Small wars as ‘savage warfare’: rethinking colonial counterinsurgency operations in Northeast India and Northwest Burma (1826–1919)

ABSTRACT The paper probes colonial counterinsurgency operations in Northeast India and Northwest Burma from the First Anglo-Burmese War (1825–26) to the end of the First World War. While the nature and objective of insurgency movements differ from raid to resistance and then to a full-scale war or gal against the colonial ruler, colonial counterinsurgency operations also employed different strategies and tactics. The paper argues that in its desperate attempt to bring the opponents to submission, colonial rulers turned what they initially considered as ‘petty warfare’ into ‘savage warfare’, beyond the framework of the principles and practice of ‘small wars’.