The North-East Frontier of India Myths & Reality

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About the Book In 1914, some tribal-majority areas were separated from the darang former arrang and Lakhimpur districts of Assam Province of British India to form the North-East Frontier Tract (NEFT). The NEFT was initially divided into two sections: (i) the Central and Eastern Section (made up of the former Dibrugarh Frontier Tract (created in 1884) and some more areas in the south) and (ii) the Western Section. Each section was placed under a political officer. In 1919, the Central and Eastern Section was renamed the sadiya Frontier Tract, and the Western Section was renamed the Balipara frontier Tract. In 1937, Sadiya and Balipara Frontier Tracts along with lakhimpur Frontier Tract (also created in 1919) of Assam Province came to be known collectively as the 'Excluded Areas of Province of Assam' under the provisions of Government of India Act, 1935. By Regulation 1 of The north Eastern Frontier Tracts (Internal Administration) Regulations 1943, tirap Frontier Tract was created by amalgamating certain areas of Sadiya and Lakhimpur Frontier Tracts. After this, a new regulation - The Assam frontier (Administration of Justice) Regulation, 1945- was made by the governor of Assam using his powers under Section 92(2) of the government of India Act, 1935. This proved to be a landmark step in the history of NEFA which later emerged as the state of Arunachal Pradesh. In 1946, Balipara Frontier Tract was divided into two administrative units: sela Sub-Agency and Subansiri Area.

About the Author After the independence of India in 1947, NEFT became a part of the Assam state. In 1948, Sadiya Frontier Tract was bifurcated into two districts: Abor tracts, (Balipara Frontier Tract, Tirap Frontier Tract, Abor Hills District, and Mishmi Hills District) were transferred to the Assam state government, and the rest became one of the Tribal Areas in Assam state (under part-B of the table appended to paragraph 20 of the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution). In 1951, Balipara Frontier Tract, Tirap Frontier Tract, Abor hills District, Mishmi Hills District, and the Naga tribal areas were together renamed as the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). Preface THIS is the first of what I hope will be two or more volumes dealing with mythology and folklore of the North-East Frontier Agency of India (NEFA). The Philo- logical Section of the NEFA Research Department will pro- duce other volumes containing the original versions of these and similar stories. Dr B. S. Guha, formerly Director of the Department of Anthropology, is engaged in recording and translating the great Adi (Abor) myths, the abhangs, especially those known in the Pasighat area, and these will form the subject of yet another volume. I have, therefore, not attempted to reproduce any of the abhangs as such here, though I have included certain episodes from those chanted in the northern Siang villages, and I have left the task of printing the originals of the stories to our philologists, who are far more qualified to do so than myself.

Introduction THE North-East Frontier Agency is a wild and mountain- Ta ous tract in the Assam Himalayas which covers some 27,000 square miles bounded by Bhutan to the west, Tibet to the north and Burma to the south-east, and into which the Valley of the Brahmaputra projects like a great spur. It is now divided into five Frontier Divisions, Kameng, Suban- siri, Siang, Lohit and Tirap and accommodates about four hundred thousand people. Some parts, such as central Siang, are heavily populated; others, like northern Suban- siri and Lohit, are sparsely inhabited in isolated villages along the river valleys. The rainfall is heavy, as much as 200 inches in Subansiri. The countryside offers almost every possible type of mountain scenery. On the 14,000-foot Se-La Pass on way to Tawang, with its masses of rhododendrons and other multi-coloured flowers, the traveller is reminded of Kashmir; in the lovely valleys of Siang with their background of snow-capped mountains, you are at one moment in Austria, at another in Wordsworth's Lakes. Nor are the formidable slopes of the Patkoi, the wide and open glories of Tirap, the dark jungles of Lohit, easily forgotten. An early traveller described this country as 'back-breaking': I would rather call it 'heart-warming', for though the marches are long and difficult, the people's welcome and hospitality quickly wipes away the memory of fatigue.