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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL NAMING A PEOPLE: BRITISH FRONTIER MANAGEMENT IN EASTERN BENGAL AND THE ETHNIC CATEGORIES OF THE KUKI-CHIN: 1760-1860 being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by SOONG CHUL RO, MA.(Hull) MAY 2007 CONTENTS Page LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS ...................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ............................................................................... vi PREFACE ................................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... viii ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... ix GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 1. The Ethnic Categories of the Kuki-Chin People ......................................... 1 2. The History of the Kuki-Chin People in the Nineteenth Century ............ 19 3. Scope and Structure of the Thesis ............................................................. 31 CHAPTER 2 THE BEGINNING OF THE BRITISH INVOLVEMENT IN THE KUKI-CHIN FRONTIER AREA: 1760s-1780s ..................... 35 1. Pre-Colonial Polities on the Kuki-Chin Frontier ....................................... 35 2. The Advent of the British ............................................................................ 57 CHAPTER 3 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND EARLY SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES: 1780s-1820s ............................................................ 76 1. Administrative Reforms and Information on the Kuki-Chin ...................... 76 2. Scholarly Activities of Early Administrators on the Kuki-Chin ................ 86 iii Page CHAPTER 4 THE FIRST ANGLO-BURMESE WAR AND THE CHANGING FRONTIER: 1824-1833 .......................................... 130 1. The First Anglo-Burmese War ................................................................. 130 2. Surveys and the British Knowledge of the Kuki-Chin ............................ 146 CHAPTER 5 Beginning of the Frontier Administration: the 1830s ................... 179 1. Arrangements for the Newly Acquired Territories ................................. 179 2. The Boundaries of the Frontier ................................................................ 200 CHAPTER 6 EXPEDITIONS INTO THE HILLS: the 1840s ........................... 208 1. Expeditions into the Hills .......................................................................... 208 2. British Knowledge of the Kuki-Chin People ............................................ 242 CHAPTER 7 THE LAST DECADE OF THE COMPANY: the1850s .............. 259 1. Rapprochements with the Kuki-Chin People ........................................... 259 2. Ethnic Categories of the Kuki-Chin People ............................................. 295 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 321 1. British Management of the Kuki-Chin Frontier ....................................... 321 2. Administration and Ethnographic Knowledge .......................................... 328 3. Categorisation of the Kuki-Chin People .................................................. 330 Appendix A „Vocables‟ of the Kuki-Chin collected by Buchanan .............................. 338 Appendix B Genealogical Table of the Turanian Family of Language. – Southern Division, F. M. Müller. ........................................................................... 340 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 342 iv LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS Page Map 1. Current Area Inhabited by the Kuki-Chin People .............................................. xiii Map 2. British Territorial Possessions around the Kuki-Chin Land (1765-1860) ......... xiv Map 3. Northern Kuki-Chin Frontier Area ..................................................................... xv Map 4. Southern Kuki-Chin Frontier Area .................................................................... xvi Map 5. Part of Map of Hindoostan by J. Rennell 1782 .................................................. 72 Map 6, Part of Map of the Burmese Empire, by L. Herbert (1825) .............................. 106 Map 7. Part of Map of the Eastern Frontier of British India with the Adjacent Countries, by R. B. Pemberton (1838) ............................................................. 161 Map 8. Part of the New Map of Burma, by H. Yule (1857)........................................... 301 ILLUSTRATIONS Page Illustration 1. Lebbey, the „Abéu‟ or Chief of the Bookee Clan of the Heumá or Shendu ......................................................................................................... 249 v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Page Table 1. Ethnic Categories in Buchanan‟s Journal of His Journey to Ava, 1795 .......... 100 Table 2. Ethnic Categories in Buchanan‟s Journal of South-Eastern Bengal ............... 110 Table 3. Language Groups of Burma According to Buchanan ..................................... 121 FIGURES Page Fig. 1. The Division of Chin Tribal Groups (from Lian Sakhong, Religion, 83) .............. 3 Fig. 2. The Line of Communication from Cachar to London in the 1830s ..................... 23 Fig. 3. The Poitoo Chiefs .............................................................................................. 212 Fig. 4. The Sailo Chiefs ................................................................................................. 221 vi PREFACE There are four countries where one can find British records regarding the Kuki- Chin people: Burma, India, Bangladesh and Britain. The documents used in this thesis are mainly from the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) in the British Library, London and the National Archives of India in New Delhi. I quote a document by the name of the author (sender), receiver, date of composition, and the title given in the letter, if applicable, rather than by the call numbers alone. This is the way in which official letters were written and quoted by the administrators during the colonial period and therefore the most definite way to identify a document even when copies of the same document appear in different places. For the same reason, I have used paragraph numbers, or dates in the case of diaries, rather than the page numbers when pointing to specific parts within documents. The details of the archives or published books in which the documents are found are included in brackets. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a lot to the Chin, Kuki and Mizo people who provided me with typical Kuki- Chin hospitality during my field research in Burma and India. Dr. Lian Sakhong, Rev. Lal Dangliana, Dr. S. Haokip, Ms. Arfina Haokip, and the Kuki Student Association of the Jawaharlal Nehru University helped me greatly in obtaining sources and other background information. It is a great pity that I cannot mention some of the names here due to the political situation in Burma. I also thank the staffs of the former Centre for South-East Asian Studies of the University of Hull. Many of them have provided help and advice beyond their duties even after their retirement or transfer. I especially thank Drs. Clive and Jan Christie, Dr. Fiona Kerlogue, Dr. Tim Huxley, Mr. Lewis Hill and Professor Victor King. I am also in debt to Dr. Mandy Sadan, who gave me the privilege to consult her unpublished Guide to the Sources in the Oriental and India Office Collections in the British Library and Mr. Alan Deighton who kindly corrected my English. Without their support this thesis would not have been completed. viii ABBREVIATIONS BL British Library F.C. Foreign Consultations (of Foreign Department Files in the National Archives of India) JASB Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal JBRS Journal of Burma Research Society KNO Kuki National Organisation Lt. Lieutenant MNF Mizo National Front NAI National Archives of India OIOC Oriental and India Office Collections (at the British Library). P.C. Political Consultations (of Foreign Department Files in the National Archives of India) ROB The Royal Orders of Burma S.C. Secret Consultations (of Foreign Department Files in the National Archives of India) ZORO Zo Re-unification Organisation ix GLOSSARY NOTE: The following terms are Anglo-Indian words unless specified. Ahmú-dàn: (Burmese) Specialised servicemen. They provided service to the crown on a fixed, rotational basis. In modern usage, it means someone in the service of an institutional authority or non-gazetted government employee. Athi: (Burmese) Free non-service taxpayers. Burkundazee: Mercenaries composed of freebooters or soldiers of the disbanded Mughal army, who carried their own weapons. They were usually hired under zemindars as private guards but British administrators also hired them in the early days in Bengal. Some of these were later organised under the military as „militia‟ or „sebundy‟(irregular) corps. Chuklah: A territorial subdivision under the Mughals. Chowkidar: A watchman. Chowky: An out-post. Dah: Dagger widely used in the