HILL ADMINISTRATION DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 1902-1947

HILL ADMINISTRATION DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD 1902-1947

Lal Dena

Wherever British colonial rule was established, colonial authorities inevitably employed two systems of control to sustain their power: direct and indirect rule. Under the system of direct rule, the colonial rulers annexed a particular state or country and ruled over it by introducing new administrative structure with its usual judicial paraphernalia. Whereas under the system of indirect rule, the colonial rulers guaranteed the quasi-independence status of native rule through the legitimization of its traditional polity. The system which underlined the colonial administration in the hill areas of Manipur was a formal recognition of tribal chiefs and their village-based councils. Realising their importance, the colonial officials preferred to rule the people through their chiefs who became a link and a very important link between them  and the people. The fact that the chiefs were recognized and their authority upheld by the colonial officials tended to render the latter negligent of the need to worry much about the support of the people.

The corner-stone of British policy was based on the well-known dictum of divide-et-impera and the hill administration was separated from the general administration of the state. Even in the reconstituted darbur, a British officer was nominated as president with a full charge over the hill administration. The scheme for the administration of the hill areas which was introduced in 1902 by the governor-general-in- council was continued. Surprisingly, the scheme dealt only with the problem of justice. The president of the darbur tried all criminal cases in which a member of the hill tribe was involved. The higher court of appeal lay with the political agent.

The main concern of the colonial officials was to collect hill house-tax of Rs.3 per homestead. The chiefs and their councillors were authorized to collect the tax annually. Of the rupees three, the chiefs got three annas as commission, the maharaja got rupee one and thirteen annas; and the British rupee one. It was also through the chiefs and their councilors that the pothang system which was abolished in the valley since 1904, was vigorously enforced in the hill areas. The pothang system was of two kinds: pothang bekari and pothang senkhai. Under pothang bekari, the hill people were under obligation to carry goods, luggages and rations for touring officials and to build new bungalows for them, if necessary. Sometimes the white officials were even carried in a kind of bamboo palanquin by the people. It is said that when William Pettigrew, the first missionary , toured Tipaimukh area, he was also carried by the people of the area. For all these demeaning services, the people got nothing in return. Under the system of pothang senkhai, each household was forced to make contribution either in cash or in kind- mostly chicken, egg, etc.to feed the touring officials. If for any reason, a villager refused to render the pothang services, he faced severe punishment, mostly whipping or caning. It was through this system that the productive labour of the innocent people was exploited to the maximum during the first and the second world wars.

One significant development of the colonial administration was the emergence of new petty officials called lambus who were something like peon and whose main duty was to carry out the orders of government to the people. Altogether there were about 42 lambus and below them there were again a number of lam-subedars. The whole hill territory was divided into five sardars. Each sardar was looked after by a number oflambus and lam-subedars who investigated all cases within their respective sardars. At the beginning, the lambus did not get any salary. Therefore whenever they toured hill areas they would not open their mouth until and unless a jar of rice-beer and a feast of pork or chicken were placed before them. At times they overruled the decisions of chiefs on some cases thereby gradually encroaching upon the chief’s authority.

The lambus took undue advantage of their close contact with the high officials who, in their turn, depended more and more upon the former for information and advice. Initially, they also acted as interpreters but later on performed many multifarious functions. In this connection, Robert Reid, governor of Assam, had to comment thus:”Between the hillmen and the British officers there intervened a most unsatisfactory intermediary in the shape of the petty Manipur officers termed lambus”.Under the existing system, there was little or no scope for development of personal relations between the rulers and the ruled.Thus the only officials with whom the people came into contact were the arrogant lambus and lam-subedars. The officials themselves admitted this lacunae in their day-to-day dealings with the people.Robert Reid was of the view that these lambus were responsible in no small measure for the Kuki rebellion of 1917-1920.

Realising the ineffectiveness of their control over the hill tribes, the colonial officials decided to reorganize the hill administration. W.A.Cosgrave, political agent, proposed that the whole administration of the hill territory should be handed over to the exclusive control of the political agent. The chief commissioner of Assam, however, preferred to place the administration under the personal government of the maharaja who, of course, was to be guided by the advice of the political agent. In his letter to the viceroy, 19 April,1919, the chief commissioner wrote thus:”We must establish British sub-divisional officers at suitable places in the hills. These men working under the president (MSD) would reside in the areas all the year round, open up roads, administer simple justice, set up schools and hospitals, and gradually act as fathers to the hillmen and restore their confidence in the British raj”.

The proposal was accepted and under the new scheme of administration, three sub-divisions were opened. Each sub-division was placed under the charge of an European officer who was responsible only to the president and the political agent. The southwest area with headquarters at Churachandpur ( named after Maharaja Churachand Singh’s name) was under B.C.Gasper’s charge; the northwest area with headquaters at Tamenglong under William Shaw; and the northeast area with headquaters at Ukhrul under L.L.Peter. However, a large area in the north and in the southeast areas continued to be administered from Imphal by the president of the darbur. Under the new rules, the president had powers equivalent to those of a district magistrate; and the sub-divisional officers had power equivalent to those of sub-divisional magistrates who were also magistrate of first class under the Indian criminal procedure code, 1898. Appeals in civil and criminal cases against  the order of an S.D.O., when admissible, lay with the president; and appeals against the order of the president in criminal cases lay with the political agent. So far as the civil cases were concerned, the president’s order was unquestionable.   

This administrative arrangement continued till 1935 when the earlier sub-divisions were slightly modified by adding Sadar sub-division in place of Churachandpur which was amalgamated with the Tamenglong sub-division. When the issue of federation was being discussed in relation to Manipur after the passing of the government of India act of 1935, Maharaja Churachand Singh expressed his consent in a letter on 21 July,1939 to federate on the terms which covered the exclusion of the hill areas from his direct control. On the whole, almost all the eastern hill regions of Northeast India were placed under the so-called excluded areas.

From what has been indicated above, it may be said that the hill administration all through the colonial period did not form an integral part of the general administration of the state. The sub-divisional officers were responsible to the president of the durbar  and the political agent personally and directly. The maharaja and his darbur had no any link with the hill administration whatsoever.The president who was already overburdened with the durbar works and general administration could not give due attention to the problems and needs of the hill people. On many vital and important issues, the president did things in secret connivance with the political agent. Only when British paramountcy lapsed in 1947, the administration of the hill areas reverted back to the maharaja.  

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