Historicising Development: Colonialisation, Cartography and Explorations in India’s Northeast

Abstract

For the northeast region, the modern conceptions about “development” began with its establishment as a resource territory of the Empire. It can also be argued that the evolution of the development paradigm for Northeast remains embedded in the Colonialist encounter, understanding, and vision of northeast as an accessible place amidst a rugged “inaccessible” terrain of the Eastern Himalayas. This chapter discusses how development activities for the region began with its colonisation, in the form of an elaborate enactment of governing resources, under sanctioned control of the imperialist military, through cartographic surveys and explorations to reimagine a “wild tribal cul-de-sac” as one of Empire’s most crucial geopolitical hold. The chapter looks into explorations, cartographic surveys, mapping, and administrative tours as colonial exercises implemented by the Empire to “develop” the resource potential of the region. The chapter is based on archival research and locates itself in the colonial nineteenth century, and discusses how colonial pursuits of engaging with the region shaped the development agendas of the Empire, and what it meant for the future of the region.

Introduction

Engaging with development as an agenda seeded within the exploitative commercial economy of the colonial period perhaps contributes to asking crucial questions, which shapes the present development dilemmas that regions face. The evolution of the development paradigm for NE India, remains embedded in the Colonialist’s encounter, understanding and vision of NE as an accessible place amidst an “inaccessible” terrain of the Eastern Himalayas, ultimately connected to accessing and extracting natural resources like coal, oil, timber and tea from the NE region. This model of resource-centric colonialism is intricately connected with the colonial “development” that the region witnessed and has been adequately discussed in the existing scholarship (Barbora, 2017; Guha, 1991; Hilaly, 2007; Misra, 1980; Sharma, 2011).

Such an enactment of governing resources was only facilitated through elaborate cartographic surveys and explorations to reimagine a “wild tribal cul-de-sac” as one of Empire’s most crucial geopolitical hold. “The British, with an eye on resources of the region, began exploiting the land, the forests, the minerals, the agricultural potential…They surveyed the land; fixed village, taluka and district boundaries; fixed land revenue in monetary terms, realisable from the farmers; set up administration; and started laying roads and railways to transport the raw material of the region to be exported abroad” (Dikshit & Dikshit, 2014, p. 536).The chapter looks into explorations, cartographic surveys, mapping and administrative tours as colonial exercises implemented by the Empire to assess and know the region, creating new knowledge about the region itself. The chapter is divided into three sections: colonial cartography and explorations, surveys as machinery of rule and official tours as a colonial tool of governance. It is based on secondary and archival research and locates itself in the colonial nineteenth century.

Colonial Cartography and Explorations

The occupation of the territories East of Bengal—the NE India of today brought the British Empire in direct contact with the Empire of China, Tibet and Ava (Burma) unleashing a plethora of political and territorial avenues to “look at”, “imagine”, “understand”, “interpret” this newly occupied territory. The process of occupation of these territories, however, was a costly affair for the Empire. The first Anglo-Burmese war (1824–1826) was the most expensive war for British India, a victory made possible with India’s superior resources sustaining a campaign running through two monsoons costing more than 15,000 fatalities of British-led Indian troops (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1999). The British realised that, despite winning the war, they had committed avoidable mistakes. The enormous cost incurred in the war led to a severe economic crisis in British India in 1833. Following the Anglo-Burmese wars, the Empire learnt that their knowledge about Burma and NE India was scantly, which hindered their war efforts. This “information panic” (Bayly, 1999: 149), necessitated the exploring of the NE region because as Edney (1999: 1) put it, “to govern territories, one must know them”. Simultaneously, the Empire also saw possibilities of strategic and economic returns that this region could provide. As Holdich mentions, “this remote corner of our Indian Empire possesses an interest, political and scientific, which is almost unique” (Holdich, 1912: 379).

The institutionalisation of Empire in the frontier was backed by cartography, a spatial science which facilitated the creation of modern knowledge familiar to the Empire. Cartography was an enabling Empire-building tool for the colonialists, which depicted their ambitions and in turn produced ambitions to possess, occupy, and rule. It regulated the creation of knowledge about the new territories under occupation as much as it fuelled new ambitions of expansion into the contiguous territories. Colonial knowledge both enabled conquest and was produced by it (Dirks, 1996: ix).

