BharatSangraha

Garo Hills · Northeast Hill Massif

People

NameYearsFieldKnown for
Pa Togan Nengminja Sangmadied 1872Resistance leaderLed a night attack with a small band on a British camp at Chisobibra on 12 December 1872, during the annexation of the Garo Hills, and was killed. He is the central figure of Garo historical memory and the date is observed annually.
Sonaram R. SangmaLand-rights campaignerTook the Garo case against colonial interference with a·king lands through petition and litigation in the early twentieth century rather than by arms — the legal counterpart to Togan Sangma's resistance, and the reason the a·king system survived into the modern land record at all.
Ramke Watre Momin and Omed Watre MominEducatorsThe first Garo Christians, who from the 1860s opened schools in the hills and worked on putting A·chik into Roman script. Whatever one makes of the mission, they are the reason Garo has a written form and a literate public.
Williamson A. Sangma1919–1990Public lifeLed the long campaign for a separate hill state and became Meghalaya's first Chief Minister when it was created in 1972.
Purno A. Sangma1947–2016Public lifeFrom the Garo Hills; served as Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the 1990s, the first person from the Northeast to hold the office.
Milton S. SangmaHistorianWrote the standard scholarly histories of the Garos and of the hills, assembling the oral, colonial and administrative record into a single account produced from inside the community.

People from Garo Hills who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (6)