British rule in the Lushai Hills

South Lushai Hills (1889–1898) North Lushai Hills (1891–1898) Lushai Hills (1898–1947) Mizoram[1]
Part of Bengal Presidency (1889–1898) Integrated with Assam (1889–1912) District of Assam Province (1912–1947)
1889–1947
Flag Coat of arms of the United Kingdom
Show 1907 vintage map of East Bengal and Assam Show approximation map of Assam highlighting Lushai Hills
Capital	Lungleh (1889–1898)[a] Aijal (1889–1947)
Demonym	British Indian Lushai
Population
• 1901	82,434[1]
• 1941	152,786[1]
Government
Monarch
• 1889–1901	Victoria
• 1901–1910	Edward VII
• 1910–1936	George V
• 1936	Edward VIII
• 1936–1947	George VI
Superintendent
• 1891–1896 (first)[2]	John Shakespear
• 1943–1947 (last)[3]	Alexander Ronald Hume MacDonald
Historical era	Colonial era
• Expedition 1889	4 March 1889
• Lushai Expeditions	1871–1872, 1883–1888
• Divided into North Lushai Hills and South Lushai Hills	1889
• North given to Assam	July 3, 1890
• South placed under Bengal Presidency	April 1, 1891
• North and South merged	April 1, 1898
• Independence declared	15 August 1947
Preceded by Succeeded by Lushai Chiefdoms Lushai Hills District
Today part of	Mizoram

British rule in the Lushai Hills, spanning from the late 1889 to the 1947, commenced with the Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1889-90 leading to the formal establishment of the two administrative districts (North Lushai Hills, South Lushai Hills) in 1889 and continued through the integration of the regions into the province of Assam with both districts being merged as the Lushai Hills^[4] until India gained independence in 1947.

After the Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1889-90, South Lushai Hills was occupied in 1889, and the following year, it was formally annexed, becoming part of Bengal Presidency.^[5] North Lushai Hills was also occupied in 1889, and became part of British Assam. On 1889, the two districts merged and continued to be part of British Assam. On 1912, it was put into British India's Assam Province.^[6]

The Lushai hills are named after the Lushei clan. The name of the tribes became a colonial misnomer which applied to all of the Mizo tribes. The earliest recorded documentation was in 1862 which described Lhooshai Kukis living on the border of Cachar.^[7] The spelling of Lushai became standardized with the Progressive Colloq. Exercises in Lushai Dial. 3 by Thomas Herbert Lewin. Lewin claimed that Lu denotes head and sha or shat denotes cutting, which would imply the tribe is named as decapitators, a title supportive of the fact that the tribes had a reputation for headhunting.^[8] This view was rebuked by John Shakespeare who argued the name Lushai to be an eponym of a chief or ancestor of the Lushai clans.^[9] It is also argued that the name is a purely Lushai language word, that Lu means head and shei means long, as a reference to how the hair knot makes the head appear elongated. Theories have also proposed that the name is Burmese derived and means people ten.^[10] The name Lushai continued as the name of the district past Indian independence before becoming changed into the Mizo District with the political efforts of the Mizo Union in the Lushai Hills District (Change of Name) Act, 1954.^[11]

The Lushai people and the British colonial area started to engage in war in September 1826. About ten miles south of Tlawng river, traveled a Mizo village leader named Buangtheuva (known to the British as "Bungteya") and his troops, who then invaded the Sylhet forest's timber.^[12] In addition to taking some slaves home, they slaughtered an unknown number of people. Thus, the British came to perceive the Lushais (then known as Looshais) as a vicious and barbaric tribe as a result of this event.^[13]

After the annexation of Cachar in 1832, the British became close in proximity to several Kuki tribes and clans. Reports of the time show a friendly relationship between Lushai and Cacharis, who pursued trade and other exchanges. However, the individual choices of select chiefs, such as Lalsuthlaha, to raid villages deteriorated relations.^[14] It was thought that the British invaded the Lushai Hills not because of any commercial desire but due to a series of Mizo invasions to the plains.^[15]

The Lushai chiefs relentlessly and viciously invaded Chittagong, Cachar, Tripura, Sylhet, and Manipur between the end of 1870 and the beginning of 1871. Up to 20 invasions were said to have occurred during this time.^[16]

The raid of Katlichhera and Alexandrapur by Sailam chief Bengkhuaia appeared to be the most important of all Lushai chief invasions, having a tremendous influence on the lives and future of the Lushai people. James Winchester, the tea owner of Alexandrapur, was killed, and the Mizos kidnapped his daughter Mary Winchester (Mizo: Zolûti). The British retaliated by organising an expedition to rescue the hostages. The expedition turned out a success and the hill tribes agreed to negotiate peace terms. The peace lasted until 1888, when tribes resumed raiding British enterprises and settlements, which saw the Chin-Lushai Expedition establish the territories under British sovereignty.

