Chapter 5 of 9

The Colonial Era

Before the 1890s, Zo chiefdoms governed themselves. Within a decade, British columns had annexed the hills and divided them among Burma, Assam and Bengal — lines that became today’s international borders.

Annexation, 1889–1896 Documented

The Chin-Lushai Expedition of 1889–90 brought the hills under British control for the first time. Chin chiefs resisted taxation and disarmament at various points from 1890 to 1896 before being disarmed. ^{[1] [7]} The British organised a Northern Chin Hills (Sukte, Kam Hau and Sizang areas) under Bertram Carey at Fort White and a Southern Chin Hills under David Ross at Haka, later making Falam the civil headquarters. ^{[1] [8]}

The officers who led the annexation also wrote its history. Carey and Tuck’s two-volume The Chin Hills (1896) and Reid’s Chin-Lushai Land (1893) remain essential primary sources — and should be read as the conquerors’ perspective. ^{[8] [9]}

The 1892 conference and divided hills Documented

At the Chin-Lushai Conference at Fort William in 1892, officials debated amalgamating the newly acquired hills, which had been split among three administrations; the plan failed, and the Manipur–Chin Hills boundary was demarcated as a result. ^[2] Mizo writers note that the question of a single administration “was never reopened again”; later unification demands trace instead to the Mizo Union’s 1946 resolution. ^[10]

The Chin Hills Regulation, 1896 Documented

The Regulation provided the legal framework for governing the Chin Hills through indirect rule. ^[2] Rather than abolish chieftainship, the British ruled through existing chiefs. ^[4] British Political Officers administered the hills from 1892, and Superintendents under the Regulation from 1896 until 1948. ^{[3] [11]}

The Labour Corps and the Zou Gal, 1917–1919 Documented

During the First World War, Britain sought labourers from the hills for France. Resistance became the uprising British sources called the Kuki Rebellion and many historians now call the Anglo-Kuki War (a name some Naga groups dispute); in Zou it is remembered as Zou Gal. ^{[6] [5]} The war lasted three years and ranged across more than 6,000 square miles of Manipur, the Naga Hills, the Chin Hills and the Kabaw Valley. ^{[12] [13]}

Chiefs feared both the overseas service and the loss of men needed to cultivate their fields, and saw recruitment as a threat to their authority. ^{[5] [13]} Zou chiefs made joint resistance with the Thadou (Haokip) of Ukha and Mombi. ^[5] A related Haka uprising took place in the Chin Hills in 1917–18. ^[12]

The Zou village of Hiangtam near Singngat served as a headquarters of Zou fighters; its chief Goulun led the resistance there. ^{[5] [14]} Fighters used muzzle-loaders, flintlocks and leather hand-cannons (pumpi), examples of which survive in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. ^[15]

Detailed military histories based on archival sources include S. Thangboi Zou’s chapter on the Zou Gal. ^{[16] [17]}

Contested memory Scholarly interpretation

How the war is named and commemorated is itself debated. One commentator accuses unnamed groups of trying to “sideline or belittle the Kuki-Zo histories.” ^[18] Another criticised the 2017 Zou Gal centenary for being paired with a memorial to Maharaja Chandrakirti of Manipur, on whose orders the Zou chief Go Khaw Thang was killed. ^[19] One view holds that Bengali nationalists encouraged the rising ^[19]; others centre the forced recruitment for the Labour Corps. ^{[6] [5]} Readers are encouraged to consult the edited volumes, which include multiple community perspectives.