By Fabian Lyngdoh
According to Khasi thought, human life is precious and honourable; there is no place for honour killing, prestigious head-hunting and laudable self-immolation in the Khasi thought and practice. The Khasis believe that human beings are created by God not out of the dust of the earth, but in heaven before the creation of the material world, and they came down to live on earth and to take care of it. The sensible world is believed to be as eternal as the spiritual, and every Khasi wishes that his clan shall ever exist, and clan members shall continue to come to the earth through birth and go to the spiritual world through death.
But the Khasis never surrender or commend any of their clan members to death however old or terminally ill the person is. They would go on finding the reasons why he\she is ill. Even if there is likelihood that death would follow at any moment, they would never say that there is no more hope. To say so, is considered ‘ka jingkren sang’ (sacrilegious curse). It is only when all religious divinations can no longer reveal the reason of illness, and all medical efforts and religious sacrifices fail to save a person’s life, and he/she finally dies, then the fact of death is accepted. However, they never say that it is the will of God, but that he/she was struck by ‘ka tyrut’ which is a violent spiritual force. Even when a very old member of the clan dies, the Khasis never say that he/she simply died, but it is because ‘ba la pom ka tyrut ka smer’ (struck by ka tyrut).In death of whatever nature, the final act of terminating a person’s earthly life is an act of ka tyrut. That is why at the death of every clan member, when the sacrifice of ‘u Ïarkrad-lynti’ is performed, declaration is made to the effect that ka tyrut has struck.
When a person meets with a violent death called ‘ïap-tyrut’, through murder, accidents, childbirth, or attacked by animals, it is not only that he/she is struck by ka tyrut, but that his/her remains shall also be haunted by it while his/her spirit wanders about without rest and abode. The bones of clan members who die of violent deaths can be deposited into the clan’s religious cairn only after purification through the ceremony of ‘ka sait tyrut’so as to drive away ka tyrut from their bones and calling upon their spirits to come and dwell in them.
But in the case of suicide, when man himself takes the place of ka tyrut to strike and terminate his own earthly life, there are no religious purification rites among the Khasis; there are only religious rites to guard the living members of the clan from the poison of ka tyrut called ‘ka raibi’. The spirit of a person who committed suicide is believed to merge with ka tyrut. Hence, even if the religious ceremony of ka sait-tyrut is performed to drive away ka tyrut, it would be impossible as the spirit of the deceased is believed to have embraced it and become its agent. Suicide by hanging called ‘sdien phasi’ must be a later phenomenon as it is not mentioned in any of the Khasi folktales. The form of suicide that is mentioned in Khasi stories is ‘noh-ïap’, that is, to jump to death into a cliff, or waterfall, or into a river or in any other place where people rarely visit so that the question of retrieving the body and performing religious ceremonies did not arise.
In Khasi thought suicide was contemptible and condemnable; it very rarely occurred in the past, and there is no mention of it in Khasi mythology or historical tradition as an excusable and honourable act for whatever cause. A fast unto death for whatever cause is ‘ka sang’ (sacrilege) among the Khasis. Nothing else is more important than life, and ‘to live’ is the greatest of all virtues. For the Khasis, it is better to live somehow than to die at all.
But today, we witness increasing rates of suicide everywhere in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, and it seems to occur more among the males than the females. Last year in one village in Ri Bhoi District, three males and one female aged between 15 to 20 years died of suicide one after another within two months. And, close to a village where I reside, last year a young male aged 17 years also died of suicide. Then in July this year another young man aged 22 years also died of suicide in the same village. Not long after that, this month, September, 2017, a young man aged about 30 years also killed himself and a week later two adult men died of suicide on two consecutive days, and a young woman was rescued by her aunt from a suicide attempt while the burial ceremony of one of the men was in the process. All these cases occurred in the same village. In another village, last year a man was rescued by his son from a suicide attempt in front of his own house. At the beginning of this year, two other adult men were rescued from suicide attempts within three months in the same village. In all these cases, suicide was committed or attempted to be committed by hanging, and not by ‘noh-ïap’.
It seems that suicide is now an epidemic. The reason is not because of the spirit of ka tyrut as people of old believed, but because of certain sociological factors prevalent in the present society which social scientists have to dig out. I am one of those who believe that suicide is not in the natural instincts of animals or human beings. It happens only among human beings because of sociological factors. The society is supposed to be the fountain of love and the bedrock of physical, mental and spiritual refuge for every individual. If the suicide rate in any community is on the rise, it may indicate the existence of two important factors. The first is that, the fictitious self-image with unlimited freedom and aspirations which does not concur with reality has been fraudulently created among the people. The other factor is that, the nature of society as the fountain of love, and the bedrock of physical, mental and spiritual refuge is diminishing by the day despite claims of pastoral and institutional care by various religions and churches. Growth of faith in any religion or church denomination does not mean only the increase in the number of registered members and the grandeur of religious celebrations, but it means much more in the strengthening of love in the human society where members, in solitude or in collective living, find physical, mental and spiritual refuge.
I would like to put up a few points to ponder on what is happening in our society today. I have observed in several cases of deaths by suicide, cows, pigs, chicken and fish were slaughtered for a feast-like gathering to celebrate the event, and a beautiful coffin is made and adorned with numerous wreaths to honour the deceased. If so much honour is bestowed upon a person for committing suicide, would not other lovelorn individuals, wearied of life and drained of hope, aspire for such honour though it is not in life, but in death? It seems that a kilogram of chicken is too costly to celebrate the birthday of a son or daughter, but all sorts of meats are affordable to celebrate a suicide. I have also noticed in a number of burial ceremonies, where the local community church leaders, after performing the religious rites, casually declare that the soul of the person who died of suicide has gone to heaven. In a situation when, to the perception of the young hearts, the world has become like hell, would they not be encouraged to go to heaven by committing suicide? It is real foolery to believe that the performance of certain forms of prescribed prayers and hymns would be sufficient to determine the destiny of a person to heaven or to hell.
Though we have no concrete scientific evidence, it would be healthy and good if authorities of whatever religion or church denominations take serious note of these realities to instruct the local community leaders to differentiate between normal death and suicide, and not to perform pompous religious burial or funeral ceremonies in case of suicide be he/her of any clan or kur, so that young minds and hearts might not perceive suicide as honourable, and spiritually rewarding. Let those who are alive take more care of the living, and let God take care of both the living and the dead, so that the menace of suicide would not plague the human society.