By Iasaid Khongjee
Once upon a time, as indigenous people we were cultureless; the only culture we had centred on was on life, living life as guided by conscience. Anyone wearing a human form is considered divine irrespective of lifestyle led, personal beliefs, natural endowments. None has the authority to paint another as good, bad, holy, spiritual, “ba riewblei” religious, and so on. If one replies to one of the above as in, “Am I bad because you say I’m bad?” that’s the time to reflect into one’s own nature of existence. In the era we are living now it would have been, “Ki Khun Ka Blei”/”Ki Khon Ka Blai (the children of the Goddess Creator). This is no romancing the past; it’s a reality every human soul is longing for, striving for; many have died for, burnt at the stakes for it. This is the goal of humanity, in mind, heart, and soul – towards freedom, towards discovering the real nature.of our existence . The ancestors did strive for the “im suk-im tngen” (living life in contentment) – The good done, was done as a duty. To expect rewards for such acts from fellow humans, and higher beings is known as “ar sur”, “ba sianti” “hypocrisy, slyness”. They are breezy terms, but the underlying meaning penetrates into the last atom of the spiritual constitution.
The air has changed. Now, we have fallen from that grace it seems. One can’t imagine that even before receiving treatment in a government hospital, CHC, school admission etc, one has to inform one’s religion. So one realizes that being a “non-christian”, is an insinuation that “one has to be a Christian. My wife and I are christened, yet as a free thinker, I’m caught in a dilemma to give the bio-data of my children as to where to fit them since they have no religion. I dare not opt for “Khasi” for I consider the Christians also as Khasis. Why do we have to carry this unnecessary burden of having to know what they are when just living life is our Divine right! We neither know we are alive except when about to drown. What a burden! When Christians are persecuted in the world, we unitedly raise our voices, or pray as if prayer is all that the earth needs; but wars, sufferings do seem to multiply. How can this be? The truth we know is that even if all the angels from heaven pray, nothing will change; the change lies in the subject, in us. For how long shall we keep on blaming the devil when the court of law has never entertained such stories? Don’t we have the temerity to say that the problem is because of our insanity, and not with the gods? Who will cure us of this disease?
What lurks in the mind of a fanatic? The great philosopher, Swami Vivekananda once hinted at a fanatic as one who wants to straighten the world; but the world will never be straightened. This is the way of the world. We may all have been one, once upon a time, but fanatics never give up their way, for they think that their way is the only way. In this kind of environment there is no discussion, debate, on critical issues that matter. The ones with divergent views are either silenced, or have to recant their statement like Galileo, but sans his “eppur si moeve.” Here in our State, God is the source of this evil. Either you wear a strait-jacket or face the cold. The situation generated by our insanity makes us volatile creatures; where the heart and mind are belligerent. We blatantly call our State a Christian State; the disease lies deep down somewhere. We created a fantasy where we surround ourselves with little ideas of the ever-loving God but who punishes us for the smallest of mistakes. We cannot think for one moment of being able to manage our lives without his grace, but the social, political values we practise show that something is horrendously wrong. It’s indoctrination; if not, what is it?
In educational institutions, Assembly prayers are in “English, a foreign language which is not in one’s blood.” How come one can effectively communicate in a language which is not part of the being, other than to our inner being, such as in prayer? Is it not an externalization of the one who we call an immanent? Our ancestors call this immanent “Ka Hukum” (the universal law that governs the ontological function of existents in the cosmos from within, so as to sustain Nature according to the eternal design). Now the biggest challenge which we must be wary of is the word “Niam”. The reason is that this word is fraught with fanaticism, for as of now it applies to us.
In our having been brainwashed we dogmatically brand others as pagans, heathens irrespective of the values they live by. There are saints, philanthropists, cosmopolitans in iconoclasts, atheists, and others, but to a religious fanatic, these are nothing more than the shadow of evil; demonization. I nearly drowned in this little puddle.
