Colonial Knowledge Production in North-East India : Part IV
- Henry Belfour’s visit to Naga Hills and Manipur -

Dr Syed Ahmed *

Henry Balfour - published in Popular Science Monthly Volume 65, 1904
Photo courtesy: wikipedia.org

Henry Balfour was the first curator of the famous Pitt Rivers Museum, also known as University of Oxford’s Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology. Today, this museum is one of world’s great repositories of anthropological and archaeological collections. It was founded in 1884 when Lt. Gen. Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827-1900), an eminent figure in the field of Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology, offered his collection to the Oxford University.

Belfour joined the museum when he was only 22 years old. He devoted the rest of his life to looking after the ethnography collections. Later in life, he donated all his collections, which he had gathered from various parts of the world to the museum. The collections, including artifacts and photographs, made by renowned anthropologists, such as J.H. Hutton, J.P. Mills, Christoph Von Himendorf, etc. from North-eastern frontier were also deposited to the museum.

Notably, Belfour was a close friend of J.H. Hutton, the anthropologist and administrator, who was served in Assam in the early decades of the 20th century. He visited India in 1922-23, stayed as guest of J.H. Hutton, and toured the Naga Hills and Manipur. He left behind a diary of the visit, entitled Diary of a Tour in the Naga Hills, 1922-1923, which is quite enthralling to read. An excerpt from the diary is given in the subsequent paragraphs.

Henry Balfour was born to Louis Balfour in 1863 in Croydon, UK. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford, and later studied animal morphology in 1885. In 1884, the University of Oxford gave permission for collection of ethnological and archaeological specimens collected and catalogued by Pitt Rivers.

Professor Henry Nottidge Moseley, who was given the charge of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University, invited Balfour, one of his students, to assist in the installation of the collection in the new museum building.

Moseley soon saw Balfour’s passion in the work and intelligence, as well as his love of animals, and his proficiency as a draughtsman. He worked under Moseley’s supervision till the latter’s death in 1891. Thereafter, the whole responsibility of managing the museum was given to Balfour. He was appointed curator in 1893. He continued to hold the position until his last breath.

In the early 1890s, Belfour started delivering formal lectures to students of Oxford, and by the early 1900s, he began to give informal instruction in the museum to students. Barbara Freire Marecco and Cecil Mallaby Firth were among his prominent students. Belfour was one of the founding members of the Committee for Anthropology, which opened programmes for physical and cultural anthropology at the university from 1905. Over the following decades, Balfour had taught hundreds of anthropology students. One of his former students later recollected:

“Our work with Henry Balfour was done entirely in the Pitt Rivers Museum, of which he was Curator, before exhibition cases which frequently were supplemented with trays or handfuls of additional specimens...The handful of notes which he brought to the peripatetic lecture were suggestive of Darwin's use of every scrap and kind of paper; they were any size and shape, sometimes interspersed with press clippings and portions of letters.”

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Photo courtesy: wikipedia.org / Einsamer Schütze

Several of Balfour’s students went on to work abroad as ethnologists and colonial administrators, and they began to send rare collections back to the Pitt Rivers Museum from all corners of the globe.

In 1887, Balfour married Edith, daughter of R.F. Wilkins. They had a son, named Louis. Balfour, then residing at Headington, Oxford, died on 9th February 1939 at the age of 75, few months after the demise of his partner.

Belfour authored a book, entitled The Evolution of Decorative Art (1893). However, he published numerous scholarly articles, on topics ranging from “musical bows to fire-pistons or fishing-kites” and explored its evolutionary development through history and across different cultures.

Balfour travelled various parts of the globe for explorations. He visited Norway, Finland and Russian Lapland to study whales and whaling traditions. He visited South Africa many times, besides other East African countries. He also travelled to Australia, Indonesia, USA, Canada, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and India. During the visits, he checked the museums and met its curators, administrators, private collectors, other travellers, besides local residents.

As curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Belfour developed a vast network of friends and acquaintances, and during his field visits, he collected enormous amount of ethnographic and archaeological artifacts. He was also one of the greatest donors. It is estimated that he gave the second highest number of objects to the Museum after General Pitt Rivers. Belfour is recorded as the source for well over 15,000 objects.

He was particularly keen in traditional music, and collected several hundreds of different types of musical instruments which form the foundation of the museum’s remarkable ethno-musicology collections. He also gathered hundreds of stone tools, weapons, and objects used to make fire and lighting technologies, as well as countless other artifacts of all descriptions. He also donated several thousand of books to the library.

