By Fabian Lyngdoh
have written about the Khasi culture, but few really understand the fundamentals or the infrastructure of the Khasi culture. Among the Khasis, marriage between the matrilineal clan members is prohibited for perpetuity, and the Khasi society is built on the basis of the marital relationships between ‘ki kur’ (matrilineal clans) which is commonly called ‘ka longkur-longkha’. The presence of at least three clans is necessary for establishing a basic Khasi society so that through triangular marital relationships between them, each clan can acquire the three statuses of: ki kur, ki kha and ki khunkha. The traditional Khasi society was a web of social relationships between the clans, not between individuals or any other group of individuals other than the clan. All other socio-cultural superstructures like politics, community religions and festivals in any political community of the ‘raid’ or ‘hima’ have to be interwoven within the ambit of the general web of relationships between the clans. This is so because each clan was a basic or fundamental member of society under whose identity all clan members could have social recognition; it was a religious institution strictly binding on all its members; it was an independent and selfsufficient economy in which all members were socially and economically secured; and it was a primary political institution, through which every clan member could have political relations in the society. No Khasi socio-political and religious culture can exist in its true traditional form apart from this fundamental structure.
In the true Khasi traditional context, the kur today is no longer the basic and fundamental member of society, no longer a religious institution, no longer an independent and selfsufficient economy, and no longer a primary political institution. The primary and most sacred aspect of the Khasi tradition which lies in the matrilineal clan system with avuncular leadership together with the ‘niam-im’ (religious rites for the living) and ‘niamiap’ (religious rites for the dead) had undergone drastic changes. The only traditional ground on which the Khasi society stands today is the matrilineal lineage and intra-clan incest taboo. Hence, we must humbly admit that the Khasi culture we practise today is not the original, but in its modified forms to suit the emerging circumstances of the time. This is the result of a natural evolutionary process when the Khasi society is brought out of isolation into the modern society of a wider world. It is true as R. Wallang said, religious beliefs have little to contribute to this evolution and change (ST. October 10th, 2016). We cannot say that this change is disadvantageous or hazardous to the Khasi society, and we cannot blame this or that religious belief for any imaginary hazardous consequence.
P.K. Dwivedi must have made the mistake of concluding from the opinions of a narrow circle of Khasi acquaintances, or from some academic circle, that the Welsh Mission had robbed the Khasis of their culture, tradition, beliefs, practices and all that is associated with their lifestyle amidst nature, and in return inflicted a foreign religion and culture alien to their existence that spelt the doomsday for this region. Dwivedi believes that the Khasi society is pushed into a setup that has its repercussions as we get to see today. What kind of repercussion is that? Just forty five years ago, in the rural area where I reside, there were only about twenty households living in two-room thatched houses to make a village. Today, in the same locality there are more than a hundred and twenty households living in RCC buildings and well constructed houses with tin roofing. Forty five years ago, many children died of malaria because there were no modern medical facilities; many died of measles and small pox because people refused modern medicine as they believed both sicknesses signified the visit of the gods on that family. Today, there are hundreds of healthy smiling little children playing merrily around the locality like beautiful lilies in the valley. We can go on and on counting the blessings of the present and forgetting the miseries of the past.
Before the advent of the British rule there had been enculturation of Hinduism in the community religions of many ‘raids’ and ‘himas’ of the Khasis. There had been worships to Viswakarma (Biskorom), Mahesh (Mahet), Lakshmi (Lukhmi), Shiva (Bari Bhai-Sari Bhai), Laxman (Lakhon), Kali, Chandi, Durga, Ram, Bisori, Ramshandi, etc. There had also been human sacrifices practiced in the community religions in Raid Ïapngar, Raid Thaïang, Raid Bhoilasa, and Raid Nongkhrah, in Ri Bhoi District. The Kacharis in Assam, who belong to the Ramsa clan, worship Bathau or Bura Gosain (Siva) and Buri Gosani (Kali or Chandika). There are traditions of human sacrifice in various places in Assam, for instance, at Kamakhya, Beltola, and Sadiya. People in Raid Ïapngar and Raid Bhoilasa also talk of the goddess of violence called ka Ramchandi who demanded human sacrifice, or eats up members of the clans if they fail to provide the sacrificial victim. It is also said that before going to war the people of some raids offered animal sacrifices to ka Ramchandi so that their weapons would shong-tyrut (become blood thirsty).
In Raid Ïapngar it is said that human sacrifice was offered to a god called, ‘Bari Bhai-Sari Bhai’. What the people of Raid Ïapngar speak of u Baribhai Saribhai is similar to what the Dimasa Kachari talk of Shiva by the name of ‘Brai Sibrai’. One of the various names of Shiva is Bhairava which is similar to Brai Sibrai among the Dimasas and Baribhai Saribhai in Raid Ïapngar. So it seems that the human sacrifice practiced in Hima Jaintia and in some of the raids in Ri Bhoi was connected with Shiva, the destructive form of the Almighty, and his spouse Kali. It is said that the thlen of the menshohnoh eats only the Khasis, but does not eat the ‘dkhar’ (plains men). But the god Baribhai Saribhai in Raid Ïapngar eats only the ‘dkhar’ but not the Khasis. That condition might be the same in all the raids and himas where human sacrifice was practised. So, every time the sacrifice was performed, a ‘dkhar’ must be sought as the victim, or a certain ‘dkhar’ would voluntarily wander into the Raid to offer himself as the sacrificial victim. If such religious practices were still in vogue today in the raids and himas, then every year a number of ‘dkhar’ would have to be captured as sacrificial victims. But fortunately, all these evil practices were abolished by the British Government, and there is no reason at all to regret or lament the loss of such a regressive culture. It is a universal malady of every human society to compare the present not with the immediate past, but with the imaginary golden age of time immemorial, and to lament the deficiency of the present in comparison with the glory that had never existed.
According to the Khasi traditional belief, the clans can adopt any religion of their choice, and they may worship any god or goddess, but it was deemed improper and harmful for them to have no belief and faith in God, and to be without the spiritual protection of any religion at all. When the kur has lost its institutional character in the process of evolution, some Khasi leaders had endeavoured to reform the indigenous faith according to the need of the time to supervise the moral life of their members, as well as to assist in performing the transition rites of the spirits of their dead members in their journey to the spiritual abode. Many traditional rites and rituals have been modified and even discarded and new forms of religious rites relevant to needs of the time and the prevailing circumstances are formulated. Community religions meant to sustain the traditional social order, have long been abandoned in most of the raids and himas. Majority of the Khasis have adopted the Christian faith in various church denominations. These church denominations have largely replaced the role of the kurs as religious institutions for guiding the moral life of the believers, and for proper burial of the bodies of the deceased members, and for performing religious rites for the transition of their souls to the spiritual realm. The Christian faith had also on the whole, replaced the role of traditional community religions for determining and supervising social morality among the inhabitants of the villages, and in keeping the society alive in a new emerging socio-cultural identity. The Khasi society has to march ahead into the future with whatever socio-cultural resources at hand, and it has a dynamic tradition for survival.