Kukis                19    Chiefs led     preservation of independence of Manipur. It
                            by             lasted for three years during which 4900 people
                            Khotinthang    were killed.
                            Sitlhou
 Nagas     Nagaland   1929- Jadonang       The Heraka was a religious movement that got
                      33    and his        transformed into a political one. Beginning from
                            neice, Rani    the Zeliangrong tribes, they sought to establish
                            Gaidinliu      inter-tribal solidarity and unity.
 Chenchus Nallamala   1921– Hanumanthu     Their revolt against increasing British control
           Hills      22                   over frorests.
           (Andhra
           Pradesh)
THE 1857 REVOLT
Background
History in Two Halves The lesson that the British drew from 1857 was
that caution must prevail: Indian traditions must be respected and the
assumed guardians of these traditions—priests, princes or landholders—were
to be conciliated under firm authoritarian British rule. Thus, British Indian
history in the 19th century is often divided into two halves, separated by the
great watershed of 1857: an age of ill-considered reform, followed by an age
of iron conservatism. Conservatism was eventually to provoke a different
form of reaction, the nationalism out of which modern India was to be born.
There are, however, serious difficulties in any interpretation of 19th century
Indian history that divides it into an age of reform that gave way under the
shock of rebellion, to an age of conservatism. This may in a very rough sense,
reflect the intentions of India’s British rulers, but what the British intended
and what they were able to achieve were often very different things.
Genesis of Disaffection In the first half of the 19th century, when the East
India Company still ruled India on Britain’s behalf, there was a heady
rhetoric of reform and improvement in some British circles. The aspiration of
Thomas Macaulay to foster “a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour,
but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect” is often quoted.
Less often quoted is his preceding sentence, in which he admitted that “it is
impossible for us, with our limited     means, to attempt to educate the body of