By Fabian Lyngdoh
The title of this article is adopted because it is more or less in continuation with the spirit of the article, ‘Whither the Khasi Hills?: A Study’, written by David Roy Phanwar sixty nine years ago. ‘Ban pynneh ia ki riti ki dustur’ (To preserve traditions and customs), is presently an emotionally charged concept, the critics of which may be easily branded as traitors. But wait! Let us examine what are these traditions and customs that almost all local politicians and so called leaders of the jaidbynriew invoke to further their interests?
The migratory process of the various sections of the Khasi society was still in motion, and the society’s political formation had not yet properly formed and settled up to the period when the British entered into these hills. But the identity and cohesion of the society was maintained by a deeply structured and well organised matrilineal clan institution with avunculate leadership called the ‘kur’. The kur was the core of customs and traditions of the Khasis; it was the first social institution around which every other social institution revolved. The kur was a religion binding on all its members; it was an independent economy in which all members were socially and economically secured; it was a political institution, through which every clan member can have political relations with the society, and it was a sociological member of society through which all clan members could have a social identity. But today, the kur has lost all these traditional characteristics. The present Khasi society is no longer a web of social relationships between ‘ki kur’; all individuals, men and women have become full-fledged members of society apart from the kur. In this new situation, the maternal uncle lost his controlling authority because his role and status as the priest and as the manager of kur economy has become irrelevant, and the Khasi society now rests on the economy of each nuclear family. ‘Whither the Khasi tradition?’
The Khasi society is a unique cultural system, and not a unique ethnic community. As pointed out by various thinkers, more than half of the clans emerging in the Khasi society, originated from non Khasi mothers as well as from non-Khasi families which have become assimilated into the Khasi culture. The concept of ‘u Thawlang’ is related to a Khasi father who was instrumental in the creation of a new Khasi clan from a non-Khasi mother. Every Khasi kur is a ‘meikha-pakha’ but not every Khasi father is u Thawlang. The uniqueness of the Khasi society is not based on supposed genetic purity but on its ability to absorb and assimilate genetic variations into a cultural unity. The definition of who is a Khasi, lies more in the field of cultural anthropology than that of physical anthropology. But if we go on preaching the divisive idea of ‘khun shityngka’ (pure Khasis) and ‘khun shipiah’ (hybrid Khasis) when the so called ‘pure Khasis’ are practically no more in existence today, then ‘whither the Khasi Hills?’
The ‘ri-raid’ or ‘ri bam lang’ (community land) which guaranteed economic equality and social justice to all the inhabitants in the raid or hima is practically converted into private lands in the possession of the rich. If there can be a great number of landless families in the land of ‘Justice’, and that this injustice is being maintained in the name of tradition, then ‘whither the Khasi Hills?’
There were strong oppositions by the local leaders in 1878 and in 1903 to the introduction of election for the appointment of the Syiem of Hima Sohra. But these oppositions were put down by the Crown and the decision of the Governor General-in-Council was upheld and thus the appointment of u Roba Sing as the Syiem of Hima Sohra through election was confirmed, and the same process was introduced in other himas too. The British administration recognized the syiem alone as chief of the hima (state) through the issuance of the sanad, and completely ignored the existence of the dorbars in the raid and the hima. The British authority turned a deaf ear to the oppositions of local leaders in 1917 against this sanad-innovation, which still continues even today. ‘Whither the Khasi tradition?’
The hereditary chiefs and bakhraws in the raids and himas today are said to retain legitimacy under constitutional protection on the ground of customs and traditions. But the question is: how can the present institutions at the village, the raid and the hima level be traditionally legitimate when the kur itself which is the basis of all customs and tradition has lost its traditional structure and functions considerably? The society has already lost the traditional principles of the ancestors; what are being preserved today under the Sixth Schedule are only the customary practices sans tradition. ‘Whither the Khasi Hills?’
After independence, The Federation of the Khasi States appointed a Standing Committee to act for the time being as the Interim Government which consisted of the following main officials: 1) Mr. Alimuddin Ahmed as the Chief Judicial Officer, given power by the High Court of Assam to be the Sessions Judge and who was also given the power to try and pass the sentence of death; ii) Mr. Ajra Singh Khongphai as the Judicial Officer of the Original Court was given the power to try civil and criminal cases as First Class Magistrate, and iii) Mr. Wilson Reade as the Treasurer. ‘Whither the Khasi tradition’ if such were the incumbents of the high offices of the government of the Federation of the Khasi States?
Rev. J.J.M. Nichols Roy, on the other hand, through the forum of the ‘Khasi Jaintia Federated National Conference’ sought to unite the Khasi States and the British areas in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills into one State called ‘The Khasi Jaintia Federated State.’ There had been a tug of war between this forum and the Federation of Khasi States for the legitimacy to control the administration of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Ultimately the ‘Khasi Jaintia Federated State’ proposed by Nichols Roy took the form of the ‘United Khasi-Jaintia Autonomous District;’ and the ‘Khasi Jaintia Federated National Conference’ took the form of the ‘United Khasi-Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council’ (UK-JHADC) in June, 1952, with Mr. Fredishon War as Chairman; Mr. Jo Singh Rynjah as Chief Executive Member; and Mr. Rostanwel War and Mr. H. Enowel Pohshna as Executive members. This set-up had some semblance of the ‘dorbar ki bakhraw.’ But if a non-statutory body (FTD) constituted by a casual crowd in the playground can be greater than this constitutional dorbar, then whither the Khasi Hills?
With the partition of India in 1947, the Khasi chiefs and other leaders of the Federation of Khasi States sat in council to decide whether to join India or Pakistan, or to stand for independence. After thoroughly discussing the matter and weighing the pros and cons they came to the conclusion that it is impossible to go for independence as the Khasi States have no sea route for foreign trade; they cannot make their own currency as they had no ‘Gold Reserve’; and they were not in a position to mobilise even a battalion of military force. With regard to the option of joining with India or Pakistan, they all felt safer to join with the Indian Union than with Pakistan. Hence they resolved to join India. But today some self-appointed prophets are confusing the people by preaching independent or semi-independent status for the Khasi States which their predecessors had admitted impossibility or failed to achieve.
The truth is that the Khasi society has lost track of most of its good traditions, and what are left are only visible customs. A custom that has lost its tradition but stubbornly remains becomes a redundant appendix that creates more harm than good to the organism. The society needs to revive its good traditions and to establish new customs which are in line with the traditions as well as relevant with the emerging circumstances that the society is now facing. The Khasi society has to be rebuilt on the context of cultural identity, and not on genetic constitution. The idea of a pure Khasi tribe is a false notion which, even if can be proved true, would only disqualify every member of this tribe and also declare its dissolution.