History of Assam Rifles

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Eminent Military Historian and Soldier, Colonel L.W. Shakespear has published this book in 1929. The author in compiling this History of the Assam Rifles had endavoured to collect materials from all possible sources and weaving them into narrative form to produce something useful and readable at least for those who care about the little known but very interesting corner of India. The author had the honour of serving as Commandant and later appointed Dy. Inspector General of the Assam Rifles.

The book covers the gradual pacification of Assam since the British power was first compelled to interface in its affairs and closes with chapter on the ancient ruins of historical interest found in various parts of the province. It has a comprehensive history with extensive detail of operations in the Chin hills, Naga hills, Abor, Lushai etc. The book has Bibliography, Index, Apps: list of former COS, notes on affiliations with Gurkha units, notes on Assam Rifles organization changes from 1863 onwards, 84 mono photos, one plate, 6 maps.

The book has a fine record of arduous undertakings on the North- eastern frontier of India, reissue of it will serve an asset and ready access to modern scholars and army officers for their respective libraries, Those who are interested in the history of the region particularly military history will like to possess the book with pride.

LESLIE WATERFIELD SHAKESPEAR (1860- 1933) was an officer in the British Indian Army and a Colonel in 1909. He served on the North East Fron- tier of India in the Chin- Lushai campaign. The Lushai campaign was awarded the India General Ser- vice Medal 1854-1895 with clasps [CHIN LUSHAI-1889-90] and [LUSHAI-1889-92]. His Great War service included operations in Mesopotamia from the 9 of Novem- ber 1914 to the 7 of September 1917. He was mentioned in des- patches in the London Gazette on the 5th of April 1916 and was ap- pointed Assistant Quartermaster- General, Indian Army on the 18" of May 1916. He also took part in the Kuki Operations on the North East Frontier of India. Colonel Leslie Shakespear was made a Compan- ion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath (C.B.), a Companion of The Most Eminent Order of the In- dian Empire (C.I.E.), and was awarded The Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2 Class with sword for his military service.

IN compiling this history of the five battalions of the Assam Rifles, in one of which I had the honour of serving as Commandant thirty years ago, to be in later years followed by being appointed Deputy-Inspector-General to the Force, I have endeavoured to search all available documents and books from the early days of Assam under British rule onwards for material with which to form it, and have arranged it as far as possible in proper sequence. Sometimes information has been turned up in most un- likely places; for instance, who would have thought that the best account of Col. Hannay's Abor Expedition in 1859 could have come out of the "History of the Indian Navy"? But so it was, and due to the fact that in early days the Indian Navy had a few gunboats on the main rivers, two of which were on the Brahmaputra river at Dibrugarh, and sent a naval contingent with Hannay's force.

Again the " History of Indian Railways "(Assam section) gave accounts of Frontier Police escorts to rail- way survey parties which were not alluded to anywhere else, for prior to about 1899 no such thing as Battalion Records were kept up. Many episodes of the consolidation of British rule east of Bengal have been derived from old musty records and books and are brought out as a connected narrative, trouble having been taken to get as true and complete a history of this little known old Force, without embellishment or drawing on the imagination, in spite of Bacon's statement that "the mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure."

COLONEL SHAKESPEAR has asked me to contribute a few words of introduction to his history of the origin and development of the Assam Rifles. I do so with pleasure, as I have still very grateful recollections of the resourceful strength with which this force endowed the Government of the province. The economic growth of Assam has been threatened with a peculiar danger-that of trans-frontier forays. Its two valleys run deeply into mountainous country that is inhabited by tribesmen who are still inspired by the ancient ideas that war is one of the most exhilarating of life's experiences, and its commemoration, in war-dress and war-dances, the most enjoyable of amusements. To possess the head of an alien man, woman or child has been a treasured assurance of success and a necessary passport to good fortune in courtship. Society is organised upon a war footing. "Mutuo metu separatiet montibus," peoples of the same blood have grouped themselves into clans, isolated so completely from one another as to have developed languages that are mutually unintelligible. To ambuscade an alien village -even its women when drawing water from the stream -to burn its houses and massacre its inhabitants have been regarded as "sporting" enterprises that relieve the monotony of life. Forays into the lowlands have been still more tempting; and, had they not been checked, the development of the tea industry would have been impossible.

The most obvious method of stopping these marauding raids was by retaliatory incursions into tribal territory. For such small expeditions regular troops would have been too elaborate and costly an instrument, and have involved too serious commitments.