Editor,
Apropos the article ‘When We Were Khassyahs’ by Collin Wanniang appearing in the ‘Canvas’ of your esteemed daily (ST 15 July 2012), it is not historically correct to say that the indigenous people of the present Khasi & Jaintia Hills were called in the past by the single name ‘Khassyahs’. The fact of history is that the people of the erstwhile Hima Khyrim were called Khasias (meaning people who live on grass) by the more forward people of Eastern Bengal in the distant past. The word is derogatory to the Jaintias who were and still are well-known as wet cultivators since time immemorial. The Jaintias call them Khynriam (meaning the inhabitants of Khyrim) who in turn call the Jaintias, Synteng. Other names like Pnar, War and Bhoi in Jaintia Hills are mere sobriquets. There is no confusion whatsoever unless we seek to doctor information with a view to distorting history.
It is not enough for Wanniang to use the correspondence made between the then British administration and its military officers during the Anglo-Jaintia Wars 1860-63 for arriving at his conclusion. The British who might not be able to comprehend the meaning of the term Khasia, had written it in numerous forms like Cosseah, Cossiah, Cossiyah, Cossay, Cossyah, Khosia, Khasiah, Kasya, Khassyah, Cassia and Kasia. DR Syiemlieh, a renowned historian of the North Eastern Region, has firmly established that the name ‘Khasi’ was derived from the Bengali Khassia and the Jaintias need not be told of this established fact which is well-known to them.
It goes to the credit of Alexander B. Lish, (a missionary sent by Wiliam Carrey to Cherra) who first anglicized the name ‘Khasia’ as ‘Khasee’ in 1838 to make it less derogatory. Thereafter, because of the repeated use of the term in various forms, the then British government in Calcutta, had to issue a notification in 1868 in order to standardize the spelling of the word as KHASI from then onwards. Despite this notification, the British authors and others continued to write sometimes ‘Khasia’ and sometimes ‘Khasi’. Even after Independence of India, Dr. H. Lyngdoh still used the term ‘Khasia’ in his letter dated the 6th June 1949 to his friend in U.K.
Wanniang need not look at how the British authors had used the term in the past. It would be enough for him to see Dr H Lyngdoh’s ‘Ki Syiem Khasi bad Synteng’ which is a valuable source of oral traditions even today about these two groups of people believed to be both Mon-Khmer in origin yet historical references are not conclusive. We do not presume that Wanniang did not read JP Wade, WW Hunter, JB Shadwell, WE Ward, PRT Gordon, H Lyngdoh, Iscot, Sidney Endle, Suniti Kr Chatterjee (a world renowned philologist), B Pakem, PM Passah, Hamlet Bareh, DR Syiemlieh and many other historians. We do not also pretend to know more than him being a scholar. There is, however, a lot of history to write on these two tribes. But in a letter like this one, it is not possible to do so. Given the opportunity, we are able to write a detailed article dealing with other contentious issues raised by Wanniang.
Meanwhile, to remove Wanniang’s anxiety about the right name (which is his real attempt) that should be given to the dream Khasi-Jaintia state being spearheaded by the HSPDP (if at all it is granted), it is suggested that the right name would be the ‘Jaintia State’ to immortalize the past glory of the Jaintia Kingdom. To understand this suggestion, a lot of past history of the north eastern frontier of India till the advent of the British has to be studied and probed thoroughly. Wanniang may plead for this name. If he is not agreeable to this name, the name Khasi-Jaintia may then remain as it is not at all divisive as Wanniang may feel.
Yours etc.,
J. Lamin
Amlarem, Jaintia Hills
A raconteur passes away
Editor,
During my childhood, I used to wait with bated breath for the stories of ‘Kakababu’, the physically-challenged brave character rendered immortal by Sunil Gangopadhyay, in the special Puja editions of Bengali magazines. What an irony and a tragedy that my favourite author has passed away right in the middle of Durga Puja itself. Gangopadhyay was versatile enough to leave his imprint in short stories, plays, novels, poems, literary criticisms, travelogues and literature for children as well. His ‘Kakababu’ series, based on the adventures of the protagonist throughout the country and the world, was an education by itself as it provided a brilliant insight to history culture people and sights of different regions around the globe. While his epic novels like ‘Shei Shomoy’ and ‘Pratham Aalo’ remain a document of the society during the phase of Bengal Renaissance with the likes of Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore or Vivekananda being the main characters, the upright secular person in Gangopadhyay had inspired him to come up with ‘Moner Manush’, the central character being Lalan Fakir- the epitome of communal harmony and humanism. It is indeed sad that the brilliant works of the liberal nationalist humanist Gangopadhyay remain largely unknown in many parts of India. It remains the duty of the concerned authorities to translate the great works of every Indian author in English and various other languages so as to acquaint all with their gems.
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata -114