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ABSTRACT
In the absence of pre-colonial written records, reconstruction of the history and identity of indigenous tribes has to depend on oral stories and the documentation of the ‘other’, while the former is subject to distortion, the latter is often glossed with vested interest. Taking the case of the indigenous tribes of the India-Burma-Bangladesh borderlands, this paper probes the representation of the Zo (Kuki-Chin) people in colonial ethnography, on one hand, and to what extent colonial knowledge was informed by ‘investigative’ or ‘survey modality’, which, in fact, was solely for administrative purpose, on the other. It argues that indigenous tribes of the India-Burma-Bangladesh borderlands were represented as completely fragmented in colonial ethnography, however, behind the colonial policy of classification one can still unearth the ethnic commonality of the various tribes when they are seen through the lens of cultural similarity or as a ‘culture area.’
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Dirks, Castes of Mind, 9.
2. Cohn, Colonialism, ix.
3. Ibid., 5.
4. Ibid., 7.
5. See Piang, “Contestation of Etic Categorisations.”
6. Lowis, The Tribes of Burma, 1.
7. Ibid., 2.
8. Phayre, History of Burma, 5.
9. Hodgson, “On the Indo-Chinese Borderers,” 3.
10. Phayre, History of Burma, 6–7.
11. Webb, Census of Burma, 252.
12. Enriquez, A Burmese Arcady, 8.
13. Harvey, “The Writing,” 1.
14. Harvey, History of Burma, 3.
15. Harvey, “The Story of Migration,” 1.
16. Enriquez, A Burmese Arcady, 80.
17. Lowis, The Tribes of Burma, 7.
18. Ibid., 7–8.
19. Ibid., 81.
20. Trant, “Notice of the Khyen Tribes,’ 262–263.
21. See, Phayre, “Account of Arakan.”
22. See, Phayre, History of Burma.
23. Phayre, “Account of Arakan,” 684.
24. Forchhammer, The Jardine Prize, 8.
25. Ibid., 9.
26. Luce, Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma, 80.
27. Harvey, History of Burma, 3–4.
28. Aung, A History of Burma, 3.
29. Stevenson, The Hill Peoples, 1.
30. Stardgart, “Burma’s Economic,” 41–43.
31. Harvey, History of Burma, 21.
32. Lehman, The Structure of Chin Society, 11–12.
33. See Cho, The Manshu.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid., see “Introduction.”
36. Ibid., 90.
37. Ibid., 92.
38. Luce, Phases of Pre-Pagan Burma, 78.
39. Ibid., 79.
40. Ibid., 47.
41. Ibid.
42. Luce, “Geography of Burma,” 34.
43. Ibid.
44. See above 26., 80.
45. Luce, “Geography of Burma,” 87–88.
46. Ibid., 89.
47. Khai, Zo People, 8.
48. Aung-Thwin, The Nature of State, 15.
49. Luce, “Notes of the People,” 60.
50. Sangermano, Burmese Empire, xxxviii.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid., 42.
53. Ibid., 43.
54. Symes, An Account of an Embassy, 255.
55. Ibid.
56. Ro, Naming a People, 101.
57. Buchanan, “On the Religion,” 197.
58. Ro, Naming a People, 99.
59. Ibid., 100–2.
60. See note 54 above 54.
61. Hall, History of Southeast Asia, 589–594.
62. Cox, Journal of the Residence, 419.
63. Cited in Hau, Profile, 301.
64. Malcolm, Travels in South-Eastern Asia, v.
65. Trant, “Notice of the Khyen,” 261.
66. NAI FSC, 16 September 1831, No.35; and “Henry Burney’s report.”
67. See note 23 above.
68. Latter, “A Note on some Hill Tribes,” 60.
69. Stilson, “Notes on Arakan,” 224, 229.
70. Malcolm, Travels in South-Eastern Asia, 147–148.
71. Stilson, “Notes on Arakan,” 229.
72. Hodgson, “On the Indo-Chinese Borderers,” 14.
73. Ibid., 15.
74. Lewin, A Fly on the Wheel, 159.
75. Report on the Progress made in the Arakan Division 1826-1869, 16.
76. St Andrew, “A Short Account,” 234.
77. See, Carey and Tuck, The Chin Hills.
78. Phayre, “Account of Arakan,” 689.
79. Rawlins, “On the manners,” 193.
80. Hutchinson, Chittagong Hill Tracts, 8.
81. Van Schendel, Francis Buchanan, 94–5. Also see by the same author, ‘The Invention of the “Jummas”.’
82. Hamilton and Charney, “An Account of the Frontier,” 11–12, 17.
83. Macrae, “Account of the Kookies,” 184–185.
84. Phayre, “Account of Arakan,” 703.
85. Hutchinson, Chittagong Hill Tracts, 45.
86. Ibid., 15ff.
87. Mills, “Notes on the Peoples,” 520.
88. Bernot, Ethnic Groups, 157.
89. Hodgson, “On the Indo-Chinese Borderers,” 17.
90. Phayre, “Account of Arakan,” 707.
91. Hutchinson, Chittagong Hill Tracts, 38–39.
92. Bernot, Ethnic Groups, 167.
93. Ibid., 161.
94. Lewin, Wild Races, 125.
95. See Bernot, Ethnic Groups; and Hutchinson, Chittagong Hill Tracts.
96. Reibeck, The Chittagong Hill-Tribes, 3.
97. Mackenzie, The North-East Frontier, 270.
98. Ibid., 272.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid., 275.
101. Ibid., 278.
102. Ibid., 277–278.
103. Bhuyan, Anglo-Assamese Relations, 579.
104. Ro, Naming a People, 148.
105. Yule, Narrative of the Mission, 264.
106. Pemberton, Eastern Frontier, 2.
107. Ibid., 14, 17.
108. Ibid., 197.
109. Ro, Naming a People, 159–160.
110. Mackenzie, The North-East frontier, 287.
111. Barpujari, Francis Jenkins, 145–160.
112. NAI, FPC, Nos. 87-88, 1832; and “Report by Captain Jenkins.”
113. Ro, Naming a People, 173–174.
114. See McCulloch, Valley of Munnipure.
115. Pau, “The Sukte paramountcy,” 128–147.
116. Nisbet, Burma Under British Rule, 430.
117. See Green, “A Note on the Indigenous Races of Burma.”
118. Piang, “Contestation of Etic Categorisations,” 15.
119. Suan, “Rethinking ‘tribe’ identity,” 163.
120. See Pau, “Administrative Rivalry.”
121. See Blackburn, “Oral Stories and Culture Areas.”
122. See van Schendel, “Geographies of knowing.”
123. Scott, The Art of not Being Governed.
124. See Grierson, Linguistics Survey. Also see DeLancey, “The History of Postverbal agreement in Kuki-Chin”; VanBik, “Proto-Kuki-Chin;” Henderson, Tiddim Chin; Mortensen, “Kuki-Chin Phonology”; Thang, “A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Chin”; Haokip, “The Languages of Manipur”; and Cing, A Descriptive Grammar.
125. For further discussion of this issue, see Pau “Transborder People.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Pum Khan Pau
Pum Khan Pau is Associate Professor, Department of History, Manipur University. His research interest is in frontier and borderland studies. He is the author of Indo-Burma Frontier and the Making of the Chin Hills: Empire and Resistance (Routledge, 2020). He has also published in several international and national journals.
Thang Sian Mung
Thang Sian Mung completed PhD from the Department of Sociology, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His research interest is in ethnicity, tribes, and ethnography.