By H.H. Mohrmen
The three articles published in this paper earlier have raised many questions on the Jañtia identity and how it fits in with the grand Hynñiew Trep or Khasi identity. The crux of the matter is that though there are many things that they have in common yet, the group has its own distinctiveness which only helps define its uniqueness.
Our Commonality
All the different communities under the jaidbynriew have so much in common, and the lineage through the mother is the most prominent one. The clan system and the sub-clans are related across regions, and although the family has changed from the joint family to the nuclear family system, yet the different aspects of culture which people still follow are things that we all have in common. Another commonality is the language we speak, and we even share the same creation story except for small variations. The creation story shared amongst the people of Raid Jowai is much more elaborate and has the story of u Lakariah. The creation story has the same motifs, which started with the sixteen in heaven, the seven decided to come down, and the nine remained in heaven. Our shared value system “ban kamai ia ka hok, ban im tipbriew tip blei bad tip kur tip kha” that we have is common, thereby justifying that we have a common origin; however, that does not mean that we are not different. We all have a unique identity that makes us different from the others.
The Jañtia Identity
The people who live in the Jañtia region are predominantly Pnar and War, but it is interesting to study how they perceive each other. Among the War Jañtia, the term they use to call the people who live on the plateau is ‘ki Pna,’ which can be said is an endonym but interestingly enough; the War do not have a word for Jowai but instead call it also ‘Pna’. Till today if you ask a War person who is going to Jowai where he/she is going. The answer would be ‘lia Pna’ which means I am going to Pna instead of Jowai. Similarly, elderly Jañtia people going to Shillong would say ‘lai Laban,’ because Shillong is not in their vocabulary since it was only established by the British.
Similarly, the term Khasi is not in the Pnar or War vocabulary. If one looks at the tradition, the stories, or even the rituals, the term which finds mention is Khynriam and Hynriam among the War Jañtia. They use the term Khynriam to refer to people who live in what is now called Khasi hills. In the Pnar dialect, they have a ‘ktien kynnoh’ or twin-words for khynriam- which is ‘ki khynriam ki nangriam’, there is, however, none for Khasi. Khynriam is therefore Endonym which the Pnar use to call their immediate neighbour to the west and Khasi is exonym and it was first found to be mentioned in the Jayantia Buranji when it was ironically referred to the Jayantia/Jaintia king. Therefore, names and how people call each other also have their relevance and significance.
The name Jañtia is both an exonym and an endonym in the context of the subject matter. It is an exonym because it is borrowed from the name of the kingdom earlier and it is an endonym because the people adopted the name as their own. The question that one should ask is why did the people in the past choose to name the region Jaintia when we have another option too? They could have called it ‘ka ri Khadar daloi’ or the land of the twelve chieftains which is another name for the hill region of the kingdom, but they instead chose Jañtia which they think represents the history of the place.
The name Jañtia represents two things: the name of the region which was once part of the great Jañtia kingdom and two, it is a collective name of the people who share the same history and live in the region since time immemorial. It must be mentioned that there are other tribal communities in the District other than those who share the same ethnicity, culture, and speak the Austro-Asiatic Mon-Khmer group of languages; hence Jañtia is also a collective name for all the tribes who live in the area.
Besides the War and the Pnar, the other tribes are the Beates, so Jañtia is therefore not only about the Jaidbynriew, or the ethnic identity, neither is it about the language. It is about the collective identity of the people who belong to different tribes and are connected by the common history of the region and the shared aspiration of all those who live in the area.
Minding the Language Intricacies
We are indebted to the Welsh missionaries for putting the Sohra version of the language into writing, but for daily communication, people still speak their own dialects or languages in their respective places. The Khasi Sohra put into writing by the missionaries has helped bring those who can read closer to each other. The important point that needs to be noted is the fact that though Sohra Khasi may have been the official language and it is mandatory for the members of the church to use it because the Bible and all the hymnbook are written in Sohra Khasi, but by tradition the ceremonies, rituals, rites, and performed by the Niamtre or Niamtynrai is still being done in the dialect or language spoken in the respective area.
It was established that the oldest Austro-Asiatic language in the region is the language spoken by the War Amwi. There were references to the War Amwi language in some of the articles published in this paper recently and I purposely write War Amwi because it is a War dialect and all who speak War can understand War Amwi. Again, there are scholars who are of the opinion that War is another language because neither the Pnar nor the Khasi can understand it.
Amwi is one region in War Jañtia, and there are three villages which fall under this regional classification: Thangbuli, Am/Umladkhur, and Jarañ, and to their War counterpart, they were also known as ‘Tlangwae/Tlang wai.’ The term derives from ‘Am’ which in War is water and Amwi refers to Thlumuwi which also has a connection with the story of u Lo Ryndi and ka Li Dakha. Oral story has it that Lo Ryndi was from Thangbuli and he belongs to the Tariang clan. The other region who speaks War Jañtia dialect are Satpator, Nongtalang, and Padu Nongbareh region, the Darang Shnongpdeng region, however, speaks War Khasi which I find difficulty following despite the fact that I can read and write in War, Pnar, and Khasi.
There are still more than seven thousand languages spoken in the world, and the maximum numbers of these languages are found in the region where indigenous people live. If these languages and dialects die, that will be a great loss to the world; hence there is a need to encourage people to write the different dialect or language that they speak because language is also a treasure trove of wisdom. English had borrowed words from Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and even Indian language yet, neither English nor the other languages were threatened, similarly, Khasi and other dialects will continue to thrive and complement each other. The different dialects and languages need to be put into writing and in our case to ensure the prayers, invocation, rituals of the Niamtre or Niamtynrai religions remain alive. If the dialects die, the rich culture and traditional way of life of the people and conservation ideas embedded in the language will also die.
Story of Migration
to and From Jañtia
There were also debates about migration, and it was assumed that the migration was en masse maybe like the exodus in the Bible. Since we don’t have written evidence, from oral stories we found that people migrated individually and in many cases from the clan/the ïawbei or the Señ jeit story. It was the progenitor who migrated first and that is how the area was peopled. Cases in point are stories of ‘ka Ïaw chibidi,’ the story of ‘ka Bon, ka Wet, ka Teñ wa ka Doh,’ then there is the story of the Mukhim/Shabong who came to Jowai and became the Challam. The san Syngkong from Jaintia which are the Shylla, the Pariat, the Pde, the Lamar, and the Blah are related with the Thangkhiew in Khasi hills; similarly, the Sutnga went on to become the Syiemlieh and etc. These are evidences of cross-migration to and from Jañtia.
There are also stories of intra-region migration in which the Talang who migrated from the north became the Lyngdoh in Nongtalang and the Ñalang, the Buam in the other parts of War Jañtia and when they crossed the Myntdu they became Nongtdu. The Rymbai who became Rymbui when they moved to Nongtalang are believed to migrate from the north.
In conclusion, there may be variations in the group’s traditions and perception of things, but there is so much that they have in common which only suggests that we are one despite the differences that seem to be highlighting.