Balfour was also associated with many other academic bodies. He served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Museums Association, Folklore Society and the Royal Geographical Society. He was elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society in 1924, and was given the personal title of Professor of Ethnology by Oxford University in 1935.

An excerpt of Belfour’s visit to Manipur (from Kohima) along with Mr. and Mrs. Hutton from the Diary of a Tour in the Naga Hills, 1922-1923 (manuscript available in wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk) is given below:

Sun. Sept. 24th, 1922

Packed for Manipur, as we had been invited by Mr. Gimson, the British Resident, to stay a few days with him in Imphal. A Ford car of disreputable appearance was packed full of our luggage, bedding etc., & Hutton, Mrs. Hutton & I squeezed in somehow. After spending 1.75 hours trying to get the car to start, with the help of about 10 natives pushing, we gave it up & returned with our belongings to the bungalow.

The aged car, which was patched up with sheets of zinc etc. & had one outer cover tied onto the tyre with wire, was dragged away to be tinkered up if possible. Cloud enveloped Kohima all the morning & it rained heavily nearly all day. One gets used to being continually wet & to putting on wet clothes in the morning & getting into wet pyjamas & a moist bed at night. No harm seems to come of it. The whole atmosphere is saturated with moisture during the rains.

(It was only in their fourth attempt that they could commence their journey towards Manipur on a Ford car)

Wed. Sept. 27th

Text: Packed for the fourth time for Manipur. This time the fates were with us, as a car from Dimapur turned up, & we started at 10.40 a.m. in fine weather. The car, another ancient Ford, did not run well, but did not break down. The road, uphill for 20 or 30 miles, was good, except where landslips have overwhelmed it & it was being repaired. There have been several bad land-slides & we had to bump & jolt over the roughest of 'corduroy'-roads at these places. Scenery lovely all the way. Jungle, jhum & panikhets succeeded one another giving endless variety.

We passed Kegwena & Viswema (Angami villages) & pulled up for a short while at Mao, on the top of the pass (c. 6000 feet). We visited this Angami village which has several good carved & painted house-fronts & at least one carved village door, as well as some well-built circular stone sitting-out places. We then ran on to Maram, mostly down-hill & had lunch at the stone-built Inspection bungalow, which is quite a substantial building. There are many huge monoliths (genna stones) standing like menhirs near the bungalow in seeming allignment. Some must be 13 feet high & of great girth.

The present native village is a good distance from the bungalow. After leaving Maram we passed in sight of a very long avenue of menhirs, leading from the valley to the Naga village of Maram. We ran along the valley of the Barak R. to Koirang, where we reached the flat Manipur plain. The scenery had changed since Mao, the jungle was much less high & more broken up with grassy expanses. Panikhets became fewer & more confined to the valleys & the population was scantier. Very beautiful all round.

The plain became a dead level, though bounded by hills on either side. Extensive cultivated fields. Very large herds of humped cattle & quantities of water-buffaloes (some of them ridden by quite small boys. Manipuri ponies abundant. A somewhat different type of native is seen, though nearly related to the Nagas - Tangkhuls, Koiraos, Kukis and Manipuris (Meitheis). Small villages along the road with booths, quite picturesque.

Birds became more numerous & of the regular plains types - Paddy egrets, White Egrets (large & small), many of these standing on the backs of cattle, Black Drongos, Rollers, Bee-eaters, Black Crows, various raptorials (including a handsome white-headed grey Kite (?) [sic]), mynahs, White Wagtails (Yellow Wagtails had been abundant in the hills around Mao), many vultures, smoke-coloured doves very abundant everywhere along the road; Snipe (both Fan-tail & Pin-tail), Greenshanks.

We reached Imphal (the capital of Manipur) & pulled up at the Residency at 5.45p.m., after a run of 88 miles (fortunately, though oddly enough, without a breakdown). Mr. Gimson, the Resident, was not in, so we went to our rooms, cleaned up & then had tea. Gimson turned up soon after. The Residency is beautifully situated in a very nice garden with small lakes (‘tanks’). It rained after 7 p.m. Flying-foxes & other bats flying around in numbers after dusk. I had a very jolly room, opening out onto a verandah & the garden.

