The relevance and timeliness of Naga legislator and author Mmhunlümo Kikon’s latest book ‘His Majesty’s Headhunters: The Siege of Kohima That Shaped World History’ lies in the fact that it is a much-needed counterpoint to the ongoing Second World War’s 80th-anniversary events in Europe being held to mark critical milestones in the Allies war against the Axis powers. The Allies’ successful landing in Normandy was a breakthrough; so was this, a less recognized but similar watershed moment in the War’s eastern flank, now known as the Asia-Pacific. Allied troops preempted the Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of India by battling them at Kohima in the Naga Hills District and Imphal in the princely state of Manipur and sending the Japanese army back before it entered British India.
The author’s impetus for writing this book is two-fold: to tell the stories about the battle of Kohima that have come down through the generations ‘in the hearts of the Naga populace,’ and how the war disrupted the traditional economy and society. The book succeeds in achieving both: a reminder of the historical importance of this forgotten siege in turning the tide of war against Japan, especially after their unstoppable occupation of British Burma, and experiences of this War as remembered by the Naga tribes.
It is the history of those caught in the crossfire that is seldom incorporated into the history of this war, a narrative dominated by the Allies and the Axis powers. The references to the bravery of the Naga tribes and participation in the battles at Kohima and Imphal are few and far between and Kikon attempts to correct this.
The book vividly describes the siege of Kohima in April and May 1944 which was marked by fierce artillery exchange, ‘shock and awe’ tactics by the Japanese soldiers who ‘poured out of the tree copses, from behind every rock and green plant…with their guns outthrust’, Allied air raids, and the sheer might of 15,000 Japanese soldiers who camped in Chakbama, Viswema, and Kohima, effectively fencing in the British administrative and military headquarters there.
The role of the Naga headhunters is interwoven into this narrative. The term ‘headhunters’ was given by colonial officials in the 19th century to describe the tribes like the fierce Angami who once fought their incursions and killed their men using just the spear and the dao (sword), and carrying back to their villages the severed heads of the dead as trophies.
During the siege of Kohima, these headhunting tribes provided invaluable logistical support to the Allied forces as porters, spies, stretcher-bearers’ and for digging trenches for their soldiers. They kept the supply of food, ammunition, arms, and medicines open, provided field intelligence, and looked after the injured and the refugees pouring in from erstwhile Burma which the Japanese had already occupied. Without this field support in a terrain that was densely forested and mountainous, the Allies would never have pushed back the Japanese army that had entrenched itself in and around Kohima.
In building up to this climax of the battles and siege of Kohima, the author focuses the first half of his book on the history, culture, and way of life of the Naga tribes in the 19th century. He details the many battles and raids beginning in 1829 between the tribes and the English East India Company troops; the incremental colonial incursions into Naga territory through censuses, the classification of the tribes (often misnaming them resulting in those names surviving to this day), topographical surveys, missionaries, road-building. He describes the politics at play between the surrounding native kingdoms and the British, and, most importantly, why Nagaland was strategically important for the British.[1]
This is a necessary context but results in the book picking up pace slowly. It is in these beginning chapters that the book would have benefitted from 19th-century maps or drawings showing the location of the tribes, the strategic outposts of the English, and the political geography of the region. It would have visually enhanced for the reader author Kikon’s observation of Nagaland’s strategic location, still relevant today as underscored by the Indian government’s connectivity, infrastructure, and other development projects in Nagaland and the broader Northeast.
The author’s insights on how the Nagas viewed colonial incursions into their lands and, often, how good relations between the two sides were brokered by the intellectual acuity and empathy of a few individual Englishmen posted to Kohima, which became a minor levy (military outpost) in 1843, is also of current significance. Luckily for the Allies, in 1944 not only was Kohima an administrative capital and significant military outpost but had a much-loved English deputy commissioner, Charles Pawsey, who was a valuable interlocutor between them and the Naga tribes. This ensured that the Allies were able to secure supplies even while under siege especially food, a key reason why the Japanese army was forced to retreat.[2]
This book is commendable because its lens is trained solely on Naga voices and memories not only of the battles that marked the siege of Kohima but also the voices of the descendants of those brave warriors who have gone down in their tribes’ oral history for their role in fighting the Company and later, British Indian troops during the 19th century. The photographs in the book add substantially to the narrative. For example, that of the descendants of two famous Naga warriors and the still-standing cottage where General Sato stayed, add a nice touch as it contemporizes this important history. It is whispered, but not recorded, that Lieutenant General Sato was visited in this cottage by a tall bespectacled Bengali gentleman believed to be Indian freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose. Most poignant is a revelation of the Second World War British Indian war medals given to individual Nagas like Yambamo Lotha in recognition of their bravery and contribution, many of which now have pride of place on family home altars.
This book is well worth a read not just for history buffs but also for those interested in a nuanced understanding of the Naga people, their homeland, and India’s Northeast.
Kikon, Mmhonlümo. His Majesty’s Headhunters: The Siege of Kohima that Shaped World History. Penguin India, 2023.
Sifra Lentin is the Fellow for Bombay History at Gateway House.
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References
[1] The land of the Nagas lay between the Cachar Kingdom, whose capital was Sylhet, and the Manipur Kingdom, both of whom in different periods were allies of the English. The English were intent on building a road through the land of the Nagas that would connect Imphal in Manipur to Dimapur an important railhead in Assam. During the War, the Japanese needed to be stopped from entering Assam as they would have blocked the road to China and Burma, which was already being reoccupied by the Allies then.
[2] Other supplies like ammunition for their weapons running critically low, the high death toll and number of injured, were also responsible for General Sato’s decision to retreat.