An official Indian government website, amritmahotsav.nic.in, under the “Digital District Repository” section, has posted details about an “Anglo-Kuki War at Longpi, 1917-19.”
This reference has sparked concerns among the Naga community in Manipur, particularly the Northern Tangkhul Nagas in Ukhrul District, who question how such an apparent historical fabrication has been published, possibly for motives known only to those behind it.
According to the website, attributed to the Indian Culture Portal (Ministry of Culture, GoI), “The Anglo-Kuki War at Longpi, which took place from March 1917 to May 1919, was a rebellion by the Kuki people against British colonial rule in the Ukhrul district of Manipur.”
The website further claims that factors such as forced recruitment for the First World War, oppressive taxation, and British control over village chiefs led to a Kuki uprising across the hill areas. The text describes various tactics supposedly employed by the Kukis, including guerrilla strategies and attacks on British outposts. “The major causes of the war included, resentment towards the forced recruitment of labor for the First World War, oppressive taxation and local officials, British domination over their village chiefs, the continuation of the oppressive Pothang system. This gave rise to the uprising throughout the major Kuki-inhabited hill areas. The protest began with the Kukis’ refusal to participate in the war, and the British responded by plundering the Kuki village of Mompi, which provoked a violent reaction from the Kukis. They used a variety of weapons, including firearms, bows and arrows, leather cannons, and poisonous arrows, and employed guerrilla tactics, making it difficult for the British to counter their attacks. They also used various means of communication, including meat, gunpowder, bullets, swords, and acoustic signals like whistles, to coordinate their activities. They attacked police stations and sabotaged telegraph lines and other British establishments,” the government portal writes.
Also read | Longpi (Nungbi) Black Pottery – Ancient art of the Tangkhul Naga tribe
However, historical evidence points to Ngulkhup Haokip, the village chief of Lonpi in present-day Chandel District (Chakpikarong sub-division), not Longpi in Ukhrul District, as a leader in the “Kuki Rebellion of 1917-19”. Scholars and local historians are now calling for the official in charge of Ukhrul District to clarify why such an inaccurate historical account has been placed on a government site.
Aside from ongoing debates over whether it was an Anglo-Kuki War, a rebellion, an uprising, or a punitive response, one fact remains: no record supports such an event occurring in Ukhrul District or Longpi (Nungbi) village, the Tangkhul village famous for its black pottery — a traditional form of pottery that is produced in the village of Longpi Khullen and Longpi Kajui in the Ukhrul district of Manipur, India. It is also worth noting that the British, the Meiteis and the Nagas said it was an uprising. It is only the Kuki scholars that insist it was Anglo-Kuki War and not Kuki uprising. On pure consensus term in academia, it is 3 to 1.
It is concerning that historians from the Kuki-Zo-Hmar community ‘appear’ to endorse this historical inaccuracy now propagated through a government portal, a distortion which many view as objectionable and unlawful. Silence, particularly from the historians of the concerned community may be seen as a tacit approval to such outright historical fraud.
Given the highly polarised environment in which citizens of Manipur currently live, both within and outside the State, compounded by ongoing conflict, it is essential for all learned leaders, within the concerned community, to discourage the fabrication of historical accounts that disregard the people residing in Longpi (Nungbi) villagers, in particular, and the Tangkhul Naga tribals who reside in Ukhrul and Kamjong districts in general. Ignoring such historical malpractice risks paving the way for more of these distortions. An ethnocentric approach to history will ultimately lead to a large-scale manufacturing of historical falsehoods, which, unfortunately is already taking root in today’s Manipur.
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