the extreme frontier and v1i th

christianity these unfbrtunate races may soon be raised

on the scale of civilization and their country be ren­

dered of importance to the state"23. The British

relations with the northern block Nagas began out of

East India Company claims over t.he salt v.:ells as succes­

sors to t.he Ahorns. 'lhe British considered that it was

salt that- made Nagas feel independent and there vJas no

likelier way to make them improve than for the government

to make half of' it themsel ves24. 'Ihere are reports of

existence of 85 salt wells belonging to Narnsang, Puni­

dur and Borduri a2 5. In all these brine springs with

one or tv10 exceptions; the government had an equal

share,

0

' 26 and reports of S.trong indicated that the govern-

m ent was to have >int·erest in 4 of Namsangs' viell; while

3 of which bel~nged to it altogether and in another a

share of 8% •• i.e., 8 ~out of 10:0. In Borduria

alone, the government was entitled to work 2 out .of

t. he 17 hats, in one well they \vere to extract salt during

night snd in another two out of 27 during the day. The

Panidur wells were not produc-tive, hence t.he cornp'any

1 aid claim to only one hat out of 20 during the night.

Besides the need to securing an effective strategic

boundary. There was a complimentary requirement to bring ' the region viithin the effective orbit of' t.he British

metropolitan economic interest. All the~e resulted

int.o an amount. of' distortion in the local economy and

inter-ef:",hnic relations between the hills and t-he plains.

1is a result of British inter-ma:liary role, the Ne:gas

began to get insulated more rigidly from the plainsmen.

The crucial eco!'omic component wc.s tea t.hat changed the

Anglo- Nag a rel at:l on s. The Governor-General depu t. ed Capt.

Jenkins to report on the resources of this region and

explore its commercial feasibility. The report submitted

on July 22, 1833, recommended a scheme of' colonization

by the Eu.rop eans over the "ignorant and demoralised

state of native inhabitant~". A tea committee was nomi­

nated by the govemmen~ in 1834, and a nurnber of exp~ri­

mental tea nurs~ries were established on the hills of'

the Patkoi ranges, especially~ between Buri Dihing and

Tingri rivers. In 1838, tea was successfully me:nu~a­

ctured and it quality v-rds approved. 'Ihe enterprise was

entrusted to- private entrepr•eneurs and Assam company was

f'o rmed in 1839. It \-Ja s also to develop and extract the

local resources ~uch as · ime, coal, oil and ttmber.

&tbsequently the Assam Ra:ilway and Trading Company was

formed four decades later. In the southern hills of

Nagaland, the Assam Company prospected plentiful good

quality of coal in 1840·. The permission to mine coal

and extract timber and bamboos from these hills \vere

secured from the Naga Ang~ on a very nominal rent. The

Borjan coal mine brought British to \'/<'lnching and l~akching

a rea s Hhi ch 1t11El re under the :Angh ·of Chui •

The rapid expansion of tea cu.ltivatiun along the

front.ier gave rise to difficult problans from 186:} to

1873· The limits of the rev(mue jurisdiction of Lakhimpur

and Si bsagarh to the sout.h was then the old frontier road

o~ Dhodur ali ( Naga bund) and Ladoigah Ali. The Southern

revenue boundary of Si bsagarh coincides v.ri t.h Ladoigah

from Jaipur to Gabruparbat and from Gabruparbat a line

celled Naga bund coincides with the Southern revenue

boundary of Sibsagarh. The survey of India map of .that. I

time ·also indicates that Naga bund/ The political revenue

lin e/t.he inner line was t.he boundary bet\"ieen Nega terri tory

and other British Indian area8. The need for a strict

boundary demarcation became paramount and the "inner-~ine"

of British jurisd:A.tion wc.s issued. A regulation was drawn

up by the Lieutenant Governor and approved by the Governor

-General. in council which gave effect to this policy.

312

In 1872-73 the statute 32 and 33, chapter 3, .of t,he Inner

Lin.e Regulation Act giving a po-wer o.f summary legislation ! '

for backward tracts to the executive government was ex­

tented to Assam. The tex:t of th:i:s notification runs thus:

"1 .Notification by the C::-•! ernmen t oi' InJiH, Fcreie}'l l.iepartm-"nt! No.1486 P., dated the 21st June 11:576.

Under the Provisions of section of Regulation V of 1873 t.he Governor· General in council hereby noti-fi es that t,he line described belO\'V shall be the "inner-line" under t.hat regulation in the district of Si bsagarh.

The line shall follow the southern revenue survey boundary

of the district from. its eo stem limit, namely a point on

the Dayang river, under the provisions of the section abovE

quoteu., the Governor-General-in-Council is further pleased '

to prohibit all British subject from going beyond the /

"inner-line", hereby notifi.Ed, without a pass under the

hand and seal of the·deputy commissioner of Sibsagarh".

But another notification discarded the Ahom- Naga

traditional boundary as giv~n under:

"2:. Notification by the Government of India Foreign Depart.ment, No.330 E.P., dated the 24th February, 1882 o

In notification of the Foreign Department Notification

No .1486 P., dated the 21st June 1876, and under the i)rovi­

sion of section 2 Regulation 1 of 1873, The Governor-General

-in Council is pleased to notify that. the line described

below shall be the "inner-line" under that regulation in

the District r>f Sibsagarh:-

The line shall follow its present course from the

Dayang river to the Desai river to the foot of the hills,

thence skirting the hills till the river Jhansi is reached

down this river to the pot:n t where the present line inter­

sectG it and thence along the course of the present inner

line to the Disang river".

This amended notificati.on in effect pushed the "Inner Line"

out to the foothill and ta~e in the tracts covered with

valuable forest. At the ~nitial stage traditional Ahom-Naga

boundary was acknowl;edged, but economic compulsions pre-I

¥.ailed later on. Earlier the r·ecognition of a defined

boundary is indicated, th~s:-

" ..• It appears that. the Ladoiga~ line is assumed .by the Nagas to be t.he boun­dary, and that t:\'le propriety of the claim seems to be in some measure ad­mitted by the local officers who re-gret that some grants have been made beyond the line, and the late Lt.Govemor accordingly prohibited any fresh grants beyond the line" .27

Again,

Because,

Hence,

3,14

" ••• on consideration of all the circum­stances the Lt. Governor thinks it right to make the prohibition to grant fresh land south of the Ladoigah... road permanent" .28

" ••• as a boundary, the Ladoigah_. is better

than any natural boundary which be selected

nearer in the hills. 29

" .•• on this point (La...:..:;:gah_~ as natural

boundary I am to state that his excellency

in Council con side red the views expressed

by you to be quite correct"30.

Finally, the revenue/political boundary line, and also

the inner-line coincid-ed as sho\vn by correspondence,

Further,

"The line already demarcated would never do for innerline for that no better sele­ction could be ~ade than the Revenue boundary"3 1

" ••• The boundary which has been ordered to be 1 aid do v~Tl bet ween civil and poli t i­cal jurisidistion of the 'Inner Line'. To this the commissioner replies that he would make the two lines identical and in thi£ the Govt •. of Bengal acqui eced"32

Upon shifting the 'Innf:r. Line' further inside the - { .

