On the basis of a draft regulation submitted by the Govern ment of Bengal, the Government of India sanctioned the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation I of 1875 under the Act of 1870 with
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effect from 1 November 1875. While approving the regulation, the Secretary of State commented that its main purpose was Hthe demarcation of a definite boundary between the territory within which we are to exercise formal and plenary jurisdiction, and that within which we are not to interfere, except politically.... such a demarcation may possibly be regarded by the wild tribes as a kind of tacit pledge on our part not to interfere beyond a line so drawn, though it will of course be the duty of your frontier officers to dispel as far as possible, such an impression.
^Extract from I.F.P.,Rev,, No. 180R., 24 July 1872s C.I.P.D.,1872, No.91. 2
India, Foreign Dept., to the Secy, of State, No. 4, 29 July 1872: C.I.P.D., 1872, No.91; Secy, of State to India, No. 91, 24 September 1872: P.D.I., 1872, Vol. 15.
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India, Foreign Dept., to Bengal, No. 140R., 5 Augustl875: I.F.P.,
Rev., August 1875, No. 7; India, Foreign Dept. Notification No. 159R, 5 August 1875: I.F.P., Rev., August 1875, No,6.
^Secy. of State to India, No. 154, 16 December 1875: I.F.P., Rev., January 1874, No. 12.
This regulation empowered the government to draw an Inner Line in any of the districts to which the Act of 1870 had been extended; to prohibit British subjects or any person from going beyond the line without a pass issued by the district authority concerned; to confiscate any rubber, wax, ivory or other jungle produce found in the possession of any person guiltyof violating this regulation; and to prohibit any person, except the original inhabitants of the districts concerned, from acquiring any interest in land or the product of land beyond the Inner Line without official sanction. The government could even extend the last prohibition to the original
inhabitants of the districts. This regulation also provided for the protection of wild elephants. These restrictions were by
nature so restrictive that they not only checked the expansion of tea plantation into the tribal country and the undesirable contacts between the ignorant tribesmen aid sharp speculators in caoutchouc;
they also seem to have restricted the hitherto free contacts between the hills and the plains. The Inner Line was declared in September 1875 and March 1876 in Lakhimpur and Darrang respectively.^
North of the Inner Line another line was laid down. It was called the Outer Line which was virtually the limit of political
11ndia Foreign Dept. Notification No. 2427P., 5 September 1875s I.F.P., Pol., September 1875, No. 272; India Foreign Dept. Notification No. 63IP., 8 March 1876; I.F.P.,Pol., March 1876, No. 517.
in official thinking as regards its precise status,but it was certainly not an international boundary as Dr. Lamb would have us believe.1 The confusion in official thinking was not cleared until 1911. The Outer Line was demarcated in 1875 as far east as the Baroi river (lat. 27°, long. 95° 20'). Beyond that point it was not demarcated; there it followed !la readily recognisable line along the foot of the hills as far as Nizamghat". In spite of the absence of demarcation in this part of the boundary, this was a reliable geographical definition, since the hills rose
,flike a wall from the valley”. Beyond Nizamghat there was no 2 Outer Line. The only line in existence there was the Inner Line.
The government's tribal policy was not as successful in securing peaceful relations with the tribes as they might have expected.^ In 1874 the Deputy Commissioner of Darrang observed that the plainsmen suffered bullying at the hands of the hillmen regularly but that they did not complain, since they were more afraid cf the hillmen1 s revenge than confident of the government's ability to protect them.^ Inl877 the Deputy Commissioner,
^Lamb, The ...McMahon Line, p.515. See pp. 170-71, 173-75. ^I.O.Memo. B.180; Lamb, on.cit., pp. 314-15.
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Dr. S. Gupta is of the opinion that British policy led to the establishment of peace and tranquillity on the frontier. But con temporary evidence does not appear to support this view. See S. Gupt British Policy on the North-East Frontier of India, 1826-1886, p.134 Oxford thesis, 1948.
78.
Lakhimpur, informed the Chief Commissioner that the Abors claimed an extensive area of about 600 square miles between the Brahmaputra and the foot of the hills. In this tract "the Abors are, in fact, the real masters ... and persons residing within the tract can, if they only settle with the Abors, do pretty much as they like. Should proof of this be asked for, I would say that not a fisher man can enter the northern rivers flowing into the Brahmaputra to
fish, or a boat put to on the north bank, for fear of Abor plunder ers. Even forest revenue is levied by the Abors on boats, &c., made on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, while Government does not touch a farthing on this account, although the trees are all
cut in its own territory, or what ought to be so." The Deputy Com missioner further pointed out, "It is notorious that the Abors con sider, and give out, that-these payments e. annual subsidies/... were exacted by force of arms; and it is undeniable that but too often the payments have been received with contumely and insult to the Government officers by whom they were made".^ The Chief Commissioner did not want that, as a remedy, the government should at once occupy the plains up to the foot of the Abor hills, since
Pol., June 1874, No. 226.
^Dy. Commissioner, Lakhimpur, to Assam, No. 50C., 25 March 1877: I.F.P., Pol., August 1877, No. 312.
The claimof the Abors was contrary to the treaty terms con cluded between them and the government in the 1860s according to which the government’s territory extended to the foot of the hills. See Aitchison, op.cit.. Vol. II, 1909, pp. 245-252.
such a step would be very costly. But he thought a show of military strength was absolutely necessary. He recommended that
a military p arty should be sent through the plains at the foot of the Abor hills to assert the government's rights to the tract which, though beyond the Inner Line, was within British territory.^ But the Government of India declined to permit the proposed step on the ground that it would involve considerable expense without any peimanent and tangible advantage. They did not consider it worth while to undertake military expeditions "which leave no permanent mark behind them, and the results of which cease with
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