Khalkam^[a] was a Lushai chief of the 19th century. He is known for being the son of Sukpilal and for being an enemy of the British, which led to the Chin-Lushai Expedition. Khalkam was deported to Hazaribagh jail after British capture, where he committed suicide with his brother Lengpunga.

Khalkam inherited villages under his father Sukpilal to rule with relative autonomy and independence. He was situated on the border of Cachar.^[1] His capital settlement was southwest of Changsil on Sentlung Hill.^[2]

In his youth Khalkam fell in love with the Eastern Lushai maiden named Tuali. However, Tuali was prepared to be betrothed to Lenkhama, son of Vonolel.^[1] Khalkam convinced his parents Sukpilal and Pibuk, to wage war on Lemkhama after the marriage of Tuali. The war continued from 1864-1867 and weakened Sukpilal into entering diplomacy with British authorities.^[3] The end result of the war was unsuccessful as Khalkam failed to take Tuali.

Impanee, a regent to her infant son, was a chieftainess who had promised settlements to Vuta. However, she decided to grant them to Khalkam instead. Vuta raided Impanee's village in 1870 but Khalkam managed to hold onto his settlements irregardless.^[4]

To avenge the defeat Khalkam aided the British in the Lushai Expedition 1871 which was targetted against the Eastern chiefs.^[1] John Edgar, Deputy Commsioner of Cachar received a visit from Khalkam and described a path from Tipai Mukh which would make entry into the Lushai Hills for elephants more passable.^[5] The general stationed at Silchar felt that the posts established on the Sylhet-Cachar frontier was not sufficiently south to protect the right flank against Sukpilal and Khalkam if they united with the Eastern chiefs against the British. As a result a decision was made to occupy a hill named Benkong and another point near Kolasib hill as to have communication channels with Cachar through the Sonai and Dullesur rivers.^[6]

This decision to cooperate was made on the belief that the British would aid him in future attacks on the Eastern Lushai chiefs. However, due to the British policy of non-intervention, Khalkam was not given help, however for his assistance in the expedition Khalkam was gifted authority over Sonai bazaar.^[1] However, Khalkam shifted his diplomacy towards an anti-British one as a result. Khalkam was one of the few chiefs who did not meet with Major Boyd and Hari-Charan Sharma in their 1974 tour of the Lushai Hills. He even refused to meet with the deputy commissioner of Cachar the following year. Due to the souring of such relations, the Sonai bazaar was closed and in retaliation, Khalkam raided the Changsil bazaar.^[7]

Khalkam subsequently recruited a mutineer, Rutton Singh, who escaped from Chittagong in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Rutton also held a strong anti-British view and carried out drownings of innocent women and children in the Dhaleswari, which affected Khalkam's reputation.^[7][8]

In early 1877, Khalkam settled closer into Eastern territory. The jhum fields of Khalkam began to overlap with territory claimed by Poiboi. As a result hostilities erupted over the jhum lands.^[9] The conflict would escalate into a broader East-West War for a second time. The conflict would see Lalbura attacking Sukpilal subsequently before Sukpilal and Poiboi erupted into hostilities. The last encounter saw two of Sukpilal's followers die with some captured alongside some mithun.^[10]

The East and the West formed their coalition of chiefs upon escalation. The eastern coalition oversaw Lalbura, Poiboi, Lemkham, Chunglena and Bungteya with Bengkhuia. The western coalition consisted of Sukpilal, Pibuk, Khalkam, Lengpunga, Sailenpui and minor chiefs who were vassals to Sukpilal's clan.^[8][10] In September 1877, Lemkham attacked Khalkam's settlements and carried off 15 heard to avenge the theft of salt from him. In early 1878, Khalkam captured men from the eastern chiefs at salt springs in Lengvoi and attempted raids on his Sonai bazaar. After the attempted raid on Sonai bazaar, Lemkham and Poiboi raided Khalkam's settlements and burned 10 houses, killed 10 men and took 6 captives. In retaliation, Khalkam attacked Sengvong under Poiboi and captured 5 women with one casualty.^[11]

