The North East Frontier of India

Alexander Mackenzie, the author of the present volume, was more a seasoned administrator than a historian. The book has its genesis in his Memorandum on the North-East frontier of Bengal which made a general survey of the political relations of the then British Government of India with the hill tribes of Assam, Cachar and Chittagong which proved extremely useful to the local administrator as well as to the foreign Department of the then British Indian Government. He later developed this document into a memorable book after a close scrutiny of piles of the Government files, proceedings and records, couples with his own notes which he had been diligently preparing and compling. He finally published, in a book form, his painstaking research in 1884 form, his painstaking research in 1884 under the title History of the relations of the Government with the Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier of Bengal as till then assam and the entire North-East formed part of Bengal. From all accounts it is a unique work and its reprint under kthe titlek the North East Frontier of India, is most timely. The prefactory introductyion written by Prof. B.K. Roy Burman, an anthropologist kof world renown and an undisputed authority on North-East of India, adds to its importance and usefulness. In Prof. Roy Burman’s own words’ “Mackenzie was a chronicier of events which were relevant from the point of view of colonlal administration of the time. As one goes through the book, one feels that he has done thejob competently. He has provided materials which no historian or even no ehnohistorian interested in the region can afford to ignore.” The matter in the volume, which is no doubt of great historical value, has been organized into three parts. Part 1 deals with sub-Himalayan region from Bhutan to the siang District of present day Arunachal Pradesh. In part II & III there is a graphic account of the dealings of the then British Government of India with the tribes of the south Valleys and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The conclusions and observations drawn by the author are of obsorbing interest. No doubt the present volume is an imperishable chronicle of the period under study.