For your Honour's Aide-memoir, a glimpse of our history is given basing on the books written by some renown historians and monographers in the last century.
History/ historical background
From time immemorial the Kuki people settled mainly in the present day north-east India, north-west Myanmar and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. They lived in this part of the Indian sub-continent without being separated by international boundaries until the early part of the 20th century. The Kukis were independent people comprising of numerous clans, each governed by its chieftain. Beginning from 1937, the British colonial administration broke up their ancestral territory without our consent and incorporated the Chittagong Hill Tracts to East Pakistan (present Bangladesh), the Upper Chindwin and Kale Kabaw Valley in the present day Sagaing Division of Myanmar, and the adjoining Kuki Hills stretching from present-day Manipur to parts of Nagaland, Karbi Anglong and North Cachar in Assam and Tripura to the Union of India. This divisive policy was carried out in retaliation against the resistance of the Kukis during the Kuki Rebellion also known as Anglo-Kuki war (1917-19) against British imperial policy of subjugation.
Noted historians such as R.C. Majumdar and Bhasttasali (History of India, pp.6-7,1930, fifth revised edition) refer to the Kukis as the earliest people known to have lived in prehistoric India, preceding the Dravidians whose descendants now live in south India. Comparatively, the Aryans, who drove the Dravidians towards the south, arrived in the Indian sub-continent around 1500 B.C. (Romila Thappar: History of India, p.29, 1966). The Kukis had been very powerful residents in Cachar frontiers during the 13th to 19th centuries as is evidenced by the history of Sylhet. A copper plate inscription refers to the term Kukisthanam, i.e. the land of the Kukis. In Rajamala, the family chronicle of the Tripura rulers, there are a number of references of the Kukis. That, the Tripuris were the relatives of the Kukis had been admitted by the royal records of Tripura.
Historical records also make mentioned of frequent raids of British subjects by the Kukis during the time of Lord Warrant Hasting, the Governor General of India.
J. Renel, the then Chief Engineer of Bengal, contended in 1800 A.D., which was quoted by Col. T.H. Lewin in 1896, the Tipperah Hill Tracts (now in Bangladesh) were inhabited by a people known as CUCIS. The same terminology is used in The Lushai Kuki Clans (1929) by Col. J. Shakespeare. In 1893, Col. Reid, in his book, Chin Lushai Land, Aijal, propounded that before the 18871 expedition in the Lushai Hills, the ferocious wild tribes who raided the areas under the British dominion were the KUKIS, meaning thereby, Hill People or Dwellers of the Hilly Region.
Chivalrous past
Prior to the coming of the British in Manipur, the Kukis enjoyed full political autonomy within their respective territorial Chieftainship. The multifarious problems of the internal administration of the various Kuki clans were solely in the hands of their Chiefs who were strong allies of the Meitei kings of the Imphal Valley (Kangleipak) from time immemorial in all matters of importance regarding external relations. They lived through thick and thin, helping each other in times of external aggression. In fact, the Kukis served as the sentinel and frontier guards of Meitei kingdom comprising of 700 sq. miles of low fertile plain, surrounded by 7,300 sq. miles of hilly region.
The Kukis here had been dominant spreading their authority over a wide range of hill areas surrounding the valley of Imphal during the hey-day of the Maharajah of Manipur and subsequently during the British period. The Kuki Chiefs were in supreme command over their respective domains in the hills. This was specially so with the Thadou Kuki Chiefs. The Haokip-Thadou Chiefs, under the leadership of their senior most clan, known as the Chassad Haokip, was the overlord of the hills to the East of Imphal valley and his influence was extended upto the Burma Border, contiguous to the thongdut State and part of the Somra Tract.
The Doungel Kuki Chief was the monarch of the North-East of Imphal valley extending his area of influence to the unadministered areas of Somre which lie in between the Naga Hills of the erstwhile Assam Province and the Burmese territory, which letter became a bone of contention between the Doungel Chief, better known as the Aishan Chief, and the British Raj resulting in a protracted war that ended in 1919, after subjugation of the areas concerned by the British who place the same partly under the then Naga Hills of Assam and partly under Burma.
Likewise, the Sitlhou Thadou Chief, known as the Chief of Jampi, ruled the Western and North-Western part of Imphal valley bordering the Angami country. The Singson Thadou Chief ruled the areas contiguous to the Sitlhou country and the Lushai Hills of Assam. Pulverised in between the Sitlhou in the North-West and the Imphal Valley in the North-East was the country of the junior clans of the Haokip Thadous, belonging to the Lunkhel, Songthat and Telngoh clans where they ruled the roost. To the South of them, bordering the Tiddim of Chin Hills of Burma, the areas were occupied by the Manluns (Zou), while the South-East of Imphal Valley extending upto the areas of Kabo valley and Sukte country, were ruled by the Mangvung Haokip Thadous.
