Riverine bazaars, trade and chiefs in the colonial Lushai Hills

Bibliographic Data

ID6040066
AuthorsThangboi Zou (0000-0002-0857-1778, University of Delhi, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume22
Issue4
Pages563-582
Publication date2021-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Ethnicity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-1369 • E-ISSN: 1469-2953
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14631369.2019.1687284
OpenAlexW2987605759
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited6

The Lushais maintained commercial contact with the surrounding plains traders in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The British administrators recognised the importance of trade and bazaar in relation with independent Lushai chiefs and to use them as a diplomatic tool to influence the behaviour of the Lushais. The British introduced riverine bazaars in the interiors of Lushai hills to satisfy Lushais’ desire for tradable commodities; to facilitate the interests of plain merchants in a profitable rubber trade; and to provide security to their subjects within their territories. The failure on the part of the Lushai chiefs to provide security to the marketplaces and resumption of raids in the British territories paved the way for the British to directly interfere in the Lushai affairs. This paper contradicts the Romantic notion of Lushai village communities being self-supporting and isolated autarchy and the notion of self-sufficiency of ‘Indian village communities’ as propagated in the nineteenth century

Archaeology · Bazaar · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Fur trade · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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