DISPOSICIONES ADOPTADAS PARA GARANTIZAR LA CALIDAD Y LA EFICACIA DE LA APLICACIÓN

found the Monpas inhabiting the upper part of the Nyamjang valley 4

north of what is now the Indo-Tibetan boundary. Perhaps only from Le and Trimo northward - both the places lying north of the present Indo-Tibetan boundary - did the Monpas look more like

5

the Tibetans in appearance, though the Tibetans of Rang, a village further north, bore a great resemblance to the Monpas in dress and language. The findings of both Nain Singh and Bailey about the similarities between the Monpas and Bhutanese

^See p. 19 ; Lamb, The McMahon Line, pp. 301-302. 2See pp.202-203.

3

Bailey, Report. Chap. VII.

4

Bailey, Report. Chap. V, 5

Bailey, Report. Chap. VII. Bailey, Report. Chap. V.

were confirmed many years later in the military report on Assam published in 1931. According to that report, "Their /i.e. the Monpas^ language, houses, bridges, etc., are Bhutanese in type,

they may therefore have a common origin withthe eastern Bhutan- ese...."

Besides the similarities between the Monpas and Bhutanese, indicating a possible Bhutanese origin cf the former, the Monpas in some areas of Tawang seem to have tribal blood in them. In their facial appearance "there are distinct traces of the ad­ mixture of, if not of descent from, a primitive eastern Himalayan

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hill tribe11. Cultural evidence found by Mills also points to the same fact. He found that the Sherdukpens and the Eastern Monpas spoke the same language and decidedly belonged to the

same stock, though they were different in religion. The Sherduk­ pens were Buddhists while the Eastern Monpas, like the so many

other tribes to the east, were animists. But Mills believed that the Sherdukpens also were animists formerly. Hence he emphasized the importance of studying the religion and customs of the East­ ern Monpas in order to discover the basic culture of the Sher-

3

dukpens overlaid by Buddhism. The obvious inference from Mills* 1

General Staff, India, op.cit., p.6. 2

General Staff, India, op.cit., p.7. 3

J. P. Mills, "A Preliminary Note on the Senjithongji of Balipara Frontier Tract, Assam".

account is that in Tawang Tibetan ways of life along with Buddhism were superimposed on the native culture of the Monpas who were non-Tibetan in origin and, therefore, the present pervasive Tibet­

an influence in Monpa life cannot by itself be an unquestionable evidence of the Monpas1 supposed Tibetan origin. It is highly likely that the Monpas were originally non-Tibetan in stock but were exposed to Tibetan influence from the north which seems to have grown weaker as it travelled south and east of the Se La.

As regards the tribesmen east of the Monpas, none has shown more clearly than S. Roy that they are not Tibetan in origin. Though he has done this with special reference to the Abors, he regards the Abors as part of the same broad culture pattern which also covers the other tribes east of the Monpas. According to him a careful study reveals that these tribesmen have far greater affinity with those living on the hills south of the Brahmaputra than with the people of Tibet. In this light the Himalayan range seems to form a cultural divide. The differences between the two cultures on either side of the Himalaya are all too obvious. To the north of the Himalaya Tibetans live in houses built of stone and wood, dress in elaborate woollen clothes covering the entire body and wear felt hats and boots. To the south the tribesmen live in bamboo huts with a life of three or four years at the most, and their dress consists of short coats or jackets with loin

cloth for men and skirt for women, leaving the thighs, legs and feet bare. There are no permanent separate structures for religious performances south of the line. Village gates with hanging carcasses of sacrificed dogs or fowl, and scaffolds for immolating mithuns (bos frontalis) are the only visible

