Knowledge, Perception and Control

Representations of “Tribes” in Colonial Northeastern India, 1870–1950

Abstract

The British colonial administration in India viewed the Northeast through a multitude of lenses. They coveted its abundant natural resources, hoped to use it to access lucrative commercial pastures further east, and felt impelled to bring the frontier region under its administrative influence. However, colonial efforts to control the area necessitated dominance over the apparently “stateless” and “primitive hill-tribes” who lived there. The presence of the Christian missionaries complicated the endeavor. This lengthy and arduous project produced substantial documentation in which the hill people were represented in diverse, often contradictory ways, leading to contestations over identity which persist to this day. How did the colonial administration view the “tribes”? Were these views uniformly held? How far did the depictions by the Christian missionaries align with the official views? This article attempts to locate some of the answers by interrogating different dimensions of the colonial archive—official publications, private memoirs of the officers, and missionary accounts. It will endeavor to unpack the multiple strands of colonial representations of the Northeastern indigenous communities in the hope that this may historicize and provide a richer understanding of the conflicts which continue to scar the region.