Cartographic knowledge also readily blended with the British Imperial Project so that the British Empire could become a data-intensive record house, bringing in new concepts of “map-literacy” to govern secluded territories. The spread of map-literacy and new print technology in Europe enabled the British to project their Imperial desires on paper—to be precise, on paper maps (Zou & Kumar, 2011: 150), so that the British “paper Empire” (Richards, 1993: 83) could scientifically justify its imperial governance through the “stern practicality” (Livingston, 1994: 2016) assigned by cartography.

The dependence of the British Indian Empire on maps necessitated that the newly occupied territories of the NE frontier be brought into this standard of diligently surveyed and mapped out areas, which in turn required extensive explorations and surveys. The explorations and surveys of the NE region were an exercise in creation of knowledge, within the broader discourse of imperial commercial interests.

Knowing the Brahmaputra

In unknown land territories, rivers have been the instrument of approach for colonialist expansion; and for NE, the Brahmaputra became the point of entry and communication for the region. A Christian Missionary announced to his brethren in Europe that for the NE, “the Brahmaputra is the only road” (Saikia, 2019: xiv). Exploring the NE was only made possible with exploring the Brahmaputra. The course of the Brahmaputra was for long one of the mysterious puzzles of Asiatic society. The very existence of this river was unknown to the earlier cartographers of the European “Age of Exploration” as maps of this period, typified by those of the famous Gerard Mercator, identified the parts of India east of the Ganges as India’s ultra Gangem and displayed an amusing ignorance of the true geography of those places (Ardussi, 1977: 35).

It was only in the eighteenth century, with an increase in British trade and exploration in India that a more sophisticated understanding of the proper course of the Ganges developed and the existence of the Brahmaputra as a distinct river was added to knowledge. The mapping of the Brahmaputra began as an extension of the mapping of the Tsangpo from the Tibet side and alongside, believing that the two rivers are the same, the other task was to map the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra in Assam and to simultaneously map the Tsangpo as it entered into the valley from Tibet. “The opportunity to do this came during the Anglo-Burmese war and official surveys for the source of the Brahmaputra were carried out during the period 1825–28. Military parties quickly determined that there was a number of rivers feeding the Brahmaputra, principally the Dihang from the north and the Lohit from the east¹” (Ardussi, 1977: 39).

The initial stages of exploration of the Brahmaputra were marred with confusions on the part of the British explorers. The lack of a safe environment to carry out the exploration of the river because of stiff resistance by the indigenous tribes of the region was also proving to be detrimental. These challenges only made exploration a feat to achieve; earning interest not only among military officers of the Empire, British Academia, and the Company Officials but also became the matter of public interest in the capital of the Empire in India (then Calcutta) apart from Britain².

James Rennell had initiated the earliest survey of the Brahmaputra in 1765 when he ventured a short distance north of Goalpara, where the Assam frontier posts stopped him (Phillimore, 1954: 55). The interest of the Empire on the potential of the Brahmaputra is demonstrated through the launch of a prolonged survey and “knowing” this river. In 1825, Valentine Blacker, the Surveyor General in Calcutta with David Scott, the Political Agent in-charge of Assam appointed Lieutenant Wilcox on special duty with the purpose “to trace the source of the great body of water which the Brahmaputra pours through Bengal” (Phillimore, 1954: 55–56). Wilcox’s survey began in 1825 and continued till 1830 in which he surveyed large tracts of geographical spaces that he defined as new “discoveries” (Zou & Kumar, 2011: 154–155).