Naga territory, t.he Assam - Bengal Railway was constru-

cted. And to accomodate tribal s of <:entral InC.i a work-

ing in the railroad construction and tea plaintation, as

alc.o to impose labor la\11S and regulations for forest

exploitation, chunks of Naga territories were transferred

31.5

to the adjoining districts of Assam in H~98, 1901,

1902, 1903 and 1923. (See appendix 1). Furt,her, for

strategic reasons, a via\>le sphere of influence was thought

imperative to check uneasiness in the frontier, and the

extension of the bounda:-y up to the western mqst '·atershed ·,

of the Patkoi was considered. Bc::·itips, a special admini­

strative parlance and style was ushered in for control of

this territory. The Nagas, by a Regulation of 18$0,3 3

became "Excluded". That is, ''un so phi sti c ated" tribes did

not entail ad.mini strati on of a complex nature, there by

traditional laws were recognised as more effective in

maintenance of both civil and criminal cases. Further

from April 1, 1937, the Naga Hills district we s declared

'Excluded area·' of the province of Assam. The Nagas in

Burma meanwhile came under t.he Governor as oockward areas

in 1923 \v.ithout legislative control. Before a semblance

of authority could be exercised over them, i.e. N~gas on

both the slopes of Patkoi, the separation of Burma from

British-India in: 1937 saw the need for demarcation ·of a

boundary. Thus, the· "Watershed theory" of Brc.hmaputra

and Chindwin was found convenient as a demarcation point.3~

{c) NAGA NON-ST·ATE NATION

The Nagas as an assert;i ve national identity entered

the Indo-Bunnese politics with non-state nation char­

acteristics in 1946 and 1947, led by the Naga Nat,ional

Council and the Ei; stem Naga Revolutionary Council o Here,

their ethnic oneness was considereci a moral category and

the local resources were controlled by a t.raditional

sy 3t.em and t.heir composite identity was valued as a pres-

sure group. While manipulating equally the geo-political

and historic::.l conditions, they utilised t,he colonial-

-administrat-ive term i.e., "Tribes" to denote their seg­

ments fo·r composite self-identification. The emergent

elites were drawn from government officials and a few

leading headmen of neighbour~ng villages of Kohima and

Mokokchung urban centres. Almost fifty four years of

Baptist missionary: proselytism and education produced a I

few educated elit'es, who took up a position of leadership

in the modern sense of term .vis-~-vi s the tradit,ionc;l

elites· The latter was represented by Dobashis who were

interpreters in the British administration. In 1918, Naga

club wc.s founded at Mokokchung and Kohima to consolidate

a common platform for their diverse socio-cultural arti-

culations. The club members petit.ioned the Statut.::=try

Commission led by John Simon with Clement- Attlee and

317

E.Cadogan as members during the commission's visit. to

Kohima on January 1Oth, 1929 o

It. reflect~d their desire to be kept out of the reform

scheme and t.o leave them alone to determine for themselves

as in ancient times. HovJever, the Naga hills di s·L rict

was grouped c:long vd t.h other arec.~, ~.,; "ex eluded area''.

?inc.lly, in 1945 Mr.C.R. Pawsey the then Deputy Commissioner

of Naga hills, formed an institution to unite them and

called it the Naga Hills District Tribal Council. Later-

on a meeting of the representatives of the tribal Councils

held on 2nd february 1946, changed its n arne to that of

Naga National Council. At that time the NNC was composed

of 29 manbers. The president of NNcY 5 declared this body

as a "national organization", \~hile Adams the then Deputy \

Commi·ssioner of Naga hil.ls observed that "the NNC is the

symbol of unit.y and sign of grovlling unity among the Nagas.

In former days each village thought it could live alone .••

Thi s ·idea i s • • · • gon e • (now ••• should think in

terms of the whole Nag a community •••• everyone of you is

indebted to your national council ••• make it. a real peoples'

o rgani 7.ati on"~ 6 Initially the NNC aimed at providing "a

way of working together for peace and agreement. between

all the Naga tribes, of pre serving and dev·eloping what is

good of their own culture. and customs and to promote the

growt.h o:f democratic in sti tution~::n37. The organization

318

was split into two sub-di.visions. The Kohima central

council had 12 members, neven were .Angamis and Iviokok-

' chung had 15 members of ·which five were .Ao,four Serna,

three Lot.ha, t.wo Sangtam and one Chang. Gradu.a lly it

became a representative body of all Naga areaso As in

the instance of Anal, Monsang, Moyon, Lc.mkang and Tarao

v~ho are given as old-Kukis in anthropological litera-

ture threv~ in their lot by giving the NNC sub~=;cription.

Their basis of affinity as Nagas lvas specified in a mem­

orandum to the NNC/NFG in 1963-4 besides sending twenty

boys to its armed \-ving. They presented ten points of

characteristics a.ttributed~to Nagas, Viz, Traditional

dormitory present before their chr.istianizc.tion; collected·

stones in graves; clan exogamy practised; maintained long '

timber seat in chief's house for young bucks; hanging of

articles on the grav'es, polygamy existed before; practisec I

child marriage; a' preference to :Son marrying sister's /

daughter; no:v~ pursue animal ·hunting in liel:l of previous

head hunting, and .. t.h..ei: r house construction is akin to

that of Lotha and Tharikul type.

In Naga Hills , ... in their movement under the l\.l!\JC oscillatec

b et.ween an osmosis of three dis tj.nct groups of decision ..

inakers. One group was the Dobc;s;his, they were represented

by Senkalemba ( OBE) of' Lungkhum belonging to the dominant

319

Ao block; Kahoto, son of Inato the most dominant Serna

chief; and Imlong Chang (OBE) of the Chang Tribe. Th'e

.second group was· dominated by student leaders and govern-\

men t official~. They llad an infusion of a westminster

type of polit-.ical f'ut.ure in their thinking. The handful

of them educated in Indian ~niversities were namelyp

sashimeren Aier, v~ho v.·as very close t,o Pandi t. Nehru and

au;'-.hor of t.he 16th point.agreeement; A.Kevichusa of Khono-

rna who was the first. Naga graduate; Aliba T. Imti. IFAS,

who later on became NrlC president.; the first ~JNC president

was M?yangnokcha, a teacher by profession of Changki

village. They were the educated elites thbt brought

about a telling effect on the future of Nagas within

the union of India. At a later stage entered Zapu Phizo

of dominant Khonoma village., He had enterpreneural skills

and was subjected to .the influence of the. Indian Notional

Army and Burmese brand of revoluticmary change in the body I

politics. This gt:;ve a new dimension to their politics

with a radical tone. r'leanwhile the Nagas of Burma got

organised under the. Eastern Naga Revolu.tiortary Counc'il.

It v•as formed by a union of Somra tract Nagas and Naga

hills of Burma. They'were led by Khoplang of Heimi'tribe'

a~ chairman of' ENRC and Chau ba38 the -vice-chairman who

hailed from Somra village. They were gearing up to boyco~t

320

the Pane;long conference convened to achieve the early

unification of valley Burmans and welter of hill tribes

in 1947. The course of Naga identity expansion had been

determined by what emerged in Naga hills district. of Assam,

it could be true of future trajectory of political develop-

ment.s in the coming years.

\·.~thin the Naga. hills on their political ·issue t.hree

views eme-rged, a group advocating the immediate decla­

ration of independence, another favouring cont.inuc;l govern­

ment:ol rel at.ionship v;i th India in .a modifi eel form t.ill such

time they become 'sophisticated' to run a 'nation state', cmd

a third ·advocated placing Naga areas under the British crown·

as a mandatory state for a specific period. A compromise n

plan emerged favouring an iterim government under a joint ' 1

Anglo-Indian guardianf.hip v·..-i.th full _legislative, executive

and judiciary powers having inalienable rights over land, , I

revenue and expeJ1di ture with a grant from the guardian

power. And a security for:ce \'las· tb be maintained by the

power under a joint responsibility. This was placed­

before the advisory ~ommittee on: abor~ginal' tribes on

l'o1ay 20, 19.47, which was however, not accepted. Imrnedi­

at:.:ly after t-his the. Hydar;i agreem!;!nt recomnended that

"the right of' the Nagas t.o develop t.hemselvee: according

to their free expressed wishes is recognised". But.

321

a major controversy arose on the j.nterpretation of clause

9 of the agr·eement. The Nagas interpreted this as that

Nagaland would be soveri~n after the ten years stipu-., lc;t.ed period of 'special responsibility' of governor of

Assam on behalf of the Union of India. In 194839 , the

NNC central council vJa s comprised of . .six Aos represf'nti ng

<:<11 the Ao ranges, six Angami. s, 1 Konyc.k, 2 Rengmc;s, 4

Semas, 2 Sangtc:ms, 3 Lot.has and one Chang. Then within

its jurisdict.ion existed two central councils of Kohima

and l'u1okokchung. The tribal. councils und<?r Kohima were

Nzemi and Kuki Tribal council;

Kachori in Dimapur.

der the l\'Iokokchung central council were Ao tribal council,

t-.ribal council, Serna t.ribal council, Letha tribal . .

council, sangt.am tribal council and Konyak tribal council.

