Tales of Two Villages of Assam Where Once Lived The Tikhaks And The Tangsas

It was beyond their comprehension that they would witness their village collapsing, with the earth devouring their houses, the church, and the school. Their small and beautiful village, perched above the hill, had been a testament to their existence, reflecting the vigor of their culture, lives, and farming practices. But everything vanished suddenly. They waited for a better settlement, but when that did not come, they fled to a neighboring hill in a different state, carrying the agonies and sense of neglect in their hearts. They fled from their ancestral place without protest, but they left a question for future generations: “Did their silence signify their protest?”

The reason behind this is the valuable coal deposits beneath their land, where mining dates back to the late 1800s during the Colonial period. With the advent of the Assam Railway & Trading Company (ART) in 1881, mining in the Patkai mountain range in Assam flourished, continuing for over a century. The underground coal mining left the hills hollow, and eventually, they sank one day.

This story reflects the struggles of the Tikhak and Tangsa tribes of Assam and the vanishing of two villages in Tinsukia district. The Tikhaks of Tikak village moved to Rangringkan, while the Tangsas of Mulong Pahar relocated to Hachengkan in Arunachal Pradesh, grappling with a new identity and the question of which state they now belonged to.

‘Rangringkan’, The ‘Echoing Hill’

Rangringkan is a Tangsa word meaning "echoing hill" (rangring means echo, and kan means hill). This village is located in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, according to the government website.

“This village in Arunachal is within echoing distance from the village in Assam from where the Tikhaks fled. Shouting from the village in Assam will hit Rangringkan in Arunachal, and the voice will come back to you,” explained Rajib Ningkhi, who works in the Margherita court, in an interview with Pratidin Time, elaborating on the origin of the name and its connection to the Tangsas.

The Tikak village in Tinsukia district was situated atop the Malou Pahar in the Patkai range of mountains. The village is named after the inhabitants, the Tikhaks. No one is entirely sure when the Tikhaks began living there.

The Tikhak are a sub-tribe of the Tangsa (Naga origin), a Sino-Tibetan group, believed to have migrated to Arunachal (mainly Changlang district) and Assam (mainly Tinsukia district) in the 14th century, following the arrival of the Ahoms in Assam.

The first colliery was commissioned by ART in 1882 at Ledo in the Makum coalfield. The second opened in 1884 at Tikak. As the website of the NEC (Northeast Coalfields), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd., notes, “Mining in this colliery is carried out in a small hillock at an altitude of about 299m and 429.48m above MSL respectively. It has two major working coal seams, i.e., 20 ft and 60 ft, which were earlier worked out by Underground Mining Methods from Baragolai Colliery and Namdang Colliery since 1909 and 1896 respectively by M/s Assam Railway & Trading Company.” The Tikak Colliery switched to open-cast mining in 1986.

When Did the Tikak Villagers Migrate to Rangringkan?

The underground or “South Staffordshire” method of mining adopted by the British showed its consequences much later. It was around 1999-2000 when Tikak village encountered these effects.

“It was during the rainy season when our village on the hill began to sink. Our ancestors say it went on for days, and people wept as they witnessed the collapse of the community church, the school, and several houses,” said Im Tong, the village head (Gaon Burha) of Tikak NC village, speaking to Pratidin Time.

“I was very young at the time and was away for studies, so I couldn't witness the incident firsthand. But the harrowing stories have been passed down through generations. Our village became uninhabitable, and our ancestors waited for a better settlement. When they lost hope, they migrated to Rangringkan in Arunachal. We still hear the pain our people endured in the process. They received nothing from the Assam government. Over 80% of the Tikhak people from our village fled to Rangringkan, leaving only a few behind in Assam,” Im Tong commented.

Rajib Ningkhi added, “Until the late 90s, the lives of the Tikhak people were not mechanized. They earned their livelihoods from traditional farming practices and some cash by selling their products, even with coal mining in the region. The loss of their village is attributable to the negligence of the government. Coal India might have given some compensation, but how can one be sure that everyone received a fair amount? Would they have migrated en masse had they received the attention and compensation they deserved?”

