By Fabian Lyngdoh
There is a general concern for the predicament of the jaidbynriew as well as a hunting sense of fear for its extinction. The situation is mainly perceived to have been caused by external agencies with ‘hidden agenda’. But it is evident that there are much more problems in the Khasi society today which are caused by internal factors than by external ones. There is a Khasi traditional guideline relating to problem solving in the family, the clan or in the society, which says, ‘Pynbeit ia ka daw-iing, shwa ban iakhun pyrshah ia ka daw-lum’ (solve first the problems which are caused by internal factors, and then challenge the problems posed by external factors). According to this thought, there is no solution to problems caused by external factors as long as the internally induced problems are not solved. Societal problems defy solution because it seems that the society is attributing all causes to external factors without conceding an inch that there are cancerous cells within its own constitution and territory.
The kur has lost its institutional character and now exists only in name. The traditional Khasi matrilineal system rests not only on the fact of tracing lineage from the mother’s clan, but much more on the fact that it is an institution which covers all aspects of the social interactions of the members. It is a religion, a political unit, an economy, and a member of the society under whose shadow all its members, men and women, have their identities and social recognition. The breaking down of this institution is the first ‘daw-iing’ (internal factor) which brings about the feeling of insecurity in the minds of men and women alike. Solution to this problem has to be found through internal adjustments, not by attributing it to evil motives, or hidden agenda of the ‘outsiders’, or by blaming the women folk for having secret or open alliances with non-Khasi men, or merely by clinging to the sacredness of customs like a drowning man desperately catching a straw. The tribe indeed urgently requires a redirection of tradition and a redefining of customs.
The second internal factor of societal problem is the breaking down of the community ownership system of land and natural resources. According to Khasi tradition no family or kur can acquire absolute ownership of land and its resources. On the other hand, if any family conducts its affairs in any way prejudicial to the general welfare of the community, all its lands can be confiscated and the whole family can be ostracized or chased out of the community. Absolute private ownership of land by individuals is a new invention through a misinterpretation of tradition by some vested interests, and supported by modern legal documents. This enabled the rich to acquire absolute private ownership of vast tracts of land and other resources for plunder. This tendency if allowed to proceed unchecked would certainly lead to widespread landlessness and tenancy. The general population would lose direct access to means of subsistence and shall have to face a state of economic insecurity. People would become foreigners in their own ‘ka ri baieid-ki blei'(land loved by the gods). There is an internal hidden agenda which led to this state of affairs. In 1973 the Government of Meghalaya constituted the Land Reforms Commission with Shri R.T. Rymbai as its Chairman. The first action to implement the recommendations of the Commission was the enactment of “the Meghalaya Land Survey and Record Preparation Act 1980”. Cadastral survey was considered necessary for the preparation of maps and land records of the entire land viz: Ri Kynti, Ri Raid and Government lands in a phased manner. The steps taken by the State Government was unsuccessful due to stiff resistance from the traditional chiefs on the grounds that it would result in the degradation of the collective land tenure system. The operations were cancelled and have not been reopened since then. But according to some enlightened opinion, this resistance was engineered by some hidden agenda of the landholding local elites seeking to avoid public scrutiny of their affairs because they were afraid that their names would appear as owners of vast tracts of land and natural resources beyond proportion.
The third internal factor of social problems is the malady of governance in the society today due to ‘territorial authority vacuum’. The concept of ‘land belongs to the people’ has no legal embodiment. Today, practically the whole territory of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills has been divided into private lands. The authorities over the lands in a village are the individual owners of each plot of land within the village. These individual inhabitants who are also the owners of various plots of land resolve to constitute a dorbar-shnong as a collective authority over the village, and elect a rangbah-shnong from among them to see to the day to day administration of their affairs and the lands in the village. That is the unconscious and unwritten spirit of the present-day dorbar-shnong. In the people’s subconscious minds, the dorbar-shnong is the only legitimate territorial authority because it is constituted not by the order of any external authority, but by their own will as legitimate owners of the lands on which they live. That is why the Khasis have an inherent feeling that no other authority can do anything within the boundary of the village without permission from the dorbar-shnong.
In the midst of this territorial authority vacuum, various groups with particular hidden agenda came forward in the name of the jaidbynriew. Among these are the Federation of Khasi States and the Grand Council of Chiefs who, not satisfied with the Sixth Schedule, seek constitutional recognition for a mirage of special semi-independent status within the Indian Union! But according to opinion of some scholars, the real intention of the chiefs in forming the Federation of Khasi States was to secure a better status for themselves. The chiefs desired to occupy the position occupied by the native princes and free themselves from the grand-motherly authority of the Deputy Commissioner and thereby increase their own social status amongst their subjects. According to some information: (Apol Mawniuh’s article, ‘Shoh dap ki MDC UDP ia ki Rang Khasi?’ Kynjatshai, September 7&8, 2014), the hidden agenda of some HNLC members who have been converted to Islam, and operating under the influence of fundamentalist Islamic groups and the ISI of Pakistan, is to join the territory of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills with Bangladesh. Would that be a better choice?
In the political front, the hidden agenda are inherent in the parliamentary system of government. The hidden agenda of every political party is not so much to serve the society as to be at the helm of power. Opposition parties would always find fault with the government’s resolutions however commendable its objectives are, and the government is hell bound to defeat a resolution from an opposition member however meritorious it might be. There are crore-patis, some of whom can hardly read and write anything, but with the rustle of cash managed to capture the seat of power with a hidden agenda to safeguard their own exploitative business. Then there is a kind of politician who is born to instigate disorder in the society because he finds no peace even if peace reigns, unless he is the one who rules. All these loopholes inherent in the parliamentary system are fully exploited through various hidden agenda in our society.
It is no use blaming imaginary external hidden agenda (daw-lum), the existence of which there is scarcely any rational evidence. But there is glaring evidence of the existence of multifarious internal hidden agenda (daw-iing) pulling and pushing the society in various directions, the resultant force of which is enough to throw this fragile society out of kilter, or even to extinction as a tribe. The society is ridden with biases and hypocrisies which require introspection by one and all. Strumming on to the sacredness of customs which have lost their rhythms would only lead us to mourn with Macbeth, ‘to the last syllable of recorded time, all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death’. But the situation can be rectified since society is by nature self-regenerating through adaptive processes. It all depends on our sincere respond to positive changes.