Learn about the ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ of the Northeast in our Three-Part Series, whose birth anniversary coincides with India’s Republic Day
Much of this archive is sourced from a book titled “Rani Gaidinliu: Legendary Freedom Fighter from the North East” by Som Kamei. This article may also be considered as a book review of the same.
Imagine being an unlettered fourteen-year-old girl and your village has just declared you the Chosen One.
Not just one village. Not just three or four. But about one lakh people living across three states; most of whom were suffering from extreme poverty, humiliation by British India, excessive religious dogma, and negligence from pretty much the whole world.
This is where the story of “Rani” Gaidinliu Pamei begins.
As it continued, she became the darling of the Gandhis as well as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. She was the subject of legends that are comparable to tales in the Ramayana or The Lord of the Rings. Depending on whom you ask, she may be a flesh-eating, bloodsucking beast, or a ghost that can appear and disappear at will.
But for her, Nagaland may never have been part of the Indian Union.
Therefore, on the 109th birth anniversary of Rani Gaidinliu, let’s recap her sterling contribution for her people.
The ‘Zeliangrongs’ Before Rani Gaidinliu
Everything that the Rani did was in service of (a) creating a separate district for the Zeliangrong people, and (b) aggressively reforming their ancient religion (the ‘Heraka’), which was hitherto too focused on blood sacrifices, elaborate rituals and a litany of hair-splitting gods.
Any understanding of the Rani is impossible before understanding the Zeliangrongs. But who are these ‘Zeliangrongs’?
They are actually a composite of four tribes: Zemei, Liangmei, Rongmei and Puimei / Inpui. These tribes originated from two major clans (Pamei and Newmei), and share a storied history of around 5000 years. They share the same linguistic base, although they do not speak the same language. As of 2023, there are around three-and-a-half lakh Zeliangrongs in the Northeast.
But to say ‘four’ tribes is an oversimplification. The Pamei tribe alone has nine lineages of its own (Kamson, Singongmei, Malangmei, Daimei, etc.) The Newmei tribe has about eight known clans / sub-clans. All of these tribes have their own sub-divisions, legendary kings, local gods, and languages. It is a bit of a rabbit hole.
It is highly unusual for four North-East tribes (with all their subcategories) to club together and assert a common identity. Indeed, there is no other known example of this in the entire Northeast.
The word ‘Zeliangrong’ was coined only in 1947. Before that, they were either called by their individual tribe-names, or ‘Kacha Nagas’ by Manipuri kings—a derogatory term that history has since rejected. But the unity was intact.
The land of the Zeliangrongs spans more than 10,000sqkm; three times the size of Goa. It extends across parts of Nagaland, Manipur, and Assam. More specifically, this is in the Barail range of East Himalayas, which includes (partly and wholly) Haflong, Mao in Manipur, the Cachar Plains, Mount Zapfu, and the Barak and Irang rivers (fondly called the ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ by locals).
These mountains and rivers formed a natural barricade against many invaders. It helped the Zeliangrongs fight off the Kacharis, Meiteis and Burmese, and largely kept themselves free of alien rule.
That is, until the British arrived.
The British quickly paid off Manipuri kings and sent the Assam Rifles to bring the Zeliangrongs to heel. By 1891, they controlled the whole area. Locals were forced into dire poverty through the imposition of compulsory house tax and free, forceful labour. They suffered the humiliation of being porters to British officials. They were mocked by the British as well as the Government of Manipur when the anti-imperial and anti-Naga Kuki Rebellion ravaged their lands.
Gaidinliu Pamei – Early Life
Within the Zeliangrong region is a small village called Longkao. It is also called ‘Nungkao’. You will find it in Manipur, three hours from the Assam border, off the National Highway that connects Silchar to Imphal.
Rani Gaidinliu was born here.
Legend says that she was an incarnation of Cherachamdinliu, who is the daughter of a local god Bisnu (not the same as Lord Vishnu). Lord Bisnu commanded Gaidinliu to be born in the womb of a woman called Kaluatlienliu.
Gaidinliu Pamei was born on 26 January 1915. When the baby was born, she looked at her mother with eyes wide open. The day of her birth, there was also sudden thunder and lightning. The mother, Kaluatlienliu, dreamt of two gigantic men standing near her bed. They disappeared into thin air the moment she got up from her cot. Perhaps they were Lord Bisnu and his father, the Almighthy Tingkao Ragwang?
‘Gaidinliu’ translates to ‘harbinger of good news’. Rani Gaidinliu came from the Pamei clan. Not that it matters, as she has always asserted herself to be Naga and Indian.
In her youth, she was a tomboy, a rebel, a born hunter, and a simple-minded girl who ate her food without asking questions.
The drama truly began when Gaidinliu was twelve. One day, she had gone with her friend Ramthonliu to pluck chillis at a jhum field. The story goes that they met a woman who looked like the mirror image of Gaidinliu. The mystery girl plucked chillis along with Gaidinliu and Ramthonliu. After they were done, the trio headed back home. As they approached the foothills of the village, Gaidinliu’s doppelganger gave the chillis from her basket and left.