Thurs. Sept. 28th

Text: Breakfast at 8.0. Hutton & Gimson went off to shoot snipe, & I went with an English-speaking Manipuri clerk, Mangaljao by name, to look around Imphal. We first visited the Civil Court (for local cases only); a rectangular Court-room, open along the front, very simply furnished. A frieze of paintings by a Manipuri state artist very crudely depicts scenes from the life of Krishna.

The adjacent Criminal Court is a similar building, having a similar frieze depicting scenes in Hell, very lurid & thrilling scenes of torment, serving as a warning to liars & perjurers. Next we went round the Bazaars. The Naga section is very interesting, where were grouped Tangkhuls, almost naked & with much distended ear-lobes, Chirus with large annular silver ear-ornaments, grooved outside for the ear lobe, like a bicycle-wheel for its tyre; and Kabuis.

Text: After lunch I went with Hutton round the Bazaars & markets. Thousands of Manipuris, Kukis, Koiraos, Tangkhuls etc. etc. were massed there & a brisk trade was being conducted in fish, meat, vegetables, betel-nut, pan leaves & lime; pottery, basketry, turned stone pots (at 2 annas apiece), wooden articles, chillam pipes with coconut water-holders & wooden stands, etc. Native jewelry, silver & brass ornaments etc. were on stalls in the covered market; other commodities were mostly spread out on mats or flat baskets on the ground. There is a big trade in cloth goods, mostly of native make.

The fish-stalls stank so furiously that we had to fly from them. A small, slimy-looking black cat-fish was in great abundance, very unattractive in appearance, & most repellant to the nose. I met Mrs. Dallas Smith in the market & escorted her to the tennis club-ground. Mr. & Mrs. Jolly & their daughter, Mrs. Amery, and Mr. Crawford came to dinner at the Residency, & we all went to a ‘nautch’ at the Drill shed, where performances were given of Manipuri dances & songs, Bengali dances & songs, sword-dancing & tumbling & a number of comic plays.

We were there from 9.30 p.m. till well past midnight. The Drill Hall was absolutely packed. Most of the English residents were there & hundreds of natives - a most picturesque sight. The singing was very high-pitched & nasal & the music seemingly inconsequent & hard to follow. The dancing mostly consisted in posturing & hand & arm movements, very little foot-work.

Fri. Sept. 29th

Text: In the morning the Ghoorkhas held a great sacrificial ceremony, when they decapitated with a special sword several oxen, whose heads were tied to a stake. A single blow struck off each head. Also scores of fowls and ducks were decapitated. A very gory scene which I did not attend. Instead, I went with Mangaljao to see the Maharaja's palace, which is not very impressive. It stands in a large garden space with a temple on one side & a Durbar Hall (open & of small size) on the other.

A small, wired-in tank is stocked with Pintail ducks & Grey-lag geese (with bright red beaks). The 5 wives of the Maharaja have separate bungalows. Europeans are not allowed to enter, or even touch, the palace for fear of defilement! I visited the stables which are poor. In a field nearby I saw H.H.’s elephants - 4 adult & 2 young. One bull had very large tusks. Later I saw them out for exercise, the mahout standing on the bare back of the big tusker. Next I visited the goal, where convicts were working at revolving mills for extracting mustard-seed oil; weaving, carpentry and chair-mending; also dhan-pounding with a rocking-beam pestle

Sat. Sept. 30th

Text: In the morning I went with Mr. & Mrs. Jolly to seen Manipur weaving on hand-looms (mostly of the simple ‘Indonesian’ type, but a few treadle-looms). The weaving was very skilfully done. Tangkhul cloths of large size & fine patterned colouring are woven on the ‘Indonesian’ loom for sale to the Tangkhul Nagas. I bought two of these for 10.5 rupees the two. It rained in the afternoon. I went round the Bazaars with Gangeschaudra Das (Rai sahib), the doctor of the Hospital & bought a pair of brass bugle armlets (2/8) & a brass head-fillet (2/8), also 4 brass saucer-lamps (Manipuri - 8 annas).

We stayed there till dark. Gangeschaudra proved a delightful & informative companion. Mr. & Mrs. Philpot came to dinner & afterwards we all motored to Nahabam to attend the Nowkakhela Festival, by invitation of the Maharajah, in whose absence his brother, the Senapati, received the guests under an awning on the bank of the river. The night was dark but the scene was well illuminated & was a wondrous sight.

