Naga Hills · Northeast Hill Massif
Two things make this region's anti-colonial record read unlike anyone else's. The first is that resistance was organised at village scale, so the colonial files record it collectively — a village, a khel, a stockade — and preserve very few personal names. Khonoma held out for five months in 1879 and 1880 and the record does not tell us who commanded there. The second is that the region's two best-documented figures are not from the central hills at all but from the Zeliangrong country to the south, where a religious reform movement acquired a political edge and produced a leader who was seventeen when she was captured and had spent fourteen years in jail by the time she was released. Alongside both runs a third and quieter strand: the men who came back from France in 1918, formed a club, and in 1929 wrote their case down.
Risings and revolts
Nearly five decades in which expeditions were sent up from the foothills and villages resisted, submitted or were burned individually. Because there was no combined command on the Naga side, each village negotiated or fought on its own account, which is why the process took so long.
Outcome: An administrative headquarters was established at Samaguting in 1866 and moved to Kohima in 1878.
G. H. Damant and about thirty-five of his party were killed at Khonoma on 14 October 1879, and Kohima was besieged. Khonoma was taken on 22 November and found abandoned; its people withdrew to a fortified position above the village and held it through the winter.
Outcome: The fort surrendered on written terms on 27 March 1880 — firearms given up, the village rebuilt without fortifications, revenue paid in cash, rice and labour. The Naga Hills was annexed as a district on 27 March 1881.
A movement among the Zeliangrong communities of Manipur, the Naga Hills and North Cachar, beginning as a religious reform under Haipou Jadonang and taking on a political character. It was continued after his execution by his cousin Gaidinliu, who moved between villages with a following and was pursued through 1932.
Outcome: Jadonang was executed at Imphal on 29 August 1931. Gaidinliu was taken near Kenoma on 17 October 1932 and sentenced to life imprisonment in December; she was held until 1947.
People
| Name | Years | Movement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haipou JadonangPuiluanh (Kambiron), Tamenglong | 30 July 1905 – 29 August 1931 | The Zeliangrong movement | Rongmei Naga reformer whose movement reorganised Zeliangrong religious practice and gathered a large following across the southern hills before acquiring a political character.Arrested on 19 February 1931, tried at Imphal, convicted on 13 June and executed on 29 August 1931. |
| Rani GaidinliuLongkao, Tamenglong | 26 January 1915 – 17 February 1993 | The Zeliangrong movement | Led the movement after Jadonang's execution, moving between villages across Manipur, the Naga Hills and North Cachar and evading capture for more than a year.Taken near Kenoma on 17 October 1932 and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1932. Held in the Guwahati, Shillong, Aizawl and Tura jails and released in 1947. |
| Nihu AngamiKohima | active 1929 | The Naga Club memorandum, 1929 | Head Interpreter and the first of the twenty signatories to the Naga Club's memorandum of 10 January 1929 to the Simon Commission. |
| Rüzhükhrie AngamiKohima | active 1929 | The Naga Club memorandum, 1929 | Schoolmaster and one of the twenty signatories to the memorandum of 10 January 1929. |
| Apamo LothaKohima | active 1929 | The Naga Club memorandum, 1929 | Interpreter and one of the twenty signatories. His name is part of the evidence that the memorandum was a joint act across communities rather than an Angami one. |
People from Naga Hills who resisted colonial rule, and the regional risings and revolts that shaped that resistance. (8)