By Toki Blah
Our society, the Khasi-Pnar society, has in the recent past undergone some traumatic experiences. It started off with the proposed 2nd amendment to the KHADC Khasi Social Custom of Lineage Act, a controversial amendment which seeks to derecognise the Khasi and Schedule Tribe status of a Khasi mother and her off-springs when the woman marries outside the tribe. The proposal challenged the unbounded and age old Khasi concept of matriliny by putting conditions as to when and how it should be practiced. Such conditions never existed before and as such is a direct assault on tradition and custom itself which the MDCs were not mandated to address; a travesty on the powers conferred upon the KHADC by the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. Further fire was added to the controversy when the CEM of the KHADC accused the new found love for patriarchy among some Khasis as the greatest threat to the identity and survival of the tribe. The cry for increased legal and constitutional protection to safeguard the identity of a miniscule tribal community has always been there. The scream “The jaitbynriew is in peril, I alone can lead you to safety” has always found a sympathetic and receptive audience but has always led us further into the wilderness. It is no different this time round.
This write-up will also try to address a couple of social customs of the Khasi Pnars but will digress from populist issues such as mixed marriages or preference of lineage from the father’s side. The writer recognises the possibility of the above being irritants within the ambit of a Matrilineal society such as ours, but which in all probability, will continue to remain so but also hardly constitute a major threat as is being portrayed. Many may not agree but I am not a politician with the need to be politically correct on any issue I choose to speak on. The threats that this essay will identify are not populist in nature; will garner no votes in the next MDC or MP elections but nonetheless will, unless contained, cause irreparable damage to the wellbeing, vigour and uniqueness of Hynniewtrep identity. This write-up will therefore focus instead on traditional strengths and exclusive practices of my tribe which we have allowed to deteriorate. Tribal culture is usually strong on practices that strengthen social bonding; community cohesiveness and clan unity. The fear therefore is that with the passage of time, we ourselves have allowed incursions into customs and practices that defined our distinctiveness from the rest of the world. We need to identify where we have gone wrong!
In the 1990’s when India finally settled on the Panchayati system as the best form of grass-roots governance, it was by no oversight that tribal Meghalaya was exempted from the provisions of the 73rd and 74th Amendments. The exclusion was deliberate because of the realisation that we already possessed grass-roots institutions of governance that were intrinsically traditional, had broad universal acceptability, were basically democratic and potentially capable of delivering meaningful governance to the people. How then did Meghalaya, especially its Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) interpret this generous recognition of its traditional strength? The Village Councils of all three tribes, ie the Khasis, Jaintias and Garos were meticulously and painstakingly neglected and left to their own devices! We turned our backs on our very own traditional institutions. They were left to rot where history found them. The ADCs only woke up to the disrepair of the Village Dorbars when the Meghalaya High Court came up in 2014, with a verdict that questioned the legal entity of these Dorbars. The truth hit home that in the last 65 years of their existence, the ADCs had failed to come up with any legislation to legalise and empower their traditional durbars.
The only face saver was the draft Village Administration Bill (VAB) which if the truth be told, was actually conceived way back in 2011 well before the 2014 HC judgement, simply as a means to attract direct funding to the durbars through the KHADC. The fact today remains that Meghalaya as a state continues to remain bereft of a uniform grass-roots governance system, applicable to all its eleven districts, that is democratic, accountable and capable of handling modern developmental issues and concepts at the village level. The VAB, despite all its political hype, does not reflect these qualities. A review based on the powers of the State Govt vis a vis the ADCs through a fresh look at Para 12 A of the 6th Schedule read with Para 5 of List II of 7th Schedule of the Constitution is called for. Do we have the guts to do it?
While speaking of traditional practices and customs, it is accepted that the Khasi Pnars reserve a lot of respect and veneration for their dead. The occurrence of death is usually an occasion for the entire community to express its condolences and empathy with the family of the deceased. In days gone by, such a loss was shared by the community by it taking over the daily household chores, cooking and cleaning, of the grieving family. This perhaps has waned but as a community we still express our solidarity and support by visiting the house where death has occurred, comforting the mourners and offering consolation and solace by our presence. The grief and sense of loss of the grieving family is on the other hand is diminished by its ability to offer kwai or a simple cup of red tea to all those who have come to pay their last respects to the dead. It is a bonding process where everyone irrespective of social standing or status, indulge in; it helps reinforce the identity of our culture and it exhibits the egalitarian traits of our community as no other practice can.
Sadly this exemplary traditional practice too is slowly being corrupted while the District Council, the loudmouth in upholding such practices, stands by, a mute and helpless spectator. In most instances when death occurs the sense of mourning and grief has slowly been replaced by a need to convert the occasion into an event for communal feasting. The caller or visitor to a place of bereavement ( he /she are not invited guests. They come on their own free will out of a sense of fellowship or camaraderie to grieve with the family) are greeted with a rich variety of snacks, cakes and biscuits to choose from. It is also in vogue now for the house owners to insist that the caller stay back for a meal as a mark of respect for the dead. I personally find such requests to be in very bad taste. Most of us visit the house of bereavement to mourn with those who grieve; to share in the bereavement; to give encouragement at the time of sadness. We didn’t turn up on the expectation to be fed or that the bereaved family be further burdened by lavish spending on us. Of concern is that the poor or those who can least afford it may resort to borrowing in an attempt to keep up with the pretentions of the rich. I sincerely believe that direction from the KHADC and JHADC to the Dorbars to discourage the practice of community feasting at the time of death will be of big help in preserving custom and tradition.
Last but not least that we expect from our ADCs is some sort of legislation to deal with the rising population of single and abandoned mothers in our society. It’s tragic, horrible and appalling to see young girls, even children of 13-15 years of age conceiving, becoming mothers and then being abandoned by their husbands, most times as young as themselves. Such mothers are in no position to care for their children and we are encouraging mal nourished, illiterate and a desperate generation of youngsters to grow up. What sort of social square pegs is our society producing? It is a blot to our society and the times we live in. The tragedy is that our society pretends this is not happening. The same society is however expressing concern over drug abuse; juvenile crime and juvenile rape. It will not be surprising if most of our juvenile criminals are products of such single motherhood. The tragedy is that institutions we look up to for guidance, be it the Church or the Dorbars continue to turn a blind eye to this social menace. Isn’t it time for our constitutionally empowered social sheep dog, the ADCs to rise to the occasion?
The author is President of ICARE