Colonel T.G. Montgomerie developed a plan to send Indian and Sikkimese natives, trained as surveyors but disguised as pilgrims, to investigate and prepare field notes on the various routes in Tibet in 1864. A few of these explorations were brilliantly successful and especially important with regard to the Brahmaputra River were the journeys of Nyima Tsering (alias Namsring) in 1878 and that of Kinthup in the years 1880–8 CE (Ardussi, 1977: 39–40). The final proof of exploration concluding that the Dihang was the connecting link between Tibet’s Tsangpo and Brahmaputra of India as established through the private expedition of Colonel Morshead and Lieutenant-Colonel F.M. Bailey in 1912. Lauded as, “The story of Brahmaputra’s exploration from Tibet is one of the romances of the Indian Survey Department” (Holdich, 1912: 384), the significance of the Brahmaputra can be ascertained from the fact that the identity of the Northeast and the Northeastern Frontier was defined by the Brahmaputra or was the Brahmaputra itself (emphasis added). Holdich (1912: 380) writes:

“What do we know as the North-East Frontier of India? Of what does it consist? Just as the Indus, with the rising steps of a mountain system leading up to a plateau land beyond it, marks the main feature of our North-Western Frontier, so does the Brahmaputra, from its out-flow through the deep gorges of the hills north of Sadiya till it turns southward into the plains of Bengal, combined with the broken ridges of the Himalayan rampart to the north, embrace the great physical area of the North-East Frontier.”

In 1876–1877, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India covered parts of the course of the Brahmaputra along the Dihong under Captain Woodthorpe and Lieutenant Harman (Black, 1891: 51–52). Out of the Brahmaputra’s total length of 2,900 kilometres from its source in Western Tibet to the Bay of Bengal, the Great Trigonometrical Survey sketched on a half-inch scale about 2,413 kilometres (Zou & Kumar, 2011: 155). During the 1870s, the introduction of the “Mensural Recording” (by Lieutenant Harman and Captain Woodthorpe) began a more “objective” approach to exploring the Brahmaputra.As noted,

It marked a new departure from the earlier narrative surveys and performances of Lieutenant Wilcox and Captain Bedford. Unlike the romanticized accounts of early surveyors, the Trigonometric Surveys moved toward a more abstract understanding of the well-trodden spaces and places along the Brahmaputra. By expending huge resources on the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra riddle, the Indian Survey densely mapped the identity of a river that largely defined “British Assam” and by extension, the geo-body of Northeast India (Zou & Kumar, 2011: 155)

The Wilcox Exploration

The objective of the mission of Lieutenant Richard Wilcox to survey the Brahmaputra was “discovering” the source of the river. For colonial expansionists, the Brahmaputra was the machine with the capacity to power the Imperial of Britain, and therefore, the river was more than its water and ecology. This ideology was proposed and propagated through the academic geographical circles of the Empire to the government. The London Times stated (Proposed Exploration of the Brahmaputra, 1906):

A resolution has been adopted by the council of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and ordered to be submitted to the Secretary of State for India in Council. It is to the effect that, in view of the great regret felt in geographical circles throughout the world that the proposed expedition down the Brahmaputra to Assam did not take place at the close of the Tibet Mission, 1903–04, the Council trust that the Indian Government will now see their way to carry out this exploration, which is of extreme interest and importance…

The explorations were an almost mandatory commitment because the British hoped that it will finally settle the ambiguity cantered round the connection between the Tsangpo of Tibet and Dibong of Assam, but more importantly, it opened the possibility that a feasible route connecting Assam and Tibet might be discovered, which would go a long way in promoting trade interests of the Empire with Tibet.

The Williamson Exploration

The expedition of Noel Williamson between November 1907 and January 1908 was undertaken to meet similar possibilities of trade expansion and exploration of the region. His report focuses on the accessibility to Tibet through traversing the northern tributaries of the Brahmaputra. After two rigorous months of exploring the NE, his remarks point to the ambitions of increased trade connectivity with China (Tibet) through Assam:

But however costly, were the facilities for quick communication between India and Western China, the possibilities of commercial expansion would appear to be boundless. Given a railway, every ton of our exports for Sechuan would be captured for this route instead of being carried a long sea voyage from Calcutta, only then to commence the difficult journey up the Yangtse. With such improved communications, the resources of Sechuan, one of the wealthiest provinces of China, would develop enormously; with an easy and expeditious route, there is no reason why the Chinese coolie should not seek for employment on the tea gardens of Assam, and so possibly solve some of the present labour difficulties” (Williamson, 1909: 383).

