Assam Rifles History: Myth of Cachar Levy becoming the Assam Rifles
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Lt Col M Ranjit Singh (Retd)
For many years, people have believed that Cachar Levy, an irregular force raised during the early 19th century in the Eastern Frontier of India for a specific purpose, was the forerunner of modern-day Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force in India. The main culprit, if I may use the word, for this myth is Colonel LW Shakespear, the author of “History of Assam Rifles”, published in 1929. Colonel Shakespear, in his book, wrote, “The first unit of this new organisation was raised by Grange, in civil charge of Nowgong district, during 1835, and was named the Cachar Levy, with a strength of 750 all ranks, viz Inspectors, Head Constables and Constables, as they were called until 1883, in virtue of their being a purely civil force. The Cachar Levy thus formed the earliest embodied unit of what eventually developed into the fine force of the five Assam Rifles battalions of the present day”.
Interestingly, Major General DK Palit, in his book “Sentinels of the North East: The Assam Rifles” (1984), another history book of the Assam Rifles (post-independence period), copied the same narrative as given by Colonel Shakespear on the origin of Cachar Levy. Major General Palit even wrote that the Expedition carried out by Grange was with a small detachment of regular troops from the 1st Assam Light Infantry ! 42 Gurkha Rifles (later 6 Gurkhas) were called the 1st Assam Light Infantry from 1844 to 1861 and were not part of Grange’s Expedition. The regular troops that went with Grange were the 1st Assam Sebundy Corps, which, in 1844, became the 2nd Assam Light Infantry. It is worthwhile to remember that till the middle of the 19th century, any force raised by the British in India, such as Levy, Militia, Local Corps, Irregular Corps, and Extra Regiment were meant to be of a temporary nature. However, some of the Levy like the Sikh, Dogra, Garhwali, and nine Gurkhas became regular army units.
The geopolitical situation in the North East Frontier of India after the First Anglo-Burmese War was that the Burmese, by the treaty of Yandabo, ceded Assam to the East India Company. The British in Assam in 1833 controlled the administrations of Kamrup, Nowgong, and Darrang only. The remaining districts were under the control of Maharaj Purandar Singh, except Lakhimpur, which was under Moamarias. The British resumed Maharaja Purander’s territories in October 1838, and Lakhimpur resumed in 1842. Earlier, Cachar became British territory on August 14, 1832. However, North Cachar Hills was transferred to Assam and attached to the district of Nowgong. The British administration made elaborate arrangements for the better distribution of justice and revenue collection.
However, organising civil administration in Assam suffered considerably due to the absence of officers. Consequently, there were large-scale postings of Bengal Army officers to Assam, and many junior officers were appointed to work there. Among the new officers appointed were Edmund R Grange, CR Strong, and H Driver, with their date of seniority being November 30, 1838. They were employed as Junior Sub-Assistant to the Governor General’s Agency, North East Frontiers. Their employment was notified in the Calcutta Gazette of March 28, 1839. Interestingly, Edmund R Grange was employed as an Acting Sub Assistant to the Nowgong Division by F Jenkins, an Agent in NE Frontier, on September 10, 1838, before getting confirmation from the Government.
F Jenkins took ex-post facto sanction from the Government for employing him. In the letter F Jenkins wrote to the Government, he mentions that Grange is a European with good connections (sic), education, and some experience in managing a sugar plantation. Grange had good knowledge of the native language and had been regularly studying lately, which was sufficient to make him conduct the duties that would devolve on himself, he added. Sugar plantation was a fad in the early 19th century in India, including Assam. F Jenkins personally had 600 acres of sugar plantation farms in Assam. Grange may have been working on Jenkin’s plantation. It is a wild assumption from my side. In the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 1840, there is an article on the Expedition into the Naga Hills on the Assam Frontier by Lieutenant Grange, an Assistant Political Agent.