In October 1881, Khalkam made an abortive attack on Lalhai. However, the war became unpopular and up to 400 settlers left Khalkam to resettle in Cachar under the British.^[8] Both sides appealed to Deputy Commsioner of Cachar for intervention against each other but was refused. A second attempt was made but for a request of meditation for peace talks instead of intervention.^[11] The second East-West War ended with the beginning of the mautam famine. Khalkam met with Poiboi and Lalhai and agreed to a cessation of hostilities while they tried to secure food from Cachar. The peace continued until the Luhsai Hills recovered form the famine the next year.^[12][8]

A meeting of western chiefs were held at Khalkam's capital settlement during the winter of 1883-1884. Khalkam opposed the idea of attacking the Eastern Lushai chiefs on the basis that he was in the middle of migrating his settlement for a new jhum plot and was unable to commit to another war.^[12] Despite peace being established, the British closed down Sonai bazaar out of fear of war erupting in another East-West War.^[13]

In March 1876 the traders and merchants at Sonai bazaar caught some thieves and sent them to Khalkam who seized the property of the perpetrators. Khalkam then visited the bazaar and placed a flag claiming it to be under his protection. Despite consisting of 6 shops, the rubber in the Lushail Hills had been depleted from over harvesitng during the mautam famine and a fall in prices overall.

After some skirmishes between the eastern and western chiefs, Khalkam requested the British to move the Sonai bazaar 20 miles further. He raised concerns on the proximity of the bazaar to his settlement. However the deputy commissioner of Cachar refused as they believed Khalkam attempted to obfuscate intelligence about his movements. The merchants at Sonai bazaar eventually left in January 1877 due to lack of profitability in the rubber trade. The merchants specifically complained about Khalkam's upa, Rutton Singh for extortion practices. Rutton Singh was apprehended but was released immediately to keep good relations with the Lushai chiefs. Khalkam had believed rumours on Rutton Singh's death and had confiscated his property, however upon his return, Khalkam took him back.^[14] Rutton Singh did, however, alarm traders and merchants after he murdered the family of an old woman suspected of witchcraft.^[15] Rutton Singh would die from drowning in 1884.^[14]

After the closure of the Tipaimukh bazaar, Lemkham sent traders to Khalkam's Sonai Bazaar which had reopened. They purchased salt in exchange for wax, but Khalkam confiscated the salt from them. Lemkham retaliated through a raid that took 15 heads.^[16] Khalkam committed himself to guarding the bazaar but the lack of profitability led to merchants closing their stalls and leaving.^[17] Further conflict with Eastern chiefs led to the shutting down of the bazaar. Khalkam made attempts to reopen the bazaar alongside eastern chiefs but all attempts were refused due to concerns over the security of the merchants.^[18] After Khalkam moved east of the Sonai river, the deputy commissioner on promises made by Lemkham and Poiboi reopened the bazaar. The merchants refused to make starts on account of a lack of British frontier guard. Furthermore, Khalkam believed Sonai bazaar was exclusively his and declined to share the rent from the bazaar with the eastern chiefs.^[19] The commissioner closed the bazaar once more until the chiefs made a joint agreement. Khalkam was not affected strongly by the closure of Sonai Bazaar as he was missing out on rent but still accessed the Changsil bazaar close to him.^[20]

On the morning of 13 December 1888, the village of Pakuma Rani in the Chittagong Hill Tracts was raided. The British authorities suspected Khalkam to be responsible for the raid. The raid saw the chieftainess, an ally of the British, killed alongside 21 men and 15 captives. The raid led to the British undertaking a punitive expedition with occupation of the Lushai Hills necessary to prevent raiding.^[21]

Khalkam surrendered to R.B McCabe on 10th December 1890. He was deported outside of the Lushai Hills with his brothers, Lengpunga and Thangula.^[22] During trial, Khalkam was found guilty of the murder of H.R Browne the first political officer of the North Lushai Hills. Browne's killer was identified as Lengkhunga but Khalkam was identified as the key leader.^[23] R.B McCabe recorded Khalkam's statement on the murder of H.R Browne:

I took the oath of fealty with Browne Saheb, and he told us that we would have to pay revenue. We did not like this and subsequently when Leipung, a mantri of Lenkhunga told me (Khalkam’s deputation accused Changkunga chaprasi of giving the wrong information that excited the rising) that he had heard the Saheb was going to collect revenue from the Western Lushai first, and then from the Eastern Lushais and that we would not even be allowed liberty to hunt in the jungles. I lost my head and resolved to fight. We came definitely to the resolution about the 1st September (Khama says one month prior to the outbreak.) A meeting was held in my Jolbuk (guest house) at which representatives from Thangula, Thanruma, Lenkhunga, Lalrihma, Minthang and Rankupa were present.