signs of any sacred performance. But on ihe other side the most majestic structures are the Buddhist monasteries, and beautifully painted manes, chortens and kakalings.^ prayer flags and prayer wheels abound all over the land. In the south the piiests are not distinguished from the laity. In the north they are the most privileged class and are conspicuously distinct in their red or yellow robes. The Tibetans are Buddhists while the tribesmen in the south are animists. In ihe north the Tibetan craftsmen excel in the manufacture of wooden articles. The tribesmen in the south display great skill in cane and bamboo work. And in ell the major features in which the tribesmen of ihe south differ from the Tibet­ ans of the north, they seem to resemble closely the people of the trans-Brahmaputra hills. This is a strong evidence against the implicit assumption which has so far been maintained that the Brahmaputra proved a culture-barrier between ihe tribes to the north and south of it. In the past there was probably a continuous

mane is a stone shrine h the shape of a wall with sacred in­ scriptions. A chorten is a stupa-shaped structure where prayers are held on occasions. A kakaling is a stone gate which it is an act of merit tapass through.

The above definitions are taken fhom Sharma, The Sherdukpens. pp. 77-78.

homogeneous tribal world in Assam stretching across the Brahma­ putra valley. But the establishment of powerful states in the valley drove like a wedge in that tribal world and broke it into two. But before it happened there does not seem to have been any barrier to free movements of "the tribesmen from the one to the other side of the liver.^ What then ds the value of the tribal legends of migration from the north? Perhaps we can best answer this question as Professor Furer-Haimendorf has done in the case of the Apa Tanis. Dismissing the suggestion of the Apa Tanis1 Tibetan origin and pointing out their close affinities with

the trans-Brahmaputra Nagas, he says, nthese memories /i.e. Apa Tani legends of migration from the north7 can only lelate to the last stages of a population movement which may well have changed

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its course more than once”. The Tibetan attitude towards these tribesmen also seems to suggest that they are not of the Tibetan stock. Bailey says that the common Tibetan name for the tribesmen like Akas, Daflas, Abors, Mishmis, etc., living cn the southern

3

border of Tibet, is Lopa. And according to him, "The term Lopa ..4 meant to the Tibetans what barbarian meant to the Greeks....”

i

Roy, Aspects of Padam-Minyong Culture, pp. 259— 263. S'urer-Haimendorf, The Apa Tanis. p . 6.

3 „

Bailey, Report, Chap. XI.

We are now to consider ihe economic life of the hillmen. It was different from that of the plainsmen. And in no respect was 1his difference more marked than in the method of agriculture which was the most important economic pursuit'in the hills. The method of cultivation which was typical on the frontier was quite primitive aid was known as .ihum cultivation. Professor Furer- Haimendorf found this method in existence even a long time after the period under study. He wrote, ’’Shifting cultivation of the aLash-and-bum type is the only kind of tillage practised by such

tribes as Mishmi, Abors, Miris and Daflas, and one can travel for weeks in the Eastern Himalayas without ever encountering any other method of cultivation”.^ This method of cultivation consisted

of clearing and burning the jungle and undergrowth of a hillside. Crops were then raised on the clearing for two or three years in

succession. Then the land was left fallow torecover its fertility and, during this period, cultivation was shifted to some freshly cleared land. This was a wasteful method as it seriously denuded the hillsides of jungles which were necessary for the prevention of soil erosion.

But in the Apa Tani# country a very remarkable exception - possibly the only exception at the time - was to be found to the

Haimendorf. Though he visited the area in 1944-45 - about thirty years after the period under study - yet, since -the area was in isolation, there is little reason to suppose that any great change occurred during the intervening years to alter the traditional Apa Tani method of agriculture.^ As he found, there was no trace of shifting cultivation in the Apa Tani country. The Apa Tani villages were surrounded by carefully irrigated rice fields which extended right up to the foot of the hills surrounding the Apa Tani valley. The Apa Tani methods of irrigation, soil pre­ paration, classification of fields for different varieties of

crops and a meticulous attention to every crop testified to highly specialised agricultural activities. MThe agriculture of the Apa Tanis is thus not only of interest as the basis of an economy

different f rom that of all surrounding populations, but it provides us also with an example of an elaborate and most Efficient system of soil exploitation developed by a people cut off from the mater­ ial development of Indian high civilization.... Indeed, to come from the land of these cultivators £ . e . the neighbouring Daflas and MirijJof frequently shifted hill-fields, carved as it would

46.

seem haphazardly frcm ihe jungle and abandoned again after one or two years, into the Apa Tani valley with its purposeful order and evidence of the loving care bestowed on virtually every square yard of ground is like jumping thousands of years of man's develop­ ment and stepping from an age of barbarism into an era of a highly

developed civilization.

