Lushai Expedition

The British Indian Army Lushai Expedition of 1871 to 1872 was a punitive incursion under the command of Generals Brownlow and Bourchier. The objectives of the expedition were to rescue British subjects who had been captured by the Lushais in raids into Assam—including a six-year-old girl called Mary Winchester—and to convince the hill tribes of the region that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose by placing themselves in a hostile position towards the British Government.

For the British, the expedition was a success: the prisoners were freed and the hill tribes agreed to negotiated peace terms. The border region was to remain peaceful until 1888 when large scaled raiding was resumed and another punitive expedition was organised.

After turning the Burmese out of Assam during the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824, the Bengal Government of the East India Company attempted to administer all that was not absolutely necessary for the control of the frontier through Purandar Singha a native prince; this arrangement failed, and Assam became a non-regulation province in 1838. On its southern borders lay the Lushais, the principal tribes known to Assam being Thadoe and Poitoo Kukies. For many years, long before the British occupation, the inhabitants of the plains to the south had lived in dread of the Kukies, who used to come down and attack the villages, massacring the inhabitants, taking their heads, and plundering and burning their houses.

The first Kuki or Lushai raid mentioned as being committed in British governed Assam was in 1826. From that year to 1850 the local officers were unable to restrain the fierce attacks of the hillmen on the south. Raids and outrages were of yearly occurrence, and on one occasion the Magistrate of Sylhet reported a series of massacres by "Kookies" in what was alleged to be British territory, in which 150 persons had been killed.

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