By Fabian Lyngdoh
In his article, “Do we still need the District Council?” Michael Syiem has initiated afresh a debate on the merits and demerits of retaining the District Council. On the 1st July 1998 my article, “The Hynniew Trep Tribal Council” appeared in the English Daily, “Apphira”. I would like to bring out some of the pertinent points with regard to the nature and function of the District Council. The first thing is that the people of these hills believe and hold that the land where they are living is not the gift of any new constitutional system, but the gift of their ancestors who lived here since unrecorded time. So they consider this land as their ancestral property, and the way they conduct their social living as ancestral heritage. When people of a tribe believe that they have ancestral territory and ancestral social and cultural heritage, they also feel that they have territorial and socio-cultural identity. Considering all these facts, the founding fathers of the Indian Republic incorporated this tribal aspiration in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution in order to enable the tribals to mould their own life and development according to their own genius, tradition and culture and that the ownership and management of land by the local people be safeguarded. Tribal identity is not only a matter of cultural entertainment, a thing of the museum or of historical interest to scholars, but a matter of daily living and daily social administration.
The Khasi States demanded constitutional recognition of their traditional institutions, but India being a Democratic Republic cannot directly recognise such traditional institutions, hence arose the need for the Autonomous District Council which is a democratically elected body to legitimise the traditional institutions which are hereditary and semi-democratic. Hence the Indian Constitution shall recognise the Khasi traditional institutions only through the door of the District Council. The Sixth Schedule is intended as a constitutional necessity to accommodate and reconcile the tribal aspirations and the tenets of a Democratic Republic. The United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District Council was constituted in February 1952, and it was called a ‘District Council’ because the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills was only a revenue district in the State of Assam. This title has become inappropriate because in the territorial jurisdiction of the KHADC there are now four revenue districts, and in the area of the JHADC there are two revenue districts of the State Government.
The real concept behind the Sixth Schedule is not to set up District Councils but “Tribal Councils” with the autonomous authority of the concerned tribe over its own people and its own land and resources. In principle, this Tribal Council is above the State Government because it represents the people as a unique tribe, while the State Government represents the people as general citizens of the country. The Tribal Council is the ‘host’ and the real social authority which should have the power even to restrict the action of the State Government if its action goes contrary to the local tribals’ interests and violates the trust between the concerned tribe and the Indian Republic. But due to party politics and the insertion of Para 12A in the Sixth Schedule, this Tribal Council has been reduced to the status of a department of the State Government, making it seem more redundant in the present circumstance. As Mr. Michael Syiem said there is a need for serious debate on the merits and demerits of retaining the District Council, I believe that the present District Council needs serious reformation. We need to refurbish the image and power of this Tribal Council because there is no other provision in the Constitution for social and cultural identity of the tribals except in the Sixth Schedule, and the Tribal Councils as their practical expression. For this, the following points are suggested:-
(1) To give a clear meaning to this Council in Khasi and Jaintia Hills, its name should be changed from Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council to “Hynniewtrep Tribal Council, Khasi Hills” and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council to “Hynniewtrep Tribal Council, Jaintia Hills”, as people of both these Councils basically belong to the same tribe.
(2) Para 12A should be applied only when the Acts of the Autonomous Tribal Council are in direct contravention to the provisions of the Indian Constitution, and not merely because such Acts are repugnant to any ordinary law or rule made by the State Legislature. On the contrary the Autonomous Tribal Council should have the power to veto any Act of the State Legislature if that Act is contrary to the basic interests of the tribe and undermines the trust between the Tribe and the Indian Republic as envisioned by the Founders of the Nation.
(3) In a Tribal Council, it is the Dorbar which is most important. The Executive Committee is only an official necessity to carry out the resolutions of the Dorbar. The members of this Council are elected to deliberate on issues concerning the interest of the tribe, and not merely to form an Executive Committee to manage or even to squander the funds provided by the Central Government.
(4) Members of Parliament or Members of the State Legislature should be barred from being elected at the same time as Members of this Tribal Council. The present practice of holding the posts of both MLA and MDC and drawing the salaries and benefits of both was only a stop-gap arrangement. It was in the year 1953, that four District Councils, i.e. the Garo Hills, the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills, the Lushai Hills and the United Mikir-North Cachar Hills District Councils submitted a Memorandum to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru through the Government of Assam to allow those leaders who have been elected as MP’s or MLA’s to be elected also as MDC’s because there were few leaders at that time competent to take over the political leadership. So the Disqualification Clause of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 was relaxed for the time being in these areas until competent leaders are available to fill up the posts. Note that the tribal leaders in the past stressed on competency as the qualifying criterion for a peoples’ representative, while today competent or not competent the criterion shifted to win-ability for availing a party ticket. The whole effort is not in electing competent people to lead the tribe but in capturing maximum number of seats for a certain party to rule.
(5) The most important suggestion is to control the menace of party politics which has marred the sanctity of this Constitutional Tribal Dorbar. This is the Dorbar of the Tribal Elders and hence election should be conducted in such a way that the real tribal leaders who are conversant with the history, the cultural traditions and social values of the tribe and also understand the present needs of the people be included in it. This Council represents the power and dignity of the “Dorbar ki Bakhraw” of the ancestors which stands above the Syiem, the Daloi, the Lyngdoh or any head of State.
(6) The Tribal Council should concern itself more with the management of land and other resources and with the day to day administration of the tribal society along with its cultural traditions and social values. It should not interfere with the civic development of the people which is a concern of the State Government. Direct funding to the village level for socio-economic infrastructure and civic development can never be channelized through the Tribal Council because it demands much of positive democratic criteria which the traditional hereditary institutions under the Autonomous Council are miserably lacking.
(7) The last important suggestion for this Tribal Council to be relevant to the needs and interests of the people at large is to revive the most important of all the Khasi traditions which is the community ownership and management of land and other natural resources. It is on this basic tradition that the whole Khasi social administration was built. If land and natural resources are commercialised and in the control of few zamindars, every other aspect of culture and tradition loses its validity.
If some of these important reforms are not introduced and the Autonomous Council functions as it is today it will become neither autonomous nor relevant to the real needs of the society.