By Mankular Gashnga
It has long been an observable hidden fact that the Khasi Niam Tynrai have been ostracised by the Christian society at large. However, never had there been witnessed such vehemence expressed in broad daylight as on the occasion of the death of the Seng Khasi leader at Mylliem, the height of which would shame even the most committed of the Talibans or the Hindutvas. This incident should bring to fore the question that when the Khasi Niam Tynrai have no right to die in their own motherland, then have they not lost the right to live as well? Every educated citizen should develop goose bumps at this point of witnessing that our Khasi society is fast descending into the depths of the Khasi version of the Dark Ages where the church has every citizen by the strings like puppets.
Without advocating for any religion, on the premise that all religions are equally secondary to a peaceful civilised life and society, I concur with opinions such as that of Abner Pariat (ST 15/3/16) who had expressed empathy that the key word, in relation to the Khasi Niam Tynrai/Niam Tre, is ‘discrimination’. Let me try to outline some of the discrimination patterns towards the Khasi Niam Tynrai in the following terms and state that the incident witnessed at Mylliem is but the tip of the iceberg.
The first point of discrimination is at a psychological level where the Khasi Niam Tynrai is seen as ‘the other’ by their very own kith and kin who are Christians and even by parents their very own children. To think that the basis for such discrimination is derived from the teachings of the church is even more spine-chilling. It is taught that non-Christian Khasis are the unsaved and are doomed to hell. This is the foundation for all other discriminations that are against the Khasi Niam Tynrai. This principle is preached in some form or another with great energy and vigour from every pulpit or podium and from every church Sunday after Sunday for more than 150 years in these hills without a second thought and it is considered as an absolute truth. To this day, every Khasi Christian leader worth his/her salt is a propagator of such discriminatory message unbridled and unquestioned, and day-to-day practising Khasi Christians are foot soldiers of this very same discrimination in their compliance with the teaching and/or in their inability to question the paradigm. The Khasi Niam Tynrai are systematically and strategically being seen as objects for proselytising and those who resist proselytising as objects of evil and hatred and against whom blame and resentment are expressed at the very least opportunity. This evil has been in existence in the Khasi society for a very long time since the advent of Christianity on to these hills but which no one has come out to speak up against until at this point when it has come to surface in the form of a public uproar. It is unfortunate but it is a natural outcome.
The second point of discrimination is very respectable but not less discriminatory and that is at the pedagogical level. This appears in the form of books and articles where a misinterpretation or rather a deconstruction of the basic tenets of the Khasi religion is being practised to the point where the Khasi intelligentsia of today are confused as to what to know about the Khasi religion except what Khasi Christian writers have presented to them, and which has left a huge intellectual gap in terms of understanding Khasi philosophy. To cite an example of the protest against books such as Ka Dienjat ki Longshuwa, the discrimination is very clear. The fourth chapter of the book is named “Ka Jingpynlong ia ka pyrthei bad u briew”, or ‘creation of the earth and mankind’, and is captioned ‘Ka Puriskam’ or ‘a fairytale’, whereas the 13th chapter “Ka Miet Christmas” is not captioned as such as it is imagined to be a historical truth. Imagine a Khasi priest writing a book on the Adam and Eve story and captioning it as “A Fairytale” and whether that book would be allowed to be introduced into schools. There are more examples, even in books such as Ka Niam Khasi written by a Christian writer and where misinterpretation is seen even at the end of the very first chapter itself. Moreover, more half-baked Christian religious writings appear as news or articles mainly in the Khasi newspapers almost every day of the week to muddle up the situation (and which in my view has brought down the class of the papers and of honest intellectual dialogue in this part of the country).
The third point of discrimination is a more brutal and a very practical one in that marriage between a Christian Khasi and a Khasi Niam Tynrai is considered essentially a taboo if the latter does not convert. Christian churches prohibit such marriages, though not in writing but in teaching, and would favour marriage among Christians even if either party is non-Khasi. This is a very curious reality. Moreover, it should be mentioned that intermarriage is prohibited in this way even between Protestant and Catholic Khasis and other denominations, but more so against intermarriage with the Khasi Niam Tynrai, again, if proselytising is not opportune. It shows the Khasi Niam Tynrai are discriminated against to the point where they are considered outcastes by their very own fraternity even when it comes to blood ties; they are the invisible, equivalent maybe to the untouchables in other parts of India. Nevertheless, if cohabitation or marriage does happen between a Khasi Christian and a Khasi Niam Tynrai, the church excommunicates and ostracises the Christian bride or groom in various forms should they not proselytise their children and/or their spouse. ‘Excommunication’ and to ostracise even in any form is ‘discrimination’ at its worst, but very much a thriving programme within the very beautiful cathedrals and churches of our beloved Khasi land. Such a programme is one of the most evil forms of discrimination against the Khasi Niam Tynrai spouses and is aimed at breaking down their spirits to comply with the demands of the church. Of course such programmes thrive because of constitutional loopholes but are still very much discriminatory in spirit and should be rejected as well as addressed even through marriage laws/acts within the state.
