By H H Mohrmen
If the interface on social media can be interpreted as the views and opinions of the young people, then of late there is a heated debate about mixed marriages and children born out of such marriages. In spite of the fact that most of those taking part in the debate are Christians who believe in ‘for those whom God has united, let no man divide,’ yet they abhor mixed marriages. The social media warriors also trained their guns at the young women, who have non-tribal boyfriends. They castigated them and named and shamed them in the cyber world.
The so called pure blooded ‘khun Khasi-Pnar’ believe that the only way to save the Jaitbynriew is to cleanse it of the impure blood of children born out of the mixed marriages. For them the identity of the tribe depends only on ‘the supposedly pure blood’ that run in the veins of the Khun u Hynniewtrep Hynniewskum.’ Those who are not pure blooded are considered enemies of the tribe and are condemned to be turncoats.
This idea is preposterous because our blood group is universal and the same blood group runs in the veins of people belonging to different tribes of this diverse human race. There is no grouping of blood based on racial or ethnic identity; therefore what we should look at are the genes that we carry than the blood. The question then is whether we have hundred percent indigenous genes or if we share genes of people of other races in our gene pool. Yet this does not answer any doubts but rather raises another question about the identity of the tribe or who is a real Khun u Hynniewtrep Hynniewskum. The question leads us to another very important question and that is whether the strength of the tribe depends on our blood or the way we live our lives?
There is no denying the fact that we are fast losing our way of life to the popular modern lifestyle. Part of it is inevitable due to the advent of technology and the onslaught of media but some aspects of the culture are those that we have voluntarily discarded like the language we speak, the food we eat etc. But it is the intrinsic value system and profound virtues of our tribal way of life which we need to retain, because this is what defines us. Hence it is not only the colour of our skin or the supposed blood that runs in our veins which defines who we are, but whether we still continue with the indigenous way of life or not.
Therefore the point is that we are true Khasi-Pnar if we continue with the indigenous way of life and that is the crux of the matter. We should judge ourselves not by any other yardstick but rather by how much of the indigenous way of life we still continue. It is in this context that another important question arises and that is if we are still proud of our roots? Or rather how much of the traditional way of life we still cherish? So it is irrelevant if one is a ‘khun shiteng/shipiah or khun pongka’ or whatever name one would care to use to differentiate the children of one tribe. The test in my opinion is if one continues with the Khasi-Pnar or Hynniewtrep way of life or not.
If we still feel the need for our children to continue with the traditional way of life then the need of the hour is to help the new generation continue with this way of life and make them feel proud to live that way of life. Since much of our tribal institutions are gradually fading away (for example like the hearth of the home where the schooling used to happen between the elders and the young generation), there is no better place to start this process than schools. The indigenous way of life of the first nations is not only being respected but the world is looking at the traditional way of life of the indigenous people as the answer to much of the problems that we have now. The way they conserved their forests, the water sources, the practice of seed sharing are some of the wisdom that the world looks at to counter and mitigate the effects of climate change on different aspects of our lives.
One may say that in some way we have missed the bus when we failed to include this as one aspect of education in the way we trained our children in the past, but it is not too late to make amends. It is high time that government take this issue seriously and while it is in the process of coming up with the new education policy, it should also look at ways how this can be incorporated in the education system of the state.
When the Bard of the Jaitbynriew u Soso Tham lamented “Jingstad ngi wad sawdong pyrthei, jingshai ka Ri ngim tip eiei,” which roughly translates to (pardon me my layman’s translation of the same) ‘We travel the world to gain knowledge are ignorant of the wisdom in our own land,” he was speaking about our education system which gives prominence to wisdom incorporated from outside, while we ignore or rather forget the wisdom of our land. There is so much wisdom that we can learn from our own land.
Hence if the aim of education is to produce a wiser and confident generation of young men and women, then there is only one way and that is to help strengthen the youth in understanding their roots. The goal is to help them be proud of who they are with their roots firm on the ground they stand.
Teaching indigenous knowledge in school is the need of the hour if we are to produce a generation with a clear understanding of who they are and also with the confidence to walk in the world with their heads held high. Teaching young people about the indigenous food that are mostly from the wilds and our attitudes towards the environment will help our young people understand how we are closely connected with nature. Learning how our farmers grow food and how they keep and share seeds not only qualifies them as the keepers of the old seeds but will help us understand how much our ancestors understand how nature works.
Resources for traditional knowledge teaching have to be the elders of the village. In fact a similar arrangement was organised in the Agro-ecology School in Latin America where apart from having modern subjects taught by professors, the institution also hired elders in the community to share with the learners their experiences with regards to farming. This similar model can be replicates in teaching indigenous knowledge to our younger generation. In a way it is giving the grandparents a platform bigger than the hearth of the home.
If traditional knowledge is introduced as part of the school curriculum it should be in the local dialect because once it is translated then much of it as they say will be lost in translation. And in all likelihood elders who can be resources for the study can only read or write in the local languages, and most importantly it will encourage youngsters to communicate in their own lingua franca and be proud of the same. This will be an innovation of sorts for the government in which classes sometimes can be held at the villages where, for a change, the students can experience a different learning environment.
Study of indigenous knowledge should be activity based; students’ assignments can be as simple as asking kids to write a project on the function of the local Dorbar Shnong, to document and write a recipe of indigenous dishes particularly those which include wild vegetables. The learners can also be asked to study the functions of the traditional office of the Syiem, the Daloi, or even the local Sacred Grove, local festivals et al. The list is endless. In fact there is a lot that can be done to inculcate the love for one’s traditions and way of life amongst the young people.
If the Government introduces learning of indigenous knowledge in the state education system, then it will be responding and fulfilling the dream of Soso Tham as well as helping our children learn and understand of the light of our own land. But more importantly it will help rid the community of the false patriots who only look at ways to divide than unite us.