A huge crowd of natives was assembled on both banks. Abundant fire-works were let off & fell & exploded amid the crowd, to the huge delight of those not immediately affected. Rockets now & then fell on our shelter & had to be promptly extinguished to prevent fire. An exhilaratingly dangerous performance. Two large barges, formed by uniting several large dug-out canoes & laying a platform over them, were on the river. Each carried at one end a large & tawdry shrine containing a huge figure of the 10-armed Durga, with a daughter on either side & a white lion in front; the whole elaborately garnished.

Religious and secular dancing & singing went on each barge & continued for about 2.5 hours. At about 11 p.m. the lights were extinguished & the shrines with their figures of Durga were pushed or lowered into the river (most of the embellishments having been previously removed), and with that the ceremony ended. The whole seemed very inconsequent, a strange mixture of religion and pure buffoonery, but it was none the less extremely picturesque & amusing.

The ceremony seems to be connected with a fertility cult. The Senapati is a small, very fat, genial person, but as he could not speak English I was not able to talk to him, except with the help of an interpreter. Refreshments & smokes were served round continuously all the evening.

Sun. Oct. 1st

Text: After breakfast I interviewed the [female] Huluk, which has the run of the Residency ground. She was shy & not friendly, but sat on a low branch of a tree calling loudly with the peculiar, semi-ventriloquial notes peculiar to the Gibbons, giving the impression of several Huluks calling simultaneously. The volume of sound is considerable. A crow nearby was imitating her very successfully.

Mrs. Hutton & I went with the Jollys to see some more of the weaving industries & native carpentry. I ordered models of the local dug-out canoe, and of a nearly obsolete kind of sledge-cart, which was in universal use 30 years ago, when there was no wheeled traffic. The Manipuri habitations consist of a compound with huts around it, each hut raised on a mud plinth or platform, 18"-20" high.

The huts are mostly built of reed or bamboo course matwork coated with mud. A small Tulsi shrub or two is in each compound, & associated with this sacred plant are small shrines with natural small boulders set-up in the ground (linga). No European may touch one of the huts (or even the plinth), as this would defile it, &, should this happen, the hut would be demolished & have to be built again (at the transgressor's expense).

This is strictly adhered to. We went on to pay a visit to the old deposed Maharani, Premamayu, and her sister, the widow of the Senapati who had usurped the throne in 1890 & who was largely responsible for the massacre of 1891. The old ladies were delighted with our visit & enquired tenderly after Col. J. Shakespear & Col. Maxwell. They received us in state & led me in by the hand.

We conversed through the medium of one of the Maharani's sons who spoke some English. A huge state umbrella was held over us as we sat. The Maharani is a dear old lady & most courteous & friendly. On parting she insisted upon presenting me with a very delicate sash, woven on her own looms. She also gave us a large bunch of bananas. It was an interesting visit.

Text: It rained in the afternoon, but I went for a 5 mile walk by myself past the Monkey Tope & a good way along the river. I saw a good many Rhesus monkeys in among the houses, quite alive to their immunity & fearless. Bee-eaters were fairly abundant. I got back to the Residency just in time, at 4.30p.m., for a grand Kabui nautch; the dances being performed on the Residency lawn. Most of the dances were in linear formation, the men usually hopping twice on each foot successively & moving along, bringing their hands together at each movement.

The girls, with fillets round their heads & coloured loin-cloth skirts, moved their feet with a shuffling motion & kept their hands raised all the time. They were alternated with the men, who sang all the time in strophe & antistrophe, to an accompaniment of drum and cymbals (the big drum was supported on the back of a small boy).

Each dance ended with 4 girls in the centre of a half-circle formed by the other dancers, & these 4 danced together in pairs, clapping each other's hands; first one & then another falling out until one girl only was left, and when she finished, the dance came to an end. The men wore imitation horns on their heads & carried daos. The singing was simple & the music quite intelligible to Europeans.

The girls are far more Mongolian in appearance than the men, and much shorter. The dances were well executed & the effect very pleasing. Some Kukis brought to the Residency a Slow Loris (Nycticebus tardigradus) alive but very sleepy. We dined with Major & Mrs. Dallas Smith at their bungalow.

Mon. Oct. 2nd

Text: I went down early to the tank in the Residency grounds to see the white herons, which flock there in considerable numbers & perch in scores upon some trees on a small island. After breakfast we said goodbye to our more than kind host, Gimson, and at 9.45 a.m. the Huttons & I started in a Ford car on the return journey to Kohima. One of Hutton's Sema youths hung on outside the car. I was very sorry to leave Imphal, which is a fascinating place…[sic]