Since settled agriculture was the mainstay of Apa Tani economy, land was naturally highly prized among the people. The influence and social prestige of an Apa Tani depended largely

on the size of his holding. In this respect the Apa Tanis differed fundamentally from iiieir neighbours who lacked the concept of

private ownership of land. Besides the private land, there were two other categories of land - clan land and common village land. The private lands comprised practically all the cultivated lands

as well as house-sites and sites for granaries. The clan lands consisted of pastures and forests where the members of the clan alone had the right to hunt. In the Apa Tani valley there were only a few and comparatively unimportant tracts which were owned by all the clans of a village. These were common village lands

and were used as pastures. Also on the edge of the valley there were large forests claimed by individual villages. These were used as hunting grounds.^

^Furer-Haimendorf, op.cit.. pp. 13-16, 24-34. S ’urer-Haimendorf, op.cit., pp. 16-24.

Among the Apa Tanis the ownership of land was clearly- known. There was a clear distinction between pastures and hunting grounds owned by a clan or village, and the privately owned fields or gardens. The Daflas on the other hand, who were .jhum cultivators, did not recognize, barring a few exceptions, peimanent individual rights in land. Whoever cleared a piece of jungle gained by virtue of hi s initial effort the right to cultivate the land for the next period of cultivation which ex­ tended rarely beyond three years. When the land reverted to jungle, this right lapsed, and consequently there existed no peimanent proprietary rights in land.^

The hillmen supplemented their poor economy by hunting, fishing, rubber-tapping and ellphant-catching in the land at

the foot of the hills north of the Brahmaputra. But during British rule this land was affected by the expansion of tea plantation and creation of reserved forests. This twin process seems to have

exercised an adverse effect on the economy of the tribesmen. And, indeed,as we shall see later, British claims on this land became the most fruitful sou ice of tribal outrages.

By the turn cf ihe twentieth century thousands of acres were taken up by tea plantations in Darrang and Lakhimpur - the two

districts facing the frontier. Since ihe entire district of Darrang aid the North Lakhimpur Subdivision cf the district of Lakhimpur lay north of the Brahmaputie;, all the tea gardens in these areas were also north of the river - probably near or at the foot of the hills. The first tea plantation in Darrang seems to have been opened in 1854 at Balipara. In Lakhimpur the culti­ vation of tea was first undertaken by the government in 3835 at Sadiya. By 1901 there were 137*829 acres of tea gardens in Daj>- rang and 21,272 acres in North Lakhimpur Subdivision.^* Once these lands were brought under tea cultivation they were presumably closed to the hillmen, though in at least some of them the hill- men must have had free access formerly.

Similarly they lost access to the forests which were de­ clared as Reserved Forests. Once a reserve was declared, it be­ came a punishable offence under the Assam Forest Regulation, 1891, to hunt, shoot, or fish, or to fell or cut any tree, or to collect

2

any forest-produce in the Reserved Forest. The first reserves in Darrang were possibly gazetted in 1874. In Lakhimpur the first reserved forest seems to have been created in 1887. By the turn of the twentieth century there was a considerable area of reserved

^"B. C. Allen, Assam District Gazetteers. Darrang. Allahabad, 1905, pp. 136, 252; B. C. Allen, Assam District Gazetteers. Lakhimpur. Calcutta, 1905» p.168, Appendix, p.14.

The Assam Forest Regulation, 1891s The Eastern Bengal and Assam Code. Vol. 1, Calcutta, 1907.

