By H H Mohrmen
Hajom Kissor Singh Nongbri, the founder of the Unitarian church in the region, remains a lesser-known personality in the contemporary society of the North East. Although HK Singh started the Unitarian movement in the hills 136 years ago, the church, being a non-proselytizing religion, remains a small minority, hence its founder’s lack of popularity. Today marks the hundredth anniversary of HK Singh’s death. He was born on June 15, 1865, and died on November 13, 1923. He converted to Christianity, probably on the same day as his younger brother, U Nissor Singh, who is famous for the first-ever Khasi dictionary published in 1885. He grew up in an era when Christianity had just begun to take root in the hills. Later in his life, he witnessed the resurgence of Khasi Traditional religion; perhaps these events shaped his thoughts and philosophy.
The Unitarian Church established by H K Singh maintains its liberal roots and grows in the thoughts and philosophy of the region where it started. Its claim of being an indigenous religion is based not only on the fact that it was started by a native of the land but also because it is a liberal Christian denomination that absorbed and adopted the basic tenets of Khasi traditional thoughts and philosophy. H.K. Singh has to his credit composed 63 hymns in the Khasi hymn book of the Unitarian Union, representing his thoughts and philosophy.
His concept of the oneness of God was based on both traditional beliefs and that of the Bible. He further indigenized the concept of God by using the Khasi word “Phi” (you) to address the Almighty, a term commonly used to address those in a position much higher and more respectable than the Khasi word “Me” (Thou). This was sometimes misunderstood as worshipping many gods or in the plural sense of the term. By replacing the Khasi word “Me” with “Phi” to address the Almighty, he made a landmark move because it is a polite term in the Khasi Pnar context.
H.K. Singh’s concept of God is a synthesis of the father in heaven of Jesus and the ultimate God, the Creator, of the Khasi tradition. U Blei Nongthaw Nongbuh is not the only name with which the Khasi Pnar address God; He is also called ‘U Trai Kynrad.’ Whether ‘U Trai Kynrad’ is a Khasi translation of the English ‘Lord,’ which is the Greek word “Kyrios,” is a matter of debate. In the Christian context, the use of the word ‘U Trai’ connotes the New Testament concept of the Lord, which many times refers to Jesus Christ as the second person of the Holy Trinity.
U Trai is not a post-Khasi-Christian period invention, but the term has been in use since time immemorial. Apart from using the name God, the Khasi also uses the word Kynrad or U Trai Kynrad in paying obeisance to God Almighty. Trai in Khasi also has the same meaning as that of the English Lord, which means owner, foundation, foothold, etc.
The Pnar of Jaintia Hills use two terms when referring to God, God the creator, ‘U Blai,” is similar to Yahweh and God the Father, and U Blei Nongbuh Nongthaw in Khasi. In the Pnar of Jaintia pantheon of gods, the creator, the molder, and the keeper is a female deity known as ‘ka syiem wabuh, ka syiem wathoo.’ The Pnar has another term they use for God, and that is “U Tre Kirot,” which is equivalent to Lord, and “Kirot” means caring, compassionate, bountiful, and perfect. The War Jaintia have only one word for God, and that is “Prai”; U “Prai u ae thia” means God the Creator. Whether ‘Prai’ means both God and Lord is another question, but based on the evidence used by the War Jaintia people, ‘Prai,’ which is incidentally similar to both ‘Trai and Blai” in the Pnar language, connotes the same meaning.
Hajom Kissor Singh’s concept of God is that of a traditional Khasi Pnar concept, God the Creator who is both God and Lord at the same time. Like the traditional concept, he does not differentiate one from the other, but his concept of God is much more than the God our forefathers understood. In his Statement of Belief, H.K. Singh, in stanza 2 of hymn number 1 in the Khasi Unitarian hymnbook, describes God as the living God, the one and only God. He is our real father-mother, filled with love and compassion and forgives those who repent.
