The Mountains often rugged; the Hills and the Plains greatly shaped the Structure and the social Pattern of the Society in the people of the North East India. The Hills and the Plains made the People different into two Main Groups –the Hillman and the Plainsman. The Hills shaped the pattern of the Social Organization of the Hillman living in them and the Valleys moulded the Nature of the Plainsman different from those of the Hillman.
The Plainsman, of necessity for their common security, organised themselves into a Kingdom. The King owned all the Land and the people tilled the land under Grants from the King. A fixed number of the Khel served the King free for a fixed number of days every year and paid Tax to the King The people accepted themselves as Subjects of the King.
The Hillman, on the other hand, lived on the mountain or Hill tops for Security in closely knit Families forming a Clan; a number of related Clans formed a Thinuo or Mupu or Kiong according to each Tribal tongue. A more or less number of Thinuos or Mupus or Kiongs together formed the Village.
Each Family had a portion of the Clan land which formed a part of the Thino’s or Mupu’s or Kiong’s land Jurisdiction which in turn formed a part of the whole Village land jurisdiction. Thus the Family land formed part of the Clan land which formed part of the bigger Thino land which consequently is part of the Village Land Jurisdiction.
There was no necessity of a King; each Village has the families in close blood related connections; the family increased and grew relative to each other just like a Balloon expanded in size when inflated but the relative positions of the parts were not changed. It is difficult and inadequate to describe society pattern in words but in real life ground condition, it is quite practical. Nobody paid land tax to anybody; paying tax to others for one’s own personal private land was unthinkable.
All the members of the village thus have deep loyalty of the Village and the people to each other. In such an order of life there was no necessity of King or elected Leader. Each person, each group feels and knows its position clearly and acts or behaves as he or she should just like brothers and sisters do in a family and relates to each other in a natural family. Each member knows and understands who is who and functions or follows the human norms and ethics of the family or clan or thinuo or the Village.
Racially and initially, the Nagas and the Ahoms of Assam were of the same Mongolian stock but geography decided their designation into Hillman and Plainsman: geography shaped the Structure of their Social Organization differently.
In a savage Age where attack from unknown people for plunder was considered fearful but accepted simply as a way of this life without complaint: the Plainsman developed and organized themselves into big Group necessarily under a Leader who ultimately became the King for their common Security, because small group in a vast plain is vulnerable to attack to every marauding attack from any unknown people. And over centuries, a Leader organized echelons of Administrators for Social Order; he became King and the ordinary common man developed and acquired the Attitude of a Subject People. They followed what their King said or did. They followed the King’s Religion, Morals and Ethics.
The Hills and the Mountains, lacking sufficient arable land for a big population in any one give spot, on the other hand, provided good security even to small group from the dangers of their enemies. The Village Founders located their Villages on the secure mountain or hill Tops and they needed no overall King or Leader to lords over the common man.
The Hillman needed no organized Group under any central Authority; each Village could live its independent life and related with each other solely on the basis of kith and kin or on mutual benefit;, not on compulsion. Such a life produced a Free Spirit, Equality and Independence, consideration for each other, though each person decided primarily on the basis of what appeared good to him or her. Each and every person had the freedom of his/her own decision.
The Mountains of the Himalays are so high, extensive, vast, serene and awesome, covered infinitely with perpetual mute Snow; a person feels so small, and insignificant in their midst.
On the other hand, baring some rugged ones, the Hills and the Mountains of the Naga Hills are not awesome like those of the Himalayas; they are covered with green beautiful lively attractive and inviting plants and vegetation. They are easily scalable by any person. They appear friendly, near and inviting rather than awesome and distant.
People in the Assam and Manipur Valleys developed themselves into Kingdoms -the ancient Meitei Kingdom of Manipur and Ahom Kingdom of Assam. Each had a Raja who controlled not only the Land but the Life of the Society. Expectedly, the King’s Religion became the Religion of the People. There were many petty Rajas and Senapatis with small pockets of territory, but whether under a foremost or under a petty Rajas, their subjects took the Religion of their Raja.
The Meiteis of Manipur Valley and the Ahoms of Brahmaputrah Valley were the foremost Kingdoms in the North East at the dawn of the British advent in the area in the 19th Century. These two kingdoms, by and large and relatively more civilized, did not take to the Gospel of Christ whereas the wild primitive savages living freely in the Mountains did.
Geography, Hills and Mountains made the Nagas and God made Geography and the Hills!
Thepfulhouvi Solo
