Tag: Lipokmar Dzüvichü

By Lipokmar Dzüvichü

Focusing on the Naga Hills, this article looks at the significance of colonial writings on the Nagas in the nineteenth century. It examines some of the complex ways in which colonial writings became an important practice in framing and representing the Naga Hills and its inhabitants, and in the process linking the people and the territory to a range of ideas. Colonial writings comprise an important genre which provides interesting information to examine the relationship between writing, knowledge forms and representation. While various complex facets can be explored regarding the colonial writings, this article focuses primarily on three interconnected aspects: one, how colonial writings were instrumental in producing the idea of the Nagas as “savage”; second, the construction of the Naga Hills in the official writings as spaces of “disorder”; and third, the ways in which the hills were depicted as spaces of “isolation” in colonial writings.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20201972

By Lipokmar Dzüvichü

This article explores the relationship between territoriality and state making practices in the Northeast Frontier of British India in the nineteenth century. It examines the complex ways in which colonial territorial strategies were framed and enacted in a variety of spatial settings. Territoriality formed an important strategy of the British raj in its attempt to “control actions, interactions [and] access” of people, things and relationships over the frontier geographies. By establishing symbols of state institutions in the “wild” frontier spaces, colonial officials sought to institute and put in place a semblance of order and control over the imperial margins. These undertakings were in turn closely entangled with the colonial efforts to transform the “ill-defined” frontier landscape into clearly defined state spaces. Colonial territorial strategies were not only critical in order to define its spatial and institutional presence in the frontier, but also simultaneously aimed to historicize colonial authority and territorial possession. Colonial territorializing strategies were, however, not a simple linear enterprise. It proceeded over a landscape that was marked by a variety of political systems, relations and practices. Even as colonial authorities worked its way into the region, the state attempt to institute new forms of regulations and authority would also engender various responses and reactions by a variety of actors. The article will examine some of these complex processes that accompanied state territorialization initiatives and ascendancies in the frontier.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14717281