Tana Nanna

TANA NANNA was the second son of Tana Tem of erstwhile Nujuk Tapa Village (now named Jote Village) under Sagalee Administrative Centre. He was one of the leading oratory and expert persons in traditional jurisprudence and a powerful nyub (supernaturally ordained priest). He was also one of the richest men in the area with thousand heads of svbv (boss frontalis), and the garden of the tongueless valuable bells was treasured by him. He had a traditional trade practice in the foothills with the local chiefs even before the British occupied the north bank of the Brahmaputra Valley. He used to build a traditional rest house in the foothills, particularly in Amtolah areas(present-day Hatijan Village of Assam) to stay in whenever he descents to collect the customary posa from the local cultivators in the form of cash and kind annually. But this  practice of the traditional posa system was monetised by the British, and payment of kind was stopped after 1852. Intermittently the British displayed their coerciveness forces against him and often destroyed his traditional rest house built on the plain. Further, with this constant harassment, there was a breakout of epidemic originating from the British subjects who settled at Hatijan Village(erstwhile Amtolah) of Assam. So, with the compounded factors and wanting to assert a strong resistance against the British Raj, Tana Nanna mobilised to attack the British to claim his right over occupied land, restore posa system and take revenge for the callous spreading of disease into the hills by the British subjects. In the aftermath of this attack, the British launched a massive military expedition against the duo Tana Nanna and Techi Gubin in 1874. After 1874 Nanna migrated to Deb Village and breathed his last in the same village, and was buried here.