By Barnes Mawrie
The ancestors of the Raid which trace their origin to the Syiem of Mawpdang, one of the daughters of Ka Pahsyntiew, were given as birthright the ownership of this vast track of land by the Hima Khyrim. The Raid has always maintained and respected the traditional concept of collective ownership. This is a perfect example of a true “republic” from the root respublica which means basically “common property.”
The Khasis since time immemorial have had a wonderful and praiseworthy traditional practice of property management. This socio-cultural practice is particularly related to land ownership. For the Khasi community land was never a private property but always considered a community property. Thus there was the widely accepted tradition of khyndew hima (chieftainship held land) khyndew raid (regional land), khyndew shnong (village land) and khyndew kur (clan’s land). Private land of so and so was never heard of. However with the enactment of the Land Revenue Regulation in 1886 passed by the British Government, private proprietorship became common. Since then the buying and selling of land between private parties became widely accepted. In a state like Meghalaya where land ceiling law is not enacted, the negative impact of private land ownership is seen in the fact that rich and well-to-do families are owning hundreds and thousands of acres of land (which many times lie unutilized), while thousands of poor families are without an inch of land. Thus we see so many Khasi families in urban areas who continue to live in rented houses and remain so for generations. This would not have happened if we were to retain our traditional land holding system which is so humane.
However, in the midst of this gloomy scenario, we still have many Raids and villages that still continue the practice of owning community land which they equally distribute to members of the community as per the given rules and regulations. One such place which is so exemplary for the rest of the Khasi society, is the Raid Mawpdang (East Khasi Hills) which is about 19 km from the city of Shillong. Thanks to the wisdom of the ancestors of this Raid, the community here owns a vast track of land running into thousands of acres. The ancestors of the Raid which trace their origin to the Syiem of Mawpdang, one of the daughters of Ka Pahsyntiew, were given as birthright the ownership of this vast track of land by the Hima Khyrim. The Raid has always maintained and respected the traditional concept of collective ownership. This is a perfect example of a true “republic” from the root respublica which means basically “common property.” This practice has maintained to a great degree the egalitarianism of the community. There is no family belonging to the Raid which does not have a plot of land. The true manifestation of the concept of respublica is evident in two common practices, namely:
1) Every newly formed family in the community is allotted a plot of land to build their own home. Besides this, the Raid also allows them to do free cultivation in some fallow land as indicated by the authority. The traditional rule with respect to the allotted land, is that the family cannot dispose of the land to any outsider. In this manner, the community land will always remain in the possession of the members of the Raid.
2) The Raid authority consisting of the Sordar and his durbar, has so far been acting impartially and justly with regard to any movable and immovable property of the Raid. This sense of collective justice is seen even today when the Raid authority gives equal share to every family of any income that the Raid makes. For example, recently when the government had taken some land from the Raid for the construction of the Shillong by-pass, the money paid to the Raid was equally divided among the families. Lately, when MUDA had bought a large portion of land from the Raid, each family received a sizable amount of money. This has enabled many poorer families to build better houses, start businesses or support their children for higher studies. By the end of this year, visitors who come to Mawpdang would be surprised to see beautiful mansions which people have constructed. I sincerely compliment the Sordar, Mr. Amos Duia and his durbar members, for respecting and preserving this traditional practice of land management. I am sure there are other villages where the headmen and their councils make a lot of money by way of land deal commissions, payments for certificates etc, but the community does not get any benefit from these incomes. Somehow the money disappears or is not accounted for.
For these reasons, Mawpdang Raid, its sordar and his durbar deserve our appreciation, not only for the equal sharing of incomes with the community members, but also for upholding the Khasi traditional land holding system and land distribution. How we wish that this beautiful, humane and just system established by our wise ancestors becomes a reality again all over Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills. How blessed are the people of Raid Mawpdang for having such honest, transparent and people-oriented leaders at the helm of village affairs.