Abstract The British search for the custom within tribes to reproduce their knowledge which could be used for the imperial expansion in the Naga Hills of North East India. Nagas practiced oral tradition, therefore the colonial court judgment was based on how it understood what the litigants testified orally in the court without any prior documented directives. This way customary tradition of the people was interpreted back to the people according to how the court identified and understood what was customary. This strategically established symbolic authority, namely, favouring of ‘custom’ in the dispensation of justice. In addition to the British expansionist mission, there was also a very strong contender in the form of American Baptist Missionaries in the Naga Hills. Village life underwent a huge change as the Missionaries introduced the system of separating the village communities into the ancient ones and the converts khels (colony/block), which further altered the space for the operation of custom. In the process, the significant differences lasted as long as the imperial rule in the Naga Hills as is evident from many cases that read ancients/heathens v Christians lodged in the colonial courts in the Naga Hills.

中文翻译：

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纳迦山的风俗改造

摘要 英国人在部落内部寻找习俗以复制他们的知识，这些知识可用于在印度东北部那加山的帝国扩张。纳迦奉行口头传统，因此殖民地法院的判决是基于它如何理解诉讼当事人在法庭上口头作证的内容，而没有任何事先书面指示。通过这种方式，根据法院如何识别和理解什么是习惯，人民的习惯传统被解释回人民。这种战略性地建立的象征权威，即在正义的分配中偏向于“习惯”。除了英国的扩张主义传教士外，还有一个非常有力的竞争者，那就是纳迦山的美国浸信会传教士。随着传教士引入将村庄社区分为古代社区和皈依者 khels（殖民地/街区）的制度，村庄生活发生了巨大变化，这进一步改变了习俗运作的空间。在这个过程中，显着的差异一直持续到纳迦山的帝国统治时期，这从阅读古人/异教徒诉基督徒诉纳迦山殖民地法院的许多案例中可以明显看出。