Civilisation and its malcontents

Jangkhomang Guite
Additional contact information
Jangkhomang Guite: Department of History, Assam University Silchar, Assam

The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 2011, vol. 48, issue 3, 339-376

Abstract: This article examines the colonial representation of Kuki raids in nineteenth century Northeastern India as, at best, ‘lawlessness’ and, at worst, ‘predatory habits of the savage hill tribes’ whose ‘natural love of plunder’ took of it as an ‘amusement’ for procuring human heads or captives for sacrificial purposes. From the hill perspective, it argues that raiding was mainly made to procure human labour forces, and was an expression of hill politics. Essentially, it was a function of newly emerging notions of kingship and authority. Since the early nineteenth century Kuki country witnessed the emergence of some powerful rajahs. The ensuing warfare, death, subjugation and displacement changed the political and demographic landscape of the hills. The new regimes depended mostly on coerced labour power, which now transformed into wealth, not only to construct, enforce and sustain its authority but also to overcome the constraints generated by the non-state practices. The scarcity of labour power in the hills induced them to acquire it from the plains or other hostile tribes through the in-strument of raid.

Keywords: Chin Hills; Lushai Hills; Kukis; Lusheis; Chins; raid; firearms; slavery; labour; colonial state; chieftainship; state’evading population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946461104800302 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indeco:v:48:y:2011:i:3:p:339-376

DOI: 10.1177/001946461104800302

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Indian Economic & Social History Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().