FRONTIER AND OVERSEAS EXPEDITIONS FROM INDIA: VOLUME IV NORTH AND NORTH-EASTERN FRONTIER TRIBES

This interesting volume gives an account of operations against various countries bordering India,, in each case beginning with a description of the country and its people, an outline of its history, the size of any army it may have had, first contacts wih the British and the reason for hostilities. We begin with. the war with Nepal, 1814-15.. The Nepalese had been laying claim to certain areas on the borders withIndia , to which they had no right, and even sending in troops to occupy them. The British response was to put into the field a force of some 20.000 made up into four divisions each operating in a different area . The fortunes of each in the fighting are described and the comment is made that of the four divisions with which the campaign started the operations of three were total failures. But the war resulted in that friendship with Britain that began even before the it was over with the raising of the first Gurkha regiment (the Malaun Regiment) in 1815. The story of the war with Nepal is followed by an account of expeditions against Sikkim in 1814, 1860, and 1888. in which we also had problems with the Tibetans. Action against them was taken to secure borders. Bhutan comes next with an account of its relations with Nepal, China, with Tibet and with the British. Military action was taken against the Bhutanese on several occasions between 1772, when the East India Company went to the aid of Kuch Behar at the ruler’s request when the Bhutanese invaded his country, and 1864. All these are conveniently described in one chapter including the composition of the forces sent out and the name of the commander. Assam, we are assured, cannot be described historically as one country, as it is made up of different tribes and nations and in this account each is taken in turn and this is the largest section of the book as military operations are described in each area from the Burma War of 1824 to the Manipur expedition of 1891.This section is as good a lesson in geography as it is in history. The final section deals with the Lushais whose country lies on the eastern frontier of India and is described as being a mass of hills averaging 3000-4000 feet. British assaults were usually in response to Lushai raids into India. Three punitive expeditions are described in some detail Brig-Gen : Brownlows’s in 1871-72; Colonel Tregear’s in 1888-89 and the Chin-Lushai expedition of 1889-90, again under the command of Colonel Tregear.