Small wars as ‘savage warfare’: rethinking colonial counterinsurgency operations in Northeast India and Northwest Burma (1826–1919)

ABSTRACT

The paper probes colonial counterinsurgency operations in Northeast India and Northwest Burma from the First Anglo-Burmese War (1825–26) to the end of the First World War. While the nature and objective of insurgency movements differ from raid to resistance and then to a full-scale war or gal against the colonial ruler, colonial counterinsurgency operations also employed different strategies and tactics. The paper argues that in its desperate attempt to bring the opponents to submission, colonial rulers turned what they initially considered as ‘petty warfare’ into ‘savage warfare’, beyond the framework of the principles and practice of ‘small wars’.

KEYWORDS:

• Small wars
• Indo-Burma frontier
• insurgency
• Chin
• Kuki
• Naga

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Peter Lorge for inviting me to contribute this piece.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Cassidy, Counterinsurgency, 2.

2. Ibid.

3. See, Callwell, Small Wars.

4. The term ‘petty warfare’ has been borrowed from colonial officer William Agnew of Goalpara, who used to refer to the encounters between hill tribes and the levies/militia in that area during the nineteenth century. Cited in Hussain, “Frontier Defence,” 207.

5. Strachan (ed.) Clausewitz, 1.

6. Hahlweg, “Clausewitz and Guerrilla Warfare,” 131.

7. See, Creveld, The Transformation.

8. See, Luttwak, “Towards Post-Heroic Warfare.”

9. See, Metz, “A Wake for Clausewitz.”

10. See, Kaldor, New and Old Wars.

11. Daase, “Clausewitz and Small Wars,” 182.

12. Strachan (ed.), Clausewitz, 1.

13. Clausewitz, On War, 186.

14. Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare, 1.

15. Ibid., 2.

16. Ibid., 3.

17. Ibid., 87.

18. Beckett, “The Study of Counter-Insurgency,” 47.

19. See note 3 above.

20. Moreman, “Small wars,” 110.

21. Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 592.

22. Ibid.

23. Small Wars Manual, 1.

24. Callwell, Small Wars, 20.

25. Ibid., 30.

26. Wagner, “Savage Warfare,” 222.

27. Ibid., 221.

28. Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 592.

29. Callwell, Small Wars, 90.

30. Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 592.

31. Callwell, Small Wars, 148.

32. Cited in Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 594.

33. Moreman, “Small wars,” 107.

34. Ibid., 109.

35. Cassidy, Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror, 23.

36. Ibid., 24.

37. Ibid., 26.

38. Callwell, Small Wars, 42.

39. Ibid., 40.

40. Wolseley, The Soldier’s Pocket Book, 398. Also cited in Callwell, Small Wars, 40; and Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 597.

41. Field Service Regulations, 192.

42. Hagerdal, Lords of the land, 107.

43. Nordholt, Political system, 403.

44. Cosmo, “Ancient Inner Asian Nomads,” 1092.

45. Cited in ibid., 1093.

46. Ibid.

47. Jagchid, Peace, War and Trade, 165.

48. Boehm, Blood Revenge, 40.

49. Ibid., 72.

50. Ibid., 46.

51. Hoskins (ed.), Headhunting and the social, 2–3.

52. See, Jacobs, The Nagas.

53. Furer-Haimendorf, The Naked Nagas, 12.

54. Needham, “Skulls and Causality,” 71–2.

55. Zou, “Raiding the Dreaded Past,” 88.

56. Carey and Tuck, The Chin Hills 1, 203–4.

57. Zou, “Raiding the Dreaded Past,” 89–91.

58. Guite, “Colonialism and Its Unruly,” 34. Also see Guite, “Colonial Violence.”

59. Franke, War and Nationalism, 26.

60. Shakespear, The Lushei Kuki Clansp. 45.

61. Quoted in Imdad Hussain, “Frontier Defence,” 185.

62. Ibid., 186–7.

63. Ibid., 189.

64. Ibid., 190.

65. Hussain, “Shan Militia,” 145–6

66. Syiemlieh, “British Policy,” 187.

67. Hussain, “Shan Militia,” 147–9.

68. Ibid., -2.

69. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 102.

70. Asoso Yuono, The Rising Nagas, 72

71. Ibid.

72. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 104.

