This volume compiles four secret British plans conceived and discussed at the highest levels of administration for setting up a Crown Colony, comprising the hill areas of the North East India and the tribal areas of Burma, in the years before and shortly after Independence. Giving the geographical, administrative and colonial contexts of the four British plans, it traces the connection between the four plans of Sir Robert N. Reid, Governor of Assam, 1937-1942; his Secretary, James P. Mills; Sir Andrew G. Clow, Governor of Assam, 1942-1947; and Philip F. Adams who became Secretary to the Assam Governor after Mills.

Putting across the idea that the hill people of the region should be given special attention by the British Government, it puts in perspective the future of the hill tribes of the region in a self-governing India. The background of the administrative machinery and the political activity in the hills just before India’s independence also finds place in the discussion.