By H H Mohrmen
The honour given to the Man
It is not easy to give an irrefutable English translation of the Khasi Pnar term ‘u Khlawait’ or ‘u khla-ka-wait,’ which comprises two or three words as the case may be. If the two words are defined according to their respective meanings, the literary meaning of ‘khla’ is tiger and ‘wait’ here refers to wait-lam or wait-ïa-pom’ which means a warrior’s sword. It is different from a machete that the people use for cutting trees or clearing the forest or bushes. Sword was an important weapon that a warrior would wield in every battlefield. Tiger in the Khasi Pnar culture represents courage, strength, ferocity, swiftness, the quality that every warrior would like to imbibe and hence the combination of the two words ‘khlawait’ or ‘khla-ka-wait’ would mean ‘A Swordsman with the stealth and courage of a Tiger’. It is the highest honour that any warrior can be bestowed with.
Tigers which are known to the people also have their presence in their folk narratives and traditions. ‘Khla’ is a prefix in the name of any big cat. For example, the leopard is known as ‘u khla-krong’, clouded leopard u khla-sim or ‘labasim in Khasi, and Royal Bengal tiger is ‘khla-thoh-lareñ’. U khla or khli is also used in a festival celebrated by the War Jañtia people in Nongtalang in honour of the Tiger and the festival is also known as Rongkhli or tiger festival.
The fight of u Kiang Nangbah also has some connection with the Warrior Dance called ‘ka Chad Pastieh’ which is indeed a warrior dance and a ceremony where male members of the community dance to the tune of the ‘tangburi’ and the beating of the drums with a sword on one hand and a shield on the other. Warrior Dance called ‘Pastiah’ is performed by the War Jañtia during the Rongkhli and the Rong Kusi festival and it is also part of the different religious festivals of the eleka Raliang, Shangpung and Nartiang.
Another term used by the Pnar to describe a man like u Kiang Nangbah is ‘u Dap-chynrang’ or in the case of a woman ‘ka Dap-kynthai’. ‘Dap-chynrang’ is not just being manly but a man of courage and conviction willing to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. It also means a complete or a real man or the epitome of being a man. The only woman who had earned the title of ‘ka Dap-kynthai’ and also the only female ruler of a kingdom in the folk narrative was Ka Syiem Latympang of Hima Mannar.
The causes that led to the rebellion
According to local narratives there were three immediate causes which led to the Jañtia rebellion against the British government. Reason number one for the rebellion was the house tax imposed by the British Government on the hills subject of the erstwhile Jañtia Kingdom. J.H. Thornton in his memoir published in 1895 blamed the Bengal Government for the wrong advice to impose income-tax on the hills subject of the erstwhile kingdom. The tax was first introduced in India by Mr Wilson the finance minister. He is of the opinion that it was wrong to impose any tax on the highlanders who had no income in the proper sense of the term and to whom tax was a foreign idea.
(Capt BWD Morton DC Khasi and Jañtia hills in his communication to the officiating commissioner of Assam (dated Jowai, the 30th September 1862) said that in the last part of June on his arrival in Jowai he met with the Daloi of Jowai and Shilliang Myntang and enquired from them the reasons that led to the people taking to the path of rebellion. The Daloi of Shilliang Myntang feigned ignorance and the Daloi of Jowai casually stated that it could be due to the interference with the religious festival and the house tax that the government imposed on the people.
The unceremonious act of obstruction made by the British soldiers while the people of Raid Їalong were performing their traditional warrior dance chad pastieh known as pastieh Kaiksoo was one of the major causes of the rebellion. The oral stories have it that the British on learning about the Pastieh dance at Ialong went to stop the ceremony while it was still going on and confiscated all the swords and the shields used by the young men in the festival. Local stories have it that the British mistook the event to be a preparation for war against the British government, hence they put a stop to what appeared like a rebellion in the making. Chad Pastieh is a religious festival hence it was not only an act of sheer irreverence to the local ethos to interrupt the ceremony while it was still going on, but it is also a sacrilege of the worst kind to confiscate objects used in performing the religious ceremony. This act of blasphemy has not only hurt the sentiments of the Pnar which also led to the rebellion but it was an irreversible loss to the Raid Їalong because the Chad Pastieh which was a part of tradition has never ever been performed since then. The incident caused permanent damage to the religious activities of the Raid Ialong and since then the Raid has stopped performing the tribal warrior dance. This is one part of the oral stories which can be substantiated with facts available because the Raij has not been able to revive the tradition since it was stopped due to the interference of the British.
Ram Singh, Rajah of Cherra and his cousin, Hajun Manick who were engaged by the British to convince the rebels to submit to the government, on being asked in the presence of Major Langmore, Commanding the 33rd Native Infantry, and Captain Morton, Deputy Commissioner in charge of the Khasi Jañtia hills on 13th of October 1862 stated: I met the following Dalois at Lad-Tuber, namely u Myllon Daloi of Mynso, the Daloi of Rymbai, the Daloi of Raliang, Shilliang Myntang, Sutnga and the Daloi of Nongjngi. I did not recognize them all but people said that all Dalois were present. I met about 1500 rebels and asked them why they had revolted, and they assigned as their reason for doing so because the police had interfered with their worship at Ïalong and had prohibited some family from performing funeral rites of the deceased member of their clan in certain area. The police had not only interfered with their Pastieh Dance but oral narratives also mentioned that they had interfered with the last rites of one member of the Sumer clan.
It was only in the later part of the rebellion when the rebels came in contact with the Kur or the Royal Clan which came from Sylhet (who were also engaged by government to mediate with the rebels) that they openly demanded independence. BWD Morton in his letter to the Officiating Secretary to the Government of Bengal dated Jowai the 28th October 1862, said that the Jañtias had now openly demanded their independence as reported by the Raja of Cherra and his cousin Hajun Manick. In the meeting between Ram Singh Raja of Cherra and Hajun Manick his cousin with the rebels at Moobahkhon/Muwakhon about 9 miles from Nartiang (probably between 18th and 23rd October), the mediators reported to the DC that while sections of the rebels expressed their wish to submit, it was the rebels from Jowai under the leadership of u Kiang Nangbah who were chiefly to blame for the resistance. He also reported that u Kiang Nangbah did also mention about the incident in which Colonel Lister and Mr Inglis confiscated guns and wealth belonging to the Jañtia Raja of Jañtiapur.
In the statement made by Raja Ram Singh of Cherra on the 27th October 1862 to the DC, he said that in the meeting at Moobahkhon he met U Kiang Nangbah of Jowai, u Khmah Langdoh, a Pator and u San Sallo (Shylla) of Ialong, a Pator of Nartiang and u Kiri Daloi of Shangpung and the Daloi of Nongjngi. It was then obvious that u Kiang had emerged as a leader and the spokesperson of the rebellion. Ram Singh also claimed that U Kiang had said that they will only submit if the Raj is restored and the hills are relinquished by the government and the rebels would make friends with them. They wish neither to see nor have anything to do with the government.
It was after the outcome of the meeting at Moobahkhon was made known to the government by Ram Singh that the British decided to launch a full-scale battle against the Jañtia rebels. And this rebellion was led by none other than U Kiang Nangbah.
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