By Fabian Lyngdoh
I am not a city planning specialist, but permit me to consider myself a keen observer of facts. Shillong is undisputedly, the most beautiful urban centre in North East India. It also has the climate that is conducive to health and happiness. No wonder the British made it their administrative capital in the north-eastern region of India. They even had a plan to develop Nongkhlaw village which they described as the ‘hygeian land of promise’, into a health resort.
But the denser the population and the more complex the problems, the more people lament about the past glory of Shillong. The most common complains are the congestions, receding area of green spaces, the deterioration of sanitary conditions, especially the Wah Umkhrah which has become the central sewerage canal, the overcrowding of Iewduh and Police Bazar, spill-over of hawkers into the street footpaths and by-lanes and the deteriorating human relationships amongst the various races and tribes living here.
I leave the short term remedies for other people to prescribe and put into operation. Let me stress here on the long term perspectives while the short term remedies are also required during an emergency. Let us start with the psychology of the people. For the Khasi and Jaintia people, Shillong is not only the State Capital but it is also ‘Ka Sor’, a concept we can hardly define in words but we can easily understand in the mind. We can more or less conceive of it as an urban centre which the Khasis had never seen in the past until the advent of the British Rule. In the past there was no urban centre in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. There were only weekly markets where people trade and transact their businesses. Shillong was not a particularly significant area in the past. The head quarters of all the Raid and Hima (states) in these hills were all at the same level of civilization. Zehkma Bazar (Iew Sahkma) in between the Raid Nongtham, Thaiang and Namsha was as big and as popular as Iewduh. The ancient sites in the Nongbah (capital) of Raid Iapngar, Thaiang, Nongtung, Nongpoh, Nongtluh, and all other Raids in Ri Bhoi District have the same level of civilization with the head quarter of Hima Shillong at Mylliem, Nongkseh or that of Hima Sohra. So it was the British who made Shillong what it is today and it has to carry that burden of modern civilization.
Congestion is caused by migration of from the rural areas into ‘ka Sor’. It is a sense of pride to be ‘ki nongsor’ even if they have to build their houses on top of a dangerous cliff over the Wah Umkhrah. These ‘nongsor’ are not the original inhabitants of Shillong, but have migrated here from all over the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Even today, people do not feel that Jowai, Nongpoh, Nongstoin, Khliehriat or other towns as ‘ki Sor’. People from these towns buy land at exorbitant prices in Shillong because it is ka Sor. Those who cannot afford to buy land are content to shift their families and live in shabby and unhygienic rented houses leaving behind all the resources and opportunities in the villages because they believe that there is money to be made here by means fair or foul. To solve this problem we have to destroy this psychology by creating the present district headquarters and other bigger towns into real urban centres. Shillong is already congested and nothing else should be built in it except to improve the old infrastructure. New Shillong, and extra-new Shillong should be established everywhere in the areas around it. This can be started first through government establishments and everything else would follow suit. If the British had not shifted their head quarters from Sohra to Laban, Shillong would still be a small town and Sohra would have been ka Sor and people would have flocked there and built their houses by the cliffs of Nohsngithiang falls. We are stuck with whatever the British had done with no innovations of our own. So, why are we agonising about shifting the State Legislative Assembly Building to Mawdiangdiang, or anywhere else? Why should the people of the localities of Shillong want every element of civilization at their doorsteps? Why should everything be built at Iewduh, Police Bazar, and Polo etc.? Important health, educational and economic institutes should be established in all the other towns of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Spread civilization and create urban centres everywhere and Shillong can resume its past glory. But there is a trade-off for this. We cannot have a real urban centre or ka Sor, all by ourselves in monotonous colour. The attraction of Shillong or for that matter, all other urban centres, is that there are beautiful people of various races and tribes living together in relative harmony as far as civil society can permit. It is the beauty of a unity in diversity that creates the Maya, but diversities merged into unity destroys it. If all the people of other races and tribes were to move out of Shillong and only the Khasis remain it would cease to become ‘ka Sor’. So the Government and other social authorities should endeavour to find ways and means to settle the issue of influx in a healthy and civilized manner.
The Khasis have a traditional taste to buy and sell goods in weekly open markets. We cannot solve the problem of footpath hawkers because the majority of rural people who visit Shillong every day, feel at ease to buy things from these roadside open stalls. The street hawkers sell their wares to the huge population of rural folks who visit Shillong occasionally or are temporarily staying in Shillong for education or other purposes. So we cannot eradicate street hawkers on the footpaths because there is a profitable market for their wares. They would be ready to pay occasional fines than quit the business. The rural people would buy a shirt they can bargain at Rs 500 from a roadside open stall than enter a super market to buy a better shirt at a cheaper rate. They would feel at ease ordering a cup of tea and puri at breakneck speed from a road side dhaba than enter a hygienic restaurant where they have to impatiently wait for hours. So to solve this problem we either need to create open stalls/ markets all along the roads or create numerous urban centres where people can satisfy their needs and they would not visit and cause congestion in Shillong.
Formerly the inhabitants of Shillong, Khasis and non-Khasis, were living together in harmony and order. The non-Khasi permanent residents of Shillong had endeavoured to join hands in the material, intellectual and cultural development of the society. Formerly, thousands of people from the West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi Area flocked into Shillong to witness the beautiful celebration of Diwali. Now we lament at the deteriorating human relationships amongst the inhabitants. Now the celebration of Durga Puja is marred by a bandh. Leaders of various communities should put their heads together to create a conducive atmosphere for social integration. In the past, several non-Khasi families had been adopted as the jait Syiem and jait Lyngdoh in many of the present Raid and Hima. Almost half of the present Khasi clans today originated from non-Khasi women married to Khasi men. These non-Khasi mothers were raised to the highest human spiritual status as ‘ki Iawbei’, and their sons were also raised to the status of ‘ki suidnia’. It is also found that many of the leading men and women of the Khasi society in the past and even today are born of Khasi mothers and non-Khasi fathers. There was nothing shameful about intermarriage between Khasis and non-Khasis. The problem is not with intermarriage itself, but it is with social integration. Inter-marriage accompanied by social integration has a tradition in the Khasi society. There was nothing apprehensive about non-Khasi women marrying Khasi men. On the other hand, there is a prospect of being the Iawbei of new Khasi clans well adapted through the ceremony of ‘ka tang-jait’, which is codified by the KHADC (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Act, 1997. Though the age old custom is still operative, new modes of social integration should also be devised to meet the requirements of modern times.
(The writer can be contacted at [email protected])