The ·Chang and Sangtams were represent.ed by Dobashi s and

other settlers at ,Mokokchung to\1\n, until this time the . I

tra·ns-Dikhu tribes did not come under effective admini-

stration. It was only when a military post was opened at

Tuensang in 1948. that diSturbances took an ominous tum.

·Meanvvhil e, immedia~.ely before India won her Independence,

the hill area leaders of I"lanipur secured incorporation

of a clause in the J:vianipur constitu~.ion -v,;hich was drafted

322

in fo.iay, 1947 giving the right to any sect,ion of the

hill people to secede at the end of a 5 years period if

the conditions 1.-.1. thin that consti tu-t.ion \vas found not

satJiSfactory. Finally the committee recorded that the

provisions e;greed to in these resolutions were binding

for the 5 years period only and all act.ion of t.he coiTUJ1u­

nity represent-ed in the Commit.t.ee rP.served t.he righ+ of

1 f d f + • t th d f 5 'od 40 comp ete ree om o ac .. 1on c. e en o · years per1 "

corolJ.ary to t.his on 15th J~ue,-ust. 1943, the Ivlao-Nagas

launched a no-tax campaign against. the Government of' Ivlani-

pur demanding a merg·er vdth Naga hills. This gave an

essential impress to the NNC movement at a later stage

for its expansion out~.ide Naga hills district.

An important. event 1r1a.s Phizo' s ascendancy in the NNC '

and purging it of moderates with his Peoples' Independence

League members wh:tch gave the movement an extremist policy.

By no\.Y~ t.he NNC nG!d mobilized a complete cohesion of human

and material resources and with its revenue collectill>n

power an ultimate local politico - economic 1 egi tim: ation

·,~c;s achieved. Moreover NNC was recognised as the legi-

t.imate and the only organization of t-he Naga s by the union

government. This is reflected in a copy of telegram

dat.ed 4-8-47 from the Adviser to the Governor of Assam,

t.o the D.C. Naga hills as forwarded under t.he memo No.549G

dated, Kohima 6-4.-47 v;hich reads t.huc:"Under t.he terms of

323

the unde rst.anding reached with the NNC His Excellency

agrees to the 1 evy of the sales tax by the Kohima council,

provided the NNC approves". Be sides, "it was aided by

the Assamese government which recognised Phizo, the NNC

president as the representati,,e spokesman of all Naga

tribes and even referred t.o t.he NNC on some occasions as

a legitimat.e govemment"4 1 • Pandit. i~ehru' s policy is also

-.rl ed i 1· t h2th. · "T . bal ~ h ,·d h rt,::.L ect n a .et .. er, , u.s. n arec;s s OU.L! ave

as much freedom and autonomy ..• that. they should live

their O\;'rl lives a~cording to their own custom and deci­

sior., Naga terri tory should be an integre.l part of Assam

province, <me. yet should have a certain measure of auto­

nomy for i t.s purpose ••• the whole Naga terri tor.r should go

together· and should be controlled in a large measure by

an elected NI'JC", Besides this, an interesting fact is that

NNC was banned ~nder the unla'dful activities (Prevention)

Act only in Sept. 1 ,: 1972 and the ban was lifted on November

11, 1975. In the 1i~terven~ng periods a sense of legiti­

macy was mutually ackno·~\lledged.

The promulgation of the sixth schedule in 19 50 v1as

considered a rejection of the 9 point agreement by the NNC. of

Moreso with the transfer~the 'discretionary power' and

'individual judgement' to t.he Governor of Assam over the

'E>.xcluded' area of .erst·while Naga Hills Dist.rict. The

324

NNC at least. conducted preliminary democrat.ic func'f-.ions:

mass agitation, civil resiztc::nce and a unilaterc::l plebi­

ci te, follo·wed by a de~bnstration of rejection of the

consti tut:i.on of India by boycotting the first. gener-al

ele ct:.ion s of 19 52 • Their writ was also sh0\111n vJhen Pandi t

Nehru along with Thc.nkin Uu, the PremiE::r of Burma arrived

in Kohima for .a public meeting vJhich Nc·S boycotted by

the Nar;a s43.

Despite their ideologi.cal contradictions the Nagas

at. 1 east. till. 19 56 und<er t.h e NNC was clear on one point

thst the question of "separat.ion could arise only when

there had been union, in our case there was not that

'union' \~hi ch would give ground f.or calling our national

struggle to regain former sqvereignty a separatist movement

much less an 'anti -Indian' movement since the claim of

our national indepcendence is not to oppose India"44 .A I

confrontation becic.me inevitable \when Governmmt. of India

obtaj.ned pr-e-emption of inheritance· and held the legal

title over the Naga territories, and considered NNC as

coming within the 6th schedule as an appendage of the

politico-aumin.istrative c;pparatus. For India the

Erst.while Naga hills of "excluded area 11 became the

nodal point of exercising and extension o±' territori2l

325

and political jurisdiction over contiguous Naga areas.

\llhereas NNC considered th~ other Naga areas as free and

declared t.hat the plebicite they conducted on 19511\iay 16,

·h•as "meant for those Nagas within the confines of that

region of Nagaland known as Naga hills in Assam exclud~

area"45. By 1955 NNC was wrought ... :..~h dissent.ions; one

group mostly comprised of Dobashis and a segment. of educated

with a second rung of NNC leadership \-Jho were essentially

based in urban· areas of Naga hills c.nd Tue1sang division,

did not subscribe to Phizo' shard line policy. Moreover '

thP. government se::cvc:nt.s viz: Doba.§his etc o, \;ere asked to

resign their posts by the NNC on pains of death. Thereupon

thP- urban centres became sanctuaries for 'political ex­

patriates' as Nagas called t~em theno Consequently, the

P 0 litico-administrative legitimacy of t.he government ceased

beyond the few urban - military centres;

I

The political mayhem started when governmEnt of India

sent EJ mission of armed forces in 1948 to 'fu:ensang, ~o

which the inhabitants reacted as aggression in unadmini­

stered area which t.hey ·called free Nagaland. As a reaction

to this the "peoples' Sovereign Republic of lt,ree Nagaland"

was formed, by at this time Phizo had established himself

.at Chingmie village of 'fuesang area. Yengpang village was

326

a tradi tionC~l enemy of Noklak and Pangsa, and these

rival elements entered into the new political ::aticu­

l!ltions. The warriors of :pro-NNC Yengpang had killed a

Pangsa buck, ~n retaliation Indian armed forces aided

Pangsa and Noklak to invade and destroy Yengpang village

on November 14, 1954, persumably designed to bring 'peace'

in this region as the British also had rationalised their

actions earlier in the .sam·e v-ein. ThereaftE-r, <Jrmed

E>~ements of both contesting parties began confrontat.ion

in right earnest. The Honkin 46 govemmFnt. was e~t.ablished by the extrP.mist Nagas and consequent.ly 'fuensang division

was declared a 'disturbed area ·• in April 1955, and civil

disobedience led to the promulgation of this order in Naga

Hills on 29th January 1956. At that time all the important \

leaders of the NNC went underground. CKt 22nd March, 1956

they proclaimed their o.wn govemmen~ at Phensinu in Rengma

area. The persis~ent tribal struc1~.ure was effectively

exploited by the NNC and the Naga Federal Government •. They

leviai a house-tax of Rs.8/=p.a. and a NNC fee of 0.50 p.;

an Army maintenance subscription of Rs .8/= and tribal

council fee of Rs.2/=. The government servants were requi­

red to pay 10% of their salary. Its military -v.d.ng was

bolstered up by a draft from each clan/lineage at the

village level with all the paraphernalia of ranks associated '

with a regulc.r army. A fine of' ~a10,000/= was imposed ·on

327

any village which fai_led to meet the requi.r€mE'nts of the

NNC. Moreover, a fine of Rs.1 ,000/ was collected in lieu

of e clan recruit failirtg to join the Naga army.

