The Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya – the land of mysterious caves and picturesque waterfalls – has a very rich and fascinating history to reckon with. Legends like Pa Togan Sangma and U Kiang Nangbah born in this part of the country, fought till their last breath for safeguarding the territory of their people, their faiths and beliefs from ‘assimilation’ and ‘appropriation’ by an alien culture.

My previous article on the life and struggles of Pa Togan Nengminja Sangma of Meghalaya had dealt with the advent of the British rule in the hills of Northeast India and its subsequent impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people inhabiting this region. With respect to Meghalaya, the story of the British occupation of the Garo Hills in the year 1872 would remain incomplete without taking into account the heroic role played by Togan Sangma in taking on the British might. The Khasi, Garo and Jaintia Hills were annexed by the British colonial state and brought under its political control in phases, but not without resistance from the traditional chiefs and local leaders of the region. During the colonial period, both the Khasis and the Jaintias were referred to as Khasis. It may be presumed that they were settled in their present homeland, which they called as Ka Ri Khasi or Ka Ri Synteng.

After the first Anglo-Burmese war (1824-1826), the British Government decided to occupy the Brahmaputra with the ostensible purpose of connecting the two valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Surma by an all-weather road through the Hima Nongkhlaw territory of the Khasis. Nongkhlaw was then an illustrious Khasi kingdom located in the mid-western Khasi hills of Meghalaya.

A Flashback of the Events

The Surma Valley formed the boundary between the British possessions and the Jaintia kingdom. After being granted the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765, the British wanted to establish a strategic road link connecting the Brahmaputra and the Surma Valleys. This decision of the Government was, to a large extent, was in the interest of the tea planters. But it was opposed by both the Garos and the Jaintias alike. The permission for the road construction from Rani to the Surma Valley was initially granted by U Tirot Sing, the Syiem (Chief or head of the village) of Nongkhlaw. The work started immediately by clearing the tracks and establishing camps for the British forces wherever necessary. But very soon, the arbitrary actions of the colonial masters at Nongkhlaw made the Syiem (because Tirot Sing traced his lineage from the Syiemlieh clan) realise the danger of the agreement that he had entered into. It was helping to pave the way for the territorial expansion of the colonial power. The Khasis thus decided to drive away the foreigners from the hills, which ultimately provoked the Anglo-Khasi war of 1829-1833.

The construction of this road to link the two important British headquarters – Kamrup (currently Guwahati) with Sylhet (present-day Bangladesh) – was of strategic importance for the British, to improve the road communication between the Brahmaputra and the Surma Valleys. This was done with the purpose of ensuring the speedy and safe movement of their troops. The British were forcefully penetrating into the hills, occupying their lands and controlling its people. Turmoil first began in the Jaintia Hills (the erstwhile Jaintia kingdom was formerly known as Jaintiapur) in the year 1827 which soon spread to the neighbouring Garo Hills. The Jaintias, at that time, were largely concentrated in the easternmost part of the Khasi and the Jaintia hills at Sohbar, Umniuh, Nongjri, Khadar Blang, and Ri-Bhoi. When the Garos, along with the Jaintias went forth to stop the construction work, the British became alarmed and in an act of revenge, burnt down several Garo and Jaintia villages. Togan Sangma led the young and able-bodied Garo warriors from the front, whereas the Jaintias were led by their brave and charismatic young leader U Kiang Nangbah. The Khasis had been subjugated a little earlier.

Although the Jaintia uprising (1862-1863) under the leadership of U Kiang Nangbah was crushed with a heavy hand, the name of this forgotten hero has been immortalised at the Martyr’s Column in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, along with the names of U Tirot Sing Syiem and Pa Togan Nengminja Sangma. But unlike U Tirot Sing, who was a Chief from the Khasi hills, both Togan Sangma and Kiang Nangbah were commoners.