73. Hussain, “Problem of the Frontier,” 147.

74. Hussain, “Problem of the Frontier,” 147. Also see, Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 104–6.

75. Quoted in Hussain, “Frontier Defence,” 206.

76. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 116.

77. Hussain, “Frontier Defence,” 206–7.

78. Ibid., 211.

79. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 116.

80. Ibid., 118.

81. Ibid.

82. Ibid.

83. NAI, Judicial Proceedings, June 1866, nos. 133–4, cited in Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 119.

84. Hussain, “Frontier Defence,” 215.

85. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 119–20.

86. Franke, War and Nationalism, 10.

87. Ibid., 17.

88. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 292–3.

89. Ibid., 294.

90. Ibid.

91. Hussain, “Frontier defence,” 205–6.

92. Palit, Sentinels of the North-East, 25.

93. Mackenzie, The North East Frontier, 310.

94. Ibid., 311.

95. National Archives of India (NAI), Political-A, August 1872, no. 70: From J.W. Edgar to the Commissioner of Circuit, Dacca Division.

96. Crosthwaite, Pacification,

97. See, Pau, Indo-Burma Frontier; and Pau, “Behind the Enemy Line.”

98. NAI, Foreign Department (FD), Secret-E, Proceedings, August 1889, no. 59: Report on the operations on the Frontiers of Upper Burma in 1888-89. Also see, Crosthwaite, Pacification, 288.

99. At the time of annexation of Upper Burma, Shwegyobyu was a vaccinator in the government service in the Thayetmyo district. When the war began he went up to the Chindwin country and established himself at Kanle and ‘assumed, with what right is not known, the style and title of “Prince”, and proceeded to enroll men to resist the foreigners’. See Crosthwaite, Pacification, 84.

100. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 289.

101. Crosthwaite, Pacification, 290.

102. Reid, Chin-Lushai Land, 61.

103. NAI, FD, Secret-E, Proceedings, August 1889, no. 59.

104. Crosthwaite, Pacification, p. 288–9.

105. The Kuki and Chin referred to in this paper belong to the same ethnic group called Zo. While the term ‘Kuki’ represents the Zo in Manipur in this context, the term ‘Chin’ represents the same people in the Chin Hills.

106. Ibid., 227-230

107. Johnson, Baptist Mission 1, 416.

108. For details on the Kuki uprising in Manipur see Shakespear, Assam Rifles, pp.209–32; Bhadra ‘The Kuki (?) Uprising (1917–1919), pp.11–56; Kipgen, Thado War; Guite and Haokip, The Anglo-Kuki War.

109. For an account of the ‘Kuki Punitive measures’, in Manipur, Shakespear, Assam Rifles, p. 228; Robert Reid, History of Frontier Areas, pp.79–89.

110. Guite and Haokip, The Anglo-Kuki War, 2.

111. Shakespear, Assam Rifles, 236.

112. Guite and Haokip, The Anglo-Kuki War, . 2.

113. Ibid.

114. Lunt, “The Burma Rifles,” 202.

115. Young, “The Burma Military Police,” 378–80.

116. Ibid., 386.

117. Lunt, “The Burma Rifles,” 203.

118. Young, “The Burma Military Police,” 380–1.

119. Ibid., 383.

120. Ibid., 383–4.

121. Ibid., 387.

122. Ibid., 388.

123. Palit, Sentinels of the North-East, 55–9.

124. Callwell, Small Wars, 30.

125. See note 26 above.

126. See note 40 above.

127. Carey and Tuck, The Chin Hills, 85–6.

128. Field Service Regulations, 205.

129. Callwell, Small Wars, 129.

130. Asoso Yuono, The Rising Nagas, 15.

131. Whittingham, “Savage Warfare,” 592.

132. Taylor, Jungle Warfare, 1. Also cited in Moreman, “Small Wars,” 122.

133. Vickers, “Concerning fighting,” 157. Also cited in Moreman,”Small Wars,” 121.

134. Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare, 87.

135. Ibid., p. 30.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pum Khan Pau

Pum Khan Pau is Associate Professor, Department of History, Manipur University. His research interests include military history, history of Northeast India and Northwest Burma, Frontier and Borderlands history with particular reference to the India-Burma-Bangladesh borderlands. Pau’s recent publication is Indo-Burma Frontier and the Making of the Chin Hills: Empire and Resistance (London:2020). He has also published in many reputed international journals.