By 1964, t.he NNC and Naga Federal Government had

extended its sway all over t.he Naga territories lying·

\-.Jit.hin the jurisdict.iin of Government. of India. The Nagas

considered themselve~ as organised within five states viz,

Patkoi state for. Tuen sang segmt:=!nts; Dikhu for Ao,Sema, . .

Lothz and Rengma; Japvo state for Angc:mi, Chakesang, Mao

and Zeli angrongs; \>.ung State covered Tankhul and Marin g.

While }mal State covered the Naga s of· Tengnoupal district

of Man~pur. They came under one .Angh (Governor) each.

They had two houses for legislations viz, Tatar Hobo

(lower hou~e) and .Kemhao (upper house). In the Tatar

hoho there ~,..as one representative per 15,000 population

apd a council of Kilonser~ (ministers) were elected from /

t,his Tatar Hoho. Abov~ t.his was the post of Kedha~

(President.) and declared t.hat "any cit,izen of NagaLarid

v~ho is born of Naga blood and has completed 45 years of

age_ and is qualified for election as a member of Tatar

Hoho shall be eligible for election to the office of

Kedhage". In the Kemhao "the membrers to be nominated by

the Kedhage shall consist. of person~ ha.ving speciul know-

1 edge and pract-.i.c31 experienc.~l:l in politics, foreign

328

diplomacy, E':ducat.ion, art and literature, public admini­

stration, social and e.cclesia sti cal affairs". This house

wa.'S presided over by the Kidalho. (vice-president ) •

The Naga Federal Government and NNC based their

local-level 1egit.imc.cy upon the village council v1hich \vas

compris•ed of "( 1) 'l'he recognised Ctl~cf v.c chiefs of the

village, if any, (2) gaonburahs, (3) the elders elected

by the resident adult males of the village in accordance

wi t.h t ri ba1 procedure". The NNC began at grass root. 1 'eirel s

by having vi11Clg~. representatives at the su b-t r.i. bal council

the latter in turn was represented in the tribal level

council and an apex body knov.n as NNC central. council re­

presented each tribal body. The President, vice-presi~ dent,

Gen era1 secretary and joint ·secretary were duly elected

from this central council. Simultaneously administrative

functions began in.: the village council. Here, the chief /

executive was Runa Peyu. In the suh-regional council,

\vhich approximates a range within a compact tribal t.erri­

to ry the Raja p eyu \vas the he ad appointed by Mid an peY£.

This Mid~iin puyu \vas the agent of Kedhage and executive of

the regional council. Thi ~:. regional council approximates

c; specific t . .cibal area. Beginning trith the sub-regional

council, election by secret ballot was the method of

forming these councils upto the regional council. Besides

329

those officials, fangtong (Deputy 6o~nissioner) were

appointed in districts of the States. In each of these

states, a Lacey or State assembly "loJas est.ablished. The

Naga safeguards and Naga Home guards got amalgamated and

styled i t:self as the Naga Army. Each "State" boasted of

a formation approximating a regular army bri. gad·e, and within

a t·ri be a number of 'battalions' were raised according t.o

ranges. When t.he writ of t.he administ.ration ceased to exist

in rural areas elements of the Indian Army was induced to

decide the quest ion of legitimacy of euthori t.y. 47. In

January 29, 1956, Naga hills was declared a di~turbed area

and the army moved in two days latero At this stag~, for

India it. was a matter of retaining territorial integrity

as devolved unto the Indien nation state by right of

dejure inheritance from the Anglo-Saxon s. Consequently,

c;fter a ,SUstained pti.litary operc.tio·n and combined \'Jith f

attendant reactions of tne middle - class elements based

in urban settlements of lvlokokchung, Kohima, Mon, Dimapur,

~'tbkh~~, Zu~eboto and Tuensang; ari erosion in the support to ·1

Nf\TC/l'!FG developed. As a re.sult the decision making body

shifted t.o the moderates who were essentialy 'dependent'

middle class cornprie.ing of a few Naga IFAS inducted in

1953 for fron-tier administ.ration. :r-'1or:t of the er:st.•·•hile

330

members of t-~NC and Naga youth movemmt that, provided a

second-line leadership to NNC could not reconcile wit-h the

hardline policy of Phizo. Henceforth t.he moderat.e 1 eaders

were the .E!duce:;ted elements like Kevichusa, and To Aliba Imti,

both of them were to become Members of Parliament- in India;

c:nd a NNC reformist group was l€<i by T.N. Angami and Jasokie

who became chief Ministers of Nagaland state later on; and

the uncor~mit.ted Dobashi-s threw in their lot wi.th this

moderate group.

However, till 1964 not a single important NNC/NFG

leadership could be brought into the Union's fold. Instead

a serious situation developed with the entry of China in

support of NNC/NF'G in terms of material and moral backing.

Bes).des, the· movement had .split over to adjoining Nag a

area of l'r1anipur and Assam. Nonetheless, combinations of

~!:!..IT clc:ims of Indi.a, and contradict-ions in the regional

or negative inner - dynamics of NNC/NFG produced in effect

t.he first signs of failure of the l\JNC. This ushered in

the political party politics in Naga areas of India.· This

\\las first sustained by Dobashis and the urban middle class

and 'reformed' l'HW workers who came under an appe:_ll ation

"The overground NagasfO. This process filtered do·wn to the

village level, thereby giving the Union government a

leverage in terms of legitimGcy of authority in its obsolute

sense of term.

331

Naga Peoples Convention .

I

A movement began in Mo:kokchung to\..n for this group

to consolidate a view to bring about a dialogu'e with the

government of India. The main orgc.nisers held a meeting

on 13th May, 1956. Their middle class character is

revealed in the chart as given under:

Name Profession Village

Su bon gn.ukl o s. D. 0. ( P. W .. D) Mongsenyimti

Noksangy;iJba Sub-In spec·t.o r of Schools Changki

Senayangba Dobashi Ungma

Senkalemba Dobashi Lungkhum

Longrikaba Gaonburah Khensa

Imposemba Dobashi Mepungchukit

Imti supong Pandit Sungratsu

A ri shingan.g Contractor Chuchuyiml ang

Imonungba Contractor Longchang

Makenba Contractor Long chang

They organised an Ao public ·meeting with active conni-

Vance of the government of India's administrative rE:presen­

"t.oti ves. The re solut.ion passed in their June 10-11 , 19 56

332

meeting endorsed u.pon the Nagas to search for a peaceful

set tl em..;nt. It said that if such a situation "is allOiiiJed !

to continue for a further· period Nagas will perish as a

people "and" called upon all Nagas and Sorkar (Government

of India) to convene a Naga public meeting". This brought

about c;; series of meetingsunder the Naga people$ ccnven-

tion beginning with the 1st NPC held at .Kohima in August,

19 57. In this convention two different views emerged o

One 1 ed by Ao group along with Kevichusa Angami IFAS who

maintained that the NPC' s role should be to act as 'bridge'

for the two ccnfl.icting parties. ~·;·hile the other view

considered it as 9 sufficic~nt' representation of Naga poli­

tical aspiration4g-. Here most of the Dobashis and government

servants exceptj.ng the Ao_ group and Kevichusa subscribed

to the former opinion.· This was prece:,ded by issuing of

a statemmt signed, by the chairman T.N. Angami of therefor-I .

mihg committe of tNNC advocating peace, order and security

in Naga areas, and al·so a demand to set-up an admini­

strative u.nit. for Nagas with adequate safeguards to -Naga

custornc;ry usages. This led·to a resolution that "The

sole answer to the.Naga question is a satisfact.ory political

se-t,t.l em.ent" and appe.aled to "The countryman in arms to

give up the cult. of violence". Consequently, Naga Hills

and Tuen~ang area were amalgamat-ed as an administrative

333

unit in December 1958. In··the second session of NPC held

c:t Ungma in 19 58, a liaison corrunittee was appointed t.o

contact the NNC and NFG members. It w'ds intended to

persuade the latter into coming overground and consoli­

date a common opinion for a political future. Finally,

in the 3rd NPC, convened at Mokokchung from 26-30 October

1959 a 16 point was arrived at for negotiaticn with t.he

Government of India, consequent to this, the Nagaland

( t ron si tion al provisions) Regulat.ions of 19 61 established

the interim body consistirg· of 42 members· Finally Pandit

Nehru moved in the Parliament a bill for the Thirteenth

amendment. of the constitution for creation of State of

Nagaland. Formally the. state of Nagaland was inaugurated

in December 1, 1963. ·This led to the transform~t.ion of NPC

into Naga nation~list organization and another political

part!', the Democrati~ Part.y was floated "for lasting good ' 0

relations wi. th t.he government. of India". Concerning the

political grouping as it stands till date, the chart indi-

cates t.heir alignments in t.heir posit.ions according to·

ideologies.