We can make a pilgrimage to all holy places but come back home with mere stories of the sights and the journey but with no mental, or spiritual transformation. We may know the life stories of saints, Jesus, Buddha et al but who desires to emulate them? Words are mere words. We still make the pilgrimage to 2000 years plus to the man who stood by the weak, the downtrodden, the ones considered as the pariah of society, but what change do we see? Instead, we choose to enslave ourselves to the little self-made beliefs; the lesser the education, the higher is the level of superstition. One would not be wrong to say that a potential Afghanistan is here; but for the fact that we don’t carry guns.
Another is Traditional Fundamentalism – the Dorbar Shnong. In essence, the Dorbar of the Khasis is all about -ka synshar hok-bishar hok, (doing justice according to its position). (Ka jingïa ngam um by J Bachiarello in “Ki Dienjat Ki Longshuwa) speaks of this Divine justice. In some indigenous villages this still applies. This is the sanctity of the traditional indigenous village council (Dorbar). That’s why people, before speaking, say a prayer “Ia kaba dei to ïa bat, ïa kaba lait, ïa bret” (if my statement is right, hold it, let the wrong be discarded). Why this? In those days, one who dogmatically stands by a belief which is not in tune with the general good, however convincing it may sound to him, must forgo it before the Council. Metaphysical consequence is a reward for obstinacy and it’s the most feared thing. This means that everyone who represents the people of the village or cluster of villages through his words, must primarily mortgage his life in his statement. In case one asks the speaker – “Do you say that what you said is true, and is binding on this Dorbar as truth?” This question entails that one must think a thousand times. In this, is the progressiveness involved in the tradition where Justice, as a Divine entity, is above every mortal human. Do Justice to who one represents! Now the question arises: what if the Dorbars (made up of women also) can do the required justice? The males who still worship tradition, must think a thousand times! We can’t reduce a progressive tradition to a mere tradition. If males can deliver the goods, that’s their duty; if they can’t, they must find ways and means to see that the commons participate in the goodwill. Asking women to do the digging of the graves, just because they want to be on par with men in the Dorbar, is sheer stupidity. The sole aim of our Khasi tradition is about the common good, through the divine justice system. This common good is the only law understood by the cosmic law of tradition. Our Divine healers breathe the refreshing air of the efficacy of Tradition from the same Law. Take this knowledge away from us and all our traditions are mere symbolism.
As indigenous people, we never had a religion as an institution. Life was taken as a desire of the essence of the universe that it manifests according to the design. Thus, we only had clan-based religions where we employed the god/spirits to preserve life in those critical times of existence. Some of these gods are of human origin such as the spirits of ancestors; others are at how they understand the innate potentials of how to employ the gods who have the authority to preserve life, such as “ki Ryngkew-Basa”/Ryngkaw-Wasa.
The above derives its validity from what ancestry says- “Na U Nongthaw ym don eiei shuh kaba dang duna; kaba sah ïa u briew ka long sa tang ban ïa im palei para bynriew” (There’s nothing wanting from the Creator, what’s left of man is only to live in peace and harmony among fellow humans and co-existents). This implies that we, by design, are born perfect children of bliss as long as we practise the fundamental duties in consonance with our social, spiritual duties while living this physical existence. It sounds rather iconoclastic, but that is the culture of the Khasis. Take this away from us as a culture, and we are no different from the “God-fear mongering tribe”.
The test left for us now is – whether we want ourselves to be seen as a people who prime on a “way of life according to ancestral philosophy”, or as a people who would mentally spiritually negate what we have participated since the beginning of creation (from Ka Dorbar Blei/the Divine Council). When will we say, “I am responsible for all the wrongs taking place in my inner being and in the world! Yes, we can. We are now electrified with the touch of education. We can transcend to a truth higher than what we used to have been living by.
(Iasaid Khongjee teaches at St John Bosco Boys Higher Secondary School, Sohra. The views expressed in the article are those of the author, and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any person, organization or particular institution)