History of Assam Rifles with Illustrations & Map

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About the Book History of Assam rifles Leslie Waterfield Shakespeare.

This book was written to facilitate the scholars engaged in research on various aspects of Mizo culture and History. This rare book was reprinted by the Tribal Research Institute, Aizawl with the help of grants received from the Department of Education, Government of Mizoram. It chronologically traces the origin and development of Assam Rifles. It also covers the gradual pacification of Assam since the British Power was first compelled to interfere in its affairs and closes with chapter on the ancient ruins of historical Interest found in various parts of the Province. It consisted of specially recruited Gurkha rank and file commanded by British officers on secondment from the Indian Army. This is a comprehensive history with good detail of operations in the Chin Hills, Naga Hills, Abor, Lushai etc. Bibliography, Index, Apps: list of former COs, notes on affiliations with Gurkha units, notes on Assam Rifles organization changes from 1863 onwards, 84 mono photos, one plate, 6 maps.

About The Author:-L. W. Shakespeare, Colonel in 2nd Gorkhas, more than five articles printed in Army review on or before October 1912. In this connection a remark of Commander Bellairs, R. N. is very important. L. W. Shakespeare endeavored to collect materials from all to me possible sources and weaving them into narrative form to produce something useful and readable at least for those who care about that little-known but very interesting corner of India. Without certain of the books mentioned in the bibliography this could not have been attempted and I desire to record my high appreciation of, and indebtedness to the particular labors of their authors; and my gratitude to the Librarian of the Imperial Library Calcutta for his personal assistance so courteously given.

Preface IN compiling this history of the five battalions of the Assam Rifles, in one of which I had the honor of serving 15 Commandant thirty years ago, to be in later years fol- lowed by being appointed Deputy-Inspector-General to the Force, I have endeavored to search all available documents and books from the early days of Assam under British rule onwards for material with which to form it, and have arranged it as far as possible in proper sequence. Sometimes information has been turned up in most un- likely places; for instance, who would have thought that the best account of Col. Hannay's Abor Expedition in 1859 could have come out of the "History of the Indian Navy"? But so it was, and due to the fact that in early days the Indian Navy had a few gunboats on the main rivers, two of which were on the Brahmaputra river at Dibrugarh, and sent a naval contingent with Hannay's force. Again the " History of Indian Railways "(Assam section) gave accounts of Frontier Police escorts to rail- way survey parties which were not alluded to anywhere else, for prior to about 1899 no such thing as Battalion Records were kept up. Many episodes of the consolidation of British rule east of Bengal have been derived from old records and books and are brought out as a connected narrative, trouble having been taken to get as true and complete a history of this little known old Force, without embellishment or drawing on the imagination, in spite of Bacon's statement that "the mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure." I am most grateful to the Commandants of the Assam Rifle Battalions for assistance given me in their extracts from their Battalion Records, and to the Inspector- General of Police for kindly allowing me the use of numerous notes on the internal economy of the Force and other matters, without all of which this history would have been incomplete. My hearty thanks are also given t Col. J. Shakespeare, C.M.G., C.I.E., D.S.O., who kindly helped me in a large measure with a great portion dealing with the Lushai Hills, of which he was Superintendent for many years, and to Major A. Dallas Smith, M.C., lately Commandant 4th A.R., who went through most of the work in the rough and assisted with corrections and useful suggestions.

In the earlier years of the province the Frontier Police being one body, they are dealt with as such until the 'sixties, when this body was divided into territorial units, as it were. From then onwards to the Great War separate chapters deal with the life and doings of each individual unit or Military Police Battalion, as they came to be designated on the reorganization of the Frontier Police and border defense in 1882. From 1914 on the history deals with the Force as a whole, for its activities in this last period embraced detachments from all battalions.

The Assam Rifles, whose units have recently been affiliated with the different groups of Gorkha regiments of the Indian Army, have had, as will be seen in these pages, a career of not far short of a century, full of arduous undertakings and borderland service connected with their duties as Wardens of our long N.-E.Marches of India. They have taken their share in the heat and burden and stress of every expedition officially recognized as such or otherwise, labours which formerly have too frequently passed un- noticed, and in spite of the recent depletion of their ranks, due to temporary economic reasons, it is pleasant to read the remarks of the Governor of Assam in the last Police Review for 1925. These run: "Notwithstanding the reduction in the complement of British officers and men and the undue strains consequently placed on the remainder of the battalions, the Force surpasses its former high standard of efficiency. Generally the last year's record (1924) has been one with which officers and men have every reason to be satisfied, and the Governor-in-Council congratulates the several Commandants who have succeeded in spite of difficulties in maintaining the high traditions of the Assam Rifles."

**Contents and Sample Pages**