" Yunghong coolies refusing to go on " (Image number B.012, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
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Material Information

Title:
" Yunghong coolies refusing to go on " (Image number B.012, J.P. Mills Photographic Collection)
Series Title:
J.P. Mills Photographic Collection
Added title page title:
Yunghong "coolies" refusing to go on
Creator:
Mills, J. P. (James Philip), 1890-1960.
Hobson, Geraldine ( contributor )
Publication Date:
Materials:
B&W photographic print 13x7.5 cm ( medium )
Cultural Context:
Please note that the terms used in historical records reflect attitudes and language at the time and may now be considered derogatory or offensive.
"Coolie" entered the English language having passed through a variety of South Asian languages including Persian. Before becoming racially charged, the word originally referred to an individual who worked as a day labourer. For more information, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolie

Notes

Abstract:
The column was travelling from Yunghong to Angpang. Hutton describes this as "a rather ticklish march, as the two villages are very much at war and Yunghong had the greatest reluctance to meeting Anpang and vice versa, and neither could carry on the land of the other, or have the other village on their land. Eventually we got Yunghong - with some difficulty - as far as the place where Angpang were waiting, there let them put [down] their loads and go, after which Angpang came out and picked them up". Interestingly, in chapter 14 of The Nagas, by Julian Jacobs, page 156, headed "Naga Nationalism" this photograph is captioned "Men squatting in the long grass and objecting to the passage of a column, Yunghong village". These men look scared, not warlike, and are not armed. ( en )
General Note:
Date of photograph: 1923 April 18
General Note:
This item may be used under license: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial (CC BY-NC)
General Note:
This image is part of Album B containing images taken mainly during a punitive expedition in April 1923 to the Konyak village of Yungya, certain inhabitants of which had carried out a head-hunting raid on Kamahu. J.P. Mills was Assistant Commissioner, Mokokchung at this time. He accompanied J.H. Hutton, Deputy Commissioner, Kohima, who was his superior and therefore wrote the official Tour Diary for the expedition. The Konyak tribe lived in the northern part of the Naga Hills. To the west the Konyaks bordered the Assam plains and the Ao Nagas; on the south-east were the Phoms, and on the east the Singphos of Burma. At the time of these photographs much of their country was unadministered and little known and some of the villages visited during this expedition had never before been seen by Europeans.
General Note:
"Coolie" is the photographer's term. When originally applied, the term "coolie" was widely used to describe to anyone of Asia ethnicity. It is thought to have originate from terms in Gujarati, Tamil and Turkish roughly meaning labourer or slave. The term has since come to be used as a racial slur.
General Note:
Originally collected in Album B of the "J.P. Mills Photographic Collection". (Held in the SOAS, University of London, Archives and Special Collections.)
General Note:
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909- . The Naked Nagas. London : Methuen & Co., Ltd. [1939]. (LCCN: 40014642)
General Note:
Hutton, John Henry. Tour Diary [manuscript]. 1923 April. (Held by the Pitt Rivers Museum archives, University of Oxford)
General Note:
Jacobs, Julian. The Nagas : hill peoples of Northeast India : society, culture, and the colonial encounter. London : Thames and Hudson, 1990.
General Note:
Mills, J. P. (James Philip), 1890-1960. [Letters to Henry Balfour.] (Held by the Pitt Rivers Museum archives, University of Oxford)
General Note:
Mills, J. P. (James Philip), 1890-1960. The Lhota Nagas. London : Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1922. (LCCN: 23005149)
General Note:
VIAF ID: 2475026 (name authority) : Mills, J.P. (James Philip), 1890-1960
General Note:
VIAF ID: 24095368 (name authority) : Hobson, Geraldine
General Note:
Ethnologue reference: http://www.ethnologue.com/language/nbe

Record Information

Source Institution:
SOAS, University of London
Holding Location:
Archives and Special Collections
Rights Management:
Image: © 1923, The Estate of J.P. Mills. Text: © 1996, Geraldine Hobson.
Resource Identifier:
PP MS 58/02/B/12 ( calm reference )