Every ethnic community is rooted in culture which is passed down by tradition and family values. Our behaviour on a day to day basis becomes culture after a period of time. While the external symbols of culture are distinguishable, the intangibles cannot be listed because every family transmits its own value systems which may not be akin to what another family practices. Culture, therefore, is a personal and private behaviour. What the Khasi community practices as a collective is a result of individuals buying into certain values they cherish. Many practices which are seen as anti-diluvian are jettisoned. But every Khasi family still instils into its young the values of “Tip briew, tip Blei (Know man and know God), Kamai ia ka hok (Earn righteousness while on earth), Kamai da ka um-syep (Earn by the sweat of the brow). All the above can be summarised as exhortations to live a life which does no harm to anyone and is not covetous or racial because the word “briew” is not an exclusive term but embraces all humankind. We have forgotten all these cherished values and have retained only the external symbols and slogans such as “Hynniewtrep” and Jaitbynriew and given these two terms a jingoistic twist to whip up raw emotions. It is unfortunate that people still buy into such shallow exhortations by a group that does not practice what it preaches.
The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has dubious sources of funding for its various activities. The Union’s accounts as a public body are never subjected to audit. That such a body should exhort the entire community to live by certain ideals that the Union itself is unmindful about is hypocrisy of the highest order. But groups like the KSU draw their strength from community elders who are too lazy to take up issues of societal concern and push all that to the student body. The main office of the KSU at Jaiaw is like another MLA or minister’s office where members of the public come to demand a range of services, which are mostly personal in nature. A society reduced to such cravenness is doomed to failure. We don’t need enemies to destroy us. We have nurtured an unnecessary paranoia about losing our land, our resources and our jobs to the outsider. The truth is that we ourselves have exploited everything and destroyed our environment. But the fear of the outsider is cleverly calibrated for political instrumentation. What is dangerous is that this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Apart from feeding the youth with unfounded fears all these years, there is very little that the KSU has achieved. So what cultural awakening is the Union talking about?