It is believed that this mystery woman was in fact Cherachamdinliu, the daughter of Lord Bisnu.
Jadonang, the Gun-Toting Reformist Prophet
Gaidinliu was massively influenced by a mystical rebel named Haipou Jadonang. Jadonang believed that the Zeliangrongs were long overdue their own promised kingdom (‘Makam Gwangdi’), and that they should rule themselves.
“Makaameirui Gwangtupuni,” he used to say. “The day of the Naga is coming.”
But do not confuse Jadonang with a passive philosopher-fakir. The man was straight up preparing his people for war. He was training a youth force of boys and girls known as the ‘Riphen.’ He taught them how to wield hacking knives (daos) that were bigger than their hands. He taught them how to hurl spears, shoot guns and make gunpowder. Villages gladly sent a quota of their youth to Jadonang. Its strongest force has been around 500.
Gaidinliu first met this rebel-philosopher when she was around 11. She was having dreams about divine deities and needed guidance on the same. Gaidinliu and Jadonang quickly formed a close bond. They had playful nicknames for each other (‘Achai’ and ‘Adinna’).
Gaidinliu quickly became Jadonang’s most trusted lieutenant. She taught the Riphen girls how to send secret messages and code names. The two even invented their own private language.
But this association lasted only four years.
The British, wary of Jadonang’s intentions, trumped up charges against him regarding four missing Manipuri traders. Someone went, on behalf of a local called Imtiaz Ali (yep, we know), to Jadonang. The fellow tricked the spiritual leader by saying that Imtiaz’s wife was ill and on the verge of death. Jadonang innocently went with him, since Imtiaz was an old friend. Only to be tricked and taken to Silchar Jail.
Jadonang was shortly transferred to Imphal, put on trial, sentenced, and executed.
The Zeliangrongs, who had pinned their entire faith of a ‘Naga Raj’ in Jadonang, switched tracks to Gaidinliu; his favourite disciple, his best lieutenant. She was sixteen.
Did she have a choice? Perhaps not.
Was she up to the job? Absolutely.
The Legend of Rani Gaidinliu
There is a cave in Assam that is sacred to the Zeliangrongs. It is said to be the holy abode of Lord Bisnu. Its engravings are believed to be inscribed by their Almighty God, Tingkao Ragwang (also called ‘Tingwang’).
It is called Bhubon Caves.
Rani Gaidinliu pilgrimaged to this cave four times: 1927, 1929, 1930 and 1931.
Each visit was legendary in its own way. It is said that she met Cherachamdinliu there again. It is said that Tingkao Ragwang the Almighty (his name is sometimes shortened to 'Tingwang'), imparted His divine laws to Gaidinliu here. It is said that Gaidinliu was blessed with a sacred object: a five-foot, red-coloured, rifle-like weapon. It is also said that Tingwang himself appeared to stop an argument between Gaidinliu and Jadonang in the caves.
These legends are varied and colourful. You could say that they legitimized Gaidinliu as a larger-than-life figure and natural successor to Jadonang.
Another legend that occurred around the same time concerns a Divine Python. According to Aashisha Chakraborty, the author of 'The 13-Year-Old Queen and her Inherited Destiny', “the python god, also called Hechawang in the lore of the Rongmeis, was believed to be a mysterious grey force, that blessed as it cursed. I have attempted to dovetail the legends in Manipur and Nagaland with the python’s stories and hearsay. Isn’t this fertile ground for a historical fantasy fiction writer?"
We will likely never know the truth-value of these tales. But what we do know is that each visit lit a flame in Gaidinliu. It not only enabled her to become the political/cultural icon of the Zeliangrongs, but also provoked her to bring wholesale reform in their Heraka religion.
Jadonang and Gaidinliu's work was much more than warring for her homeland. They also collected the various oral narrations of the Zeliangrongs and gave it form and structure. If Jadonang was the master pioneer, Rani Gaidinliu was the master reformer.
The original religion of the Zeliangrongs is called 'Heraka'. It is full of stories, myths, legends and customary laws that sounds straight out of a fairy tale.
War and Politics
Jadonang’s death gave birth to Gaidinliu.
“The white man should not rule over us,” she declared definitively, at the age of seventeen. She declared that the day of the Naga was coming, and began aligning her movement with the greater freedom struggle spearheaded by Gandhi and co.
Gaidinliu went underground, and started leading a rebellion that extended across Manipur, Nagaland, and Assam.
The British used their tried-and-tested methods to stop this. They slandered Gaidinliu as a money-spinner and gangster. They launched a massive search party that uncovered nothing. They harassed every single girl named ‘Gaidinliu’, till the point that Gaidinlius began changing their names. They put a bounty of Rs. 500 and ten years of tax exemption on the Rani’s head. They even sent her a marriage proposal through a local, in an attempt to smoke her out!