The efforts t.o maximise their authori.ty over the land

base and popular.ion through political mcbilizetion is a

pert .. inent case here. In other \vords, the "Naga tribal

government." upon \vhich the NNC/NFG were built up has supre~e

334

NAGA POLITI CAL GROUPIN·G

Naga club, 1918 National Council, Naga Hills, 194 ~ l

~aga Hills Tribal Council, 1939 · Naga National Council, l•ianipu r, 1946

Nag2 Peoples Republican Federation, unadministered area, 19 53

NNC( Reformist) 19.57~ Naga Peoples Conventi~n,1957~

~ Naga Nationalist '-, Organi sC:~tion, 1963

Eastern Naga Revolutionary Council, Burma, 1947 Democratic Front, 1963 I Naga Integration Council, 196$ ~ ( ~~agaland,Manipur, A ssam}19 C$ United Front- 1969

NPRF( Henkin), Revolutionary Group, 196S

Chcdema Group( Shillong Accord) 197 5

~!ega ~!aticnzl Cou."lcil, Indo-fu rma, 1979 · ~:e:tionc.J. SOcialist Council of Nagaland, 19$0

Naga National 'dorkers Conference

1 ~·!aga Dimension Regional

r 1 · united Fronr 1969

United Jemocrati c

\ Front. 1972 Con!5.ress , 197'~

l ~~~. Naga National Janata, 1977 ~arty, 1977 / j

Noga Nalional Democratic pary, 19so 1 I Nag<J Peoplee: Party 1 1932

~ Con ·ress( I)

National

335

jurisdiction in domestic matter, tax,and mineral resources

with limited criminal jurisprudence. Later, in deference

to the wishes of NPC this was legitimised by the Indian

state ·on the st.rength of the sixteen point agreemE"mt and

art.icle 371A of the Indian constitution. However t.he extent

of sovereignty is blurred since the area of Jurisdiction·

exercisc::ble in.this is dependent upon the constitution. The

polit.ic;:,l articulations of moderates could not be satiated

on two pertinent points. One was the 6th Clause (2) of the

9 point agreement of 1947 \<l:hich runs implicit-,ly 11 tc bring

und~r one unified administrc;tive unit as far as possible all

Nagas. All the areas so included would be within the scope

of the present. proposed agreement.''. The other one is the

16th point agreement of 26th July 1960 betv~een the Government.

of India and the Naga pepple' s' convention v1hich clearly.

st<=ted "the inclusion of the Reserved forests and of conti­

guous areas inhabited. by the Nagas". I

This 1 ead them t.o form the Naga integration councfl with

the expressed viev,; of amalgamat.ing. all Naga are~s 'l'.'i.thin

z terri tori ally extended Nagaland within India. This move-

ment ran parallel t.o the NNC/NFG movement. This council .

involved most of the middle class Nagas of Manipur 1 and it

it set into motion overlapping sets oi' poli1~icc:.l interest

group~,cnd intra-segment rivalries ce<me into pr·ominence

led by emcrgerit middl e-el ass el emeht.s. The Tengn~ oupal

Naga union composed of Anal, l-lloyon-IIIlonsc.ng, 'hrao and

Lamkang (a component of Naga Integration Council) entered '

the state election of 1971-2, which was compelled by a

counter move by non-Nagas viz Kukis, Hmar, Haokips under

'commi'f:.tee\for Kuki-Mizo integration of Tengnoupal dis­

trict' into Mizo-hills. Again the NFG efforts to \veild

the Mao Maram, Thankal and others of Manipur east dis­

trict under a common name called the Sepumarc.mth could

not porce;ed further. Here also the Mao-Poumai segments'

i"i~sion process came in the way. And it got reflect-.ed

into a scramble for political leadership in Manipur

assembly the prominent 1 eaders were Larho Poumai and Rio

Vio Mao. At any rat;e the traditionally embeded identity

of a loci::il nature could not be transended at all. And

resultant effect \\'as count.er.'productive to the Naga

integration efforts.

' 1~r!other fission process got e..'<pressed by the Zeliangrong

Nagason11th October 1980. They revi ev~ed .their fifty

years of movement for amalgamation with other Naga s and

reunification of the Zeliangrong areas scattered in

different. administrative t.errit.orieso The ·luke\'~arm

response of other Nagas and the indet.erminat'e political

future of the Nagas brought about a r~solution that:

337

"the consensus of opinion expresses in favour of a

separate stc.te comprisit;g the said Zeliangrong areas,

\\rithin the Indic:n Union". Their inner cohesion has come

about after the amalgamation of three distinct social

streams, Viz; Kabuis of ~Ianipur plains; Zeliangs of

North Cachar, Nagaland and l'Jlanipur hills under Jadonang;

and Zeliangropg components of t.he NNC/NFG. Among them

two parallel streams are indicated besides the NNC/NFG

political influence. The fusion process of Zeliangrong

begins .,.,.ith the Kuki rebellion of 1917-18 and also of

rapid migration· of the latter ethnic group into

:Manipu r. The threat of· Kukis was a necessary impetus

for seeking a 'Solidarity among themselves. The chart

indicates this process thus: '

338

ZELIANGRONGS

Agangmei { 192 5)

hn organization of Khullakpas ( Chi ef. s) of K 6 bui s , who were under Manipu r king. Organised to confront. Kuki encroachments

l Kabui Chingsang ( 1927) J)rJ organization under Larnpus, a Bri~ish title for Chief~.

1 Kabui Samiti (1937) At this stage Kabuis were consid~red a sanskritised group of Manipur. Bc:sically organi·sed on anti­Kuki sentiments.

1 Kabui Naga Association (1946) The NNC movement ·was filtering in at t.his period

. ~ :

l\1anipu r Zeliangrong Union( 1947} A component. of NNC,bu.t also a part of local Zeliangrong movern·ent.

l Zeli angr~n.K_.UnJon { 19 57) a unit o Z. U. of Nag a hills, ~ssam and Manipur. In 19 60 Integration of whole iiJa ga a rea p r.edomi nan t and NNC/NF'G well entrenched.

Jadonimg, a 1 eader of Zemi s, hanged by the British in 1931. F~pouser HARAK~ Cult.

Gaidinlu, raised a private militia and fought the NFG and was conferred RANI title by union Government.

le~ Convention(19GO)

339

Till the end of second World War, only the Rongmei

(Kabui) had an organisation called Kabui Naga Association,

it was clearly articul at E7d by middle class elements residing

near the l\'ianipur valley. Later, Zeli.angs from Nagaland

namely. L.Lungalang,IFAS and Dr.T.Haralu managed to turn

KNA into a composite Zeliangrong council. The meeting was

held at Keimshamt.hong village (Kabui) on 15 February 1947.

r'leanwhile .Qaidenlu was released from Tura Jail in 1947.

In February, 1946 NNC was formed and four months later

gave the call for unification of all Naga areas in the

province of .Assam (British) though they vJere reluctant to

join the union of India. The Naga s in I~1anipur under Athiko

Daiho (of Sepou maramth composite id enti t.y) gathered ·at Tun gam

Khamai in M~o area to begin a movement for joining the

rest of the NagasD The Tankhul group led by Ivmjor Kathing

(Former APO ,..,_f 'fuensang in 1956) ·and·· R. SUiza a hill areas

minister in lVIanipur, disassociated from a non-cooperation. /

movement thus planned, but offered solidarity to a common

causeo Therefore, Mao_-Maram and Zeliangrongs -v{ent ahead

\vi+,h their non-~ooperation move with the government of

Manipur. In August, 27, 1948, their 1 eaders were arrested

and a number of the agitators wer~ killed by the Assam

Rifles.• By then Manipur acceded to the Union of India in

1949 and was put under a Chie.f Connnissioner. Conse~uently,

Manipur become a Part C S~ate and later a union territ6ry

340

J..n 1956. This was a turning point for them in Manipur .