The fourth point of discrimination is in the attitude that Khasi Christians have put themselves on a pedestal as stalwarts of morality, and even absolute morality. However, when now around 70% of the Khasi population is Christian, the drop in moral values is astounding. It is in this Christian era of the Khasis that women and men display indecent behaviour with pride; that corruption is so rampant while tithes to churches are accepted uncensored no matter the source or the means; that we see countless spectacles of rape and abuse; that we see Shillong so full of dirt and filth; that we see localities and villages have more churches than durbar halls (or even an Assembly building) and yet local governance, local economy and patriotism are at their weakest; and that cases of fraud and scams multiply by the day, all of which were not attributes of the pre-Christian Khasi society. Yet, the discrimination today is still alive and active where the Khasi Niam Tynrai are often referred to as ‘bym pat don niam’ or ‘who are yet without a religion’, or ‘ba dang dum’ or ‘who are still in darkness’. There need not be more derogatory and discriminatory terms.
The fifth and final point is the discrimination against the Khasi culture. Khasi Christians have been taught to look at Khasi culture in general as ‘that of the other’; to divorce themselves from what is of the Khasis in terms of dance, songs and the general Khasi ethos and spirituality. To be Christian means to be more European-like. Converts had been prohibited from participating in traditional dances and songs and traditional ways of prayer, with the threat of excommunication. Khasi Christians have no knowledge or memory of the traditional dance or songs or methods of prayer. The Catholics who apparently try to uphold these traditions do so to suit their own syncretical hidden agenda and not to uphold the Khasi culture per se. The church never even commemorates Khasi patriots such as U Kiang Nangbah or U Tirot Sing. This is annihilation of a collective memory. If this is not mass annihilation of the Khasi culture, I don’t know what else it can be called. It is discrimination and marginalization at the highest degree against the Khasi Niam Tynrai. Every tenet of the Khasi culture is seen as something to be shunned and despised. There have been attacks even on the matrilineal lineage system of the Khasis by Khasi Christians who prefer a patrilineal or patriarchal system by basing their argument on Christian teachings, and this they do in the face of the civilized world having recovered from the evils of patriarchy and when there is much thriving towards emancipation of women. No woman is allowed to be a priest in any church in these hills. This shows that Khasi Christian teachings are discriminatory against the Khasi culture and against women in principle. Khasi Christians blindly adhere to these archaic religious teachings without a question even in the post-Christian era of the 21st Century.
The most disturbing point is that almost all Khasi Christians and even the Khasi society at large, including legal and governmental bodies, and even human rights NGOs overlook these discriminations and treat them as completely normal and even would aid in such discriminations knowingly or unknowingly. This is not normal in the least. Everybody is in a state of denial. I do not condemn Khasi Christians by my speaking against this discrimination, but I do condemn their inability to question the religion that tells them to hate other people and to treat their very own kith and kin as outcasts.
Overall, the issue should be addressed publicly as erroneous on various grounds. First, because it leads to an identity crisis. The discrimination is caused by a confused Khasi identity that has been propagated by faithfulness to a religion. This point is very self-explanatory. “Phi dang long Khasi?” or “Are you still a Khasi?”, “Em, nga lah long Khristan” or “No, I am now a Christian”. If this is not a denial of identity, I don’t know what else is. It is just that Christianity does not have a personal law like Islam that Khasi Christians still call themselves Khasis. Otherwise almost all Khasi identity would have been wiped out by now, except the Khasi Niam Tynrai. Yet, the personal law/tradition practised by Khasi Christians today is precisely that of the Khasi Niam Tynrai which they think they had escaped from but which gives them their very present Khasi identity. By that logic, allegiance of identity to Adam and Eve in the church and to U Hynñiewtrep in public has caused confusion to the Khasi Christian identity in general. And people wonder why patriotism is on the decline, not having any knowledge of such dichotomy of the Khasi psyche. Discrimination against one’s own self is schizophrenic. We Khasis are one. The discrimination exists only in churches and therefore the teachings and programmes of the church are discriminatory and should be rejected. Without the Khasi Niam Tynrai, Khasi Christians will no longer have a definition of identity except as separate Christian denominations where the term ‘Khasi’ will no longer be applicable and hence the Khasi identity wiped from the face of the earth. This is a very obvious outcome but to which many are still blind.
Second, because it is anti-secular. With the Constitution being our only reason for not killing each other on the basis of religion, it is safe to respect the Constitution more than the dogmas of any religion. The Khasi Religion is not without its faults with all its random superstitions taken into account, but the Khasi Christian Church is more at fault in that its superstitions are being sugar-coated and forced by its adherents to be believed as absolute truth and to be basis of discrimination, notwithstanding the fact that Christianity is just another religion, on the same plane with every other religion in terms of its veracity. Khasis converted to Christianity is a conversion from believing one set of superstitions to believing another set of superstitions, a ridiculous exercise frankly. Our ability to critique this point of error is the only task that will mark us a people who have moved away from being tribal into being civilised; otherwise we are just brutes in modern suits.
I think the raw material for discrimination is in the churches. Therefore, the legal machinery should turn against discrimination programmes in the churches where the seed of the discrimination lies. To level it out from a popular culture standpoint, I can only compare Khasi Niam Tynrai to Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird who was feared for no valid reason. In Harper Lee’s own words, “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results”. Of course it is a still a sin to kill a mockingbird.