By Toki Blah
“Let us start with the changes that have taken place within the clan (kur) system of our tribal society. Matriliny was and still remains the mainstay of our identity as Khasis. The clan comprises of descendants from various wombs (kpoh) but ultimately all are descendants from one common ancestress. The ranking and strength of a typical Khasi clan depended on two issues. First, its land resources, meaning the extent of arable land under clan possession and second, its human resources, meaning the number of members within the clan.”
Let me from the very beginning give credit to my friend Fabian Lyngdoh for his FB post which read as follows, “I know that many would disagree with me, but in my understanding, the Khasi society today faces many cultural and societal problems because the society has undergone a change from the Avuncular Matrilineal System to the present Nuclear Matriarchal System.” This remark set off a thought process within me which ended with the question –if Khasi society is really going through a process of change, then in which aspects of our lives, as indigenous Khasis, are we experiencing this change? The more important aspect however and which we should be dwelling on more deeply is, how are we as a society, managing or reacting to this change? Lyngdoh has confined his observations to cultural and societal problems primarily because of a change from an avuncular matrilineal system to that of a nuclear matriarchal system. This write-up will however attempt, within the limited space of a newspaper column, to include the changes that we as a society face not only within the cultural and societal arenas but more importantly in our political and economic worldview, on which we as a society have become more and more dependent on. I hasten to add that the views and opinions expressed in this column are not based on any detailed academic research or investigation. They are however the outcome of the author’s observations of the changes that have manifested themselves in Khasi society in the last 70 years or so.
Let us start with the changes that have taken place within the clan (kur) system of our tribal society. Matriliny was and still remains the mainstay of our identity as Khasis. The clan comprises of descendants from various wombs (kpoh) but ultimately all are descendants from one common ancestress. The ranking and strength of a typical Khasi clan depended on two issues. First, its land resources, meaning the extent of arable land under clan possession and second, its human resources, meaning the number of members within the clan. Based on the above, the clan, supervised and managed by senior male members known as “ki kni” (the maternal uncles), served as a strong social safety net for any clan member who perchance fell on bad times. That is why till 60-50 years ago one seldom stumbled upon a despondent Khasi beggar, as a homeless abandoned Khasi was considered a huge shame and social embarrassment on the clan (kur) the unfortunate belonged to. Hence the role of the kni (maternal uncle) as the protector-manager of clan interests came in and the role of the Khatduh as the custodian of clan well-being was established. Based on an economy that was pastoral and agrarian, where needs were basic and elementary, this form of societal non-profit enterprise worked in the interest of all concerned. Prestige and respect for wise elders, culled from adherence to well-established social values and principles, prevailed effortlessly in a casteless society that practiced egalitarianism. Perhaps this was the Aiom Ksiar (golden age) of my forefathers that this generation of Khasis speak of with such nostalgia.
About 150 years ago the change that was to make such a huge impact on Khasi psychology and our world view started to appear on the horizon. An agrarian economy slowly began to give way to a monetary economy. Money and the ability to save it began to define social well-being and wealth. It changed forever a Khasi’s perception of the value of land and his concept of leadership. Far-sighted individuals began to acquire land not for the community services it can give but for the status it provides to one’s personal social image. It didn’t take long for such individuals and their wealthy families to be bestowed with the mantle of leadership. At ground level, community land began to disappear which unfortunately was not flagged by our leaders or by the traditional institutions that governed us. Landlessness, an alien unknown factor in bygone era, was thus allowed to grow and by now has already become largely endemic in our social make-up. Hand in hand with this new nomenclature of wealth came the introduction to a new form of knowledge acquisition. A formal Western system of education based on a Romanised script that the Khasis never had before, made rapid inroads in Khasi society. The written / printed word soon replaced the oral tradition of passing on knowledge and learning. Not surprising therefore that monetary wealth and formalised education soon became the two distinguishing features for social recognition in modern Khasi society. It turned the indigenous world we once knew and the principles it used to uphold, upside down !
The clan or Kur formed the embryo or nucleus of traditional Khasi political thought and practice and it revolved round the experience and wisdom of wise elders personified by the kni. Within a short period of a 100 years all this had changed. Educated and well-to-do individuals, youthful in age and not necessarily by virtue of being an aged, experienced kni, started to step forward to articulate ideas and concepts related with leadership. This nascent political development within Khasi society jelled and coincided with the advent of Indian Independence; the assimilation of Khasi States to the Union of India and the latter’s adaptation of a Parliamentary form of representative democracy as the vehicle to take forward the governance and development of India.
50 years ago, a further milestone in our tryst with destiny took place when the State of Meghalaya was created and the destiny and fate of our future generations was placed in the hands of our own elected leaders. The point this essay wishes to drive home is that if the latest anthropological findings are to be believed , then it would seem that the Khasis form one of the earliest ethnic group of settlers in the Indian sub – continent with a history of perhaps not less than 25,000 years to its credit. A community that must have learnt the art and skill of survival throughout the last 250 centuries of its existence. Today however we find the same community struggling to find meaning and substance in the changes brought about in the last 100 years, facing perhaps the greatest challenge it has ever confronted; worried and anxious about the survival of its identity in a rapidly globalised world. Change therefore within this context can be termed as socially traumatic, a social trauma or cultural shock that the Khasis have yet to find an answer to.
Yes, we continue to struggle, in all aspects, to find answers to the changes that have befallen us in the last 100 years but the biggest challenge we face today is in identifying elected leaders who can lead us into the unknown future. Leaders and visionary statesmen are needed and it is with utmost despondency we admit that there appear to be none! In the rest of the democratic world, politics is the chosen vehicle to promote economic prosperity, social harmony and prospective future for the state and its people. Drivers for the vehicle are thus chosen and elected with utmost care and fore-thought for they should have the interest of the community foremost on their minds. Our political system on the other hand, comprising of individuals and political parties is inward looking and exists only to serve its own selfish interests. It exists to simply give the party, a 5-year lease to power. It exists only to provide a 5-year livelihood option to school dropouts; demagogues who excel in rousing passions and emotions; in providing business space to unscrupulous traders who see Government as their personal “dukan” and ATM. Period! The interest of the public and the electorate comes third in priority and not unusual for only crumbs from the high table to be offered to the common man.
Under such circumstances to claim that the political system we have adopted for ourselves has failed us, is the understatement of the century. An example of the depth to which our political insight has dropped is exemplified by a recent FB post of a youth, who proudly stated that “he has dropped studies so as to better serve the Jaitbynriew”. A most ridiculous and dim-witted statement ever, but one should not be surprised if one day the same lout is elected as a representative to our legislature! That’s how far we have sunk in political consciousness yet the priority of the political system and its pundits still remains fixed only on winning elections. That’s the limit for Meghalayan Political vision. So beyond that, what should we expect? Only the deluge I guess!
Urgent measures to redeem, improve and make the system more relevant to the welfare of the community and the state, seem as distant as ever. Unfortunately it is with this burden on our political psychology that we will enter the 2023 Assembly elections. May God have mercy on us!
“Money and the ability to save it began to define social well-being and wealth. It changed forever a Khasi’s perception of the value of land and his concept of leadership. Far-sighted individuals began to acquire land not for the community services it can give but for the status it provides to one’s personal social image.It didn’t take long for such individual sand their wealthy families to be bestowed with the mantle of leadership.”