Unsung heroes of Northeast India

It is heartening to note that the Arunachal Pradesh government has constituted a committee to carry out research on the contribution of those who had taken part in the various anti-colonial resistance movements and struggles in the state. Though there was no organised freedom movement in the hills which today constitute Arunachal Pradesh, it is a fact that several communities as well as individuals had fought tooth and nail to protect their land from occupation by the British. Chief Minister Pema Khandu had recently pointed out that as many as six 'wars' were fought by the tribal people of the state against the British invasions and so-called 'expeditions' into the hills. These include the Anglo-Khamti war of 1839, the Anglo-Abor wars of 1858, 1859, 1893-94 and 1911-12, and the Anglo-Wancho war of 1875. While a few individual names – like Matmur Jamoh, Ranuwa Gohain, Taji Mideren and Moje Riba – are remembered for their heroic role and sacrifice, hundreds of others who had laid down their lives fighting an unequal war with traditional weapons against rifles and firearms of the colonial forces have remained unidentified. This is not the case with Arunachal Pradesh alone, but the story applies to all the hill states. Hundreds of Nagas had sacrificed their lives fighting the British, as did a large number of Mizos and Manipuris. The anti-colonial struggles in Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur are by and large documented, though not completely. This is the time when the country has started celebrating the 75th anniversary of freedom – 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' – that all such battles and wars and all individual stories of leadership, sacrifices and martyrdom are systematically researched and documented for posterity. The heroic resistance of the Nagas, Mizos, Mishmis, Garos, Khasis, Abors, Singphos, Kukis and Khamptis against British colonial invasion of the Northeast is no less than what the Punjabis, Bengalis, Marathis and Odiyas had done. What Ranuwa Gohain had done by killing Colonel Adam White in Sadiya in 1839, or what Tirot Singh and Thangal General had done in 1891 by killing five top British officers including the Chief Commissioner of Assam, are definitely no less what Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Shivram Rajguru had done in Lahore in 1928.