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Tributary Hill polity: chiefs and overlords in the northern Chin Hills , by T. Gin
Khan Thang and Paoneikhai Suantak, New Delhi, Mittal Publication, 2015, 362
pp. + 6 illustrations...

Article  in  Asian Ethnicity · November 2016

DOI: 10.1080/14631369.2016.1249659

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 Asian Ethnicity

ISSN: 1463-1369 (Print) 1469-2953 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/caet20

Tributary Hill polity: chiefs and overlords in the

northern Chin Hills, by T. Gin Khan Thang and
Paoneikhai Suantak, New Delhi, Mittal Publication,
2015, 362 pp. + 6 illustrations, Rs. 1200 (hardcover),
ISBN 9788183244701

S. Thangboi Zou

To cite this article: S. Thangboi Zou (2016): Tributary Hill polity: chiefs and overlords in
the northern Chin Hills, by T. Gin Khan Thang and Paoneikhai Suantak, New Delhi, Mittal
Publication, 2015, 362 pp. + 6 illustrations, Rs. 1200 (hardcover), ISBN 9788183244701, Asian
Ethnicity, DOI: 10.1080/14631369.2016.1249659

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Asian Ethnicity, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2016.1249659

BOOK REVIEW

Tributary Hill polity: chiefs and overlords in the northern Chin Hills, by T. Gin Khan
Thang and Paoneikhai Suantak, New Delhi, Mittal Publication, 2015, 362 pp. + 6 illustrations,
Rs. 1200 (hardcover), ISBN 9788183244701

Between present-day India’s North East and upper Burma lay an indigenous political
formation known locally as Ukpi polity which resembled paramount chiefdom in the
sense of tributary overlordship. It spread across northern Chin Hills of today’s Myanmar
bordering Manipur and Mizoram. How did the coming of the British colonialism impact this
tributary institution and ethnic groups variously described as Chin, Sukte, Kamhau, Kuki,
Zo, etc.? The Ukpi regime subsequently encountered the Japanese invasion before finally
getting incorporated into the Republic of Burma. The emergence of nation-states in the
1940s led to the demise of this indigenous Ukpi. Tributary Hill Polity presents the origin,
maturity, and decay of this ‘tribal’ institution from the perspective of two elderly local
chroniclers.
David Vumlallian Zou of Delhi University provides a critical introduction to the book by
sketching the historical groundwork of the northern Chin people in relation to the Burmese
state of Ava and the Shans of the Chindwin River valley. He utilizes the Manipuri sources,
oral history, and colonial records to open the gateway to Zo history in the Chin Hills. He
highlights that the history of Chin was sandwiched between two Titans – powerful king of
Kon-baung Burma and that of Manipur Valley. The Kon-baungs extended their territory into
Manipur, Assam, and Arakan valleys, and they employed the Chins as levies in their military
ventures against other princely contenders. As a token of appreciation on the service
rendered to them by their Chin ‘comrades’, Ava left the latter with undisturbed possession
of the upper Chindwin valley in the thirteenth century. Ethnological sources seem to suggest
that the Zo or Chin people originally settled in the Chindwin Valley and then later on moved
up to the surrounding upland, the Chin Hills. The succinctness of Zou’s introduction adds
value to the book and prepares the reader to grapple with the grueling details in the rest of the
chapters.
The late Bianca Son of SOAS (London University), in her foreword, emphasizes the
importance of writing local history of the Zo (Chin) people as, she finds, it has not
sufficiently been ‘researched’. Son appreciates the ‘cooperative’ nature of this book as ‘an
example of Zo history being kept alive through oral tradition’ (p. vii). The Sukte people took
great effort to preserve the memory of their ancestors and their achievements through songs
and folklore.
The coauthors T. Gin KhanThang and Paoneikhai Suantak are elderly history buffs; they
are not professional historians. Nevertheless, they were driven by their undying passion to
unearth the lost world of the Ukpis and their contemporaries such as Sukte-Kamhau, Zou,
Thadou, Siyin, Tashon, etc. It took them more than 20 years to compile and prepare this
historical composition from all available resources within their reach – folk songs, memory
of clan-elders, epitaphs from tombstone, colonial records, etc.
This book throws light on the evolution of Ukpi overlordship. This political institution
was founded in northern Chin Hills around 1800 AD by Khan Thuam of Mualbem village.
2 Book review

