Wild races of the eastern frontier of India
- Delhi Mittal Publications 1984
- 352p.
The wild tribes and races inhabiting the North-East and North-West of India have been a subject of perennial interest to historians, anthropologists, social scientists and to beaurocrats responsible for their administration. Some of them have left behind copious record of their social life, customs, habits and cultures. The present volume is a unique example of this genre. Written more than hundred years ago, it stands un rivalled in the literature on wild races of South-Eastern India. Its pages (to quote the author) were written 'day by day among the people of whom they treat, during a three years' sojourn among them'. Its authenticity is vouchsafed by the fact that the author made a minute study of the kind of life of these wild races by living and moving in their midst, conversing with them in their language, exchanging views with them and there by gaining first hand knowledge of their social and economic life.
The book has been divided into three parts. Part I deals with the Chittagong Hill Tracts inhabited by independent tribes known by the generic name of Kookies and Chakmas who invited trouble for them selves only when they committed murderous outrages. on British subjects of the adjacent district of Tipperah now known as Tripura. Their economic life marked by what is called 'joom cultivation' which means that the site of the village is changed as often as the spots fit for cultivation in the vicinity of their village are exhausted. Land once 'joomed' cannot be recultiva ted.
Bamboo is literally the staff of their life and occupies. central place in the domestic economy of these tribes. It grows in abundance throughout the hills. It is used not only for making ropes and weaving baskets but also in building houses and fertilizing the fields. Part II of the book divides hill tribes into two types the Khyoungtha (sons of the River) who are of pure Arracanese origin and Toungtha (children of the Hills) who are of mixed origin. The former, like the Burmese, are Buddhists and believe in the transmigration of soul. There is no such thing as caste among them. The Toungthas are not the aboriginal inhabitants of the country and are more purely savages than the Khyoungthas. Part III deals with hill tribes known as sons of the rivers. These are the Lhoosai or Kookies and the Shendoos or Lakheyr. These are in every respect wilder than the Khyoungtha: they are more purely savages and un-amenable to the lures of civilisation ...they are independent of all external assistance, the earth supplying them with every necessity of their life.' It is while journeying in their country that the author encountered grim situations and grave perils, some times having a hair breadth's escape from the jaws of instantanous death.