By Fabian Lyngdoh
Various aspects of the Khasi traditional institutions had been dealt with in my previous articles, but I feel it necessary to present a holistic picture for more clarity on this subject which I observe is not properly understood at large. The subject is vast; hence, only an extremely brief account is presented here. According to the present popular narrative as opined by various scholars, the Khasi traditional political system is organized since time immemorial into a three-tiers structure: (i) dorbar-shnong (village council), (ii) dorbar-raid (provincial council of a group of villages), and (iii) dorbar-hima (state council). It is said that the union of the Shnongs led to the emergence of the Raid, and the federation of Raids led to the emergence of the Hima.
However, on closer analysis, this narrative is found to be flawed, and not consistent with the actual processes in the evolution of the Khasi polity, and I beg to differ with this narrative. At the outset, I would like to point out that a dorbar-shnong in which all Khasi adult male residents, irrespective of clan affiliations have the right to participate as understood and practised today, had never existed among the Khasis in the pre-colonial period, and the Khasi traditional political system was organized not in three-tier, but in a two-tier system: 1) the dorbar-raid which was a territorial dorbar, and 2) the dorbar-hima which was only an administrative and judicial dorbar. There is more than sufficient evidence to prove this fact. According to the Khasi tradition, individual persons apart from their own respective clans, cannot be members of any political dorbar as understood today, but it was the clan as a whole that was the basic person and member of a public political dorbar. One clan has one voice and one vote in the public dorbar. Therefore, the dorbar-kur (clan council) was not a public political dorbar at all, but it was only an informal and private council of a particular clan. It was a political constituency for sending representatives into the public dorbar. Hence, the dorbar-kur cannot be classed as the first tier of the Khasi public dorbar.
Looking into the history of the evolution of the Khasi polity through the analysis of oral tradition, official documents and other literature, as well as through study of the history, and the nature and functions of the present dorbar-raid and dorbar-shnong, we find that the basic traditional political commune among the Khasis was in fact a village-state called the Shnong or the Raid, which was founded, owned, and governed by a group of founding clans. The council of the chief maternal uncles of these founding clans emerged as the basic territorial and political authority in the traditional village-state. The heads of these traditional village-states were called the Basan or the Lyngdoh. These independent political communes preceded the formation of any present hima, and the emergence of modern day dorbar-shnong.
The Raid was not a union of villages as commonly understood today, but it was rather a parent-village, which gave birth to several outgrowth settlements or hamlets within its territory. These outgrowth settlements were governed directly by the functionaries of the Raid. But from the beginning of British rule, a new social set up emerged where the individuals and the nuclear families took centre stage, and the clan receded to the background. The colonial rulers could not comprehend and had not recognized the existence of these territorially autonomous communes, and simply perceived them as ‘villages’, and the Basans and Lyngdohs of the Raids as ‘village headmen’. From this period began the withering away of the territorial autonomy of the Raids, and that paved the way for the emergence of the modern-day dorbar-shnong. Studying the histories of the present-day villages with their dorbar-shnong, we shall find that most of them are the outgrowth settlements of the Raids that have emerged during and after the British rule. The title ‘rangbah-shnong’ is unknown in Khasi oral tradition, and not mentioned in any of the colonial documents, or even in early writings by Khasi authors. The present title ‘rangbah shnong’ or ‘waheh chnong’ is only a subsequent translation of the title ‘village headmen’ introduced by the British in reference to the Basan and Lyngdoh of the Raids.