H.K. Singh went a step further than the traditional concept of God by ascribing God as being both a “Father and Mother,” God is genderless or beyond gender in the Khasi Unitarian context. Khasi Pnar tends to use the prefix ‘U’ before the word God, which represents the male gender, but God is more of a spirit that pervades. In the Pnar tradition, the creator God is a female deity, “ka Syiem waboo,” and this influenced Singh’s concept of God beyond gender. God among the Khasi Unitarians is formless, a spirit that is beyond the traditional Khasi concept of God.
The two original readings H K Singh wrote are reading number 10 and 11 in the Khasi Unitarian Hymnbook 12; both these readings were dated 1891. Reading number 10 is another piece that describes his concept of God. “…who is our creator and our foundation and source of everything else; Who is eternal, Everlasting, Perfect in all respects, Who loves us most, Who is eternally good, the Wisest, who is present around us and inside us and who pervades everywhere and permeates everything.”
Two Khasi stalwarts Radhon Singh Berry and Job Solomon were contemporaries of HK Singh. They were also known for their contribution to the literary world of the nascent Khasi language. RS Berry and Job Solomon also immensely contributed to the growth of the Unitarian movement by composing hymns for the Church. Radhon Singh Berry of Seng Khasi, who composed more than 30 hymns in the Unitarian hymnbook, later became Unitarian, and Job Solomon remained in his faith until he breathed his last. Both these men of letters emphasized in the hymns they composed in the Unitarian hymnbook the truth that Khasi Unitarian’s God is God in the traditional Khasi Pnar context.
R.S. Berry in hymn number 40 stanza 3 says: /This is not a foreign God / God of our own he is/ He created you the way you are/ Now he comes to awaken you/. Job Solomon in hymn number 7 again stresses the idea in stanza 5, which says, /This is our God/ God of our ancestors too/ God of the Pnars and the Khasi/ He is also Lord of the Lords/. The concept of God in the Khasi Unitarian context is a unique concept of a universal and formless God; the Khasi God is God in spirit and an all-pervading God. It is not God in the Judeo-Christian context—the father in heaven, or God in an ‘anthropomorphic’ form.
In the Khasi Jaintia language, there is only one word for the English words the spirit and the soul—which is “ka mynsiem.” So when one says “mynsiem,” it could either mean the soul or the spirit. To the Khasi Pnar, the human soul is the same as the all-pervading spirit. The Khasi does not differentiate between the two. To the Khasi, ‘ka mynsiem’ is that which connects one soul with one’s body and that which encompasses the entire universe, transcending all creation. The universe and the entire creation are linked by the spirit or filled with the spirit.
H.K. Singh’s concept of the everlasting life of the soul is inspired by the indigenous Khasi thoughts and philosophy of life after death. The Khasi concept of life after death is that the soul departs from the body to go and eat betel nuts at the corridor of God’s dwelling place; traditionally, the Khasi also believes that the soul lives eternally. The immortality of the soul also proves that the spirit even transcends the realm of mortality. The Khasi Pnar believe that during conception, the mother conceives only the body that which is mortal, the soul or the spirit was divinely sited in the womb. The Khasi Unitarians believe that the spirit in the human body, divinely placed in the mother’s womb, lives and grows in the human body and on its death returns to God, who is the everlasting source of all spirits.
The Khasis lay great emphasis on the other cardinal principle of life, known as ‘Kamai ia ka hok,’ to earn righteousness. In the Khasi way of life, one’s entire life is governed by this principle alone. He who does not earn righteousness in his life, whatever wrong one does in his life, evil will befall him or his descendants. One who walks in the path of righteousness shall go to eat betel nut in the corridor of God’s dwelling. Unitarians also share a similar belief that salvation is by one’s deeds and character and not by faith alone. His idea of an after-life is that the spirit departed will return to the kingdom or the realm of the spirit. There is no concept of the saved and the damned; hence, salvation is universal.