The Edges of Empire

Not every fight was against a British officer. In the Naga hills a sixteen-year-old led a movement the Raj could not name, and in the princely states of Travancore and Dhenkanal the enemy wore an Indian crown backed by British guns.

Lessons in this chapter

• The Empire's Uneasy Edges — Two thirds of India was ruled from Delhi. The other third was ruled through somebody else, and that is why its fighters went uncounted.
• Sixteen, and Wanted — A girl of sixteen inherited a movement from a man the British had hanged, and paid fourteen years in prison for it
• Thampanoor, October 1938 — A schoolteacher, a crowd of twenty thousand, and a British police officer with orders to fire
• The Boatman's Boy — Twelve years old, a boat, and a state police party that wanted to cross the Brahmani
• The Flag at Tirupur, January 1932 — A mill hand, a banned tricolour, and a lathi charge on the Noyyal riverbank
• Jodeghat, October 1940 — A man who learned to read at thirty, twelve villages that stopped paying, and the law that came after the bullets
• The Village That Declared Itself Free — A village in Mysore state put up a signboard telling the government to keep out, and five of its men were hanged for it

Back to Kranti Veer: From Chittagong to the Navy (1930-1947)