Person · Naga freedom fighter · India
Rani Gaidinliu
A Rongmei Naga who joined the Heraka movement of her cousin Haipou Jadonang at thirteen, took it over when the British hanged him in 1931, and led a revolt against colonial rule and taxation across the Naga and Zeliangrong hills until her capture at sixteen.
- Date
- 1915–1993
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 25.000, 93.750
Worth knowing
She spent fourteen years in jail and was released only in 1947. Nehru, who met her in Shillong jail in 1937, gave her the title Rani and campaigned for her release. Her position is contested in the Northeast: she opposed both British rule and Naga conversion to Christianity, and later opposed Naga separatism.
About the place
Placed in the Zeliangrong country of the Manipur-Nagaland-Assam borderlands where her movement ran. She was born at Nungkao in Tamenglong district and died there.
Connections (2)
- AnalogueBirsa Munda
Gaidinliu in the Zeliangrong hills and Birsa Munda in Chotanagpur led risings a generation apart that shared a structure: a religious reform movement — Heraka, Birsait — that rejected both colonial authority and Christian mission, turning into an armed refusal of tax and of outsider land control. Both leaders were captured young, both are now official national heroes, and the movements they led are still politically live in the regions they came from.
- AnalogueKhonoma
Gaidinliu's Heraka movement in the Zeliangrong hills and Khonoma's four decades of resistance are the two Naga-country entries here, and both were as much about religious and community authority as about the administration. Khonoma negotiated terms in 1879; Gaidinliu was imprisoned for fourteen years from 1932 and released only in 1947.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Rani Gaidinliu”. Assam and Manipur administration reports on the Zeliangrong movement; Gaidinliu’s own statements recorded at her 1932 trial.
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