The survey of Noel Williamson is significant because it highlights the possibility of opening up trade ties with Tibet through Assam. The bank of the Lohit was presented as the possible land route to Tibet. Williamson (1909: 382) argued, “The banks of the river would appear specially formed for a road; large flat tiers running parallel to the Lohit, with easily surmounted spurs extending to the river itself, rising gradually from 1200 feet at the Tidding, to 3100 at Sati, an ascent of 1900 feet in 70 miles. It is a natural highway into Tibet, and only requires the hand of man to render it easy and expeditious”. He pointed out that the discovery of this route would establish modern trade with Tibet, replacing the minimal exchange that occurs with the frontier tribes. In his words (Williamson, 1909: 382–383) (Fig. 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3):

Fig. 4.1

Source Zou and Kumar (2011: 156) as reproduced from Phillimore, 1954. Historical Records of the Survey of India. Vol. 3. 1815–1830. Survey of India.

Adapted depiction of Richard Wilcox’s map of the Upper Brahmaputra in 1828.

Fig. 4.2

Source Report by Noel Williamson. The Lohit-Brahmaputra between Assam and Southeastern Tibet, November 1907 to January 1908. The Geographical Journal, 34(4), 363–383

Adapted Depiction of Noel Wiliamson’s exploratory route on the Brahmaputra towards Tibet in the northeastern frontier.

Fig. 4.3

Source Report by Lambert (1937) “From the Brahmaputra to the Chindwin”. The Geographical Journal, 89(4), 309–323. Note The exploration route is depicted in red, the rivers in blue and the railways in brown. Dibrugarh and Jorhat which serves as nodes are depicted in yellow. The region depicts present-day Assam’s northeast, Arunachal Pradesh onwards to Myanmar which formed the contiguous northeastern frontier. The map depicts the results of two triangulation surveys—Brahmaputra Valley, Upper Assam, and Irrawaddy Valley, Burma. For Assam, it depicts the railway connecting the resource hinterland of tea, coal, oil, and timber with the colonial towns of Jorhat and Dibrugarh

Adapted depiction of the Lambert exploration into the frontier territories through surveys of the Brahmaputra and Chindwin.

At present trade is infinitesimal. The imports which pass up to Tibet from Assam through Miju traders amount to little, and of Tibetan exports there are none. At present south-eastern Tibet, or the Rong, as the country is known, has no industries, because she has no incentive for the development of her resources. She is cut off from convenient marts on all sides. Thousands of maunds of wool are wasted annually simply because there is no market. Were communications improved along the natural outlet and the line of least resistance, viz. the Lohit valley, facilities for export would be brought within the reach of all and both countries would benefit to a considerable extent. Trade intercourse just now is impossible, as Tibet is a forbidden land to the trader. But a good bridle path from the limit of British territory to Sadiya, a place in close proximity to the terminus of the Dibru-Sadiya railway, would attract the Tibetan to trade with us.

The Lambert Exploration

Apart from Tibet on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, the southern frontier comprising the Naga hills and further eastbound—the territory towards Burma needed exploring. Holdich (1912: 387) writes, “the story of the North-Eastern Frontier of India would be incomplete without a reference to that most important feature of it—the approaches and gateways to Burma”. Lambert carried out an expedition towards this end as part of the Brahmaputra triangulation survey. The surveys tried to find the viability of constructing a railway route connecting Assam and Burma. Lambert (1937) states, “Railway, except for a short colliery line, comes to an end at Ledo. From many years ago a line was surveyed through to Myitkyina in Burma, expense and lack of trade support has prevented any further move respect”.

Surveys as Machinery of Rule

Colonial cartography invested in the topographical, trigonometrical, revenue, and geological surveys of the NE for identification and gaining access to resources as part of administrative requirements to govern the region.

Between 1874 and 1876, Mr. F. R Mallet, F.G.S, was engaged in the examination of the Naga Hills coal fields (Assam Administrative Report (AAR): 1874–75–76: II: 24). This geological survey was accompanied by a topographical survey and exploration of the Naha Hills, comprising of survey parties, which the colonial officials deemed as “a work of considerable danger and difficulty, but one of the most importance and necessity”. Similar surveys were carried out in the Dikhu valley in 1875–76, with a view to test the cost of laying down a light railway from the coalfields of the Sibsagar district to the banks of the Brahmaputra. The topographical party also carried out surveys and explorations in the Khasi Hills and the Noa Dihing Valley of the Lakhimpur district. The party remarked how the country surveyed in each case was “very wild, and covered with forest and other jungle, and had little in it of interest; but the geographical results obtained in the Lakhimpur district were very valuable”, referring to iron-ore and coal in Lakhimpur (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1876–77: 15). “Mr. Medlicott points out that the Assam coals are of much higher value than any hitherto worked in India” (Letter No. 129, dated 15th May, 1874b, Archive of D.C Office, Dibrugarh).

The surveys conducted for the resources of the region were crucially dependent upon the supply of labourers and elephants along with the “desirable colonial officer” for the job. In a letter to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, the officiating Deputy Commissioner of Lakhimpur district (presently Dibrugarh), in 1874 writes:

Arrangements to be made for the Geological survey of the coal-fields from Tirap river to the Dhansiri river along the foot of the Naga hills…the success of the project depends on the matter of coolies for carrying baggage and food, for clearing jungle and for quarrying. As for the elephants…I will look for baggage ones. The executive engineer informs me, that an Assamese can do twice as much jungle clearing in the same time as an imported labourer (coolie). Under all the circumstances, I have decided, unless I get instructions to the contrary, to import eighty coolies from Manbhum for baggage and food-carrying and quarrying and to engage at least twenty Assamese for general work, including jungle clearing.

- Letter No. 143C, dated Dibrugarh, 7th Sept., 1874c, Archive of D.C Office, Dibrugarh

In another letter to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, the deputy commissioner of Lakhimpur district (presently Dibrugarh) writes:

I think the charge of the explorations could not be placed with a better officer than Lieutenant Holcombe. He has already a good deal of local knowledge of this tract. Such of the tribes as could furnish information knew him well and probably, he could get more aid and information out of them than another officer. He might probably be advantageously utilised as far as the Dikhu, taking any opportunity as the same time extending his acquaintance with the Nagas between the Disang and the Dikhu.

- Letter No. 118C, dated Dibrugarh 20th July, 1874a, Archive of D.C Office, Dibrugarh.

The revenue surveys of the Empire were more intense exercises in mapping and measuring land which were directly related to defining land as wastelands, wasteland grants, and revenue-free tenures in the districts of the Brahmaputra valley, precisely to make room for tea in an otherwise rice economy. The initial years of the revenue surveys were focused on determining land criteria, settling boundaries between various plots of owned land plots, settling disputes, and fixing ownership of land between the coloniser and the colonised. One of the initial reports notes, “the survey of these revenue-free holdings has involved the settlement of countless disputes as to boundaries and other claims together with the commutation of scattered holdings into single-blocks—the successful adjustment of which is very satisfactory and credible of the officers concerned”. In a same vein, another report notes that “the work is laborious and tedious, as, besides the actual survey it involves, the settlement of numberless disputes as to boundaries and other claims, the cutting off of excess area above that to which the holder is entitled, and the commutation of scattered plots held by the same individual into single compact blocks” (Assam Administrative Report (AAR I), 1874–75–76; AAR II: 22–23). Another report mentions, “besides the topographical work on the scale of two inches to the mile, an area of twelve square miles and 200 acres of the Government charlands in the Brahmaputra were surveyed and mapped on the scale of eight inches to the mile, and four Government estates, aggregating 510.70 acres were mapped on a scale of sixteen inches to the mile” (Assam Administrative Report (AAR I), 1874–75–76).