One NEC (Coal India) employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the process of filling up the empty spaces after coal excavation was not followed. “Probably due to the high costs of backfilling the hollow areas, the company (Coal India) avoided it. When it saw Tikak village sinking, it provided some compensation. However, settling those people in another place was not possible for Coal India, as it falls under the state government’s jurisdiction. There is, however, a possibility that the compensation was inadequate. The company may have encouraged their migration to Arunachal. We heard that the company helped with earth leveling in Rangringkan.”

Who Helped Them?

This raises a big question: When government (Assam) apathy was high, and support from Coal India was insufficient, was help from their kin a feasible possibility? A senior officer who worked in Changlang district for a substantial period, and who chose to remain anonymous, explained, “There is another village in Arunachal close to Tinsukia (Assam) called Longran, inhabited by the Longchangs, another sub-tribe of the Tangsa. The land where the migrants from Assam settled in Rangringkan belonged to the Longchangs. They gave the land to the migrants and helped them settle there. This is an oral history, and ironically, there is no official record.”

It’s worth noting that Rangringkan village existed before the Tikhaks from Assam settled there. “We’ve heard about the village since our childhood. The people from Assam settled in a part of the ancient village,” commented Laisam Simai, the MLA of Nampong constituency, Changlang district.

Rangringkan in Poems

The struggles of the people currently in Rangringkan, who were forced to leave their ancestral land, may not have received much attention. However, the pen of a poet has immortalized their story. Acclaimed Assamese poet Bijoy Sankar Barman, who won the prestigious ‘Munin Borkotoki’ Award, wrote two poems on Rangringkan, which have been translated into several languages worldwide. Below are the poems Barman wrote on Rangringkan...

Bijoy Sankar Barman’s Poems on Rangringkan. Originally written in Assamese this an English translation by Niren Thakuria.

Hachengkan: Same Stories, Different Place:

Similar story from the coalfields of Assam can be found at Hachengkan Village in Arunachal Pradesh. This time, the Tangsa people from the Mulong pahar (Assam) fled to Hachnegkan. The migration took place during 1078/18, Pallab Shyam Wailung, secretary of Tirap Autonomous Council Demand Committee told Pratidin Time. 
However, the story of the Tangsas of Mulong Pahar is a bit different. Explaining the history, Mr. Wailung told us—“This is related to the Tikak Settlement Area, some dilapidated signboards still has the name. in the Mulong Pahar, there were no coal mining till 2007 when Prasanna Turung was alive and his movement was at peak.”

Well, who is Prasanna Turung and what was his movement about is another long story to tell, which will be covered differently. In a nutshell, Turung was a legendary leader of the area who raised a formidable movement for the rights of the indigenous people residing in and around Margherita and Tinsukia district and to safe the ecology of the Patkai range. He went missing in 2007 and people fear his death. His wife komai Turung was raped and murdered in the same year. 

“As a co-worker of Turung, I fear he was killed and no government investigation could have revealed the truth yet. There has been a renewed demand of setting up of a SIT to reopen the case”—Wailung told us.

Mulong Pahar was Prasanna Turung’s in-laws’ place. “After he went missing, the coal mafias started open cast mining there putting the lives of the indigenous people in danger. Actually, the mafias in collaboration with political leaders lured some locals giving them some money to vacate their village, which would make their path smoother. In that situation nothing works in your favour, police will not take any action, nor the administration as well as the government.”—Wailung said. 

Notably, the Mulong Pahar is waiting to be  mined by Coal India when the Tirap colliery will open. “With the rise in illegal open cast mining, lives of the villagers of Mulong Pahar got increasingly difficult as the place slowly turned inhabitable. Their beautiful farms and gardens started to destroy. With instigation from a few locals who were hand in gloves with the mafias, they finally migrated to Hachengkan in Arunachal. Just a few households are still awaiting at Mulong Pahar for something to get and a minority of the original inhabitants have settled in nearby different locations. Majority fled to Hachengkan”—Mr. Wailung said. 

The Tangsas of Mulong pahar also left their place silently. A few of them might have got something, but majority of people found their lives at stake. 

The toils of the indigenous people in the coal areas of Assam are historical, as Wailung said adding—“for so many years, Margherita assembly constituency has been won by non-tribals. There are 62 revenue villages in the constituency and it comes under the ‘Tirap Tribal Belt’. However, 60% of the land of the Tribal belt has been taken by people of non-protected category. How does this continue?”

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