The Expedition is about the second Expedition undertaken by Grange in December 1840. Whether Grange became a Lieutenant in the Bengal Army is not known, but there are two officers with the surname of Grange on the Bengal Army list of 1840. One is RG Grange (page 104), and the second is Grange (page 138). RG Grange was on extended leave and furlough in Europe in 1840, and R Grange was shown as Quarter Master in some units. I highlight that Edmund R Grange was employed only in 1838 as an Assistant sub-agent. He, therefore, could not have raised Cachar Levy in 1835 as written by Colonel Shakespear and mindlessly followed by others.
Now, on to Cachar Levy. For many years, the Angami Nagas have been coming down regularly to the plains of Cachar to deprecate the Cacharees. The main aim of their attacks was to extract conch shells, clothes, and any valuable items, and also to seize as many persons as they could, to obtain ransom from their relatives and kill all that attempted to escape, cutting off their heads, which their relatives would then ransom. The captives were kept as enslaved people to be sold off to the Bengali merchants. The going rate for an enslaved person then was 20 packets of salt, and the cost of seven packets was only Re 1 (one). These details are from the report submitted by Grange. In the middle of 1838, a body of Angami Nagas came down to the village of Bungygram in Upper Cachar. It killed 12 and carried off 13 men. According to British sources, the probable reasons for the attack by the Angamis were due to long-running feuds arising over the possession of salt springs between the Nagas and Cacharees. The atrocities may also have been the result of a recent expedition carried out by Manipuris against Nagas in the adjoining areas of the sources of the Jiri River, where they burned and destroyed many Naga villages. The Nagas may have been exasperated and brought on their retaliation to the Cacharee villages as they were friends of Manipuris. This was the appreciation of the local British officers.
The norms of the Government have always been to strike a sudden blow immediately following and caused by such outrage. The Government, also responsible for providing security and protection to its peaceful subjects, decided that it was most necessary to take some immediate measures to retaliate against the Angami Nagas incursions.
The Government of India, therefore, resolved to send a military detachment into the Cachar Hills to institute an investigation into the causes of the recent Angami’s intrusions and to punish the perpetrators, if possible or else to inflict such punishment upon them, by burning their villages and crossings, as this may deter them from future aggressions. The forces available in Assam were then limited, so the Government decided to raise a levy. On November 21, 1838, the Governor General in Council approved raising 200 Cacharees for the expedition against the Nagas as the mode levying this body of men appears to have been very reasonable and their service indispensable. The Military Board of India was told to issue 200 fusils, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and 200 pouches and belts either repaired or of an obsolete pattern. The arms and ammunition were to be sent to Brigadier Little at Sylhet for onward transmission to Cachar. The Superintendent of Cachar, Captain Burns, was made responsible for raising the Cachar Levy as it was thought that Naga locations were closer to Cachar than Assam.
Subsequently, the responsibility for dealing with the Nagas was delegated to Assam as North Cachar Hills, under the administrative control of Assam, was closer. The composition of the troops of this Levy is interesting. There were 30 Manipuris from Cachar, 50 Shans, and the rest were Cacharees. The 30 Manipuris were old soldiers of Gambhir Sing’s Levy (Manipur Levy). And many of the Cacharees were also old soldiers from Maharaj Govinchandra’s army. The advantage of recruiting these old soldiers was that time would not be wasted on their training on the use of firearms. The Shans were old soldiers of the Burmese army who stayed back in Assam after the First Anglo-Burmese War. Around 350 Shans settled in Assam during that time. Six Angami Nagas may also have been members of this Levy. These Angami Nagas were held at Sylhet Jail. There is a correspondence from the Superintendent of Cachar specifically requesting these Angamis.
The reply from the Government is not traceable, but Grange used a few Angami interpreters during his expedition. The pay of the Sepoys was fixed at Rupees 5 per month as Barkandazes (Mercenaries) working at Haflong then were paid the same amount. There was one Subedar and one Jemadar in the Levy, and their monthly pay was fixed at Rupees 50 and 20, respectively. Subadar Dhana Ram Barman and Jamadar Byasa Ram were on loan from Sylhet Light Infantry (later 1/8 Gurkha Rifles). The Government was unsure of the completion of the raising of the Cachar Levy before the expedition; Assam Sebundy Corps (later 2/8 Gurkha Rifles) was told to send One Subadar and fifty Sepoys along with Grange.