The traditional institutions among the Khasis had always been founded on the basis of the matrilineal clan system, and some sort of religious rituals. Representation in the dorbar and nomination to the offices of political functionaries were always determined on the basis of the clans. In the original Khasi tradition, no man had the right or the mandate to represent his wife and children in the dorbar. But today, the clans have no role at all to play in the composition and functioning of the present-day dorbar-shnong because it is a modern general assembly of all the male heads of nuclear households, mostly representing their wives and children, and not for their clans. In the past, the Raids were single-religious communities, and the dorbar-raid was associated with religious rituals. But the Shnongs today are multi-religious communities. So, the dorbar-shnong is supposed to be secular in nature. These developments are not actually in line with the Khasi original tradition. Therefore, the dorbar-shnong and the rangbah-shnong as understood and practised today are not traditional institutions established since time immemorial, but they are new grassroots governance institutions evolving in the Khasi society under the influence of the colonist administrative interventions, and the operations of Indian constitutional democracy. However, since the present-day dorbar-shnong has naturally evolved from within the Khasi society, and not imposed from without, it can be said to be a Khasi indigenous grassroots institution. Thus emerged the three-tier structure of the dorbar-shnong, dorbar-raid, and dorbar-hima as a new political system of the Khasis today.
In the past, the dorbar-raid was the sole territorial authority within the Raid. Today, the dorbar-shnong is the sole territorial authority within the village because it has emerged as a powerful modern avatar of the dorbar-raid. The modern dorbar-shnong has become more innately powerful, more legitimate and more effective than the dorbar-raid and the dorbar-hima in governing the day to day life of the people within its territorial jurisdiction. In the ruling spirit of the ‘village-state’ tradition, the shnong and the dorbar-shnong are believed to exist independently apart from the Raid, the Hima, or the district council. Hence, neither the district council, nor the dorbar-hima was able to assume territorial authority in the villages in spite of the constitutional provisions and legal enactments standing on their side. With or without constitutional recognition, or without the sanad from the syiem of the hima, the inhabitants of the village render habitual obedience to the rangbah-shnong who was duly elected in the dorbar. In the collective mind of the people, the resolution of the dorbar-shnong is more important than anything for the legitimacy of the rangbah-shnong. The resolutions of the dorbar-shnong called ‘ki rai dorbar-shnong’ constitute the highest law in the village which need not be approved by the dorbar-raid, dorbar-hima, or by the district council; and cannot be modified, amended, or rectified by any higher authority other than by the concerned dorbar-shnong itself.
In spite of existing under the modern constitution, the Khasis generally feel that the dorbar-shnong is autonomous in nature with supreme authority within its own territorial jurisdiction. Each village with a dorbar-shnong is like a mini independent state, and no other authority in the world can do anything within the territory of the village without permission from the dorbar-shnong and rangbah-shnong. In the collective mind of the people, the syiem of the hima, the deputy commissioner, the chief executive member of the district council, or the chief minister of the state government, have no business, or cannot make a surprise official visit to the village without the prior information to the rangbah-shnong and the village executive dorbar.
In the day to day practice, the dorbar-shnong as a modern governance institution, functions as a grassroots legislative body, grassroots administrative and magisterial authority, and grassroots court of justice. The dorbar-shnong also informally, but effectively plays as agency for the state government’s administrative functions at the village level with regard to all aspects of governance and administration, including implementing socio-economic development programmes.
That is the present situation in the Khasi society today! But, being a modern grassroots institution, which concerns not with past traditions, but with the present needs of the community, the dorbar-shnong is not supposed to function in the spirit of the ‘village-state’ tradition. There are no sacred inviolable traditions governing the present-day dorbar-shnong. Hence, it must be open to change and improvement. Since it has to deal with modern governance, like the public distribution system, modern education system, modern healthcare services, modern electoral system, modern law and order system, etc., it has to be purely democratic in nature. The dorbar-shnong cannot be a male-only affair, or a Khasi-only affair. There should be perfect justice in its functioning. With regard to civil welfare services and development projects funded by the government from tax-payers money, all legal inhabitants, Khasi or non-Khasi should have the right to participate and should enjoy a fair share of the benefits. Being a modern institution, the dorbar-shnong cannot appeal only to traditions for its existence, and its affairs are not the prerogative of the district council only. The district council and the state legislative assembly both have the authority to make laws and regulations to establish justice and uniformity on different aspects of village governance. The dorbar-shnong cannot function as the government of an independent mini-state, with different kinds of rules from one village to another. It’s time to set things in order for the sake of peace and justice.