By H H Mohrmen
A mere disturbance which turns to a fight for Independence would be the best title of the entire study of the Jañtia rebellion led by u Kiang Nangbah. Like a fire which started from a single spark, the rising in a petty eleka by few tribal was what the British considered the Jañtia rebellion to be when it initially started. In the beginning the Jañtia rebellion as it is commonly called was not taken seriously by the British government, till it became well organized and gained support from every nook and corner of the hill areas and went beyond the government’s control. The British underestimated the uprising and thought it was restricted to people of only one eleka. And they were not wrong in their assumption either because even the Daloi of eleka Jowai was not against the government.
The British miscalculated the general feelings of the people of the entire hills portion of erstwhile Jañtia kingdom towards the highhandedness of the government’s officers and the domination of a foreign power over their land. The British had treacherously captured Jañtiapur on March 16, 1835 and this created ill-feelings against the foreign rulers among the hills people. The feeling of being subjugated by a foreign power is what compelled the people to join in the fight despite the internal politics among the elekas and their animosity against each other. The officers of the government also failed to judge the feelings, of the people of the hills portion of Jañtia kingdom and did not anticipate that their anger against the empire would be able to unite the people of the elekas of the erstwhile kingdom under one banner.
The British officer did not anticipate that an upheaval of a small tribal group could create so much trouble for the British Empire. Captain BWD Murton Deputy Commissioner of the Cossayah and Jynteah Hills, in his letter to Major J.C. Houghton, officiating Agent of Governor General, North East frontier in his letter No. 278, dated Cheerapoonjee, the 28th August 1862 stated that the rebels have no general grievance, such as would in any way justify or account for rebellion of some dozen of inhabitants of which in ordinary circumstances had nothing in common, but were also at feud with each other.
There is no denying the fact that after the British had conquered the Jañtia kingdom and kept the king and royal family under pension, the internal differences among the communities which by now had organized themselves from Raids in one village to elekas (which comprises of several village headed by their respective Dalois) were in constant conflict with each other. In fact the region abounds with folk stories where elekas were in hostility and were in constant feud with one another especially after the fall of the Jañtia kingdom. During the glorious reign of the Jañtia kingdom, the elekas were under one sovereign dominion and they respected their king so there were no stories of hostility amongst them.
Capt Murton however admitted that the only grievance which can be considered as one is the solitary instance of Police interference with religious ceremony at Jallong Illakah (eleka Ïalong) which is also established by oral narrative. Captain Murton was referring to the instance when the police on being informed that the people of the raid Ïalong were going to perform their annual ‘Pastieh Kaiksoo’ went to the spot and intervened in the ceremony. The British were under the wrong impression that the pastieh which included men donning warrior attire with their swords and shields and performing warrior dances, were preparing a rebellion against the government. Government officials not only stopped the ceremony but also confiscated all the swords and shields that the people used in the warrior dance. The local tribal people consider this to be a direct interference in their religious beliefs which amounted to sacrilege. Unfortunately ever since the act of sacrilege was committed by the British soldiers the people of raid Ïalong had not been able to revive the traditional warrior dance of the people in the area. The interference sounded the death knell on the tradition.
That the ceremony was performed away from the village on the bank of the river Myntdu adjacent to where part of the river called Kaiksoo is located was perhaps performed by the Dhar clan of Ïalong because ‘ka Kaiksoo’ is the clan’s deity. Perhaps the location where the dance was performed being a forest also convinced the British that the rebels were preparing their guerilla warfare against the government. The area is surrounded by at least four sacred groves, the Ïalong sacred forest, the Tuber sacred forest at Chohchrieh village, the Chyrmang sacred forest and the Khapïaba sacred forest near Ïongnoh village.
In his communiqué Murton was also convinced that mere interference with religious ceremony in Jallong will not account for a rebellion in Raliong (Raliang) district. The officials have rightly calculated that the sheer distance of Ïalong from Raliang will make it impossible for the two to join forces in fighting the British. The leader of the two elekas Raliang and Jowai and Ïalong were part of the eleka Jowai and were also always feuding against each other. The British assumption was the Daloi Raliang will not have any in inclination to fight alongside the Daloi of Jowai even if it was against a common enemy.
It is an obvious fact that religion played a very crucial role in convincing the Pnar and the War to fight against the foreign dominion which later becomes the fight for independence of the Hills people of the Jañtia kingdom from the British raj. The interference of the British official in the religious activity of the people compelled them to unite and made other elekas join in the fight against the oppressors.
Capt. BWD Murton is also of the opinion that he cannot term a complaint against taxation a grievance as the governments were perfectly at liberty to impose what taxes they pleased on their own subjects. The Capt was right is his assessment and moreover according to oral narratives, it was only the Daloi of eleka Jowai who had started collecting the house tax imposed by the British government on his people. The government initiated the collection of house tax from Jwai perhaps because it is the seat of the elaka and was also the place where the only police station was located. As it turned out, it was a major blunder that the Capt committed because levying taxes on tribals who believe that land belongs to them is a wrong move.
Land is an integral part of tribal life and culture and their lives revolve around the land which they believe is God given. Nature is also the dwelling place of the nature gods ‘ki ryngkaw ki basa’ and they believe they have complete ownership over the land and no power can take that away from them. Besides paying tax is an alien idea and compelling them to pay tax on their own house was an absurd idea they could not accept.
In his letter to the Officiating Commissioner of Assam, dated Jowai, the 30th of September 1862 BWD Murton DC of Cossyah and Jynteeah hills informed that no chiefs of sufficient influence had as yet delivered themselves up. In his journal BWD Murton informed that at Jowai he met the Dolloye (Dalloi) of Shillong Muntang (Shilliang Myntang) and Jowai and when asked about the rebellion, the former feigned ignorance about the rebellion while the latter casually stated that it could be because of the Police interference with the religious ceremony at Jallong. What this journal entry by Murton tells us is about the power and influence of the rebellion. The rebellion had so much influence that even the two Dalois who are with the government feigned ignorance and refused to talk about the proposed rebellion to the government perhaps out of fear of being punished by the rebels.
True to the guerilla tactics that they employed, the leader of the rebellion remained elusive and the government has not been able to even indentify this e leader for a very long time. As a matter of fact according to oral stories the rebels from the beginning had arrived at a consensus and elected u Kiang Nangbah as their leader, but the government intelligence failed to identify the leader of the uprising till the end of September 1862.
End notes: I must thank Tarun Bharitya who is married to ‘ka pyrsa ka ksu’ the grand niece of U Kiang Nangbah for having the confidence to share with me the documents pertaining to the Jañtia rebellion which helped me in this important work of recreating the history of the rebellion.
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