Khasi Lineage Amendment Bill – Over-simplified proposed solutions

By T Sohtun

The “Khasi Social Custom of Lineage, Second Amendment Bill, 2018”, passed by The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), hereafter referred to as the “Bill, 2018” has rightly generated a series of debates on social media. This shows that we are serious about our Khasi culture and our Khasi land. I feel that this is the time to view our opinions however tiny that drop of idea might contribute. In a debate there are those who speak for a motion, and those against the motion. It is never a personal attack. Debate is argument about a subject, not about how long or short your nose is. The solution might be somewhere in between. This Bill seeks to redefine our Khasi identity. Let us be serious.

THE PROBLEM

Some of the major social and economic problems that pose as threats to the interest of the Khasi Tribe (perceived or actual) that was at the backdrop of the Bill could be:

1. There is a fear that the Khasi culture is in imminent danger of extinction!
2. The land, jobs, and other benefits meant only for the Khasi people are being snatched away by non-Khasis.
3. That many non-Khasi men use “Khasi-women” only as a password to gain access to those privileged classified files of the State!

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION

The Khasi Tribe is surely increasing. When we go to the villages, the rapid rise in population is very glaring. The streets are filled with children; the schools are overcrowded; unwed mothers and her children are on the rise; and there is not enough land for all.  What we actually mean to say is that there is an alarming increase of influx of non-Khasis who come illegally (foreigners) or legally as Indians.  So influx is to be addressed.

It is a historical fact that many Khasi women are marrying non-Khasi men, whether Indians or foreigners, and likewise the men. Why so? We need to ask and introspect. Will inbreeding help to foster and promote a vibrant, competitive, and progressive Khasi culture?

It is a common allegation that jobs are being “sold out” to “anyone” who can pay, otherwise reserved only for few privileged Khasis who have “godfathers”. Job applications and interviews are shams! In which case a Khasi who deserves the job will never get it! Can we say then that corruption is “anti-Khasi”?

TRIANGULAR PERSPECTIVE

What does the “Bill, 2018” in its present form aim to Protect/Promote/Correct?

Let us look at the merits and demerits of the proposed Bill from the triangular perspective: The Khasi Lineage system; the ownership of the land; Schedule Tribe (ST) issues.

1. Khasi Tribe, its lineage system.
2. a)As of now, the Khasi lineage is traced through the mother. The mother’s offspring are named after her clan/Kur’s name, irrespective of whether the father is a Khasi or non-Khasi. In general this is what is also termed as matrilineal.
3. b)The Khasi lineage is also propagated through the father through the ceremony of “tangjait”, an initiation whereby, a father who marries a non-Khasi woman can “create” a new clan. Some fathers have given their own “jait” directly to their children (patrilineal style).
4. c)As of now, the children born out of the above marriages (a & b) are equally considered as Khasi offspring.
5. Land ownership:In simplistic terms, three kinds of ownership of land in Khasi Hills, excluding those of government lands are practiced.

1. a)Community lands: These lands belong to the “Kur” or “Clan”, which are exclusively owned by the women of that clan. They have a Rangbah-Kur (clan-chief) but he himself has no right to use it even for his personal sustenance.

The lands that belong to the village community: Irrespective of one’s clan, all village members are entitled to its use. The Rangbah-Shnong (village headman) administers such lands.

1. b)Individually owned lands: The legal holders of such lands can be a man or a woman, either inherited from parents, or purchased with cash. Such lands in majority of cases will be inherited by their daughters, especially the youngest one. Though it is an encouraging sign that more and more parents distribute their lands equally among their children, for both, boys and girls.
2. c)NGO owned lands: These constitute lands owned by companies and NGO’s for the purpose of industry, education, agriculture, etc.…

In short, even without statistical facts, one can say that in Khasi Hills, the bulk of lands belong to the women. This is something typical of a matrilineal system.

1. Reserved Categories (ST):Some of the important components that fall within the Schedule Tribe category status are:  reservation in education and employment, exemption and privileges in business (e.g. tax exemption, trading license, etc.…).

SOME SOLUTIONS BUT MORE PROBLEMS

Since according to the proposed Bbill, a khasi woman who marries a non-Khasi man and her offspring shall be deemed as “non-Khasis”, then the bill will basically protect ownership of the land to a great extent and reservation benefits of the Khasis. But the number of Khasis deemed as “non-Khasis” will continue to rise. We can expect that most of the young people marry out of love and hardly reason out the consequences. We will have not just one, buta  series of generations of people who look Khasi, dress Khasi, speak Khasi, sing Khasi songs, eat Khasi food, but are called non-Khasi or “Khasi – Dkhar”, just because their blood was mixed at one point. These so called “non-Khasis” will in turn intermarry with Khasi girls, thus producing a series of such kind of off-springs. The children will have to pay for the transgressions of their parents or ancestors. We can expect a terrible identity crisis!

As of now we already have so many children abandoned by their fathers, in the absence of proper marriage legislation. This has created a great social problem already.

Therefore, the merit of this Bill seems to be in generating more questions and discussions than it tries to answer.

Questions that the Bill needs to answer:

1. What if a khatduh or Khasi daughter (who is entitled to inherit her parent’s property) marries a non-Khasi? Can the children have legal right to claim to it? If not, whose will it be? The Bill needs to reflect the repercussions of its application too.
2. A tribe cannot grow only by preservation alone, but also by propagation. In the case of the “tang-jait” (father’s side) this has served to increase the number of Khasi clans, and the Bill silently endorses it.  But what is the problem in accepting the matrilineal tradition? There seems to be an inconsistency in this Bill.
3. What will be the social status of such couples and their children in a village or locality?  Will it be illegal, say, if a particular clan/village allows such daughter who married a non-Khasi to still be part of the social and customary functions?
4. Define who is a “Khasi”. What are the criteria that makes one a Khasi? Are they based on one’s origin, such as his/her clan? Some Khasi clan is clearly stated as “Dkhar”! Are those Khasis born outside the state (e.g. Assam), or outside the country (e.g. Bangladesh), be called Khasi? And if language is the criteria, then how much versatile should one be in the Khasi language: reading, speaking, and writing to get an ST (Khasi) certificate?
5. The Bill seems to project women marrying non-Khasi men as enemies of the Khasi tribe. Hence they are forced to strip off their very culture, land, and family, only to be called a “non-Khasi Kong” henceforth! Such women and their families still can make contribution to the development of the Khasi society.
6. The practical problems in the implementation of the Bill is that it will lead to malpractices, manipulation, buying and selling of ST certificates. We have not even implemented the Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act, so what is the mechanism to check who is married to whom, where, when?
7. What if the Government of India one day amends the Constitution and abolishes all reserved categories, and declares that every Indian has the right to own land, reside, work, and travel anywhere within the territory of India?
8. At most the Bill would have appeared more humane if it had stated, “If any Khasi woman marries a non-Khasi man, her husband and her offspring(s) born out of such marriage(s) shall have no claim under law to those special privileges and benefits that of the Khasi Tribe”.

In conclusion, I would say that it is the common responsibility of every Khasi man and woman to preserve and promote our rich and valued cultural heritage. Our beautiful Khasi and Jaintia Hills with their natural beauty and freshness and the beautiful people is a land coveted by many. It is the only land we can call our own. Once we lose it, it is gone forever. However, the common solution should come by way of integration, not by segregation.

Our legislators (MLA/MDC) need to put their heads together to come up with more comprehensive legislations, such as Bills that will also address mechanisms to check influx, illegal immigration, corruption, transparency in governments, and protection and ownership of the land.

The Bill in its present form might appear at face value good but on detailed scrutiny is found to be very inadequate.