These insults and tricks only served to motivate the locals. Villagers donated massive amounts of money and men to Rani’s cause. They used smoke and beacons as signals and codes to warn Gaidinliu as to the movement of British troops. It also helped that the Zeliangrong region was a “maze of game trails, field tracks, paths, caves, deep forests and ravines,” which Gaidinliu presumably knew inside out.
Politics soon devolved into war. On 18 March 1932, Zeliangrong Nagas attacked the Assam Rifles outpost at Hangrum. They lost due to inferior weapons (one side had knives and spears, while the other had rifles). But the battle struck fear into the Assam Rifles.
In retaliation, the Rifles went on a marauding rampage in several villages of Naga Hills. Gaidinliu escaped arrest because she had a network of spies in Kohima, Imphal, Haflong and Tamenglong. But she may have felt that she had blood on her hands. Because she decided it was time for one last stand.
In October 1932, Gaidinliu and her forces moved to Pulomi village (30kms from Kohima) and began building a wooden fortress. The idea was to have one full-and-final conflict with the Rifles to assert their dominion.
But this proved to be a mistake.
One of the people in the village (most likely Dr. Haralu) betrayed her and told the enemy about Gaidinliu’s forces and their plans. The Assam Rifles troops breached the gates and surprised the rebels. They surrendered. Gaidinliu was arrested.
She was sentenced to life.
Rendezvous with Pandit Nehru
In 1937, five years into her imprisonment, Jawaharlal Nehru came to Assam. His initial reason for visiting this part of India was something else entirely. Nehru was President of the Indian National Congress, you see, and wanted to learn about the affairs of the country.
It just so happened that Nehru heard so much praise about a woman named Gaidinliu Pamei, that he felt compelled to investigate further. He first met Gaidinliu in Shillong Jail. Nehru was so moved by her attitude and passion, that he promised her that he would do everything in his power to free her from jail. Nehru subsequently wrote an article for the Hindustan Times in December 1937, where he described Gaidinliu as ‘Rani’. The title has stuck ever since.
Ten years and a thousand letters later, India attained independence. And Nehru, the President of Free India, almost immediately sanctioned her release.
See how the executed Jadonang influenced Gaidinliu? See how the imprisoned Gaidinliu influenced Nehru? There’s a lesson to be learnt here: you cannot silence an idea by silencing the person. If the idea is pure, it will inevitably be passed on to more people.
The Zeliangrongs after Independent India
By the time Rani Gaidinliu was released from jail, she was not the only political heavyweight in Nagaland.
Two new organizations had formed: the Naga National Council (NNC) and the Naga Peoples’ Convention (NPC). The former (NNC) was more extremist and called for a separate country. They did not recognize the Constitution of India at all. The latter (NPC) was more moderate. They wanted Naga Hills to be a Union Territory called the Naga Hills Tuengsang Area.
Neither would get their wish. Instead, in 1963, Naga Hills would be redefined as a separate state called ‘Nagaland’, and within the Indian Union.
Rani Gaidinliu’s fight was not with the creation of Nagaland. Not exactly. She wanted the creation of a ‘separate administrative unit’ for the Zeliangrong people, within the Indian Union. The problem was that this area would eat into parts of Nagaland, Manipur, and Assam. It was incompatible with the wishes of the NNC, the NPC and the Government of India combined.
Rani Gaidinliu remained stubborn. In doing so, she incurred the ire of the NNC.
When the Naga Rebellion broke out in 1965, Rani Gaidinliu was forced into hiding again. Yet this time, she refused to be captured. Years of politics had not only made her cleverer in evasive tactics, but also hardened her resolve for a Zeliangrong district.
Once, Mr Dev (a Deputy Commissioner from Kohima) somehow made contact with Gaidinliu in an attempt to broker peace. He was told to make camp at Henima village, and travel on foot for a few days through Nsong Jungle. This is what he saw when he reached:
“Tired and exhausted, the DC’s party made their way up the forest-covered steep hillock which was the Rani’s hideout where they noticed numerous bunkers spread over, well-planned, well-built and well-guarded. It was a strange place and Dev realized how difficult it would be for a strong force to overrun this hideout even by air strikes.”
The Rani (who was in her 70s at the time), told the DC that she was distrustful of current Christian influence over Nagaland. “We are Nagas and should live like Nagas,” she told him, among many other things.
But eventually, Gaidinliu and her 300-400 followers surrendered. She came overground to Kohima and began living out her retirement life. She never stopped trying to create a homeland for the Zeliangrongs. She almost walked out on a meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the moment the PM said that a homeland for the Zeliangrong was impossible. She refused to barter with the NNC, but aligned herself with the Sangh Parivar, who were showing sympathy for her cause.
The Rani passed away on 17 February 1993. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan (1982), commemorative stamps, coins; the whole shebang. But despite her lifelong efforts, the Zeliangrong district does not exist.
But today, let’s remember the contributions of Rani Gaidinliu, and remind ourselves that caring for your fellow neighbours assures that they will care for your legacy.
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