Tai Khamti Resistance

Subject – History

Context – Call to give Tai Khamti resistance its due. Arunachal Deputy CM asks Centre to recognise battles against British in northeast

Concept –

Tai Khamti took place in 1839 between the Tai Khamti people and the British. The theatre of this war was some 2,400 km east of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh where the mutiny began.
Tai Khamtis resisted colonisation by the British. Some 80 British soldiers, including Col. Adam White, were killed in the resultant conflict.
The Tai Khamti people, who follow Theravada Buddhism, number a little more than 1,00,000 today and live in areas straddling Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

Other battles between communities of Arunachal Pradesh and the British –

Anglo-Abor wars from 1858 to 1911
- The Abors, now called Adis, inhabit central Arunachal Pradesh
Wancho-British war in Tirap district’s Ninu in 1875
- Wanchos live in the southern part of the State in Arunachal.

About Tai Khamti

They are an ethnic group native to Myanmar. In India, they are found in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and possibly in some parts of China.
The Tai Khamtis who inhabit the region around the Tengapani basin were descendants of migrants who came during the century from the Hkamti long region, the mountainous valley of the Irrawaddy.
The Tai-Khamti are followers of Theravada Buddhism.
The Tai-Khamti have their own script for their language, known as ‘Lik Tai’, which originated from the Shan (Tai) script of Myanmar.
Their mother tongue is known as Khamti language. It is a Tai language, closely related to Thai and Lao.
Sangken is the main festival of the Khamti.