A Brief Description of the Jaintias

As per historical records, the Jaintia Kingdom was established in 1500 A.D. The first British expedition against the Jaintias was in February 1774. Conflict erupted when the Jaintias had obstructed and taxed the traders who were British subjects, while they were travelling on their boats down the Surma river to Dacca. The then Jaintia kingdom under Raja Chatra Singha exacted tolls from the traders of the English East India Company, which was looked upon by the British as an attack on their Empire and its imperial authority. As a consequence, the British launched an attack on the Jaintia kingdom and in spite of a very strong opposition by the Jaintias, they were defeated. However, the British refused to annex the kingdom to its dominions. They continued to raise allegations that the Jaintias practiced witchcraft and black magic, and also kidnapped British subjects who were later sacrificed at the altar of Goddess Kali. However, these allegations of the Jaintias performing human sacrifices still remain debatable.

The ancient land of Pragjyotishpur (The City of Eastern Astrology) which houses Kamakhya Saktipeeth, along with its associated Tantric rites and rituals, intrigued the foreigners at first. They could not comprehend the philosophy and significance of Sakti worship in this part of Bharat, and thus tweaked their observations with their own prejudiced interpretations informed by an Abrahamic, European discourse. It is this same discourse which sees women essentially as evil and sub-human; hence, not suitable to be worshipped or glorified in any manner possible.

The Jaintias, like the Khasis and the Garos, still reckon their descent through the female line. They believe that the world is ruled by the supreme goddess called Ka Blai Synshar (Ka meaning ‘she’). Their indigenous religion is known as Ka Niam; although, with the growing popularity of Christianity, the suffix Tre, meaning ‘original’, has been added. Hence, presently, it is known as Ka Niam-Tre, meaning ‘original religion’. The term ‘Jaintia’ came to be used only after the area came under the British rule in the year 1835. This was done in order to differentiate it from the plains of the old Jaintia kingdom, the capital of which was Jaintiapur situated in the Jaintia Parganas, and the whole area of which now lies in Bangladesh. A popular folk belief prevalent in the region is that the origins of the word ‘Jaintia’ may be traced to Goddess Jayanti Devi (believed to be Kali Ma). She was one of the major deities worshipped by the Jaintia royal family during the 16^th century after consolidating its sway over the plain tracts in the south. 15^th century Jaintias had a separate political entity popularly known as ‘The Land of the Twelve Tribal Chiefs’ headed by a king who could knit them all together. They were also culturally different from their Khasi counterparts.

Pnar/Synteng is the cognate term used to refer to the Jaintias of Meghalaya; however, locals prefer the word Pnar over Synteng to describe them. Today, the Jaintias are divided into six different sub-groups – Bhois, Biates, Hadems, Lalungs, Pnars, and Wars – and make up about 18% of the total population of the state of Meghalaya.

The present-day Jaintia Hills District constituted the nucleus from which the Jaintia kingdom eventually developed. Slowly, this kingdom began to play an increasingly important role in the history and culture of the Northeast from the 17^th century onwards. The Jaintia kings belonged to the royal family of Sutnga who, at first, ruled in the hill areas only. But they gradually extended their territory by means of military conquests both in the areas to the north and the south, but particularly towards the south. Originally, their capital was at Nartiang (famous for a 600-year old Durga temple), but later, they shifted to the hills of Jaintiapur in the plains of Sylhet (today’s Bangladesh). At the height of its power, the Jaintia kingdom was the largest and most powerful of the kingdoms in the area that later came to be known under the British rule as the Khasi and Jaintia Hills District. It comprised of three sectors – Assam, Hills proper, and Surma Valley. As per the Census of 2011, Jaintia hills district is the third most populated district in Meghalaya, and also the second largest in terms of the area that it occupies. Jowai is the only town in the district which also happens to be its district headquarters.

Who was U Kiang Nangbah? 

