HISTORY
The
ancient period history of the area is too scanty and fragmentary to give a
connected historical account. The archaeological relics of later times
discovered in the area do not provide any key to the ancient period of
history.
A series of invaluable chronicles known as Ahom Buranjis, of
the Ahoms who ruled Assam for long six centuries from 1228 A.D to 1826
A.D, bear the important literary evidences to the historical
developments of the area. During the rule of Ahom dynasty the Nishis did
not pay taxes to the King of Assam but accepted his sovereignty and obeyed
some of his commands.
During
the rule of Ahom King Sukhampha, Khora Raja (1552-1603) the area was
brought under the Ahom administration. In 1614 the Ahom expedition in this
area ended in a total defeat of the Ahoms. King Pratap Singha (1603-41)
granted the Nishis the right of posa, the right to receive payments
from certain specified villages in the foothills, provided they paid
annual tribute to the king. Katakis were appointed for this
purpose. A number of paiks were engaged in the duars or passes to
supply the Nishis certain necessities of life. The Nishis were entitled to
receive from every ten houses at foothills, one double cloth, one single
cloth, one handkerchief, one dao, ten heads of horned cattle and
four seers of salt.
Despite the grant of posa the Nishis could not be prevented
from committing raids in the plains of Assam. In 1646, during the reign of
Sutyinpha also called Naria Raja (1644-48), a punitive expedition was sent
against the Nishis to avenge the outrages committed by them. The
expedition failed and a second expedition was undertaken in 1648. This
time also the Ahoms were compelled to retreat.
In 1672 the Nishi rose in revolt and refused to pay tribute to the
Ahom King. They raided a village called Taiban in the Lakhimpur district
and carried off a number of people. The reigning king Udayaditya Singha
dispatched a retaliatory force against the Nishis, ignoring the caution of
his Prime Minister. The expedition dragged on for long until it ended in
failure and heavy loss of lives.
Hostilities between the Ahoms and the Nishis continued until the
latter came to the terms during the reign of Rudra Singha (1696-1714), the
mighty Ahom king. The Nishis agreed to provide 600 soldiers to the Ahom
army. However the peace and friendship did not last long. The Nishis
committed a series of raids after the death of King Rudra Sangha. However
the Nishis were subdued in 1717during the reign of King Siva Singha
(1714-1744) and King Rajeswar Singha (1751-1769) imposed a blocked on the
passes leading to the hills. Consequently the Nishis led a delegation to
the king and gave him presents and returned the e captives taken
previously. But the arrest of the representatives by the king resulted in
hostility until the restoration of posa to the Nishis.
During the Moamaria rebellion, which broke out in Assam in1769 and
continued till the early part of the next century, the Nishis made a
common cause with the rebels in their bid to over throw the Ahom
domination. The rebellion died down quietly.
After fall of the Ahoms, the Treaty of Yandabo ceded Assam to the
British in1826. The British largely followed the Ahoms in regard to Nishis
in the nineteenth century. Up to the first decade of twenty century it was
the policy of the British to leave the tribes more or less to look after
themselves. Under the British government the tradition of collecting posa
continued in spite of the government’s effort to discontinue it and make
money payments in lieu of it. Since the money had no exchange value in the
hills, it was not acceptable to them until 1852. Since then the Nishis
stared settling in the plains and started attention to agriculture.
On the night of 12th February 1872, the village of
Amtola, a Nishis village settled in plains near Gohpur was attacked and
plundered by two hundred Nishis of the hills. The government stopped the
payment of posa since then. From the early part of the 20th
century the relationship between the Nishis and the government took a new
turn.
In 1914 the area was a part of the administrative unit called
Western Section of North-East Frontier Tract. In 1919 it was renamed
Balipara Frontier Tract. In 1946, the Balipara Frontier Tract was divided,
for administrative convenience, into Se LA Sub-Agency and Subansiri Area
and in 1954; this Tract was bifurcated into two administrative units known
as the Subansiri Frontier Division and the Kameng Frontier Division. In
1965, the Subansiri Frontier Division came to be known as the Subansiri
District. In 1987 the Subansiri District was bifurcated into Upper
Subansiri District and Lower Subansiri District. The Papum Pare District
was curved out of the Lower Subansiri District in 1993.
The first administrative center was opened at Kimin in 1947, at
Doimukh and Sagalee in 1949, Naharlogun in 1974, Balijan in1976 and at
Mengio in 1979 and Toru and Laiporiang in 1998.The temporary state capital
was established in 1974 at Naharlogun and subsequently shifted to Itanagar
in 1978.
Till 1974, the administration of the territory was carried out from
Shillong, which was then the capital of the state of undivided Assam and
later on the capital of Meghalaya state. It was felt that for the rapid
development of the territory, the administrator should come near the
people and the search for a site for the capital of Arunachal Pradesh
started. The choice for capital finally fell on Itanagar, which was a
small village. Initially the capital was shifted to Naharlogun and the
foundation stone was laid by the then President of India, late V.V Giri on
20th April 1974.The government had defined the area of the
capital complex vide its notification thus.
Area:
“The area lies between longitude 93 13’ to 94 and latitude 270 15’
and 2 in the south, 7 in the west and 12 in the east.”