By Gary Marbaniang
“Wickliffe Syiem passed out with a degree in engineering from then Bombay University in the 1930’s. It’s unconfirmed but it was said that he even completed his post engineering degree from London.’’
I asked five Khasi woman recently: my mother, my sister, my niece and two of my colleagues about Wickliffe Syiem. No one had any idea whatsoever about who he was. My niece said that he was a former Chief Minister and my sister said that he was one of the leaders of the Hill State movement. My mother and my two colleagues bluntly replied that they has no idea.
I wrote a snapshot about him but I didn’t mention who he was. Wickliffe Syiem was the heir to the chieftainship of Hima Nongstoin. After he completed his education he came back to his chieftainship and he co-ruled Nongstoin as deputy chieftain (Syiem Khynnah) with his Uncle, Sib Singh Syiem as the chieftain. At the time of India’s Independence, the Indian leaders came up with a plan to integrate the princely states into the Indian Union. There were 562 princely states in India at the time of its independence. The Indian leaders mooted the idea of categorising the Khasi chieftainships as princely states and they did that. There were 25 Khasi States at the time of India’s Independence. So began the process of integration. The then Governor of Assam, Akbar Hydari acting as a Crown representative convinced the Khasi Chiefs to signed the Standstill Agreement on July 16, 1947 in which a period of two years was given to the Khasi Chiefs to work out a viable plan for formulating the terms and conditions for the Khasi States to accede to India. Then without warning and like a bolt from the blue, Akbar Hydari acting as a representative of the Indian government came back within a period of four months and he made the Khasi Chiefs signed the Instrument of Accession (IoA) on 15th December, 1947 supposedly with a veiled threat of the consequences of not signing the IoA. The two-year time period agreed upon in the Standstill Agreement was therefore not respected.
Six Khasi chieftainships refused to sign the IoA and Nongstoin was one of them. Then under the rulership of Wickliffe Syiem and Sib Sing Syiem, Nongstoin declared independence from India on 13 January,1948. On March 7, 1948 Akbar Hydari, the then Governor of Assam sent an envoy named G P Jarman, Dominion Agent with a platoon of Assam rifles personnel to Nongstoin to convince Sib Sing Syiem, Wickliffe Syiem’s Uncle and ruler of Nongstoin to sign the Instrument of Accession. Wickliffe Syiem was out of station when this envoy entered Nongstoin. Sib Sing Syiem refused to budge for a while. Seeing his resistance the envoy decided to threaten him. He also issued an order prohibiting him from leaving Nongstoin until a final settlement is reached. Sib Sing Syiem was a dedicated member of the Presbyterian Church. At that time Sib Sing Syiem was duty bound to attend a church meeting as a faithful member of the church in the village of Rikhen in present day Nongkhlaw. Upon hearing of the news that Sib Singh Syiem had left Nongstoin, GP Jarman took it as a sign of rebellion and sent the Assam rifles platoon to arrest him. Sib Sing was captured and brought back to Nongstoin. Sib Sing Syiem finally relented. He signed the Instrument of Accession on March 19, 1948. His ministers urged him to sign it because they feared for his life and they didn’t want their chief to die undignified
After the signing of the IoA the envoy issued an order prohibiting Wickliffe Syiem from entering Nongstoin and upon hearing the news that his uncle had relented and signed the IoA, Wickliffe Syiem immediately wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru urging him to instruct the Regional Assam government to stop their illegal activities in his chieftainship but all his peaceful efforts to regain back rulership of his kingdom came to naught. When all his peaceful efforts failed, he vowed to never set foot again in his Hima. He eventually made East Pakistan later turned Bangladesh his home and he never returned to Nongstoin until his death.
His tragic life story deserves to be made into a movie. It would be cinematically beautiful and tragic at the same time if displayed on the silver screen. If Hollywood can make a movie about William Wallace, the famous Scottish knight then why can’t Bollywood or the Khasi film Industry make a movie about Wickliffe Syiem. Wickliffe did not try to adopt guerrilla warfare to fight a bloody war against India; for this reason alone he must be applauded. It would have ended in bloodshed and suffering for the Khasi people. He tried to fight with his beautiful mind and the pen but it was infructuous. He accepted his fate and the fate of his people and died a peaceful death on October 21, 1988 in the plains of Bangladesh.
What makes Wickliffe Syiem stand out from the crowd is that he didn’t have blood in his hands. He was the most peaceful of all the rebels who fought against the Indian State. I think this can be attributed to him being the son of a pastor and secondly because he was highly educated. After his uncle, Sib Sing Syiem signed the IoA he sent a telegram to the Secretary General of the United Nations on March 24, 1948 informing him about the unfortunate developments in his Hima and urged the United Nations to liberate his people from Indian rule. He even went to the United Nations headquarters in New York to plead his case as the rightful ruler of Hima Nongstoin but he didn’t succeed. Later on in his life I think he accepted the fate of his Hima and his people and was resigned to the fact that there was no point in fighting a losing battle.
While living in Bangladesh he worked as an engineer. Initially I thought his engineering degree went to waste. The saddest part about his life was the phase where he went through an existential crisis. My father’s uncle passed out from Scottish Church College in Kolkata with a BA degree in the 1950’s and when he returned home to his village, everyone was in awe of him. Wickliffe Syiem passed out with a degree in engineering from then Bombay University in the 1930’s. It’s unconfirmed but it was said that he even completed his post engineering degree from London. One can only imagine the reception he got in Nongstoin when their bright and brilliant future ruler finally returned home. Any person is bound to go through an existential crisis if one goes through such highs and lows in life. He gave it all up(fame, money, position) because he never budged from his principles. There has never been a Khasi leader ever since and there probably never will be again.
Trivia: Wickliffe Syiem was also a football and a hockey player par excellence.