— Statement of Khalkam Raja made before R.B McCabe, Political Officer, North Lushai Hills, Foreign External A Pros. January 1891, Nos. 121–134, NAI. 23 November 1890^[24]

Khalkam confessed on the assumption that nothing were to happen and that he would be able to return to his wife and family. Khalkam was subsequently surprised when R.B McCabe informed him to accompany him to Aizawl.^[25]

Khalkam was recorded by the British as the eldest son of Sukpilal. This was because the oldest son was already deceased, so Khalkam held the privilege. He was the second son of Sukpilal's eldest wife.^[1]

Khalkam was arrested under the Bengal Regulation III of 1818. The justification for Khalkam's detention was provided on the basis that he and other chiefs were responsible for a rise in violence termed the "Western Lushai uprising". Khalkam was found guilty of the murder of the first political political officer of North Lushai Hills, H.R Browne.^[26] As a result, Khalkam was placed in Hazaribagh Jail in Bihar.^[7] On 12 September 1891, the foreign secretary to the government of the British Raj received a telegram from the Government of Bengal. The message stated that two of the Lushai chiefs captured by R.B McCabe, political officer of the North Lushai Hills, had committed suicide in Hazaribagh prison.^[26] Khalkam was found dead in the latrines of the prison. The authorities speculated that Khalkam had managed to keep extra cloth secretly over time until enough could be used to hang himself.^[27] The guard on duty Saiphu Singh reported:

The three Lushais were inside the dormitory. After some time, the two deceased said they wanted to go to the privy to ease themselves; I told them to go and they went, the third (Thangula) remaining in the dormitory. I stood outside on the path. As they were some time I at last went down and called to ask why they were so long. They did not answer; I went in and saw them both suspended to the window. Khalkam was quite dead. Liengpunga was still struggling; I lifted him up, but he expired. I cut down Khalkam. Then I went out and met the Jailor coming up.

— Notes of enquiry into the suicide of two Lushai chiefs, C.J.S Faulder, October 1891^[27]

• Chatterjee, Suhas (1995). Mizo Chiefs and the Chiefdom. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. ISBN 81-85880-72-7.

• Elly, E.B. (1978) [1893]. Military Report on The Chin-Lushai Country. Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Limited.

• Guite, Jangkhomang (September 2014). "Colonialism and its Unruly? The Colonial State and Kuki Raids in Nineteenth Century Northeast India". Modern Asian Studies. 48 (5): 1118–1232. doi:10.1017/S0026749X12000674. ProQuest 1550073156. Retrieved 23 November 2024.

• Mackenzie, Alexander (1884). History of the Relations of the government with the Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier of Bengal. Calcutta: Home Department Press.

• Nag, Sajal (2008). Pied Pipers In North-East India: Bamboo-flowers, Rat-famine and the Politics of Philantropy. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 978-81-7304-311-6.

• Sen, Anandaroop (2022). "Insurgent Law: Bengal Regulation III and the Chin-Lushai Expeditions (1872-1898)" (PDF). Modern Asian Studies. 56 (1): 1515–1555. doi:10.1017/S0026749X21000366. Retrieved 18 December 2024.

• Tribal Research Institute (1978). The Lushais 1878-1889. Aizawl: Firma KLM Private Limited.

• Woodthorpe, Robert Gosset (1873). The Lushai Expedition, 1871-1872. London: Hurst and Blackett Publishers.

• Zou, S. Thangboi (2019). "Riverine bazaars, trade and chiefs in the colonial Lushai Hills". Asian Ethnicity. 22 (4): 563–582. doi:10.1080/14631369.2019.1687284. Retrieved 21 November 2024.