Trade had an important place in the tribal economy. One striking characteristic of trade on this frontier was the absence of any through traffic between Tibet and the plains except by two routes. The more important of these routes was the Tawang route that passed via Tawang and Tsona Dzong. Much less important

was the Lohit Valley route which linked Assam with the Tibetan region of Zayul. The tribesmen living ii the northern p arts of the frontier traded with Tibet and those living in the southern parts traded with the plains. When in 1911 Bailey travelled from China to Assam through the Mishmi country, he found the tribesmen living near the plains going south to obtain their supply of salt which was rare in the hills, while those living near Tibet were going

2

north for this necessary commodity. This horizontal stratification among the tribes was observed even as late as 1944-45 by Professor Furer^-Haimendorf during his tours in the Subansiri region. He found that the tribesmen living jn the northern and southern parts of the frontier obtained salt and iron from Tibet and the plains

1

Progress Reports of Forest Administration in.Assam. 1874-75, 1886-87, 1900-01. The map of the province enclosed in the last report shows the total area of reserves.

North Lakhimpur.1

50

.

respectively, and that the dividing line between the Indian and Tibetan spheres of trade influence ran in a north-easterly dir­ ection, roughly midway through the Subansiri region.^" Recently Dr. Lamb has likened this stratification to three layers which

2

seems to have been possible. One layer of tribes had contact with the plains, another with Tibet, and the one between the two had no contact with the outside world.

The cause of this stratification was economic. The tribes­ men living near Tibet or the plains would not allow the interior tribes to have an outlet in either direction, since both were in­ terested in maintaining their lucrative position as intermediaries in the trade between the interior tribes and the outside world. Consequently, there were numerous barriers on the frontier which blocked free movement of trade. The only two exceptions seem to have been the Tawang and Lohit routes. These trade blocks seem to have been particularly prominsit in the Abor country. "The entire country consists of a series of what may be called trade blocks, one tribe after another insisting on being the sole inter­ mediary, and regarding with the utmost jealousy even the passage

3

of strangers through their territory.*1 In the Dibang valley 4

also there were trade blocks. Such obstacles often forced trade

^Furer-Haimendorf, Ethnographic Notes, p.58. 2

Lamb, The China-India Border, p. 22. 3

Dundas* tour diary of the Abor Survey Party, March 1913; Assam to India, Foreign Dept., No. 2076 P., 7 May 1914: P.S.S.F.Vol. 28 (1913), 4745/1914.

4

into circuitous routes, and sometimes even dn the opposite and unnatural direction* For instance, the Pangis, who inhabited

the left bank of the Yamne within view of the plains, were com­ pelled to trade northward.'*'

The British realized that the remedy for this harmful pheno­ menon of tribal economy lay in establishing trade centres in the hills and in constructing roads which would afford easy and safe passage to the trade centres in the hills as well as to the plains. These measures, it was felt, would lift the curtains which blocked

trade with the plains, and would eventually lead to normal re­ lations with the tribes through regular trade contact. In 1912 the Local Government proposed the establishment of a trade post in 1he Abor country to be held for at least several months in the

2

year by a guard of 100 rifles. Later "they further suggested that the best means by which the Political Officer could acquaint hiinr*

self with the important villages in his charge, and establish friendly relations with them was unobstructed trade. For this purpose, the

trade post, which had been sanctioned by the Government of India, should be gradually moved forward into the Abor country along with the extension of a road. This process should continue until at least

1919> p.i; Assam to India, Foreign Dept., Wo. 8211/P., 10 September 1919: P.S.S.F.,Vol. 74 (1914), 999/1920*. 1Bentinck, Report, P.S.S.F., Vol. 14 (1910), 3057/1912. 2

Assam to India, Foreign Dept., No. 69 P.T. , 7 July 1912: P.S.S.F., Vol. 14 (1910), 3057/1912.

Riga was reached; short of that, British control would only touch the fringe of the Abor country and the existing barriers would continue against through trade with the plains.^" The con­ struction of a road in the Siyom valley also was strongly recom-

2