U Kiang Nangbah was an ardent and fearless freedom fighter hailing from Meghalaya, in whom many saw a prophet and a divine fortune-teller. I had barely started writing this piece when I realised that there is not much historical material available to guide us in revisiting the life story of this great man, his childhood and education, the resistance movement that he started against the British and much more. It filled my heart with sadness and anguish at the same time; because, like so many others, this is another tale of bravery and patriotism which has gone unwritten and unsaid. Such a tragedy! No wonder, we as a country are still so poorly educated about the history and culture of Northeast India. Unfortunately, not only in the rest of the country but even in his own native state of Meghalaya, U Kiang Nangbah is not so much a well-known figure, thanks to a policy of sheer indifference that successive governments at the Centre have adopted towards the history and culture of the people of the Northeast. In the Khasi-Pnar parlance, Nangbah has been honoured with the title of U Khla Ka Wait, meaning, the master of the sword or a man who moves his sword with the stealth of a tiger.

Whatever little knowledge we have about Nangbah in the public domain can largely be attributed to the essays and dramas written by Wh. S. Quotient Sumer, the published works of Dr. S. Lamare, and Sanjoy Hazarika (ed.) Little Known Fighters Against the Raj: Figures from Meghalaya. Hazarika’s book has made an honest attempt to reverse the myth, like many other misperceptions, that the North-eastern region of India did not play a prominent role in the struggle for freedom.

While the Assamese are better known to have taken an active part in the freedom movement, the people from the hills resisted British imperialism in their own distinct and unique ways. But their names are still not known to scholars and students. The lives of these forgotten freedom fighters are rarely discussed and remembered, except by some academics of the region and the regional press and also during their commemoration ceremonies that are organised by local groups and ethnic organisations. When I first came to know about Kiang Nangbah, needless to say, I was filled with a deep sense of awe and admiration for this great son of India. The recorded correspondence between the British administrators, the military leaders, and the seats of power in Calcutta and Cherrapunjee does not provide us with material enough to recreate the personal life and struggles of Kiang Nangbah. To the British, he was an enemy on the run and a leader of the rebellion which they desperately wanted to crush. He was also a person whom the British planned to capture but whose identity they could barely decipher, except his name.

The local oral tradition of the Jaintias tells us that Kiang Nangbah was born in a poor farming family to Ka Rimai Nangbah in a locality called Tpep-Pale in Jowai, situated in the West Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya. Thus, Kiang Nangbah had no royal lineage whatsoever. The only records available about his father are the British records which mention the name of U Phet in the information that was recorded when Kiang was arrested. But the British only noted down the name of his father and not his clan’s name; hence, the real identity of Kiang Nangbah’s father too, remains hazy. But he was most probably called by the name of his father’s village of origin, i.e. Nangbah. Although this tradition of calling the family members by the name of the village from which their father originated is dying, remnants of such cases have still remained alive in Jowai. It is not exactly known when Kiang Nangbah was born, but as written by Dr. Omarlin Kyndian, he was a toddler (aged between 0-3 years) when the British government had annexed the Jaintia Kingdom in the year 1835 and placed it under the administration of the British Political Agent posted at Sohra (Cherrapunjee). Hence the exact year and date of his birth is nowhere to be found in any of the available historical records.

But, the extent of ‘cultural appropriation’ by the Christian missionaries in the Northeast can be understood from the fact that it is quite commonplace to come across different writings on U Kiang Nangbah where he has been constantly compared to Jesus. For instance, in an article titled ‘A Brief History of U Kiang Nangbah’ published in The Shillong Times on December 24, 2012 it was argued that Kiang’s story resembles that of Jesus on the ground that both of them rose to fame when they were about 30 years old, and both died in their early 30s after fighting for about 3 years for a cause that they held dear to their hearts. It went on to compare the divine origins of Nangbah to that of Jesus and King David of the Christian religious pantheon. In another instance, the now banned Meghalaya-based militant outfit – the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) – had issued a statement in the year 2012 that both U Tirot Sing Syiem and U Kiang Nangbah were not Indian freedom fighters, but instead they had a different cause to fight against British imperialism.

Well, how far Kiang Nangbah’s fight was for saving his motherland and the unique identity of being an ‘Indian’ that varies from one geographical region to another, is what has been explored in the first and second parts of this three-series article.

Image Source: Office Holidays