abstract - Zomi Online Library

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convince the tribes that we were both able and willing to reach their most distant villages and avenge raids committed
within our terrritories and upon our people...During the next five years two more outrages were perpetrated and in 1888
the Chin-Lushai community, known as the Shendus, entered into the Chittagong hills on a marauding expedition...
9.3.2 The Tipperah border
Tipperah lies south of Sylhet and north of Chittagong; the kingdom formerly included plains as well as the hills which
merge into the Lushai country. The East India Company annexed the paying part of Tipperah, namely, the plains, in
1761, but of the barren hills that fenced them no cognizance was taken. These hills became what we still know as
Independent Tipperah, governed by a Rajah. From 1785, when we read that the Rajah was victorious over the outer
Kukis who had just made a savage inroad into his territory, until the Lushai Expedtion of 1871-72, the Lushais were
continually troubling Hill Tipperah. The year 1824 saw a series of raids by the then called “Poitoo Kukies“, who were said
to number 50,000 or 60,000 and to be the most formidable and turbulent of the hill tribes.
In 186o the Kukis again burst into the plains, burnt and plundered 15 villages, butchered 185 British subjects, and
carried off about 100 captives, escaping into the hills before the troops could come to the scene. These raids were
known as the “great Kuki invasion of 1860“, and the outrages were perpetrated in British territory and not in Independent
Tipperah. During the same year, however, a fierce attack was made on the Rajah‘s territory, in which several villages
were destroyed before the raiders were driven back into the hills. In 1871, when the Lushais were playing a havoc in the
south of Assam, Hill Tipperah was not free from raids, and in that year a Political Agent was appointed to Hill Tipperah to
assist the Rajah. This arrangement was discontinued in 1878, the conduct of our political relations with the State being
entrusted to the Migistrate of Tipperah, who has an assistant residing in the hills.
9.3.3. The Assam border
After turning the Burmese conquerors out of Assam in 1824, the Government attempted to administer all that was not
absolutely necessary for the control of the frontier through a Native Prince; this arrangement failed, and Assam became
a non-regulation province in 1838. On its southern borders lay the Lushais, the principal tribes known to Assam being
“Thadoe“ and “Poitoo Kukies.“ For many years, long before our occupation, the inhabitants of the plains to the south had
lived in dread of the “Kukies“, who used to come down and attack the villages, massacring the inhibitants, taking their
heads, and plundering and burning their houses. The first Kuki or Lushai raid mentioned as being committed in Assam
was in 1826, from that year to 1850 the local officers were unable to restrain the fierce attacks of the hillmen on the
south. Raids and outrages were of yearly occurence, and on one occasion the Magistrate of Sylhet reported a series of
massacres by “Kookies“ in what was alleged to be British territory, in which 150 persons had been killed.
In 1849 the Kuki outrages were so savage and numerous that Colonel Lister, then Commandant of the Sylhet
Infantry and Agent for the Khasi Hills, was sent in the cold weather of 1849-50 to punish the tribes. His expedition was
only partially successful, for he found the country so impracticable that he considered it unwise to proceed further than
the village Mulla, which contained 800 houses and which he surprised and destroyed without opposition, all the male
inhabitants being absent on a marauding excursion. This expedition, however, had the effect of keeping the Assam
southern border tolerably free from disturbance up to the beginning of 1862, when raid recommenced...
In the cold weather of 1868-69 the Lushais burnt a tea garden in Cachar and attacked Monierkhat, and an expedition
was organized to follow the marauders, to punish the tribes concerned, and to recover the captives. This expedition was
in command of General Nuthall and consisted ot three columns,but the heavy rains coming on, the want of provisions
and lateness of the season caused the expedition to fail in its principle objects. No tribes were punished and no
captives were recovered. The next season Mr. Edgar, the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, made strenuous efforts to
get into touch with the Lushais. Accompanied by a small escort he visited them across the border and left nothing
undone to conciliate and make friends with them; his good intentions and friendly attitude, however, met with little
success, for 1870-71 saw a series of Lushai raids on a more extensively organized scale and of a more determined
character than any previous incursions of the kind...
9.3.4 The Lushai Expedition The Government of India now decided that an expedition should be made into Lushai