.At this time the Manipu r Naga National Council was

formed.

The Manipur NNC decided to boycott the general

elections in 1957, however, it was only a partial suc.cess

and a Tankhul was elected MP from the outer constituency.

Meanwhile, Gaidinlu advocated unification of Zeliangrong

areas within the I~dian union and did not see eyd to eye

with the alleged christian dominated NNC and NFGo She

went underg_round in 1960, along with one thousand of her

followers, and opposed both t.he concept of an independent

stat.e of christian Nagas, and 'insensitivity' of t.he

union government on the historical plight of her people ..

She also feared Angami ·domination a psychosis that was

generated centuries ago. Later she surrendered to the

union forces in :1966.49 I

.I

The Zeliangrong have a chequered hi story and till

1971 th.ere was not even a middle school f.or zerius.of

North cachar Hills of:.".2·0, 541 ( 1971) population, and

a dispensary at Laisong was basically meant for Assam.

police battalion stationed thereo In Manipur, for a

population of' 54,000 there was one high School; clearly,

t.hey were in the backwaters of backwardness. Ai'ter the

341

movement for Naga integration petered out in early

1970's, the Zeliangrong~ are now ready even to orbit

out of other Naga_s a_dministratively speaking, provided

'development'· is assured for their people. Ho\..;ever, such

fissions among thern must also be seen as a convenient

t:..ool for the encapsulating systems, without. act:ually

ace eding to their demands o

Another segment, the Monsangs are one of the most

articulate groups in local polit.ics of Ivlanipur. As late

as 193$, they". were members of the Indian independent

movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. '!hey came under one

Irabot Singh and his organization wvas called Kishan Sabha

Later, they joined the 'Khulmi' ("erne rged from Hole")

an organisation of ·all tribal groups of Manipur who are

said to have their origins from Khul. The formation coin·

cided ~dth the establishment of the State of Manipur in I

1949. One Ng. Mono was an executive member and also i.ts

general secretary later• They were mostly 1 ed by middle

class elements and came under the platform of abolishing

the hereditary chiefships prevalent specially amcYlg kukis

A majority of them got elected in the 52 member Manipur

state legislative Assembly in 1948 under this bannero

Afterwards, this extended organisation got restricted to

a Tengnoupal district political organization, under the

342

name Pak.an (Same as' Kh!al~), and orbited out of the

other non-Naga groups. In this, Ng. Mono got elected

as JvlLA for 41 - Chandel constituency, predominantly

inhabited by Anal, Lamkans, Moyon and Monsangs. They had

began to identify ~hemselves as separate from Kukis as

articulated by their modern elites. Later, under the

same platform, Messrs.Angnal Anal and H. Khelsung were

elected to the electo:ral college and !Vlanipur Terri to rial

council respectively. Again, the Samyukta socialist party

1 ed by a Tcnkhul, Ri shang Keishing became another focul

point of solidarity. In which Ng. Mono was elected a

member at the district level., and the community as a

~vhol e threw in their lot for Ri shang kei shing in his

successful election to the Lok-Sabha. Then in NNC/NFG

movement the community was actively involved for nearly

a decade. Again~ when the integration council called for I ~

integrat,ion of all Naga ar.;:t·as, Ng. Mono and Rishang Keishing

1Piere made president and secretary respectively. The Naga s

of Tengnoupal district ( kno\"81 as old-Kuki s) has definitely

entered the ne\"J political 'Naga' connotation and nomen­

clc.ture as a people. I was in Chandel in 1983, when the

local district council faced a serious crises of defection.

The Kukis have engin ered '.defection ' of a Larnkang besides

others, to replace an incumb·.:mt chairman, who ~r1as a Nc.ga.

343

Here, the composite identity was effectively utilised to

bring 'back' this recalcitrant. member by the six Naga seg­

ments inhabiting Tengnoupal \di.strict.

Th.g church leaders took an initiative with the consent

of NNC and NFG for constitution of a Peace Mission. This

mission acceptable to all sections of political opinions '

was composed of Revo )'11· Scott, J.P. Naraycm and J.P. Che:rliha.

The members along_ with five NFG delegates signed an a:-.reement

for ceasefire which came into force from the midnight of

Sept.5, 1964. This was for an initial period of one month

after which it had been extended from time to time till

August, 1972. During.the negotiation period between the '

Union government and the NFG delegates, there were six

rounds of talks. '!he first three rounds did not yield

any result. In the fourt.h round Indira Gandhi while main­

t.oining Nagaland as an integral part of India, m2de a

significant concession by proposing that, it should enjoy 50

"Complete autonomy" • And stated that she wc;s prepar~

to consider a settlement,· 1rJithin the Indian union vJhich

\vould not. necessarily be within the present. constitutional

frame work. ThG next two rounds of talks were futile since

bot.h sides remained rigid.

344

.'\pivotal role expected from the western pO»Jers was

not fort.h corning especially of Phizo's effort.::: to raise '

the issue in the UNOo Therefore, f',ince 1963, t,h~ NFG

under Ato Kilonser SukhaiSl tum ed to Peking appealing to

recognise the territorial rights of Nagaland, her people

now and forever" this v;a s followed by Kedhage' s52

appeal "That it had become impossible for the NFG to

resist unaided the might of Indian force" and sought

"-any possible assistance in any forms". But besides the

poli tice:l and material. support., an ideological shift could

not be discounted at any rote. The first batch of Nagas to

reach Yunan for military training was led by T.l-!. r~luivah,

then general secret.ary of NNC v1ho ushered in a new line

policy later on. That time th~ had two choices open

to them, one was either to fall in line 'Ai.th the Anglo­

-saxon type of body politics exemplified by Indio, or· the

revolutionary forms as prevc.lied in south.Ec.st Asia

represented ·by Burma, China and the Vietcongs of prst~vhil~

south Vietnam. Till this time, the NNC and NFG had·

registered an appreciation of the former in its structure

and spirit. Again nine decades of :American Baptist pro­

selyt.ism had a telling effect. Therefore, the NNC/NFG

could not. transcend these factors for a simple reason

that christic:n ideology is the basis of westminster type

345

of politics in most of t.he third world. And invariably

their "Nagi sm" was developed in this same vein. Therefore,

arose the question of ':i:ndependanc~ from ~"hom?. Subse­

quently inner- cont.radictjons emerged as a result .• This

became glaring when the Revolutionary government of Naga­

land v1as formed led predominantly by Semas against the

'China policy' of the NNC. This culminated into c. virtual

split. z.nd approximated a near civil - war among r.hemselves.

Later, the remanants in Naga areas of India vJere left with

no 'c.lternative but to be stampeded into signin& the Shillong

Accord on November 11, 1975· This group had now accepted

the "Constitution of India on their own volition" and

other issues are left for solution as and when they raise

it. with the government of India. 'Ihe "Chedema group" of

NNC/NFG plays ·an important role as a transit med.ium of

surrendered undergrounds. 'lhey advocated. an ambiguous

st.atement during.· the negotiation before signing the accord

that ''The Federal Government of Nagaland will continue to

administer and defend the nation. fu t if we were to be

ext·erminated one day, all the power are given to Mr.A.Z·

Fhi 7.0, president of l\!NC to. continue to fight. from abroad in

defence of the remnant survivors of Nagaland"

A development of' far-reading consequences w<;s in the

form of a meeting on August 16, 1976 held in the Heimi

346

region. · Here Th. Muivah censored NNC vice-President

Imkon~eren, G~nd A• Z. Phizo was denounced for his alleged

participation in the Shill:ong accord. It ~s this accord

th&t bad precipitated a goodwill mission to the eastern

latds viz. Kachin areas, etc.,. The first group led by

Is:ak Chisi swu estublished themselves in Naga - Burma area.

