186th Death Anniversary of U Tirot Sing Syiem
- 186th Death Anniversary of the Khasi freedom fighter U Tirot Sing Syiem was observed on 17 july in Meghalaya
- The programme was organised by the Department of Art and Culture in collaboration with Meghalaya Model United Nations.
- The great freedom fighter of Meghalaya who fought relentlessly to prevent Khasi Hills from falling into the hands of the British.
Tirot Singh
- Tirot Sing was born in the year 1802 and died in the year 1835.
- He drew his lineage from the Syiemlieh clan.
- He was Syiem (chief) of Nongkhlaw, part of the Khasi Hills.
- Tirot Sing declared war and fought against British for attempts to take over control of the Khasi Hills.
- The British had gained control over the Brahmaputra valley after concluding the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826.
- Between their possessions in Sylhet and the newly acquired possessions in Lower Assam intervened the Khasi Hills.
- They wanted to construct a road through this area to connect Guwahati with Sylhet to save weeks of travel and malarious country.
- David Scott, a British agent, found out that U Tirot Sing was interested in regaining possessions in the duars (passes into Assam) in return for the permission for the road project.
- After a two-day session of the durbar (court), the assembly agreed to the proposal of the British.
- Work on the road started.
- However, owing to issues with a local king, British started to support forces against Tirot singh.
- When news came that the British were reinforcing forces in Assam, U Tirot Sing convened a Durbar again and passed orders for the British to evacuate Nongkhlaw.
- The British did not pay any heed, and the Khasis attacked the British garrison in Nongkhlaw on 4 April 1829.
- His men killed two British officers, and thus unleashed the fury of British retaliation.
- In the Anglo-Khasi War, the Khasis lacked firearms and had only swords, shields, bows and arrows.
- They were untrained in the British type of warfare and soon found that it was impossible to engage in open battle against an enemy who could kill from a distance.
- Therefore, they resorted to guerrilla activity, which dragged on for about four years
- Tirot Sing was eventually captured by the British in January 1833 and deported to Dhaka where he later died.