By Patricia Mukhim
When it comes to living in the past but labouring for a top of the economic ladder for the future, we Khasis can beat anyone hollow. Our romance with the past is almost legendary but perhaps our fatal flaw is to remember only those aspects of the past that were “glorious,” whatever definition we may have lent to that term. We don’t dig deep enough about the heroes we worship perhaps for fear of finding some character flaws that any human is prone to. More so after we have painted such heroes in glowing terms. There’s really no harm in revering heroes. Every tribe needs a hero or heroes and even heroines (think Ka Phan Nonglait) to show us the way. But nostalgia alone does not help. The reality of today demands that we be more emotionally stable and not allow ourselves to be led by the turbulent waves of emotions that grip us from time to time, especially during elections. And as a Khasi I know we are a society driven by emotions more than pragmatism. Of course, no one will analyse these character flaws so brutally because, again at the end of the day we all want to be part of the society and not be excommunicated as iconoclasts that don’t fit in.
Yes, fit in and that’s exactly the point. We all want to fit in and walk the path often travelled. No one wants to strike out on a new path for fear of the unpredictable. Are there flaws in our societal architecture that we need to revamp and recraft? We are great ones to refer to the first matriarch (Ka Iawbei) that gave birth to the “Kur” or clan as the progenitor. And yes we ‘ting kur’ or weave a net of relationship with anyone who is of the same clan. Our elders tell girls that we should never cast a longing eye on any male of the same clan for that is, “ka sang ka ma,” a taboo and an outrage that would result in being excommunicated from the clan and thereby living a life of social seclusion for generations.
The clan is therefore a sacrosanct thread that binds its members in a sort of social contract and which from time to time organises meetings and picnics so that members of the clan from across the Khasi-Jaintia Hills get to know each other. For the Khasi-Pnar the first question one asks a person one meets for the first time is – Phi dei ki jait aiu? (Which clan are you from?) It’s an ice-breaker of sorts but also a way of knowing if the person is somehow related to you. But what happens beyond that clan bond? Nothing beyond attending funerals and making a small contribution on that day. But even here, clan members will only attend a funeral if they are informed and are living within the vicinity of the deceased person. Often, they are not informed and get to know of the death only after the funeral.
Over the years, clan meetings have dwindled since everyone is busy chasing their dreams. Yet the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) is now mooting the idea of turning the clan into some sort or administrative and governance unit but only to the extent of helping the Council identify the bonafides of those claiming to be from such and such clan. For that they are going to rely on clan elders (Rangbah Kur) to certify whether a person really belongs to the clan he/she claims to or if the person is an impersonator, more so when it comes to children born out of mixed marriages between a Khasi woman and a non-Khasi and especially a non-tribal male, as if that is a sacrilege of sorts. This conundrum continues and the Lineage Act of the Council is aimed at shooting in the foot those women who marry non-tribals and to prevent them and their children any right to land and inheritance.
The clan which should have been a comfort zone where clan members find solace and empathy is now going to police its female members who decide to marry non-tribals and report back to the Council. If I am wrong in my surmise, I am open to correction. I also know that an article like this will win many trolls but so what?
Now let me come to the crux of the matter. As pointed above, the clan (Kur) is meant to be a solidarity group where members stand by one another and if I may use the moral yardstick- to assist the financially weaker members. There are many among the Kur that are filthy rich but others that are sending their kids away to different states in India to study, when those offering them that facility do so with an agenda. It’s not charity by any stretch of imagination. When one looked at those 22 students who were escorted back from that school in Karnataka that was functioning illegally, one wondered how the parents so willingly let their children go so far away from home at a time when they need parental love and care the most. Each of those kids belong to a clan. How is it that the more well to do clan members not extend help to their kin? If each clan were to have a fund for assisting the more needy members, especially to help their children through school, would it be too much of a sacrifice? If so, what is the purpose of the Kur?
Granted that there were no such arrangements in the past and that is because Khasi-Pnar society was supposedly egalitarian. Those who managed to get rich because they knew the tricks of the trade were cut down to size by being labelled as Nongri Thlen (keepers of a certain python that needed to be fed human blood so that it makes the keepers rich). How a python could print bank notes is of course not explained but possibly the python ensures that any little business its keepers do yields more profit than it would for those who are not keen on keeping the Thlen. We may dispel such beliefs as myths and superstitions but some people have, even in recent years, been lynched on the allegations of keeping the Thlen, whenever a mysterious, unexplained death happens. No one has ever seen the Thlen but Khasis believe in it and that is why the Syiem Sad of Smit (the sister of the Syiem of Khyrim) even to this day dispenses a sort of water that is blessed to be given to children or even adults that are believed to have been cast a spell by the Thlen either in the form of some hair or a piece of cloth being stealthily cut off from a person and offered to it.
We once had a discussion at the Khasi National Dorbar Hall as to whether the Thlen actually exists. The discussion remained inconclusive. So, we are still groping in the dark about the Thlen. But the equivalent of the Thlen today are the filthy rich members of society who have twisted the governance system such that they rake in money by the lakhs and crores while the large majority scrimp and scrounge and are unable to even send their kids to school. True, that the state offers free and compulsory education up to the age of 14 years but the state does not provide free uniforms or textbooks. Only the fees are taken care of. There are families today that live in stark poverty. They too belong to some ‘Kur’ but they live lives of isolation. No member of their Kur actually asks them how they are managing to keep body and soul together. No one cares that their kids have dropped out of school due to sheer poverty. So, of what use if the ‘Kur; then?
In this society we hardly discuss these crucial issues. The well to do are ensconced inside their bubbles while the poor continue to dip further down the poverty line and there seems no cure to this socio-economic malady.
The question I ask therefore is – What is the purpose of the Kur today? We need to look for answers because the number of young drop-outs in Meghalaya is swelling and we have not done a proper survey on that. Without a census how can we even arrive at any conclusive figure? Will the Rangbah Kur please mull over these issues and rediscover their role?