Early history Ethnologist C. A. Soppitt argued that the Kuki tribes must have settled in region west of
Irrawaddy River from before the 11th century, based on the fact that they had no traces of
Buddhism, which was already prevalent in Burma by that time. He grouped the Kuki tribes into two broad classes:
Hrangkhol along with the co-tribe
Biate in one class, and
Changsan along with the co-tribe
Thadou in the other class. Each of them was grouped with several subtribes. Soppitt suggested that, by the 16th century, the Hrangkhols and Biate inhabited the Lushai Hills region (currently divided between
Mizoram and
Chin State). He believed that they were pushed out by Changsan, who moved in from the east along with Thadou, forcing them to move to the
North Cachar Hills,
Manipur and
Tripura. Further, the Changsan–Thadou combine was believed to have been in turn forced out by newer tribes in the 19th century, and then followed the same routes as the earlier tribes. The first two groups were referred to as
Old Kukis and
New Kukis by the British administrators, which did not receive endorsement from Soppitt. Modern scholars also disapprove the terminology of "Old Kukis" and "New Kukis", but it does appear that the two groups followed different migration routes and thus developed significant cultural differences. Per the 1881 census, the Kukis are estimated to have numbered 20,000 in the North Cachar Hills (present-day
Dima Hasao district), 15,000 in the Naga Hills (present-day
Nagaland), 30,000–40,000 in
Manipur and 6,000 in Tipperah (
Tripura). In addition, the plains of
Cachar had 6,000 people. The
Gazetteer of Manipur (1886), based on the same census, noted that the Kukis of Manipur wee composed of approximately 8,000 "Old Kukis" and 17,000 "New Kukis". Borders of Manipur were expanded after this date to include the Kuki-inhabited southern parts of the present
Churachandpur and
Chandel districts, adding further Kuki populations to the state of Manipur. During the
Kuki Rebellion of 1917–1919, the Kukis in Manipur were estimated to number 40,000.
Manipur Cheitharol Kumbaba, the court chronicle of the Manipur kings, mentions various Kuki tribes and clans from 1404 onwards. Other regions in southern hills remained relatively untouched until 1894 when the British defined the border of the Manipur state to include the southern hills. The term "Kuki" to refer to these tribes was introduced by the British in the 1820s. By 1850s, they imported the terminology of "New Kuki" for the Khongjai tribes and "Old Kuki" for the other Kuki tribes such as
Kom and
Aimol. According to McCulloch, sepoy villages were also set up along the southern frontier of the Manipur valley. According to modern scholars, the British administrators overemphasized the Kukis' "migration from south", because they had inadequate knowledge of the Kukis already present in the hills of Manipur. In addition, some of the larger tribes such as
Thadous are said to have been native to the southern hills (Churachandpur and Chandel districts) that were later added to Manipur territory in the 1890s. An important landmark in the history of the Kuki people was the arrival of missionaries and the spread of Christianity among them. Missionary activity had considerable social, cultural and political ramifications while the acceptance of Christianity marked a departure from the traditional religion of the Kuki peoples as well as their ancestral customs and traditions. The spread of English education introduced the Kuki people to the "modern era".
William Pettigrew, the first foreign missionary, came to Manipur on 6 February 1894 and was sponsored by the
American Baptist Mission Union. He, along with Dr. Crozier, worked in the North and the Northeast of Manipur. In the south, Watkins Robert of the
Welsh Presbytery mission organised the Indo-Burma
Thadou-Kuki Pioneer Mission in 1913. To have a broader scope, the mission's name was changed to
North East India General Mission (NEIGM) in 1924. The first resistance to British hegemony by the Kuki people was the
Kuki Rebellion of 1917–19, also known as the Anglo-Kuki War, after which their territory was subjugated by the British. Until their defeat in 1919, the Kukis had been an independent people ruled by their chieftains. The Dobashi, Lengjang Kuki was credited as responsible for preventing the Kukis of the Naga Hills from joining the Kuki Rebellion of Manipur. During World War II, seeing an opportunity to regain independence, the Kuki fought with the
Imperial Japanese Army and the
Indian National Army led by
Subhas Chandra Bose but the success of the Allied forces over the Axis group dashed their hopes.
Tripura On 31 January 1860, Kuki Riang led the Kukis of
Hill Tippera in raiding the
Chhagalnaiya plains (then under the administration of the
Twipra Kingdom) which was inhabited by ethnic
Bengalis and British officers. The Kukis looted the area of Bakhshganj and murdered Kamal Poddar of Basantpur. They then proceeded to molest Poddar's women until Guna Ghazi and Jakimal waged war against them in the village of Kulapara. Whilst the Kukis abducted 700 women,
Munshi Abdul Ali informed the British authorities of the atrocities. 185 Britons were assassinated, 100 of them were kidnapped and the Kukis remained in the plains for one or two days. British troops and policemen were finally despatched from
Noakhali,
Tipperah (Comilla) and
Chittagong to suppress them but the Kukis had already fled to the jungles of the
princely state and they never returned to Chhagalnaiya ever again.
Post-colonial history The
Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Part C States) Order, 1951 included "any Kuki tribe", "any Lushai tribe" and "any Naga tribe" (as umbrella terms among the
scheduled tribes in Assam, Manipur, and Tripura. Among the "any Kuki" classification, it listed 39 subtribes/clans. The 1951 census recorded the Kuki population of Manipur as 69,855, that in Assam as 18,200, and that in Tripura as 3,428. The 21 Kuki tribes of Manipur (as per the nomenclature used in the British colonial times) gathered together in 1948 to form an organisation called
Kuki Company. They also contributed to the construction of Kuki Inn in Imphal, to serve as the office for the organisation. Soon afterwards, frictions developed over the use of the
Thadou language for the business of the organisation. As a result, almost all the tribes other than
Thadou Kukis left the Kuki Company, and formed a separate
Khulmi National Union. In 1950s, ten Old Kuki tribes changed their affiliation to 'Naga', induced to do so by the
Tangkhuls. Seven New Kuki tribes eventually adopted the
Zomi identity in the 1990s. In the 1950s, when the
Kaka Kalelkar Commission visited Manipur, there was a concerted attempt by the Kuki and Naga tribes to delineate each tribe separately in the Schedule Tribe Order's list. Consequently, in 1956, the umbrella terms such as 'any Kuki' and 'any Naga' were deleted, and 29 tribes of Manipur were listed individually. This revision completely left out other unlisted tribes from the scheduled tribes list. In other states of India, however, the old classification of "any Kuki tribe" remained. In 2003, the term "any Kuki tribes" was re-added to the list in Manipur as well. ==Cultures and traditions==