Assam Rifles History: Myth of Cachar Levy becoming the Assam Rifles
- Part 2 -

Lt Col M Ranjit Singh (Retd) *

Captain W Simonds raised Assam Sebundy Corps at Gauhati on April 13, 1835. The word Sebundy has long gone out of use. It probably came from Southern India, where a similar word meaning ‘foreigners’ can be traced. Sebundies were irregular foot soldiers who, in pre-British times, constituted the armed forces which always accompanied the tax-gatherers, and were also employed on police duties.

Grange, after his initial employment at Nowgong for about a month, was to be posted out to Jorhat. Still, he was retained at Nowgong at the request of Lieutenant Bigge, Principal Assistant to the Agent, Nowgong. The officer initially selected to command the Cachar Levy was Lieutenant Hunt. At the last moment, Grange was chosen to lead the Cachar Levy as Lieutenant Hunt was severely ill.

The instructions given to Grange for dealing with the Angami Nagas were “It will be the duty of him to proven any attack upon the Naga Villages until he was quite satisfied that they have participated in the offences they are charged with and until he had made an attempt to obtain the surrender of the persons of the perpetrators by mediation, but this failing he will direct the Commander to endeavour to seize the individual or to lay both of any other Nagas of the same village as hostages, or to inflict such other punishment as he may be able on any Naga apprehended in this manner”.

Grange and his party of Sebundies and Shans left Nowgong on January 5, 1839. On reaching Goonigogoo on January 11, he needed help finding information on the incursions of the Angami Nagas. With an escort of 14 Sepoys, he then proceeded to Silchar to meet Captain Burns, leaving the rest of the party behind.

He reached Silchar on January 17, met Captain Burns and got additional information on the Angami Nagas. The weapons sent from Calcutta had not reached Silchar then. Captain Burns put all available and workable muskets at Silchar for repair. Finally, 30 muskets were repaired, and equal numbers of men from the Levy armed with the repaired muskets accompanied Grange on January 19.

One Subedar and 20 more men from the Levy joined Grange’s party on January 26. The expedition’s administrative planning needed improvement, and the expedition could only achieve a little. The main difficulties faced by the team were the need for more armed troops to oversee the large population of hostile Nagas, the non-availability of a regular supply of rations, the deficiency of reliable porters and the lack of knowledge of the geographical locations of the main and large Naga Villages. Many times, the party had to survive on a meal per day.

The party had to resort to occasionally forcefully collecting grains from the Naga villages. Grange’s responsibility to the troops was to provide rice only. It must be remembered that Sepoys of the Levy had been given an advance of one month’s pay, and they were to manage salt and other requirements of the rations by themselves. At Umbolo or Kichong, Grange met a Manipuri who had been captured.

He was sold as a slave to a Naga of the village and later on married a Naga girl. The most significant achievements of Grange’s expedition were his meetings with the younger brother of powerful Khonoma Chief Inpuijee on February 26 and with Ikkari, Chief of Mozemah, on March 8. In his report, Grange wrote that Ikkari wore a collar studded with human hairs from his enemy’s scalp.

On both occasions, traditional and most sacred oaths of the Angami Nagas were taken not to molest in future any persons or subjects of East India Company. The oath-taking ceremony consists of holding one end of a spear by one party and the other end by another, cutting the spear into two halves, each retaining its bits.

The biggest failure of Grange’s expedition was his inability to bring back the captives held by the Angami Nagas, as his force was too small and ill-armed to fight with the numerically superior Nagas. He returned on March 15, 1839. Cachar Levy was disbanded on May 16, 1839.

A report was made by the Superintendent of Cachar to the Government of India on May 29, 1839, which mentions that “ I have the honour to inform you that except one Native Officer and 30 men, the Cahar Levy was paid and discharged on 16th (May 1839) instant”.

The 30 men referred to above were Manipuris who opted to join the Pioneers and Sappers Regiment and then made a new road to connect Cachar with Manipur. A second expedition was carried out against the Angami Nagas by Grange from December 3, 1839, to March 2, 1840. The details of the forces that accompanied Grange have yet to be discovered.

In Assam, till the 1870s, the police were divided into two branches: (1) civil police for detection and prevention of crimes and (2) the armed or frontier police whose duty was to guard jails and treasuries, furnish escorts and main frontier outposts.

Three Regiments of Gurkhas have always been posted in Assam since the conclusion of the First Burmese War. These Regiments and also the Armed Civil Police used to hold 60 frontier posts in Assam. The Bengal Government in 1870 took up a case with the Government of India to remove the three Gurkha Regiments from Assam and, in their place, raise two local regiments who would do the duties of armed police and also hold the entire frontier posts, including those held by the Gurkhas.

The two local regiments being raised should be a force having a military organisation, but so drilled, officered, and mobilised as to be capable of taking up an outpost and detached duty without material detriment to its corporate efficiency.

Assam was part of Bengal till February 1874. The reorganisation of the Civil Armed Police to the Assam Frontier Force was affected in 1885. The four battalions were Lakhimpur, Naga Hills, Cachar and Garo Hills. Two Commandants were from the army, and two were from the police. The name of Assam Frontier Force was changed to Assam Military Police in 1887.

In June 1917, the Chief Commissioner of Assam took up a case with the Government of India that the name of Assam Military Police should be changed to Assam Rifles. It must be remembered that a total of 23 JCOs and 3174 Sepoys of Assam Military Police went as drafts to various Gurkha Battalions during the First World War, and they fought along with the regular troops of the army.

But many times, they were looked down upon because they were called Military police, the word “Police” being the cause of ridicule. Many Army Officers refused to volunteer for the force as they considered it derogatory to join the force, which had the word “police” nomenclature.

Even the GOC, 8th (Lucknow) Division commented that the change in nomenclature was necessary in order to give more prestige to the Forceforce and raise the status and esprit de Corps of officers and men of the battalions.

The Government of India gave the sanction for change in the name of the force to “Assam Rifles” on August 13, 1917. As American Historical Association member James McPherson had said, ‘There is no single, eternal, and immutable ‘truth’ about past events and their meaning.” The time has come to change the narratives of the origin of Assam Rifles.

Concluded ...

** The primary documents used in writing this article are available at the National Archives of India at Delhi under Political Consultations of Foreign Department (1830–39).