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.
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).
For many years, people have believed that Cachar Levy, an irregular force raised during the early 19th century in the Eastern Frontier of India for a specific purpose, was the forerunner of modern-day Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force in India. The main culprit, if I may use the word, for this myth is Colonel LW Shakespear, the author of “History of Assam Rifles”, published in 1929. Colonel Shakespear, in his book, wrote, “The first unit of this new organisation was raised by Grange, in civil charge of Nowgong district, during 1835, and was named the Cachar Levy, with a strength of 750 all ranks, viz Inspectors, Head Constables and Constables, as they were called until 1883, in virtue of their being a purely civil force. The Cachar Levy thus formed the earliest embodied unit of what eventually developed into the fine force of the five Assam Rifles battalions of the present day”.
Interestingly, Major General DK Palit, in his book “Sentinels of the North East: The Assam Rifles” (1984), another history book of the Assam Rifles (post-independence period), copied the same narrative as given by Colonel Shakespear on the origin of Cachar Levy. Major General Palit even wrote that the Expedition carried out by Grange was with a small detachment of regular troops from the 1st Assam Light Infantry ! 42 Gurkha Rifles (later 6 Gurkhas) were called the 1st Assam Light Infantry from 1844 to 1861 and were not part of Grange’s Expedition. The regular troops that went with Grange were the 1st Assam Sebundy Corps, which, in 1844, became the 2nd Assam Light Infantry. It is worthwhile to remember that till the middle of the 19th century, any force raised by the British in India, such as Levy, Militia, Local Corps, Irregular Corps, and Extra Regiment were meant to be of a temporary nature. However, some of the Levy like the Sikh, Dogra, Garhwali, and nine Gurkhas became regular army units.
The geopolitical situation in the North East Frontier of India after the First Anglo-Burmese War was that the Burmese, by the treaty of Yandabo, ceded Assam to the East India Company. The British in Assam in 1833 controlled the administrations of Kamrup, Nowgong, and Darrang only. The remaining districts were under the control of Maharaj Purandar Singh, except Lakhimpur, which was under Moamarias. The British resumed Maharaja Purander’s territories in October 1838, and Lakhimpur resumed in 1842. Earlier, Cachar became British territory on August 14, 1832. However, North Cachar Hills was transferred to Assam and attached to the district of Nowgong. The British administration made elaborate arrangements for the better distribution of justice and revenue collection.
However, organising civil administration in Assam suffered considerably due to the absence of officers. Consequently, there were large-scale postings of Bengal Army officers to Assam, and many junior officers were appointed to work there. Among the new officers appointed were Edmund R Grange, CR Strong, and H Driver, with their date of seniority being November 30, 1838. They were employed as Junior Sub-Assistant to the Governor General’s Agency, North East Frontiers. Their employment was notified in the Calcutta Gazette of March 28, 1839. Interestingly, Edmund R Grange was employed as an Acting Sub Assistant to the Nowgong Division by F Jenkins, an Agent in NE Frontier, on September 10, 1838, before getting confirmation from the Government.
F Jenkins took ex-post facto sanction from the Government for employing him. In the letter F Jenkins wrote to the Government, he mentions that Grange is a European with good connections (sic), education, and some experience in managing a sugar plantation. Grange had good knowledge of the native language and had been regularly studying lately, which was sufficient to make him conduct the duties that would devolve on himself, he added. Sugar plantation was a fad in the early 19th century in India, including Assam. F Jenkins personally had 600 acres of sugar plantation farms in Assam. Grange may have been working on Jenkin’s plantation. It is a wild assumption from my side. In the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 1840, there is an article on the Expedition into the Naga Hills on the Assam Frontier by Lieutenant Grange, an Assistant Political Agent.
The Expedition is about the second Expedition undertaken by Grange in December 1840. Whether Grange became a Lieutenant in the Bengal Army is not known, but there are two officers with the surname of Grange on the Bengal Army list of 1840. One is RG Grange (page 104), and the second is Grange (page 138). RG Grange was on extended leave and furlough in Europe in 1840, and R Grange was shown as Quarter Master in some units. I highlight that Edmund R Grange was employed only in 1838 as an Assistant sub-agent. He, therefore, could not have raised Cachar Levy in 1835 as written by Colonel Shakespear and mindlessly followed by others.
