ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the encounter between the British sahib and the indigenous Lushai chiefs and the implications of this interaction in the Lushai Hills. It traces the significance of this contact and the subsequent making of the British as sahib in the course of colonial interaction with the hill society. The growth of British prestige and the changing relationship between the British and the Lushais was shaped by a related transformation in local political conditions. This was a result of the colonial policy of ‘indirect rule’. As a result, the dread of the British vai and the resentment of colonial occupation were virtually forgotten by hill chiefs (lals). Instead, in a twist of irony, the Lushai chiefs power increased through the colonial project of indirect rule. In the course of rule, all the chiefs ‘eventually became loyal collaborators of colonial rule under the administrator sahib’. Such a distinct relationship with the raj would stand in stark contrast with the perceived apathy of the Indian state during moments of crisis in the Lushai hills. It was in their post-colonial miseries, the chapter argues, that the Mizos sought consolation in Raj nostalgia and memories of British paternalism. Raj nostalgia for formerly colonised subjects such as the Mizos eventually constituted a form of resistance against ‘majoritarian domination and hegemony of the postcolonial state’.