In such “survey seasons” the Brahmaputra valley was mapped, boundaries assigned to its demarcated wastelands, revenue tenures decided, and old tenures and boundaries revised and recorded for all its future administrative purposes. By 1890, the colonial officers achieved rapid progress in the process of surveying the lands of the Brahmaputra valley. In the district of Sibsagar, an area of 1,370.48 square miles was surveyed within two survey seasons, which was a much larger out-turn than in any other district in the province. An area of 1,174 square miles was surveyed in the district of Kamrup within three survey seasons. This comparatively rapid progress was the combined result of improved experience and the employment of a gradually increasing number of “amins” from year to year, the staff having been materially strengthened by the addition of local men. Such field operations of survey comprised of three different kinds: revision survey of the area cadastrally surveyed the year before, traverse and cadastral survey of the new area marked out, and advance traverse survey for the following season’s operations.

On 1 November 1899, the Imperial Survey party was disbanded and a new system of Provincial survey by a small party working under local control was introduced with the necessary professional supervision supplied by two officers of the Survey Department. Under the new system, in the annual survey season, Cadastral survey of areas aggregating 52.48 square miles was carried out in the Brahmaputra valley which resulted in an increase of over 3,500 acres of the cultivated area; Rs. 2,138 in annual revenue, while the cost incurred was only Rs. 848. This efficient success gave way to inclusion of professional survey agencies and local survey bodies to carry out rapid surveys of the Brahmaputra valley.

The process of surveys once completed, was dutifully submitted to the office of the Deputy Commissioner for the process of settlement in order to generate revenue from the now-surveyed land. In the survey season of 1890–1891 alone, an increase in revenue of Rs. 68,510 was implemented in the district of Sibsagar, an achievement which was even for the colonial officers “satisfactory” and “unexpected”. The next process entailed primary tabulation of the acquired data and notification to settlement-holders and others to enable them to file objects. For 1890–1891, the number of objections was 5,424 against 10,409 in the previous year. The colonial reports explain that such a reduction in objections was because the new area comprised large tracts of unassessed waste as well as a considerable number of wasteland grants, and hence unassessed waste furnished no objections, while those complaints relating to grants were dealt with separately. The settlement process upon completion was anticipated to bring the total increase in revenue for the Sibsagar district to a lakh of rupees.

By the end of 1910, good progress was made with the re-settlement of the Lakhimpur district. Under the Lakhimpur Programme, amounting to 89 square miles, map revision, and land classification were virtually completed in the second of two blocks into which the district had been divided. The record attestation of the first block, comprising of 471 villages, was carried out completely and correction of the maps, records, and soil classification were finished in 614 out of the 663 villages of the second block. Under the process, each raiyat received a patta, showing the area and boundaries of his field and proposed classification. An important change in the procedure was introduced, in which the map and land records were being verified from field to field by an assistant Settlement Officer or Kanungo in the presence of the raiyat. Each raiyat’s patta was then attested in his presence by the Assistant Settlement Officer (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1909–10: 7-8).

The following table displays a time frame analysis of some of the episodes of completion of survey in such seasons (Table 4.1):

Table 4.1 Surveys in brief, 1874–1915

The explorations and survey operations led to the creation of maps for almost every piece of possessed territory which were either fully administered, excluded zones, or the frontiers beyond the inner lines. By 1915, the Shillong Drawing office had printed 37,766 copies of maps for Assam of which 11,916 were village maps (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1914–15: 7). Survey operations then began to expand beyond the narrow scope of handling land alone. By 1914–15, the work of the traverse parties consisted mainly of the traverse surveys of tea-garden grants, extension villages, and in the relaying of boundaries. A school for teaching survey methods was established near Guwahati in which students were trained by the Mandal’s office. Two assistant commissioners, two extra assistant commissioners, and nine sub-deputy collectors were also trained in survey and settlement work in the period of a year (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1914–15: 7).