The outcome of the Chin-Lushai Expedition saw the region subdivided into two sections. The North Lushai hills were administered by a political officer stationed at Fort Aijal under the Assam Government. The South Lushai Hills were under the administration of a political officer stationed at Fort Treager. This political officer reported to the commissioner of Chittagong who was under the Bengal Government.^[17]

Paramilitary units were established to pacify the recently conquered tribes effectively in unfamiliar terrain. The North Lushai battalion was founded for this reason, and by 1898, the strength of civil and military police in North and South Lushai came to about 1106 personnel. The British also began to invest into local infrastructure to improve the army and police's ability to curb insurgency and raiding. Roads between Sairang-Silchar were constructed and another connecting Aijal to Serchhip. Bridges across rivers were also constructed to improve mobility during monsoons and rainy reasons. The total expenditure for public works amounted to Rs 80,000.^[18]

The British administration set up schools imparting literacy to both sepoys and young individuals of both genders from the Lushai tribes.By 1900, there were three government schools and one mission school. These schools operated with the Lushai language and taught arithmetic, Hindi and English. 45 villages out of 93 in Aizawl had the light of literacy with British support. Initial intentions for education was to instruct in Bengali but this proposal was deflected by Welsh missionaries who saw the parallels of Bengali imposition in Lushai Hills to English imposition in Wales.^[19] Medical infrastructure was also established to maintain the health of soldiers. This service extended to the civilian population with free medical provisions that affected the image of the Raj in the tribes. In 1896, the British constructed a big hospital in Aizawl and medicines were distributed freely to the chiefs. The conduct of the British in the Lushai hills functioned parallel to a welfare state.^[18]

The beginnings of British rule over the Lushai Hills had proposals of amalgamating the Zo-Kuki tribes into a single administrative unit rather than maintaining a division between Chin Hills and (North and South) Lushai Hills. The conference was held at Fort Williams, Calcutta on the 25-29 January 1892. It was under the presidency of Charles Alfred Elliott who was the governor of Bengal. Five resolutions were adopted as a result of the conference. The first resolution stated a majority opinion supported the idea of a single administrative unit of the Chin Hills and Lushai Hills preferably under the Chief Commissioner of Assam. The second resolution delayed the urgency of the creation of a single Chin-Lushai District on the opposition of the Chief Commisioner of Burma Alexander Mackenzie, stating it should not be taken immediately.^[20][21]

The recommendation ultimately reached the Viceroy Landsdowne. While Landsdowne favoured the recommendation, the council was evenly split. The opposition of the former Chief Commissioner of Burma Charles Crosthwaite with knowledge of the Chin-Lushai tracts worded a strong argument against the district's creation. A decision was made on 2 August 1892 in a telegraph to the Chief Commissioner of Rangoon, stating that the Chin Hills would remain under Burma. The legacy of this decision was finalized in the 1937 split of Burma and India under the Government of India Act 1935, which established an international boundary between the two countries, splitting the Zo-Kuki tribes.^[20]

Fort Aijal was founded in 1890 on an abandoned village site. It functioned as a barracks for two columns of the forces from the Chin Lushai Expeidition with fortifications improvised from locally harvested teak trees. The Fort grew with the relocation of the Silchar Police Battalion. Local resources such as quarried stone led to installing of bungalows and barracks.^[22] Superintendent Captain Granville Henry Loch, with a Khasi contractor, expanded the settlement. Loch was a soldier but possessed experience as an engineer. Loch trained his own men in quarrying and shaping stone. He used sepoys in greater numbers and instructed them in masonry, carpentry and roadmaking. This initiative lent his battalion a reputation as a pioneer instead of an ordinary infantry unit. Within the span of a few years, Loch had removed the improvised structures and abandoned village remnants into a station of well-constructed stone houses with corrugated iron roofs, proper doors and windows.^[23]

The North Lushai Hills and the South Lushai Hills were merged in 1898. The Northern administration absorbed the South Lushai Hills, and its South Lushai Battalion was amalgamated on 13th April 1989 and renamed the Lushai Hills Military Police Battalion. The merger also saw the political headquarters of the South Lushai Hills, Fort Treagor, decommissioned due to water scarcity. Lieutenant Colonial John Shakespear functioned as the first superintendent of the Lushai Hills district. By 1900, several forts were decommissioned, and military police unit numbers were reduced with a reduction of resistance among the tribes. This achievement was partly attributed to the efforts of missionaries.^[24]

The outbreak of World War One saw few Mizo men take the initiative to enlist, with numbers of enlistment increasing with the despisement of those who wouldn't volunteer by courtships and belles of the villages. In April 1917, 2100 Lushai Men marched out in the 27th Indian Labour Corps under four companies.^[25] Other entitlements such as a lifetime exemption from an annual housing tax, coolie labour quotas and an ability to tour abroad also proved popular for Lushai manpower. Missionary and government publications also propagandized the opportunity to fight abroad.^[26] Further recruitment initiatives were halted due to the Kuki Uprising in the bordering regions against continued recruitment. ^[27]

The Corps was deployed in Marseilles as La Valentine camp. The camp was built up with a canteen and a cinema over time. Labour Corps were also often accompanied by missionaries, for the Lushai Labour Corps, Reverend James Herbert Lorrain accompanied them.^[28] The contracts to the Labour Corps personnel were made under one-year contracts, which timed out before the end of the war. Attempts to extend the term of contractual obligations were unsuccessful and led to many returning home.^[26] In the end, 2029 men of the original 2,100 returned. Deaths were attributed to the novelty of a sea journey to mainland Europe, disease, casualties from bombings and grenades in the course of labour work and ammunition handling.^[26][29] Lushai Labour Corps personnel were also active in Arras for demolition work, even deployed to regions such as Mesopotamia, Greece, Lucknow and the Ottoman vilayet of Basra.^[30]

Returning from the war encouraged veterans to join the Assam Rifles, Assam Regiment and Indian Army Hospital Corps.^[28] In Aizawl, a memorial was constructed shortly after the war to commemorate the deaths of 71 Labour Corps volunteers.^[26] Exposure to foreign cultures in the course of the war redeployments also began to bring home new ideas of westernization and modernization. Some of these developments were the introduction of short hair and European dress. Articles such as those by Lalsailova in Mizo leh Vai suggested that rural readers consider moving to Aijal for the purpose of progress (hmasawnna). Mizo labourers also brought back crop seeds such as mustard, which changed traditional Mizo cuisine to French fusion in the post-war era.^[31]

In 1925, the Inner Line Regulation was amended to protect the Lushai Hills district. One of the objectives of this regulation is to prevent the holding of land and assimilation of their culture and tradition beyond this inner line by 'strangers'. The Inner Line has, for this reason, protected the Lushai Hills from commercial exploitation of land and forest resources from merchants, traders and other tribes.^[32]

Superintendent McCall was the administrator of the Lushai Hills district from 1933-1943. His administration saw four major innovations in the Lushai Hills. These were the Ten Point Code, the Welfare System under the aegis of the Red Cross, the Lushai Hills Cottage Industries and the inauguration of the Chief's Durbar. These innovations were introduced to unify the Lushai identity and to support Governor of Assam Robert Reid's vision of transforming the excluded tribal zones into a separate Crown Colony. Reid's plan received considerable political interest but was dropped at the onset of World War Two.^[33]

The Ten Point Code was established and taught in schools to children. The purpose was to cultivate Lushai identity for potential nationhood and preservation of Mizo culture and customs. The code was also implemented into choirs, poetry and song. The welfare committees in villages also recite two points of the code every monthly meeting. The code was also intended to remedy traits of Lushai culture that were backward and incohesive for a national identity.^[34]

The rationale for implementing the Village Welfare System was twofold. The first reason was that it was an egalitarian way of bringing people together socially on the subject of health. The second reason was to encourage the Chiefs to cooperate on an uncontroversial matter. The stipulation held legitimacy by allowing the villages to join the welfare system voluntarily but being obligated to follow the rules upon joining.^[42]

Village welfare was introduced due to the fact that only 3% of the Lushai population had access to permanent contact to amenities. The civil surgeon was in charge of the village welfare system, who oversaw all matters of public health and living conditions for the benefit of the villagers. The village welfare committees function under the guidance of the Red Cross district committee in Aizawl. All committee decision-making was unanimous and implemented by the villagers in religious, social, and technical harmony.^[43] All welfare committees have the village chief as president, leaders of the church and school, pensioners, and two village women and two village men in membership.^[44]

The Lushai Hills Cotton Industry initiative was too risky for government funds and was privately financed by McCall and his wife, who formed as a Joint Organizer and Managing Director of the venture to cultivate craftsmanship and broader market opportunities to export loom products.^[45]

The British policy of diminishing chieftain power by granting chieftain rights to collaborators and other individuals increased the number of chiefs from 60 to 400 in the 1890s to the 1930s. The large number of chiefs required a system of coordination and consultation. This led to the creation of the District Chief's Durbar. Each Chief will ascend to the durbar by signing a document affirming loyalty to the British Crown and the Lushai people. The durbar was designed for chiefs to become responsible for studying the conditions and lives of people under their jurisdiction and to unify the Chiefs in looking after the wellbeing of the Lushai people in general.^[46] The Durbar was assigned to meet twice yearly at a convenient meeting place for all chief circles. It would last seven to ten days and, in an advisory capacity, make decisions offered to the superintendent.^[47]