Now, on to Cachar Levy. For many years, the Angami Nagas have been coming down regularly to the plains of Cachar to deprecate the Cacharees. The main aim of their attacks was to extract conch shells, clothes, and any valuable items, and also to seize as many persons as they could, to obtain ransom from their relatives and kill all that attempted to escape, cutting off their heads, which their relatives would then ransom. The captives were kept as enslaved people to be sold off to the Bengali merchants. The going rate for an enslaved person then was 20 packets of salt, and the cost of seven packets was only Re 1 (one). These details are from the report submitted by Grange. In the middle of 1838, a body of Angami Nagas came down to the village of Bungygram in Upper Cachar. It killed 12 and carried off 13 men. According to British sources, the probable reasons for the attack by the Angamis were due to long-running feuds arising over the possession of salt springs between the Nagas and Cacharees. The atrocities may also have been the result of a recent expedition carried out by Manipuris against Nagas in the adjoining areas of the sources of the Jiri River, where they burned and destroyed many Naga villages. The Nagas may have been exasperated and brought on their retaliation to the Cacharee villages as they were friends of Manipuris. This was the appreciation of the local British officers.
The norms of the Government have always been to strike a sudden blow immediately following and caused by such outrage. The Government, also responsible for providing security and protection to its peaceful subjects, decided that it was most necessary to take some immediate measures to retaliate against the Angami Nagas incursions.
The Government of India, therefore, resolved to send a military detachment into the Cachar Hills to institute an investigation into the causes of the recent Angami’s intrusions and to punish the perpetrators, if possible or else to inflict such punishment upon them, by burning their villages and crossings, as this may deter them from future aggressions. The forces available in Assam were then limited, so the Government decided to raise a levy. On November 21, 1838, the Governor General in Council approved raising 200 Cacharees for the expedition against the Nagas as the mode levying this body of men appears to have been very reasonable and their service indispensable. The Military Board of India was told to issue 200 fusils, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and 200 pouches and belts either repaired or of an obsolete pattern. The arms and ammunition were to be sent to Brigadier Little at Sylhet for onward transmission to Cachar. The Superintendent of Cachar, Captain Burns, was made responsible for raising the Cachar Levy as it was thought that Naga locations were closer to Cachar than Assam.
Subsequently, the responsibility for dealing with the Nagas was delegated to Assam as North Cachar Hills, under the administrative control of Assam, was closer. The composition of the troops of this Levy is interesting. There were 30 Manipuris from Cachar, 50 Shans, and the rest were Cacharees. The 30 Manipuris were old soldiers of Gambhir Sing’s Levy (Manipur Levy). And many of the Cacharees were also old soldiers from Maharaj Govinchandra’s army. The advantage of recruiting these old soldiers was that time would not be wasted on their training on the use of firearms. The Shans were old soldiers of the Burmese army who stayed back in Assam after the First Anglo-Burmese War. Around 350 Shans settled in Assam during that time. Six Angami Nagas may also have been members of this Levy. These Angami Nagas were held at Sylhet Jail. There is a correspondence from the Superintendent of Cachar specifically requesting these Angamis.
The reply from the Government is not traceable, but Grange used a few Angami interpreters during his expedition. The pay of the Sepoys was fixed at Rupees 5 per month as Barkandazes (Mercenaries) working at Haflong then were paid the same amount. There was one Subedar and one Jemadar in the Levy, and their monthly pay was fixed at Rupees 50 and 20, respectively. Subadar Dhana Ram Barman and Jamadar Byasa Ram were on loan from Sylhet Light Infantry (later 1/8 Gurkha Rifles). The Government was unsure of the completion of the raising of the Cachar Levy before the expedition; Assam Sebundy Corps (later 2/8 Gurkha Rifles) was told to send One Subadar and fifty Sepoys along with Grange.
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.
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).