Questions about the ancestry of Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein have periodically surfaced in public discourse. A review of archival records, from British reports of 1825 to photographs held at the British Library in 1941, provides a settled account of his family history.
Chowna Mein belongs to a Tai Khamti family whose lineage can be traced to two prominent 20th‑century figures: his paternal grandfather Chow Chali Mein Gohain, a wealthy nobleman, and his maternal grandfather Chow Kanan Namchoom, a Tai Khamti chief. Both families used the honorific title ‘Gohain’, a designation attached to the Tai Khamti administrative post of Sadiya Khowa Gohain that dates back to the Ahom period. The title was widely adopted across clans as a mark of distinction, though in the 1960s some leaders urged a return to original clan surnames.
The title’s historical roots are documented in British records. In 1826 an agreement between governor‑general agent David Scott and Tai Khamti chief Chausalan confirmed British recognition of Tai Khamti authority in Sadiya. The 1839 uprising, led by chief Chaupha Planglu, saw about 600 Tai Khamti warriors attack the British post, an event described by political agent Captain F Jenkins as “the boldest attempt yet made” against British rule.
The Mein family has continued to shape Arunachal’s political landscape. In independent India, leaders such as Chow Khamoon Gohain and Chow Chandret Gohain served in Parliament, while Chow Pook Mein Gohain and his son Chow Tewa Mein held positions in the Agency and Pradesh councils. Chowna Mein, raised in Sunpura and educated at Don Bosco School and Jawaharlal Nehru College, entered politics in 1995, served as Assembly Speaker, Cabinet minister, and has been deputy chief minister since 2016.
Archival photographs from 1941, taken by Governor Sir Robert Neil Reid, and Tai Khamti chronicles in the indigenous Lik Tai script, preserve the Mein family’s legacy. These documents, alongside oral tradition, affirm the family’s historical prominence and the evolution of the ‘Gohain’ title from a colonial office to a symbol of ancestral identity.