Thus, the hill areas of Manipur were the domain ground of the Thadou Kukis until they were subjugated and controlled by the British in 1917-19 Anglo-Kuki War. After 1919, however, the British assumed direct administration over the hill tribes in general and on the Kuki Chiefs, in particular. The opening of the first sub-divisional offices in Tamenglong, Ukhrul and Churachandpur was made with the sole object of checkmating the Kuki Chiefs and also to avoid recurrence of their insurgency against the British rule. This apart, the British rulers ruled the hill areas through the effective machinery of the Chieftainship and its council of Ministers. This helped the Chiefs to maintain their authority and hold over the people, thereby, unifying the clans and tribes that composed the Kuki. The authority of the Chiefs also greatly enhanced the strength of their custom, for they were the perennial sources of the Kuki custom, tradition, culture, language, etc.
From the assertions made in our "HISTORY", the Kukis are born fighters and freedom lovers. The gallantry and altruism, the principle of living and acting for the interest of others had been manifest in defying the labour levy raised by the British government during the First World War. The Kukis resisted this encroachment into their territory and the colonial government resorted to what it called Kuki Punitive Measures to suppress what it described as the Kuki Rebellion also known as Anglo-Kuki War (1917-1919). Our people, who had been called ferocious wild tribe people in the days of yore, had thus become freedom fighters against the mighty British empire. This uprising is no less inferior to the Rebellion of 1857 which derogatorily has been called the Sepoy Mutiny by the British.
General Sir N. Keary, K.C.B., K.C.I.E., D.S.O., on his dispatch on the operations, wrote thus," The small losses sustained during so many months of incessant field service should not by any means be taken as the measure of resistance offered by the rebels, but rather it is a attribute, and a high one, to the fighting efficiency of mostly young troops, in all relating to the tricks and tactics of hill and jungle warfare, and to the use made of this knowledge by young (British) officers in many cases with no war experience of any sort who led them".The Kuki Punitive Measures resulted in : 86 rebel villages destroyed 112 rebel villages submitted 15 rebel villages were deserted by the people (List of Kuki veterans of 1917-1919s enclosed as annexure)
During the Second World War, the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) advanced into Manipur along with the Japanese force in the year 1944. In response to their clarion call, the Kukis joined the I.N.A. with deep-rooted patriotic zeal The accounts of seventy-eight Kukis published in the Freedom Fighters of Manipur: Who's Who are living testimony (the enrolment form of INA and some freedom fighters are enclosed in the annexure). Many of them have been honoured by the Government of India after independence. No deluge of time can wash away this indelible fact even today. We strongly urge your honour NOT to forget Kuki fraternity and their protection when the uniqueness of any group of people in India is remembered.
Untold quandaries or miseries
The division of the ancestral territory of the Kukis by the British administration, and later, its incorporation within three independent nation : Union of India, Burma and Bangladesh, in the post-colonial era caused immense socio-economic and political hardships for the Kukis who have become minorities without even a state in any of the three countries mentioned. They are now in a minority wherever they live, because they had become very badly divided and too widely scattered in different administrative units in the entire North-East region of the country. This has created a deep sense of resentment in the minds of the Kukis who have thus been compelled to fight for their democratic rights and constitutional provisions.
The step-motherly treatment and discriminative policies adopted by the successive governments of Manipur and India has worsened the already pathetic socio-economic and political conditions of the Kukis of Manipur. The law and order situation in Manipur has deteriorated rendering development programmes into naught especially within the areas inhabited by the Kukis. That is to say, that we are in a state of anomaly, a state of hopelessness , loss of faith and sense of purpose in the Manipur government .
The Kuki Rebellion/Anglo-Kuki War (1917-1919) was against British imperialism, and the Kuki martyrs and freedom fighters who chose to join the INA during the Second World War for the cause of freedom from colonial rule. Even to this day, many a page of military records and annals are filled with the heroic deeds of these patriots who sacrificed their lives. But as an irony of fate would have it, the sacrifice of these Kuki patriots have not been given due recognition by the Government of India.
These factors were responsible for the birth of the UNITED KUKI LIBEFRATION FRONT as an armed revolutionary organization seeking socio-economic and political solution for the Kukis in Manipur within the framework of the Constitution of India. Accordingly, a tripartite pact, Suspension of Operation (SoO) was signed in August, 2008, with the Government of India and the Government of Manipur.
Our Prayers
1. Creation of KUKI (KHULMI) DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (KDC), on the model of Bodoland Territorial Council, North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council of Assam, for amelioration of the welfare of the deprived Kukis.
2. Formation of a separate regiment from all the cadres of the armed Kuki UGs under suspension of operation (SoO) to be christened the KUKI REGIMENT, not necessarily through the fulfillment of the prerequisite RRs.
A committee comprising of the following members shall represent the UNITED KUKI LIBERATION FRONT in all future political dialogues pertaining to the demands of the organization.
1. Sailien Ngam (9612988408)
2. Yanglet Haokip (94362725030
3. M.Thongkhohao Haokip (9612168934)
4. Ngamkhosei Sontah (986228003)
5. M. Chongthang Zou(9856968172)
(Chairman cum C-in-C United Kuki Liberation Front, Khulmigam)
