By Fabian lyngdoh
The Khasi cultural traditions were based on the balance of justice but misinterpretations have rendered the Khasi traditions practised today, inequitable. This article is intended to show how Khasi traditions had provided a functional structural balance between individual freedom and the collective order in the past, so as to dispel wrong perceptions and misinterpretations of the Khasi traditions, as well as to provide clues for understanding up to what extent these traditions can be relevant today, and to what extent the present misinterpretations have digressed from the ideals of the past.
At the primary stage, individuals had their identities only under the identity of the Kur to which they belonged. Individuals were born into the Kur; lived within the norms of the Kur; worked for the Kur; and after death, passed to the spiritual abode through the Kur. There was security, freedom and equality within the Kur. The gender statuses in the Kur were defined in terms of a woman’s role as mother, the resource of the perpetual succession of the clan, and the proprietor of the family establishment; and man’s role as ‘u kñi’ (maternal uncle) who was the leader and guide of the clan, but not the proprietor of the establishment. The statuses of men and women were in harmony and complementary to each other; a rise in the status of one gave rise to the status of the other. Only men had the right to attend and participate in public dorbars; but they had that right not for their own interests, but only as advocates of the Kur; that is, on behalf of the female clan members, who were the foundations of clan establishment. Hence, gender justice was ideally balanced.
There was also balance of justice between the lineages of the Kur. The custodian and centre of ‘ka sad ka sunon’ for political affairs, the Kur was instituted in the house of the eldest lineage, called ‘ka ïingsad’. The religious house and centre of social, religious and economic aspects of the Kur was in the natal household of the youngest lineage. The intermediate lineages shared the benefits of both.
At the second stage, the clans as basic members of the society had certain level of individual freedom which is limited and coordinated only by the collective order of the Raid (village state). Equality in political affairs and government of the Raid were the prerogatives only of the founding clans, called ‘ki binong-bishon’ through their representatives called the ‘Basans’ or ‘Bakhraws’. The immigrant clans called ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’ had no right in the political affairs of the Raid. However, this did not create the division of society into two social classes of: ‘ki binong-bishon’ (aristocracy) and ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’ (commoner). In the past, each and every Khasi clan was an aristocratic clan as well as a commoner clan. One kpoh (lineage) of the Kur may be a binong-bishon in one Raid, but its members residing in another Raid are ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’. For example, the Thaïang clan is a Jait Lyngdoh in Raid Thaïang; but its members residing in Raid Ïapngar are ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’. The Marbaniang clan is a a Jait Lyngdoh in Raid Mylliem, but its members who reside in Raid Mawbuh are ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’. Moreover, in the past, the status of being ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’ was temporary. When a section of a clan migrated to another Raid, they lived for sometime as ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’, but later when they multiplied in number and shared the burden of the political community in times of war or in social service, they were inducted into the group of ‘ki binong-bishon’. This process of inducting a new clan into the group of the ‘binong-bishon’ is called ‘Tang-Jait’.
Every individual had equal right and freedom to avail opportunities in the economic production of the land. Other than residential areas and protected areas, the whole territory of the Raid was the Ri-raid (commune land); and every inhabitant had the right to cultivate on any plot of land in the Ri-raid for sustenance freely without paying land revenue to the founding clans or the Syiem or Lyngdoh; and every clan member had equal right in the Ri-kur. Socio-economic justice was the prerogative of all, regardless of being ‘binong-bishon’ or ‘shongthap-shongbiang’.
At the third stage of socio-political formation, the Hima was formed by the federation of adjacent Raids. The representatives of the Raids were known as ‘Bakhraws’ or ‘Basans’. As the Bakhraws were all equal in honour and status, they needed a neutral centre as a point of agreement among them. Hence, a Syiem was appointed to function as a nominal state functionary, while real authority rested with the council of the Bakhraws who were the representatives of the federating Raids. It was not the Syiem who appointed the Bakhraws, but it was the Bakhraws who appointed the Syiem. Moreover, the Raids did not become mere sub-divisions of a Hima by virtue of the federation. The Bakhraws belonged primarily to their respective Raids, and had their own territories over which they exercised independent control. The Syiem on the other hand, was not representing any territory other than the institution of syiemship.
- B. Pemberton, the colonial officer, had observed this peculiarity in the form of society and government among the Khasis when he reported that there is absence of any recognised organ of supreme power in a Hima. In his perception, the nation or horde presents the appearance of a congregation of little oligarchical republics, subject to no common superior, yet of which each member is amenable, in some degree, to the control of his confederates. The little oligarchical republics observed by Pemberton were the ‘Raids’ which had a common neutral and nominal head, but not a common superior. Supreme power in a Hima did not reside with any individual ruler, but with the council of the Bakhraws who were the representatives of the federating Raids.
The Khasi tribe in the past survived and multiplied also through intermarriages with people of other tribes. It seems that majority of the present Khasi clans today originated from non-Khasi women married to Khasi men. Children from such marriages became full-fledged Khasis through the process of ‘ka Tang-Kur’. But today, there is a misinterpretation of the concept of ‘Tang-Jait’ with that of ‘Tang-Kur’. ‘Ka Tang-Kur’ was a religious process through which a new Khasi Kur was established from the womb of a non-Khasi mother. It was made possible by the consent of the Khasi father’s Kur to stand as the first ‘Kur-meikha’ or ‘u Thawlang’, and the natural and spontaneous recognition given by the society. ‘Ka Tang-jait’, on the other hand, was a socio-political process which was performed not only to a new Kur from a non-Khasi mother, but to any ‘shongthap-shongbiang’ clan when it was inducted into the group of the ‘binong-bishons’ and assigned a particular ‘Jait’ for it. Here are concrete examples: A Karbi family was converted into a Khasi Kur called ‘Shadap Kharpati’ through ‘ka Tang-Kur’; then the Shadap Kharpati clan was inducted into the group of ‘binong-bishon’ and assigned with a Jait Syiem in the political affairs of Raid Ïapngar through ‘ka Tang-Jait’. A section of the Jait Lyngdoh Thaïang migrated to Raid Nongtung and known as ‘Masharing’ without any process of ‘ka Tang-Kur’ because they are Khasis, and lived as ‘ki shongthap-shongbiang’. Later, the Kur was inducted into the group of ‘binong-bishons’ and assigned with a ‘Jait Basan Pator’ in the political affairs of Raid Nongtung through ‘ka Tang-Jait’. Today, the concept of ‘Tang-Jait’ is loosely interpreted without its original intent and import. How can ‘ka Tang-Jait’ to a new Khasi Kur be performed, without assigning a particular ‘Jait’ for it in the political affairs of any Raid or Hima?
In the past, the Khasi tradition was accommodating to the core. A non-Khasi woman of any race or tribe, married to a Khasi man, in a strange land and among strange people, was not looked down upon, but was raised to the religious status of a goddess (ka blei-ïawbei) of the new Kur, with her eldest son raised to the religious status of ‘u suidnia’, through ‘ka Tang-Kur’; and her descendants raised to the status of ‘ ki binong-bishon’ in the political affairs of the community through ‘ka Tang-Jait’. Is there any other culture in the world more accommodating than that? Even Alexander the Great was insulted by his fellow Greeks when he suggested that he should be enrolled among the gods. But, it must have been a great joy for non-Khasi brethren to know that their sisters or daughters would be raised to the status of ‘ki blei-ïawbei’ among the Khasis.