Official Tours as a Colonial Tool of Governance

The official tours were a display of central authority and simultaneously research exercises conducted as crucial part of administrative procedures. Tours of important administrative outposts in the frontier and in the headquarters of the districts by the Chief Commissioner himself, as well as by a decentralised network of District Officers, were determining elements of colonial governmentality consolidating authority and power in point locations within the NE. An administration report points out, “The Chief Commissioner early came to the conclusion that; it is not too much to expect of an officer that he should spend about 120 days in the interior of his district. Chief Commissioner Elliot (1881), (therefore) laid down the principle that tours should be so planned that every village, or at least every group of villages should be visited by a superior officer of covenanted rank once in two years”. In order to implement this detailed inspection process, it was required that a record be kept of the past tours, and it was decided that “the best way of doing this is to prepare at the close of each year a tour map, to be hung up in office, a reference to which will at once show what part of the district has been visited in any particular year” (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1881–82: 12). These locations of authority in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam were urban spaces, both central to the region and crucial for governing the hinterland.

In April 1881, Mr. Elliot, the Chief Commissioner did his annual tour of the region, where he toured all the districts in the province.

He visited Garo Hills, where a slight rising had taken place. In July and August, he made a tour by water through Sylhet and Cachar. Between October and December, he marched through Nowgong, Darrang, Kamrup and Goalpara districts. In January 1882 he travelled by land through South Sylhet, through Cachar and the North Cachar Hills, thence to Manipur and the Naga Hills, from where he descended to Golaghat and marched by Jorhat and Lakhimpur to Dibrugarh and Sadiya, returning by river to Gauhati, and reaching Shillong, after six months absence, towards the end of April. During these tours he made the acquaintance of all his district officers and acquired some knowledge of the special questions with which the administration of Assam has to deal (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1881–82: 1)

In 1889–1900, Mr. H. J. S. Cotton, C.S.I, one of the more influential administrators of the region, held the office of Chief Commissioner of Assam. The tours of the district headquarters and sub-divisions continued and now focused on the two primary colonial agendas: resource audit and territorial expansion. A part of the latter agenda was included the inspection of official “expeditions” carried out on the frontier tribes who put up any form of resistance against the Imperial authority, sometimes with the assistance of a rival tribe of the region.

Mr. Cotton left Shillong on the 1st November 1899, and before Christmas toured in the districts of Kamrup, Darrang, Lakhimpur, Sibsagar and Goalpara. At all districts and sub- divisional headquarters, the usual inspection of Government offices and of buildings constructed since the earthquake was made, and in Darrang a visit was paid to the Charduar rubber plantation. At Dibrugarh, the Chief Commissioner met Sir George Luck, Lieutenant General Commanding Bengal, and visited Margherita, Sadiya and Bomjur. At the latter place, the preparations for the Mishmi expedition were inspected. . . during January and February toured in the Surma Valley and in the Goalpara and Darrang districts. During March, the Chief Commissioner made short tours to different parts of the Brahmaputra Valley and finally returned to Shillong on the 31st March 1900 (Assam Administrative Report (AAR) 1899–1900: i).

These tours were crucial to the decision-making process of colonial administration. A colonial report notes how such tours informed crucial decisions like locating the seat of power, whereby the “Chief Commissioner visited Dacca at the desire of the government of India to confirm its suitability as the capital of the new province” (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1905–06: i). The agenda of these tours was gradually expanded to also include strategic relation building exercises focusing on meeting with the social and religious leaders of different communities in the region. Focus on institutions, towns, and crucial resource sites continued to be important tour sites. As a report (Assam Administrative Report (AAR), 1915–16: iii) notes:

On July 12th, 1915, the Officiating Chief Commissioner, Lieutenant-Colonel P.R.T Gurdon, C.S.I., left Shillong for Jorhat for his Monsoon Tour Chief Commissioner opened the Bistooram Town Hall, constructed by the generosity of Rai Bahadur Bistooram Barua (in Jorhat). On the same day addresses were presented by the members of the Jorhat “Sarvajanik Sabha”, members of the AnjumaniaTayidi Islam, members of the Ahom Community and members of the Jorhat Ahom Association, to which Colonel Gurdon made suitable replies. From Jorhat Colonel Gurdon went by railway to the Surma valley and thence to Karimganj, Maulvi Bazar, Madna, Habiganj and Sunamganj meeting Chrian Welsh missionaries, visiting mosques and Lushai Chiefs in Aijal and returned to Silchar, entertained in the Club and left for the railway station, en route for Kokilamukh visit the Auniati Satra. On landing, the Chief Commissioner was met by the Gossain and shortly afterwards again at the satra about two miles inland a visit was paid to the Dakhinpat Gossain at his satra. The sub-divisional headquarters of North Lakhimpur was reached the Chief Commissioner made a tour of inspection of the town visiting police stations, jail, the Girls’ school, dak-bunglow and the offices an address was presented by the North Lakhimpur Local Board a garden party was given by the sub-divisional officer, Mr. Mackenzie, which was largely attended by tea-planters, several of whom had come long distances inspite of the inclement of weather. Earlier in the afternoon, a conference was held in the Circuit House Planters and Indian members of the Local Board to discuss the question of communications in the sub-division. The Chief Commissioner accompanied by Mr. S. N. Mackenzie, and Mr. G. R. Shaw, the Public Works Department sub-divisional officer inspected a serious breach which had occurred owing to the floods the Chief Commissioner after inspecting the Middle English School and the Military Police outpost lines. In Gauhati, the Chief Commissioner inspected the cholera sheds and coolie depot and in the afternoon accompanied by Lady Earle visited the site of the Mission Girls’ School he met the Committees of certain Co-operative Credit Societies and on the return journeys he also inspected the Polasbari Charitable Dispensary.

Inspection of the urban centres formed an important agenda on the tours taken even by the Lieutenant Governor, where respectable people of the municipalities often reported on the condition of their towns and its possible development to the Lieutenant Governor. By the twentieth century, the NE region was identified as a resource hinterland of the Imperial economy. This becomes visible by the choice of locations presented to the Viceroy of British India, upon his prestigious visit to the region.

His Excellency the Viceroy, Lord Curzon of Kedelston, accompanied by Her Excellency Lady Curzon, arrived at Dhubri on the 4th March 1900, where he landed for a few minutes and then proceeded up the river. The Chief Commissioner joined the Viceregal Party at Gauhati on the 4th, and the party arrived at the Dibrugarh Ghat on the 6th. On the morning of the 7th, the Viceroy after receiving an address from the Dibrugarh planters at the Rehabari Railway Station, proceeded to Digboi the same day where the oil wells were visited. The Viceregal party left for Margherita the same day, where they visited the various undertakings of the Assam Railways and trading Company on the 8th of March. Tezpur was reached on the 9th and His Excellency there received and replied to an address from the Hon’ble Mr. Buckingham, C.I.E, on behalf of the tea planters of Assam. The Charduar Rubber Plantation and the Borjuli tea garden were then visited by His Excellency. Arriving at Gauhati on the 11th, the Viceroy left by the Assam-Bengal Railways for Lumding. Railhead in the Cachar Hills was reached on the 12th, and the party returned to Gauhati on the evening of the same day. A Durbar was held at Gauhati on the 13th March, at which a public address from the people of Assam was presented. The Viceregal party left for Calcutta on the same day (Assam Administrative Reports (AAR), 1899–1900: i).

These tours conducted by the officials, not only shaped the resource-centric vision of the Empire but also trickled down to facilitate a mapped governance of the territory. In a letter directed to the Department of Land Records and Agriculture, Assam, the Chief Commissioner of Assam writes:

“The result of enquiries made by the Chief Commissioner during the two last touring seasons indicates that the measurements on which the land revenue assessment is based in non-cadastral areas are exceedingly incorrect, and that it is desirable that arrangements should be made for the gradual but systematic substitution of mapping for measurement”.

- Letter dated 17th Feb., 1904, Archive of D.C Office, Dibrugarh

Conclusions

The surveys, geographical explorations, and official tours together informed the colonial discourse of knowing and administering the NE region and in the process assigning the region with a reimagined territorial identity which was governed through cartography. This cartographic territoriality naturalised traditional frontiers into colonial borderlands, which in turn forged national boundaries (Zou & Kumar, 2011:141), thereby objectifying the regional personality of the northeast as a region while simultaneously enabling a resource-based economic administration, informed by the exhaustively extensive cartographic exercises.