\\'hil e another went to the eastern 1 ands 1 ed by Th. Mui vah

sometime in 1977, and .returnEd in January 1978, and took

residence in Burma Naga area. Here the new line policy

emerged. The Naga Burma is considered divided into Heimi

region, (Sector three) adjoining the wancho-Nocte-Konyak

areas. south of this lies the Lainong region (sector two)

and Khiamungan,region (Sector one). At the dominant village

of Sikhba villege in Sector two, 'lb. Muivah and Isak Chise

sw passed a resolution on 2nd Augu·st 1978, to reject A.Z.

Phizot s leadership and the original policy of NNC. Alarmed deteption

by t.hi s defence. co~ncil of Naga army in Burma put. under 1 the I

protagonists of this new line policy on ~ugu~t 1978, and

declared a military rule. Th1 s was lifted on 9th March 1979.

Later at Tat.ar Hoho meeting in Lainong region on 13th

Ma:•:·ch 1979. Khaplang Heime was elected the Federal

President t.o be assisted by a council of four Kilonsers.

Then on 2nd February 1980 T.h. Muivah, Isack Chisi swu and

Khaplang Heimi made a joint .declaration to the ef.fect

347

that the Federc.l Government of Nagaland \'JOuld hence­

forth be replaced by National Socialist Republic of Naga­

la nd. This indicates gr?dual amalgamation of Noga

territories into the movement with an added impression

on t,heir changed ideological frame. It also means that

the'J are virt.ually not at all in a position to orbit. out

of polit.i c<JJ. ideologies of' the dorn:lnan~ nation-st.a'f-.e~.

348

1 • liic::tlon g, of 'royal' class of Jmgh s, was born of one Longmoi of Tanhai then a tributary of Chui Anghdom got married t.o an .Ahom raja. She lost her father at an early age so along with her mother, Nonzeng, sought a home in her uncle~ village of ·wanching. Her uncle Moilem, the~ of wanching (Sattelit.e of Chui) took them in as his household member~. in 1660. J'.fean1-1hil e, in the··Ahom capital, t-.he autocratic Lora raja on the advice of Laluki Boreu~l:!_~.!! ordered mut,ilat.ion of c:.ll t.he Ahom ruling family members in order to disqualify them from cont.es~ir.g for the throne in the year 1679. Consequently, Godapani, the heir apparant fled to the hills and through his sympat.hisers in Ponkong village could tc,ke residence in ilJa~ching. One Tai wang of We:kching ~r1a s the J~ngh then. Lat,er on during a friendly feast. between i:lanchin g and 1:J'akching, Godapani was taken in by the beauty of ~llatlon g. Therefore, after he ascended to the Ahom throne and assumed the title of Godathor Sinha in 1682, he took Watlong as his second wife a year 1 ater. As a gesture of binding relation ship bet we en them, the Ahom king gran t.ed lVIez enga Borthar, Ligi ri, Pukhi ri chunpura lands to the l!nghs of Vlakching and Wan chin g. Till very recently, the ~ of wanching used to collect an annual revenue of Rs.140 from his share of land grants.

'

2. 'The rudimentary stste vu~s underdeveloped e. s an

7 _, .

organ of coercion in the 16th c ent.u ry ... 3elf pre­servat.ion mainly depended on civic rnili tia without expansion of serfs .•. (again) ••• the ~..thorns became stC:~unch Hindus from 1Sth century onward,only after six decades of 1its adoption, cremation replaced burial, pile houses by mud plinths, :Ahom replaced by Assamese, artd king Rudra singh acknowledged shakti cult as state religion.' Amalendu Guha, Indian Hist.oricol Review, Vol I, f•iarch 1974. See also, S.K. Bhuyan, Sastri nsom Buranji Gauhati University, 198;1. It. can be assumed that. the f~ghdoms evolved simul t.aneousl y with t.he development of Ahom Kingdom and not necessarily a dir8ct offshoot of the lat.ter, moreover the ahom state apparatus t·;:::s not designed for conque.st and consoli­dation of other territories.

During my f".ield work among the ','ies+ern sangt;ams at Lungkhim; I happened to met two of my clansmen but.

349

belonging to the Bangchen lineage of Lungkhum tdllage, they \-Jere on their ~~ay to acquire a Piyong m!_ t.hu!!_;i n the said village a seizable number of tradit.ionali sts still exist. :

4. There is a good number of Gorkhali sawyers in Yaong­Yachem land. I was informed in Yaong village that about ten households have been 'adopted' as ~agas and about nine more houses are said to be a\vai t.ing . completion of the traditional procedure for a ssimi­lation vdt,hin this polity (in 1983). Ho·wever, none of these naturalised citizens may become Pan~sa. It is also to be noted that Luni clan is allote t~r.o Pangsa posts·out of twenty-in Yaong village.

5. His son, late Senkalemba OBE, former head Dobc.shi of composite .Ao, Lotha and Serna segment's District of Ivlokokchung and his cousin, Late Imkongme ren, former vice-president of N~JC, brought. about a virtual split in political articula1·.ions of Aos during the troubled years in Naga hills. The former sided with the estab­lishment and the latter expoused an extreme vie1v of Nagas.

6. During their Yungmangshibu (corrmunity fishing) expedi­tions, the age groups gather Khaih (berry) or Thungluh (root of walnut tree)- and thresh them into poultice. In the river, an old man'ritually cuts a white chicken to read omens and chant thus "from the source to its mouth, let Menoanokdang (Dikhu) give up all her fishe.s·r then_the poultice is po~nded into the weir, irrnHedjat.ely, the age groups/ rush in t~o collect stupified fi_shes, . which is a gr~at mayhem and -also a competition among various age groups. This m·ethod \tJas observed in Ao village of Longsa a fe\v years earlier.

7. In the cold season of Janu<:.ry and February, cold ·""d.nd blo~·JS in Naga hills drying up her soil to dust. And perched atop their mount.ains are hous-es· set on bamboo piles \ovhich have urinals constructed·in baraboo plat­forms behind each such houses. Do~-n belo\v these urinals the soil dries up with its saturated chemicals. This is scoped ·up by a scrapper and boiled in ~-.at~r in huge iron troughs. As the water evaporates, the sediments thus collect-.ed produce two types oi' gunpowder: ble:;ck and '.-Jhite. It is then solei by the cup, i.e. now, iakg enamel

350

mug and each cup costs Rs.5. I have not been able to elecit anything regarding the technology involved in manufacture of muzz:l e loaders.

e. V'!.K. Firminger (comp) Sylhet. District. Records, Vol.I., No~ .32-43, 1913.

9. H. Blechman, 'Koch Behar, Koch Hajo and Assam in t-he 1 6t.h and 18th c entu ri es, ~l ccording t.o t:he Akbat.nama, · the Padishanama, and Fatiya-i-Ibriyatt, Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal (hereafter JASB) Vol.XII, 1872, P.9l~.

10. Amalendu Guha, "t-he Ahom politicc.l system" in Tribal polities and state systems in sre-colonial eastern and North-east.ern India Calcutta, uly 1981, P.HX).(MSS)

11. The brine springs in Mao area is linked with a local t:radit.icn, ·which says that an old women by the name Shiro-mate passed urine and henceforth the Nagas got. a plentiful supply of salt. As a token of gratitude, the elders of ~ao .villages wraps up thirty peckets of salt in plantain leaves and left in the brine springs as her share every year. As indicated earlier, theEe brine ~-ells located in Naga country assumed a poli t.ico-- ritual sie;nificance {:md made possible large settlements to get established as well as social structure to get. a bearing on places of origin. Ivloreov er, Ahom Naga political relationship was also determiz:terl by the control

7_over brin.e- springs o

12. w. Robinson, A~escriptive account of Assam, PP 386-398.

13. E.A. Grange, JASB, No.?9.H~38-47, P·452.

l"PP ·--' 12. Novemlber,H~32. No.46.

