By Bhogtoram Mawroh
In this day and age of conspiracy theories and alternative histories, sometimes supported by a state to further its own propaganda, deciphering the truth can sometimes become difficult, though not impossible. Therefore, my disclosure upfront is that the alternative history I am going to describe here is purely fictional. The attempt here is to use this fake story as a comparative tool to help us understand our own biases and how to engage with the world with our place in it. So, with this disclaimer, let’s dive in and explore what could have been.
Let’s assume that South Asia, today made up of countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, comprise numerous independent political entities. In the northeastern part of this region lies the Kingdom of Ri Hynniewtrep, where lived the Khasis, an Austroasiatic people who arrived in this region around 5000 years ago. Around 2000 years ago, the kingdom was in great turmoil because of invasions and foreign incursions. Around Lum Sohpetbneng, there was a sacred site where the Khasis performed their worship to remember their descent from heaven to earth at the time when the world was coming into existence. This was the place of pilgrimage for all Khasis from all over the kingdom. But around the first century CE, a powerful foreign power invaded them, desecrating the site and destroying the kingdom. The invasion forced some Khasis to flee the kingdom, and they settled in kingdoms along the Gangetic plains.
Once they arrived at these new locations, the Khasis went about assimilating themselves in the local Gangetic communities. They kept their religion but forgot their language and started speaking an Indo-Aryan language interspersed by few Khasi words. They intermarried with the local population and, in time, came to resemble the local population in their appearance, with the only distinguishing marker of their distinct identity being their religion. Apart from intermarriage conversions of non-Khasis to Niam Khasi also altered the genetic makeup. These Khasis now look Dkhar, spoke a non-Khasi language with religion being the only evidence of their connection to Ri Hynniewtrep.
In the meantime, not everyone left Ri Hynniewtrep. Many stayed back and rebuilt the kingdom and they also intermixed with the different groups who, from time to time, came to the kingdom. However, because their number was greater and the people coming in had to assimilate, they still very much looked like Khasis. This meant that their genetic identity remained strong and connected to their ancient homeland in South China and the different Austroasiatic groups in South East Asia. On the other hand, the genetic profile of the Khasis in the Gangetic plains had become similar to those of the Indo-Aryan connecting them to Central Asia instead, the original homeland of the latter. The people in Ri Hynniewtrep also continued to speak Khasi and follow the Khasi matrilineal system. But in terms of religion, they were getting influenced by a new religion from South West Asia, brought in by one of the invaders, the English, a few centuries ago. In time, a majority of these Khasis converted to Christianity, while there were few who held on to Niam Khasi, while few adopted other faiths like Islam. So, except for religion, the Khasis who stayed back in Ri Hynniewtrep were the same people who had arrived in South Asia 5000 years ago. However, except for religion, the Gangetic plain Khasis were no longer the people who arrived 5000 years ago, but resembled the people who arrived in the region 3500 years ago.
Then, around 100 years ago, a great war broke out between the different kingdoms in the Gangetic plains. One of the stronger kingdoms in the region used the Khasis as a scapegoat for their defeat in another war a few decades ago. They massacred a great number of Khasis, killing many in gas chambers. The war ended when one of the rival kingdoms dropped an atomic bomb, which killed many people prompting the surrender of their enemies. After the war, the new political elites wanted to decide the fate of the Khasis. They looked for a new home for them. After thinking for a while they sent the Gangetic Khasis to the kingdom Ri Hynniewtrep, since they traced their origin from this land although they had not been there for almost 2000 years. They decided, without consulting the Khasis of Ri Hynniewtrep, to give more than half of the land of the kingdom to the new immigrants. This prompted the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis to take up arms and fight against the new immigrants. However, the kingdoms of the Gangetic plains supported the immigrants with money and arms, seeing in the new kingdom a chance to extend their influence over the entire Northeast. The Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis suffered great losses—many died, invaders raped their women, and they lost their homes and lands. The new regime pushed them into small enclaves and subjected them to an apartheid regime under surveillance. Repeatedly, the Gangetic plains Khasis would invade these enclaves and kill scores of the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis in the name of fighting terrorism. Still, the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis continued to fight for their land and rights. The invaders would then besiege the entire area and continue the killings. In the meantime, the new immigrants bolstered their numbers by inviting people who considered themselves to be a follower of Niam Khasi to live in the new kingdom. Some of these were Khasis, who had left for kingdoms outside the Gangetic plains. But again, they resembled more the communities they were living with rather than the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis. Many though were recent converts who wanted land. There was also a group who claimed that they were the lost tribe of the Khasis – Diko, and they arrived from the southern peninsula, the land of the Dravidians. They looked nothing like the Khasis from Ri Hynniewtrep or Gangetic plains, with the genetic history instead linking them to the people who built the Indus Valley civilization around the Indus River. These new immigrants settled in areas near the enclaves and the land taken from the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis.
From time to time, the new kingdom would also fight the kingdoms of the Nagas, Mizos, Meiteis, Bodo, Tripuri, Karbis, Garo, who supported the rights of the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis. But supported by the money and weapons from the kingdoms of the Gangetic plains, the new kingdom defeated them all. In fact, the new kingdom even taunted these neighbouring kingdoms to settle the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis in their own lands, since most of them had also converted to Christianity.
Archaeological evidence later revealed that the Khasis who had left around 2000 years ago belonged to the inhabitants of only one particular Raid, and the Niam Khasi version they followed was just one of the many that had been practiced by the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis for thousands of years. They never represented the entire Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis.
The new kingdom Khasis, though they claim to be the true inheritors of the religious site of Lum Sohpetbneng, maintained close contacts with the Gangetic plains kingdoms who supplied money, weapons and new immigrants to settle in the land taken from Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis. They would compete in the football league based in the Gangetic plains and even took part in a cultural program called ‘Gangetic Vision’ which was meant only for people from the Gangetic plains. Though new Khasi immigrants were constantly coming to settle in the new kingdom, the Gangetic plain Khasis still made up most of the population and controlled most of the positions of power. In fact, they would look down on some new Khasi migrants because of their skin colour.
Then one fateful day, the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis broke through the defences of the new kingdom and kidnapped some hostages in exchange for their own people who had been kidnapped by the regime. This was the opportunity the new kingdom was looking for. Using the massacre that took place during this attack as a pretext, they started bombing, starving and killing the Ri Hynniewtrep Khasis indiscriminately. In fact, the ministers of the new kingdom even boasted that they will wipe everyone out. And this is where the story ends and also continues.
I hope the readers have enjoyed this fictional history. I would like to reiterate that it is purely fictional and a product of imagination. Hopefully, this fake history will help us better understand who we are and what our place in the world is.
(The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any organisation or institution)