Ukpi literally means overlordship or paramount tribal chieftainship (chief of the chiefs).
From Mualbem the Ukpi administrative seat shifted to pre-colonial Tiddim settlement and
then to Tonzang in the colonial era. This institution began, flourished, and reached its zenith
before the colonial dispensation in Chin Hills. Ironically, British rule did not weaken, but
tended to strengthen the Ukpi system. It was a rather sophisticated administration run by
Council of Ministers headed by the Sukte-Kamhau lineage. It consisted of arms-bearing
militias or warriors for self-defense as well as for offensive military ventures to expand their
tributary domains. It levied various kinds of tributes from the subordinate chiefs and their
villagers. Raiding and slave-hunting was considered profitable and it played an important
role in the Ukpi economy. Slaves could be further used for exchange with guns, money, and
other scarce commodities. By occupying villages that belong to other clans and incorporat-
ing them into their lineage, the Sukte-Kamhau which began as a single clan, later trans-
formed into a multi-clan community governed by a shared system of justice known as
Kamhau Upadi. Lasting for five generations of overlords, the Ukpi polity illustrates malle-
ability of ethnic identity among pre-colonial Chins.
The book documents biographical sketches of Ukpi overlords and their political careers.
While Khan Thuam, the founder of the Ukpi polity, may be called a ‘political entrepreneur’,
the second Ukpi Kam Hau was a ‘conqueror’. The Sukte dynasty reached its zenith in the
period of the overlord Kam Hau; various tribes living under his jurisdiction were called by
the name ‘Kamhau people’ or ‘Kanhowmen’ (in colonial records) in Burma, Lushai Hills,
and Manipur. Kam Hau grouped small villages into larger units for better security and
administration. He further expanded his territory by conquering far and wide even to the
hills of Manipur and Lushai. The period of the third Ukpi Khaw Chin could be seen as the
most turbulent one, whose military prowess was highly regarded that even the colonial
British rulers sought the help of the Ukpi during the Lushai Expedition of 1871–1872.
In the later part of Khaw Chin’s period, his Ukpi regime was toppled down by the British
on account of unending wars and raids carried out by the overlord in the surrounding valley
and hill areas who had come under the colonial regime. As Tiddim was burnt down by the
British troops, Khaw Chin shifted his capital to Tonzang Town and, before he died,
appointed a young Hau Cin Khup as his successor. Hau Cin Khup was also captured by
the British and Tonzang fell in 1891. However, he was re-instated as Ukpi by the British.
Since then, the Ukpi dynasty ruled under the supremacy of the British power in northern
Chin Hills. The last Sukte ruler was Pum Za Mang whose period coincided with the coming
of the Japanese troops in Chin Hills.
The authors reveal that the coming of the Japanese in Chin Hills during the Second
World War presented serious diplomatic challenges to the last Ukpi Pum Za Mang in order to
sustain the Sukte’s overlordship. The occupation of the Chin Hills by the Japanese did not
seemingly serve the Sukte’s dream to regain their lost power as the Japanese acted not like
‘liberator’ but predator. Unable to stand such indignity, they decided to fight back the
Japanese and hence formed an armed revolutionary force in 1944.
The last part of the book talks about the end of Japanese occupation and return of the
British to the Chin Hills. The Chins were not without option. They were free to be either a
part of British Commonwealth country or join the Republic of Burma. They opted for the
latter. Burma became independent in 1948 and the British Chin Hills was turned into ‘Chin
Hills Special Divisions’ thereafter became the ‘Chin State’. What was the immediate and
lasting outcome of merging into the Union of Burma? Republican sentiments in post-
Independence Burma ensured that the hereditary Ukpi overlordship was abolished once
and for all. This sudden demise of an indigenous institution speaks volume of the silent
resentment of erstwhile tributary subjects who lived in the shadow of the Ukpi rule
 Asian Ethnicity 3

characterized by a hierarchical order. Nevertheless, one cannot deny the fact that the Ukpi
polity played a very important role in the later articulation of the Zo or Chin ethnicity with a
tolerable degree of cohesiveness.
The Chin Hills (1896) was the first ethnohistory of Zo (Chin) people composed by
colonial administrators named Carey and Tuck. Next came Vumson’s Zo History (1986)
after a gap of a century. Thang and Suantak, after a long hibernation, have now produced one
of the most comprehensive chronicles of indigenous polity in the Chin Hills. Tributary Hill
Polity is a significant contribution to the literature on the Chin Hills in particular as well as to
our knowledge of Asian ethnicity along the Indo-Burma frontiers in general. This book has
an inter-disciplinary focus. It contains several folk songs of the Sukte-Kamhau and some
English translations too. This may serve as a valuable resource for scholars of folklores and
tribal cultures and clan genealogy. The book would also be broadly useful to Asianists with
special interest in colonial Chin Hills, Manipur, Lushai Hills, and Upper Burma.

Notes on contributor
Dr S. Thangboi Zou is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences,
Delhi University, Delhi, India. He is the author of article Emergent Micro-National Communities: The
Logic of Kuki-Chin Armed Struggle in Manipur published in Strategic Analysis in 2012.
Author’s postal address: Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi, Delhi
110007, India.

ORCID
S. Thangboi Zou http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0857-1778

S. Thangboi Zou
Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India
sthangzou@gmail.com
© 2016, S. Thangboi Zou

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