15· .s.K·o Bhuy.an (ed), Kachad.. Buranji, Gauhati·, 1936, pp. XV-VI and XX. see also, E.A. Gait., .A. history of Assam, 1963 ( r) Thaker Spink, Calcutt-.a, p.302

1 6. For a discussion on Ahom expansion, see ,S. K. lihuyan ( ed) Q.g:;~d~~ As?m :ru::-an1i Cau~at-.i, 19?2 ', pp .24-2~; Assam Bu~_;g_, Gcuhat.~, 930, !JP .21-22, G. C. Baruoh, Ahom Bu ranji, Shill on g, 1930, PI?. 66-6e,

351

17. J.f-1. IVlills, Report on the province of Assam, 18 51.:.. pp: CXI V-Clxii •

18. J. Butler Travels end' .Adventures in the province of Assam. p.12~1. By 1848 the Rengmas were already paying revenues in present Karbi J:.nglong.district. of J\s sam. Local sources gives that. Kehon, t.he Bar Ph~k a!}_ v~a~ sent. by Ahom monarch to meet the Brit-.ish officer. The Warrior dress appeared to be an apparition to the officer. Hence he inquired of what. t~e natives cc.ll a ghostly appearance in a dream. The Bar Phukc.n reply became affixed to this group of Nagas as Re_l}_gma or Rema ( "ghost,") •

19. Alexander Mackenzie The relations of the Government with the hill Tribes of the North-East Ii'ror.t_ier of Bengal. in 1884. Calcu~.t.a, 1314·

20. The exercife of this transfer is recorded in Para 14 of lett.er No.3525. Fort v..illam; 1st June, 1;~65 from Hon'ble !'.· Etlen, Secy. of Bengal, Judicic.l Deptt, to the commis:sioner of Assam and No .30 T dated the 26th January 1866 from H.l\.E. E:ien, Secy. to Govt. of Bengal t.o the Secretary to the Govt. of India, Foreign Department. The Nlap of Surveyer General of India, Calcutta July 1876, corrected Opto 1875, shows the N.Aga hills district. incprporating present Diphu -sub-divir:ion of Karbi district.

21. Foreign political proceedings - A: Damant. to Secretary Chief Commissioner, 21February 1879. (FPA henceforth FPP) •

-22. Bengal Judicial Proceedings 16 May, 1938' No. 53.

23. FPE?, 1840,. 9 Nov, No.83.

24. F PP., 1840, 9 Nov, No.82

2 5. r"'PP. -·-' .1840, 9 Nov; No.82

26. FPP __ , April, 4, 1538, r\fo .. , 2 1 •

352

27. No.2733 dated Fort :william the 19th June 1871 from H.L. Harrison, offg. Junior Secretary to tm Govt. of Bengal to the Commissioner of Ascam. Also see. From Lt. Col.W.Agne~ Offg. Commissioner of Assam to the Secretary to Govt. of Bengel Judicial Deptt. No.1 8 5 dated Go\vhot ty the 1Oth June 1869.

2J. From Hon'ble A. Aden, Secy. to Govt. of Bengal, Judicial Oeptt-.• to the Ofg. Com.1issioner No.530T dated Fort \'lilliam, The 30th Sept. 1867.

29. Letter No.142, dated Shillong the 20th .l\1ay from the Chief Corrmission er of Assam to Secretary to the Govt.. of India, Foreign Deptt .•

30. Letter No.186 R, dat.ed Fort ~lillic.m the 4th August H~7 4, from Gov ~ • of Indi a to Chi ef Commissioner of Assam.

31. From Deputy Commissioner Sibsagarh to the secy. to the Chief Commissioner of Assam No.4, dated 6th May 1874.

32. The Government of Bengal Lett..er No .2909, datPd 8th October, 1873·

33· .AlexanderMackenzie; His+-.ort of the relation~ of the Government wi·th the Hil Tribes of the North - East_ Frontier ofBengal, 1884.

34.

3 5·

In the strici sense it took 140 years to arrive at a semblance of a boundary wit.h 62% of 880 kms. follo.-.ing water divides, and 83% coinciding with the median lines of st.reams and rivers, and the remainder consisting of straight lines connecting beacons erected in 1894· The bound.ary issue was effectiv·ely set.rled on 10 March 1967 by the Indo­Bur~se Boundary Corru!ti ssion.

1

The Naga Nation, Dec. 1946, vol.1, No.5; p.7. ( Kohima)

36. The Times of Kohima, Sept. 1946 vol 1. No2.

37. The Naga Nation, Ibid.

38. Personal interview wit.h chauba at ~1eluri, Nag::~land 19$3. He hails from Somra village.

353

39. The Naga Nation. Volume 2, Kohima, January-February 1948.

40. Memorandum Submitted ,t.o P~1 Ivlrs.Indira Gandhi, by the Naga st.udent.s' federation at New Delhi 9th May, 1973.

41. fviarcus Franda, Econc~ .. ~nic _and Poli ~.ical ~Jeekly an~ual, New Delhi.

42 .Let:t.er by Jawaharlal Nehru, Allahabad, t.o Sashimeren. /.,ier August 4, 1946. Ko_l}_~~~-'K~-~' Sept, 1946 p.6.

43.Lett-er No.556/C dated 30/3053 from D.C. Naga hills to secretary NNC disallo~ing a welcome speech in \vri tten, ten minutes before the meeting started" Press Note 3, NNC Kohima, April 3, 1953.

44-Alemchibc., A Brief historical account of Nagaland Kohima, 197o:-p~1?~

45·A·Z· Phizo's letter to the President of India, dated 11 April 1951, ~NC Papers (unpublished) o

.At Changuang village, (Ao area) Nagas in 1953 resolved that: "None of the NNC members will be bet,rayed to the government, hence all its members must go underground; no house tax/land tax \vill be paid; Government reguisition of free labour ~vill be boycotted; In all Naga villages volunteers anci women society members will be elected; and all G~onhur aha must submit their resignat.ions to the government". This was the begining of non-cooperation movement of Nagas.

I 46.Guaroian Rangoon, .vol.III, No.1956 p.4. This vJas

1 ed by the predominant Tuensang village. To obtain a legit.imacy, the NNC meet.ing held at Lakhuti village in Lotha Region on the 27th April 1955 unanimously resolv8d thc.t ".~ny person or persons, 1...ho in order to destroy or undermine the integrity and well-being of Nagaland, and who, for this purpose,. act, abet or set up organizat.ion against or appose the political admini st.rati ve and tradi t.ional in st.i tutions of t.he Naga nat-.ion, or at.t.empt to do so, whether with or 1vi t-.hou t the aid of' another country or countries shall be deemed to pove commit.ted t.reason".

354

47.See Gavin young. The Nagas an unknown war, London, . 1962; Cordon & Means and Ingun \1. Means, "Nagaland

48.

49.

the ag~ny of ending', a guerilla war" Pacific __ ?f:(.airs, Fall and. "'d.nt.er 1966-:67; ~bal Ahmed, "Further notes on South Asia· Crisis' Bulletin of Concerned I\sian Scholars, July 1973: "Separatist' tendencies in NE India" f.sicm. survey October, 1967.

s.G. Jamir The M~th an~Reality, Calcutta, 1975·

Kee~ng~' conte@orc:r~· Archiy<?s, London, March 29, Apr~l 5, :19 , p.c:327 5·

This complete autonomy \vas to retain the v1hol e parapernalia of organizational structure of N~C

and NFG with their Yez.ahbo \~ith little or no alterations at all.· Here, J.H. Hutton and Keith Cantlie let1:.er (in the Times, January 27, 1965) reflects tha-t:. "In ef feet. this means tha+ NagC:~lan d is completely independent in all matters except those of foreign rE'~aticns and external defence". This Nagaland would include also the t.hree districts of Manipur inhabited by Nagas and the hill areas of Assam that had came under the cease-fire arrang~ment.

51 • !-!a gal and: The night of the G\ferill as. A le tt.er by Kughato Sukhai, 29 l11Iay,, 19.63, p.131.

52. Ibid, .c: letter by KedhagP-, 5l'llay.1966, p.149. See also Interview of Phizo by Handler, New York Times, .April 17, 1967.