The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

published - extracts on Nagas from 'Assam Administration Report'

caption: Naga Hills District
caption: Relations with Tributary States and Foreign Affairs
caption: Arms Act
medium: reports
location: Zhakhama (Jakhama)
production:
date: 1891
production:
date: 1892
text: 31. The following statement shows the arms statistics for the year:
text: _Angami________Lhota_________Kacha________Kuki_____Mikirs,Kacharis
____________________________________________________and_plainsmen
-----------------------------------------------------------------
New_Renewed___New_Renewed___New_Renewed__New_Renewed__New_Renew'd
-----------------------------------------------------------------
_75___247_______7____19______24___38______41___95______91___245
-----------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________New____Renewed
________________Total:____238______644
__________Grand_Total:________882
text: _Total_licenses_issued__...___...___...___...___882
Licenses_unissued______...___...___...___...____43
______________________________________________----
Total_number_of_licenses..___...___...___...___925
______________________________________________----
text: Of the 687 licenses issued in 1890, 644 were renewed during the year, leaving a total of 43 unrenewed. Every effort was made to get all licenses renewed during the year, with the results above noted. It is extremely difficult to drive into the heads of Nagas the idea that their licenses must be renewed every year, and during 1891 there were many difficulties, the chief being the Manipur disturbances and the consequent almost exclusive employment of the district staff on the work of hunting up coolies. The number of new licenses issued during the year was 238. Of these, 91 were issued in the plains mauzas of the district, where an increase of guns is rather a cause for congratulation than otherwise, as it enables the people of those parts to make some head against the wild animals. Of the 71 new licenses issued to Angamis, some were given to people living in the political control area who had not been previously called upon to take out licenses, and some were for guns given to men for good services rendered in bringing in unlicensed guns or for work done at the time of the Manipur expedition. The 24 Kacha Naga and 41 Kuki new licenses represent guns previously in existence in the district but for which no licenses had before been issued.
text: The Arms Act was energetically enforced throughout the year, there being 48 cases in which 48 persons were punished, fines being inflicted to the amount of Rs.825. A large number of Manipuri muskets were imported into the district by troops and followers returning from Manipur, and sold to Nagas in this district, principally to the villages between Kohima and Mao. Thence they were, in many instances, resold to our villages across the Sijju and villages in the political control area. A good many were confiscated during the year; in one village alone, Jakhama, eleven guns were discovered, but as their owners cannot easily obtain ammunition for them, the fact of their existence is not a cause for apprehension.
text: As in previous years, ammunition could not be purchased nearer than at Golaghat under the orders of the Deputy Commissioner endorsed on the pass.
text: Three rifles were stolen from the 42nd Gurkha Rifles during the year. From the circumstances under which these rifles disappeared, it is almost certain that the men of the regiment itself must have been concerned in the thefts. No clue was obtained as to the whereabouts of these rifles.
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