Resistance Movements in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: A study of the Khamti tribe from 1826-1843

Abstract

Since the perspectives of the national movement and tribal resistance differ due to various reasons, therefore, much of the history of tribal resistance against colonization has not been documented in details. In colonial records, however, these resistance acts have been interpreted and depicted as an attack by wild tribes on civilized governments. And, this form of colonial interpretation of history has been perpetuated for decades without any critical analysis of the events. In other words, many researchers failed to look at it from a tribal point of view; they failed to study it as a phenomenon of indigenous resistance. Throughout India’s tribal history, numerous heroic battles have been fought by the tribes against the colonial rule, but few of them have made it into history. This is particularly true of the adjacent hill tribes of Assam. The Khamtis who are considered as one of the most important communities of Arunachal Pradesh who carried out resistance movements against the colonial ruler, but their gallant act of resistance is still missing in the pages of history books. Therefore, all those tribal resistance movements should be researched and brought into the history of the region. Hence, in this paper, a humble attempt would be made to unearth the resistance movement of the Khamti.