By Fabian Lyngdoh
The Khasis say that ‘when the hen crows the world will end’. Even to this day, some people in the villages would kill the hen that crows and attach its head to a pole and display it at the road junction in the village to thwart off such a curse. Likewise, a woman who dares to voice her opinion on public affairs is chastised and regarded as a ‘crowing hen’; hence women are not allowed to participate in the traditional public dorbar.
A hen never crows or very rarely if at all. A hen diligently looks after its chicks, feeds them, defends them and covers them under its wings for warmth, fully confident of itself with absolutely no thought of a husband cock or an uncle cock. A Khasi family in such a condition is called “sah-kynthei-khynnah”, which simply means a kur without uncles -a situation considered pathetic. In the past, no one would make a sarcastic remark to the woman of such a family. But if a particularly assertive woman has a normal family with fully competent uncles, comes forward in disputes concerning economy and politics she would be chastised as a crowing hen.
The basic political institution among the Khasis had been the dorbar-kur (clan council). In the dorbar-kur, all clan members, male and female can participate. Indeed, any dorbar-kur in which no female clan member is present is considered invalid. In the dorbar-kur all interests of the clan, especially the interests of the women were thoroughly discussed. The resolutions passed in the clan dorbar shall be pursued in the State dorbar by the uncle who represents the clan and constantly cares for the welfare and interests of his mother, sisters and nieces. That is the Khasi traditional principle of gender justice.
When resolutions were thus passed, all clan members stood in one voice through the mouth of their clan representative, the Basan or Bakhraw supported by his brothers and nephews. The popular slogan is, “Tyrrak tak tak, ngin ia leh ha ban da jop kumba phah I Mei na ïing”. Literally this would mean, “Hurray! We will fight victoriously as instructed by mother”. The term ‘Mei’ or mother here refers to the clan as a whole and not to a single individual mother. So conceptually the slogan would mean, “Hurray! We will fight and pursue vigorously until we attain victory as per our clan dorbar’s resolution.” It is in that spirit that u Soso Tham in his poem says: “Namar ka iing, ka kur ka jaid – Un khie u sum ka stieh ka stieh ka wait” (For the family and for the clan – Shall rise the spear, the shield, the sword).
If it happens that the Basan with the support of his brothers and nephews could not press their agenda in the State’s dorbar they are considered that as “rem-dorbar”, a humiliating situation of being defeated in material rights and honour. They would return home sad and gloomy and report to the mother, sister and nieces that they had lost face or ‘rem-dorbar’ especially if the resolutions passed in the State’s dorbar were to the disadvantage of the kur as a whole. It is from this situation that a proud and foolish uncle is chastised as ‘u ksan-rympei rem-dorbar’, which means, one who is a hero only in the hearth of the clan but is defeated in the public domain. Today this situation seems to have changed. We can find many males who are successful in public life but are henpecked in the home (‘ksan-dorbar rem-rympei’). There are many cases where men are duly elected as rangbah-shnong (village headman) or rangbah-balang (church elder) but had to resign after being censured by the wives at home. Sociological circumstances have indeed drastically changed!
The relative statuses of husband and wife are defined in terms of gender as two diametrically opposite realities, but the relative statuses of uncle and niece in the Khasi kur system are not diametrically opposite but complementary to each other. They do not stand as persons of opposite sexes but as two complementary aspects of the kur. A rise in a woman’s status would be followed by a rise in the status of the uncle or brother as well, and a rise in the social status of the uncle would correspondingly raise the social status of the mother, sister and niece too. In this kind of social system, where men and women were closely bonded together in the organism of the kur, and where the statuses of men and women have a positive correlation, the fact of being men or women did not stand as distinct social categories. So if her uncles and brothers have successfully pressed their agenda in the public dorbar, a woman can hold her head high in society. The relative statuses of the Khasi man and woman are defined in terms of man being a leader and guide of the kur and a woman as mother and progenitor of the kur. Their statuses cannot be said to be superior or inferior to one another. The status of a Khasi man as father and husband, and the status of a Khasi woman as wife played little significance in Khasi society.
The idea of a crowing hen is merely a sarcastic remark which a Khasi man or woman would make to a woman of another clan in events of inter-clan feuds. The remark implies not to the person of the woman alone, but to her kur as a whole. The insult is aimed at the uncles of that clan who failed to successfully conduct social interactions on behalf of the kur, thus compelling the mother, the sister or the niece to come forward and assert her claim. The reason why a woman is chastised as a crowing hen is because in the past when a woman attends a dorbar and pleads for herself it reflects that she is a member of a Kur without uncles (sah-kynthei-khynnah). So if a woman attends and speaks for herself in a dorbar it would be an insult and an embarrassment to her brothers and uncles who are there to represent her interests. Hence in principle, it is not that the Khasi women were debarred from attending a public dorbar, but because it was unnecessary since the women’s interests were represented by the uncles who are attending the dorbar. This abusive remark of a crowing hen carries no legal or moral significance and is no stigma. But some section of the community today have tried to give sanctity of custom to this attitude so as to debar women from participating in public affairs.
Presently the claim of Kur affiliation has become an opportunity for some male members of the society to claim hereditary rights to assume power in the traditional institutions. The traditional functionaries now exercise power for their own individual interests and less on behalf of their female clan members. In the dorbar-shnong, the role of the Kur is totally absent. Each member of the dorbar-shnong attends the dorbar for his own individual interests. It is found that a man who lives alone and fends for himself is considered a household with a right to attend the dorbar-shnong, but a single mother with many mouths to feed has no right to transgress into this sanctified male prerogative status! This is injustice. In the past, men forbade the participation of their mothers, sisters and nieces in the public dorbar as a matter of the kur’s honour. Today, women are excluded from public dorbar on grounds of a constructed male prerogative status. According to the Khasi philosophy, the ends of the world would not happen when the hen crows, but when the cock ceases to crow. This is a metahpir for a man who loses his right to participate in public affairs since his kur is extinct because he has no more living female clan relative to fight for. Even if he still has a hundred living brothers, his world will end!
As this exclusion of women has no more traditional ground of justice, it becomes gender discrimination which must be redressed if we ever imagine living in a just society where the doctrine is ‘ban kamai ia ka hok’ (to earn righteousness).