Thread by @sheshapatangi1

All For A Cup Of TEA – Part 1.

THE NAGA’s – How British and The Christian Missionaries Led The Destruction of their Culture & Tradition.
" ... the tribes on the Assam frontier should be brought within the scope of missionary activities as early as possible as the influence of

persons skilled in the languages of these tribes, and devoting their time and attention to humanise these rude races could not fail of being useful to us and to them." Francis Jenkins, Chief Commissioner of Assam, 1824'

Bharath has been subjected to multiple invasions and

foreign rule leading to distortion of artifacts, heritage sites, literature and the overall history. The last of our subjugators — the British — left no stone unturned to ensure that we, as a country and as a civilization, are fed with lies and twisted narratives to an extent

that we’re addicted to it, that we reject any other shape and form of truth and continue to nourish their lies, making us slaves to their follies even after they physically left the territory; they wrote and portrayed whatever shallow understanding they had of India.

From the 1830s onwards, ever since the British discovered the commercial value of tea in the world market, they began to grabbing the land, especially in the foothills, and establishing tea plantations.
The lands that were grabbed were, however, not some 'waste' lands as the

colonial state considered them to be, but belonged to the Singphos & the Nagas, and quite naturally, they resisted the encroachers.
Further south of Assam, in order to avert further Burmese invasions & to acquire economic and political control over the regions bordering Burma,

the British were keen to open direct communication lines between Assam and Manipur, the kingdom lying in between Cachar and Burma.
However, this could be effectively done only by making incursions into the Naga Hills. All these military incursions, arbitrary dividing the hills

by the British quite naturally created much resentment among the Nagas, especially the Angami Nagas who lived around the regions where incursions were made. They intensified their armed resistance and sabotaged all efforts of the British to attain any foothold in the Hills.

From the 1830s to 1850, the British conducted no less than ten military expeditions into the Naga areas to pacify and subjugate the Nagas, but each time they came to be dispelled.

In the face of such resistance, the British officials in the region realized that it was

difficult to subdue and pacify the Nagas solely through military means.
Thus, alongside military incursions, it was essential that efforts be made to 'humanize' + 'civilize' these 'savage races' so that they become 'disciplined' and 'obedient' subjects of the colonial empire.

Thus, with the help of Charles Trevelyan, an evangelical, Jenkins extended an invitation to the Baptist Missionary Society.

BB Kumar in “Landmarks in Indian Anthropology” revealed the methodical approach of Britishers to de-culturalise the Naga's and wrote,

“the British tried to make the Nagas Insular and the process was completed by the introduction of Inner Line Regulations In 1873 which prevented the entry of people from the plains to the Naga Hills while making exceptions to European speculators and foreign missionaries".

It was these schemes of colonisers that severed the century-old socio-political, economic and marital ties between the hill tribes and the plainsmen that were extensively mentioned in the Ahom Burangies. They first formulated isolation that resulted in separation and then

finally cultivated a separatist form of ethnonationalism that eventually caused one of the most prolonged conflicts in India post-Independence, the Naga conflict.

PART 2 will arrive soon.

#VANDEMATARAM