| caption: |
Relations with Tributary States and Frontier Affairs |
| caption: |
Borduria and Namsangia groups feuding |
| text: |
33. There are two main sections of Nagas bordering on the Lakhimpur district, namely the Borduarias and Namsangias. The power of the Borduaria Chief has been increasing of late years, while that of the Namsangia has been diminishing, and at the present time, the latter has fewer followers than his rival, who has been doing great execution among his people. Attacks are seldom made on villages, but ambuscades are laid for people as they go from one village to another or down to the plains, and it is a matter of indifference whether the victim is man, woman or child. During the past year, the Namsang Chief has retired from his old village in consequence of the harassment to which his people were subjected at the hands of his neighbours, and the present site of his residence is a place of greater security, being separated from Borduar by three ranges of hills. It is estimated that twenty-seven villages are subject to Namsang, comprising 1,230 houses, with a population of 6,150 souls. On the other hand, the Borduar Chief is lord over nineteen villages containing 1,865 houses and an estimated population of 9,325 souls. The present cause of quarrel between the Borduaria and Namsangia Chiefs is the payment made yearly to Namsang on account of a tea-garden which is situated on the border of the hills. The Borduarias claim half the amount, and they have never forgiven their neighbours for taking the whole sum. |