In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army had occupied much of Colony of Burma and pushed the British back into the Northeastern Regions of India. Superintendent of the Lushai Hills, Major Anthony Gilchrist McCall, brought 300 tribal chiefs and asked them to join in a voluntary bond with the British Crown and to sign a promise to join in a "Total Defence Scheme" (TDS) of the area.^[48] McCall was recalled under protest by the Governor of Assam Andrew Clow in May 1943, his position being transferred to Shillong instead. However, in his absence, the Total Defence Scheme was held throughout the war.^[42] McCall argued that without loyalty to the British, the TDS would collapse and that the Lushai Hills would not resist Japanese occupation if the British military were to retreat as they did in British Malaya, Singapore and Colony of Brunei.^[49]

The Total Defence Scheme involved guerilla warfare, strategic abandonment of villages, scorched earth tactics with denial of food and water, booby traps, destruction of bridges and exclusive information supplied to British authorities. McCall explicitly states to Chiefs to arm the bravest with guns and rifles and not directly confront enemies but to rely on knowledge of the terrain for effective ambush tactics. The Total Defence Scheme functioned on an asymetrical warfare doctrine as a result. McCall's scheme was made in mind that tribal people did not possess up-to-date arms, were not professionally trained in military affairs and lacked vital air support and reconnaissance in comparison with the Japanese.^[50] The Lushai tribesmen were trained by Australian military personnel, such as Colonel Percival Augustus Parsons, in guerilla warfare. The scheme was successful as the Japanese retreated from the borderlands of India in late 1944.^[51]

On 11 January 1894, the first missionaries entered the Lushai Hills, known as James H. Lorrain and Frederick W. Savidge. It took both missionaries five years to baptise their first two converts. The meagre gain from their efforts convinced Robert Arthington, the patron of the Arthington Aborigines Mission, to move to the next hill tribe. Before the departure of Lorrain and Savidge, D. E Jones, a missionary under the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist mission, joined them. Jones struggled with obtaining results from his efforts, and many of his converts would be expelled shortly after being received into communion. His later converts would also leave on their own volition in 1904-1905. In seven years, the 1901 census recorded 45 Christians amid a population of 82,000, and only five were baptized church members.^[19]

The traditional Mizo tribes possessed talent in Mizo handicraft in cotton weaving. While the Bengal Home Industries Association of Calcutta attempted to leverage this talent, no agreement was reached. The District Officer took the initiative in commercializing and educating Mizo labourers in cotton production skills as a safeguard against the failure of rice crops. A cottage industries Organisation was financed privately by the district officer and his wife, who was personally versed in textiles. The decision to privately finance the cotton industry in the Lushai Hills stemmed from the central government's reluctance to invest in a venture and a need to curb Christian revivalism growing in communities.^[52]

In the months of leisure in the jhumming cycle, labourers would spend time producing a rug made of unspun, white, tufted, local cotton.^[53] The Lushai Hills Cotton Industries began to train and upskill Mizo labourers into looming craftmanship which as a domino effect led to craftsmen spreading these teachings to other villagers. Quality control of rug productions would see only 20% of rugs marketable and profitable. As a measure, rejections carried a guarantee of full market price if a second replacement rug of high quality could be submitted.^[54]

The Imperial Tobacco Company assisted with the enterprise of cotton industries under the resident manager in India, R.G Baker who offered to accept first grade rugs as gifts in the coupon system of the company. This eased the trouble of marketability and exportation in the hilly and rugged terrain of the Lushai Hills. The saleability of rugs increased from 20% and began to compete with substandard rugs in the broader market. The product was now considered higher quality under hand spun cotton, tightly stuffed and bound by the woof.^[54]

Lushai craftsmen in cotton industries were being sent to Calcutta to Dr. Boege, a general manager of a trading company, for training in synthetic saying. The growing industry prompted Governor of Assam Robert Reid and his spouse to become patrons with the construction of the Reid House to provide offices, workspace, stock rooms, packing and dyes.^[55] This supplied dyes for free with a specially trained dyer. The interests and influence of the Reid house promoted second cash bows to villages, improved employability and social status of women, employed the disabled and crippled, revival of Lushai hand-looming culture, and encouragement of research into the usage of natural resources of the Lushai hills into fields such as medicine, metalworking etc.^[56] Issues in the cotton industries were resolved with well off and influential individuals such as Chhuakhama, Pachhunga and Thanga who negotiated agreements with the Imperial Tobacco Company at their personal expense.^[57]

• McCall, Anthony Gilchrist (1949). Lushai Chrysalis. London: Luzac.