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Nagas on the Sibsagar frontier |
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Relations with Tributary States and Foreign Affairs |
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No attacks were made by Nagas on British subjects in the Sibsagar district, and few intertribal raids and feuds were reported among the Nagas themselves. Unfortunately, those villages whose conduct has been most turbulent are precisely those visited by Colonel Clarke in the previous year. Thus, the Noagaon village Merankang persists in considering the question as to fishery rights in the Tiru river to be still open, and during last cold weather they raided on the Christian village of Deka Haimang. They also made a cowardly and treacherous attack on some men of Deka Haimang, just beyond the Inner Line close to the Amguri tea-garden in which they beheaded one man and seriously wounded another. |
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This same village of Noagaon has a feud of old standing with Burhalangi, which led to a fight with men of Assangma, allies of the latter, and of the Christian villages of Deka Haimong and Malangting. There has also been fighting between the village of Tungsa on the one side and Jaktung, Tablung, and Nangta on the other. Tangsa is divided into two factions, and in a fight between these a "Raja", a nominee and ally of Tablung, was killed and his party ejected. A party of armed men from Tablung and the two villages allied to it went to Tangsa to enquire into the matter, and were repulsed with loss. |
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During the rains of 1885, the mauzadar of Obhoypur reported that 35 Nagas of Banfera had been treacherously murdered by men of Jaboka. |
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These villages have been at feud for many years, and were fined only last year for breaking the peace beyond the border. The Mulung Nagas complained that they had been attacked, and some of their number killed by men of Tanugaon, an Abor village situated in the further hills. The Bordubia Nagas complained that two men and two women of their village had been waylaid and slaughtered by men of Langsa. The complaint was investigated by the sub-divisional officer of Wokha by order of the Deputy-Commissioner of the Naga Hills, and was found to be exaggerated, if not entirely false. Such complaints seem to be common on the part of those who are worsted in a fray, and must always be regarded with a prudent scepticism. |
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The men of Langmisa, charged with the murder of a Naga of Mapang Zoket, refused to obey the summonses of the Deputy-Commissioner of Sibsagar. Cases of offences committed by Nagas in the plains were fewer. The theft of a buffalo was traced to the villagers of Kaugam. The headmen were ordered to pay a fine of Rs.60, and on non-compliance with the order, two of the villagers were arrested and detained. The fine has since been paid. A Naga caught in the act of stealing a cow from the Amguri tea-garden was whipped. A runaway slave from the village of Susu was forcibly recaptured within the Inner Line. He has been recovered by the Deputy-Commissioner of the Naga Hills since the close of the year, and his captor has been sent down to Sibsagar for trial. Several thefts of cattle, chiefly in the Jorhat sub-division, were attributed to Nagas. With these exceptions, the crowds of Nagas visiting the plains behaved well and crimes of violence are almost unknown. A party of Nagas armed with daos allowed themselves to be assaulted by Assamese Musulmans, and contented themselves with lodging a complaint of assault, conduct which shows that they are aware of the necessity for peaceable behaviour on this side of the Inner Line. The import of cotton and the number of Nagas employed in tea-gardens were smaller than usual. |
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The Deputy-Commissioner received deputations from the villages of Merenkang, Burhalangi, Langhu, Burha Haimang, Asangma, Urumang, Molathopia, Lungjan, Selaju, Deka Haimang, Banfera, Tangsu, Bardubia, Kansing, Changnoi (the parent village of Jaboka, and one of the most powerful in the hills), Malang, Jaboka, and Langsang. |
