Wanted clarity in the Lineage Bill 

Editor,

With reference to the recently introduced amended Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) (First Amendment), Bill, 2018, I am to state as follows:

1. The KHADC recently introduced the amended Khasi Hills Autonomous District

(Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) (FirstAmendment), Bill, 2018, with a special case of patriliny. In the amended bill, the customary practice of Ring Bia’ or ‘Shaw Bhoi’ are defined as customary practices prevailing among some native indigenous Khasi clans in Ri Bhoi.

Duh Iing’ is defined in the Bill as a family having no biological female offspring. In this case, a Khasi male member of such family may marry a non-Khasi and his offspring take his clan or title and they may be deemed to be Khasi if they fulfill the conditions of being a Khasi as laid down in Section 3 of the Act.

The custom of ‘Duh Iing’ recently added in the Bill is for a family having no biological female offspring and a Khasi male member of such family may marry a non-Khasi and his offspring take his clan or title and they may be deemed to be Khasi.

However, the custom of ‘Duh Iing’ is not applicable for a family having no biological female offspring and who desires to marry a Khasi woman. In this scenario, any Khasi who takes the clan title of his father for himself or his children shall no longer be a Khasi and he and/or his children shall be disqualified from all privileges, status and benefits as a Khasi. So, if a family with no biological female offspring and already married with Khasi women wants to carry forward their clan they will have to leave their Khasi wives and re-marry a non-Khasi to enable the offspring to take their clan or title and that they may be deemed to be Khasi. Earlier, if a person from a family  with no biological female offspring were to marry a non-Khasi, he  would have to follow a custom of ‘Tang Jait’ where a new clan or title will be created out of that family.  Hence, earlier any family having no biological female offspring had no scope of carrying forward their clan and they were left with no choice whether they marry a Khasi or a non-Khasi.

Now, with the above ‘Duh Iing  clause such families will be tempted to leave their wives with Khasi clan and marry a non-Khasi for carrying forward their own clan.

In our Khasi custom, there is no compulsory registration of marriages. Hence, any family with no biological female offspring that wants to carry forward their clan by marrying a non-Khasi as per the above clause, can easily leave their wives. In this scenario, there will be uncountable broken families due to the above Duh Iing clause.

For all those with families having no biological female offspring and are yet to get married but do not wish to marry a non-Khasi,  but also want to carry forward their clan would have no choice but to choose a clan by marrying a non-Khasi or choose a Khasi woman and forget their clan.

 I am a victim of my own so called ‘Khasi’ tradition. In my family, we are only two brothers and no biological female offspring. My younger brother married a Khasi woman in 2009. I was desperate to carry forward my clan title.  But I have no choice because if I marry a non-Khasi, a new title has to be created out of the system of ‘Tang Jait’ and if I marry a Khasi woman I will get no title for my children. So, in both scenarios, I can’t carry forward the clan title of my family. Out of desperation, I married a Khasi woman in 2015. Now with the above ‘Duh Iing’ clause, I am already thinking of whether to choose to carry forward my clan by leaving my Khasi wife and search for a non-Khasi woman.

Considering the above, I have the following issues:

1. For a Khasi family having no biological female offspring but who are already married to Khasi women but also want to carry forward their clan title, a freedom of choice may be given to them to take the title of the father so that these families will also have a chance to carry forward their clan and there should be no disqualification for these family as being Khasi.
2. For those Khasi families having no biological female offspring and who want to marry Khasi women in future because they don’t want a non-Khasi wife but at the same time wish to carry forward their clan, a freedom of choice may be given to them to take the title of the father so that such families will also have a chance to carry forward their clan and there should be no disqualification for these family as Khasi. ‘

Yours etc.,

1. Wahlang

Shillong- 8