THADO WARFAR

Thado Warfare. 

The Thado is an enemy by no means to bo despised when tiie matter 
is one of jungle- fighting and guerrilla warfare.^ Initiative is not his 
strong point in war, and he will readily admit that his best plans for 
taking the offensive are conceived in his cups and abandoned with the 
return of sobriety and consideration. Thus during the Thado rebellion of 
1918-19 plans were repeatedly made, and as often abandoned in the 
morning, for sending parties through Naga country to cut the telegraph 
wires between Kohima and the plains as well as between Kohima and 
Manipur. His tactics are mainly defensive and the prevailing note is 
‘tip and run.’ Ambushes are laid, posts or camps are worried by night 
attacks which there is never any intention of pushing home, and the 
enemy is generally harrassed. but never engaged in the open. Stockades 
are built across narrow paths where the turning of them is likely to prove 
tedious and prolonged, and are defended as long as the defenders can 
hold on with a reasonable chance of ultimate escape by flight. These 
stockades are sometimes of remarkable strength, some I have seen having 
been made of a palisade of upright trees 8 inches or more in diameter 
baclied by a thickness of even larger tree trunks laid horizontally, and 
this again by another palisade of upright trunks similar to the first, the 
whole being well over three feet thick, the interstices packed with earth, 
and loopholed for musket fire. The approaches and sides were well 
defended by ‘panjis’ (bamboo spikes stuck into the ground, excessively 
noxious to a barefooted foe and by no means innocuous to the booted), 
while deep communication trenches were dug running hack from the 
defenders’ position, to enable them to bolt in safety when the flanks of 
the position were turned. 

Ambushes in thick jungle are laid for an approaching enemy whence 
the Thado warrior will fire and disappear, to lie up again further on if a 
suitable opx^ortunity is afforded. The same tactics arc adopted at fords 
across rivers or any spot where natural obstacles hampt^r any rapid 
approach. Panjis, stone-shoots, and booby traps of all sorts are the 
defensive weap(3iis used. The offensive weapons are x)racticaHy confined 
to powder and shot, the powder home-made, repoi ted slow in ignition but 
none the less powerful, the shot usually angular or rectangular pieces 
of metal — hammered load or filed iron, fired from a flintlock or percus- 
sion-cap musket or from one of the hide cannon described below (Ax:>x, 
E). On oTio occasion only during the Txuki rebellion <lid 1 meet with the 
use of the bow and arrow, and the dao was never, I think, actually used 
as a weapon of offence except when dealing with defenceless villagers. 
For “ frightfuliiess ” is a normal policy of Thado warfare, baruri vil- 
lage was cut up by a party - of 'riiado early in the present century, 
the somnolent inhabitants being attacked and mostly massacred at 
early dawn, others being carried off as slaves, and the village has never 
properly recovered from that decimation. During the Thado rebellion 
Kasom, to give one instance only, a small Tangkhul village in the north 
of the Manipur State, professed in 1918 its inablity tc> produce the 

1 For the general fashion of Jxiiki warfare see Carey and Tuck, op. cit.^ 
Ch. xxiv. The Kukis were reputed in Bengal, to drive off their captives 
strung together by cane thongs threaded through the lobe of the ear. 
The Arakan pirates used to put thongs of this sort through the palms of 
their prisoners’ hands (Harvey, op. cit., p. 143.) — (Ed.) 
144 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XXIV, 1928 ] further supplies demanded by Chengjapao. The massacre which followed has been already described (supra page 23). The Thado is not without a certain ready resourcefulness and a sense of humour. When the colunms operating in Manipur in 1918-19 took a couple of antiquated 7-pounder guns known as “ Bubble ” and ‘‘ Squeak ”into the field, the Thado at once retorted with his hide cannon, which had not previously been beard of, and these did very little less damage than “Bubble'’ and “Squeak” and made very near as much noise. During the enquiry after the final surrender of the rebels I was question-ing one of their captured leaders Enjakhup, an ex-sepoy of the Naga Hills Military Police and the only Thado from that district who took any prominent part in the rebellion. He had not, he said, taken any active part in the operations, but had merely been present with the rebels under compulsion. “Is it not true, then” I asked, “that you drilled the men of the rebellious chiefs and taught them how to shoot ?” “ 1 did,” said he with his tongue in his cheek, “and why wouldn’t I ? It was the best I could do to help you all.” “How so?” I asked him. “Why, the more powder and shot they would be wasting on their targets, the less 
they would have for shooting at your soldiers with.” A stout fellow. He escaped the rope he doubtless deserved and was deported temporarily to Sadiya with the rebel chiefs. There he fell sick and died in Ivohima on his way back to his home. A number of Thados are now being enlisted in the Assam Rifles, and the Naga Hills Battalion has already one Thado Kuki platoon, and is I'ecruiting a second. etc.