By Dominick Dauni Roising Rymbai
Gen Z have a vocabulary of their own and ‘Lit’ means something cool, awesome or exciting. This write-up is inspired by the article Speak Your Roots: A Digital Hearth for Khasi Language Preservation by Daiarisa Rumnong (ST October 8, 2025). A disclaimer: This writer claims no educational qualification in Languages or Linguistics or History.
Firstly, truckloads of respect and gratitude to Daiarisa for her effort to bring ‘alive and kicking’ and also make cool and interesting, our mother tongues through the Instagram page and website, Speak Your Roots. Truly, tradition meets modernity with online/digital conversations in an ancient language. Language creates personal connections. Had they been still alive, Tagore and Twain would have had an interesting purpose to hang out and talk on this twain of East and West; and the imperialists Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill, with their thick books, big boots and bigger guns, either being a kabab mein haddi (a bone ruining a wonderful solid-meat eating experience), would be slyly waiting in a corner to pounce on them. A rough calculation suggests there is a probability close to one that the Jaintia cousin of Daiarisa is named Rejoice and fondly addressed as Kongmai or Kongdiah Joy.
No one can deny the importance of English as a language. Thanks to “the sun never sets in the British Empire” and Macaulay’s Minute of 1835, English (and Hindi) acts as a bridge language, a lingua franca, in our “common cultural threads,” in Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India (or Bharat ki Swantantrata). Looking back at the challenges facing the new nation-state as of November 26, 1949 and/or January 26, 1950, perhaps Hindustani, the common ancestor to present-day Hindi and Urdu, in both Devanagari and Persian scripts, would have been a good option as a co-official language. Why? With its grammar of speech influenced by Indo-Aryan, Persian and Mughal, Dravidian school of languages (or Deccani) and India’s indigenous languages, making it relatable and understandable to the citizens of our united but diverse nation-state. Of course, then, Pandit Nehru and Dr. Rajendra Prasad were the big towering figures. Sadly, the third member of the trinity (and system of check and balances) and the official unifier of India, Sardar Patel was in declining health then. He died of a massive second heart attack on December 15, 1950. Well, let bygones be bygones!
In Meghalaya, English and Shillong-style bara-bazaar Hindi (like the neighbouring Haflong Hindi) act as a bridge between the Khasi-Jaintia and Garo people and other smaller communities; also between the varied ethnicities that make up Shillong city.
Today, especially with the hegemony of Pax Americana (after the Second World War), English’s importance rests in it being the language of Business, Economics and, Science and Technology. One just has to go through the Forbes list of billionaires and automatically understand its importance.
The use of the Khasi word rynsan (platform) is popularised by the online-based Khasi-language popular debate and discussion programme Rynsan Iathir (Discussion Platform) hosted by the young but well-experienced journalist Ibankyntiew Mawrie of the news portal 4front Media; and, subsequently the Khasi-based programme To Ngin Iathir (Let’s debate) hosted by the community-elder and journalist-activist Patricia Mukhim on The Shillong Times Youtube channel. Being an elder today, is not necessarily about a moustache. Someone who crossed the average life span in India, with minimum seven decades of lived experiences, is certainly one. One grew up with the art of listening to ki kiwa da yoo chwa ya ka sngi u bnai (They and those, who have seen the sun and the moon before us). Guess, with rapid changes in the tools of communication, the Millennials and the Gen Z do have something to teach the Baby Boomers and Gen X, directly and indirectly. After all, grey is the sign of work-life stress and age, not necessarily wisdom. We can only wonder what the Gen Alpha will be up to, when they have the right to vote?
Debates and Discussions: The mind goes back to the 3-day durbar of Hima Khadsawphra (Nongkhlaw Syiemship), hosted by U Pa’iem Tirot Sing Syiemlieh, before the Anglo-Khasi War 1829-1833; and, the great durbar of Dollois and Pators (administrative functionaries in Jaintia Hills) and other patriots held at Madan Kmai Blai at present-day Syntu Ksiar, Jowai, where an aam aadmi U Woh Kiang Nangbah was unanimously chosen to be the leader of the Jaintia Rebellion 1860-1863. The word durbar is a fusion of Persian and Indic language traditions.
Growing up in the 1990s, the word rynsan (or machaan in Hindi) was cemented in me when the father-figures of childhood, the uncles (in a Makhian, Maruit, Maheh and Woh), would take one on hunting trips, on a Rajdoot or Yamaha-RX100 motorcycle (Yezdi was more expensive then) or a Willy’s/CJ jeep, to the jungles of the present-day Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary (officially notified a protected area in 2014). A practical lesson on patience with consistent silence and focus was the waiting game for good venison on a rynsan in a tree. To digress a little, one praises the conservation efforts of the local community and the Forest Department, Government of Meghalaya, initiated by a kur Kongmai Heisa Lato, MFS, Jaintia Hills Wildlife Division. And legally, hunting is a crime now!
Similarly, the Khasi word synran (accompany/follow) was registered in the head, through Catholic Mass and, in school, Catechism classes (Jesus Christ and His disciples, U Jisu Krist bad ki synran jong U). There were separate Moral Science classes for the non-Catholics. And in the ongoing wedding season, the honour of shong/chong synran (maid of honour and best man).
Our romantic artists do enjoy their creative/poetic licences; but isn’t dohnud liver and heart klongsnam?
The Khasi lingua franca has its similarities and differences with the other prominent languages/dialects of the Bri U Hynniewtrep (the indigenous lands of the Hynniewtrep people). Imagine a native Pnar-speaker, raised in Jaintia Hills, trying to buy a pair of scissors (kait/khanshi) in Iew Sohra or Iewduh. The shopkeeper will point the tailor towards a fruit-grocer. Also, imagine, with all that Jaintia swag, another native Pnar-speaker student in Shillong, with limited lived experiences of spoken Khasi asking his/her Khasi friends for class running notes, personally or on a WhatsApp group, of Robert Browning’s poem, The Lost Leader (U nongialam ba wiar). Definitely, there will be physical reactions (and emojis) of open-mouths and good laughs. That student, if she/he should listen, passionately and in its entirety, to the pioneering Khasi-rock fusion 2005 album U Rangdajied (The Chosen One) by Snow White, would certainly need to consult a Khasi-English-Pnar dictionary. Potato, a foreign (or phareng/phoren/firang) introduction so ubiquitous in our diet- along the National Highway from Shillong to Jowai, it is phan in Shillong, sohlah in Smit and Nongkrem and becomes salah at the historical border of Hima Shyllong (Khyrim Syiemship now) and the erstwhile Jaintia kingdom.
Haters will hate; but it is a commendable act by the government under the leadership of Conrad Sangma in making mandatory the Language Proficiency Test for selection to any job at the district and block levels. It will directly encourage students to take up Khasi or Garo as a Second Language in school. Congratulations to the ownership of The Shillong Times Private Limited on the silver jubilee of its Garo-language daily, Salantini Janera. At the celebration in Tura, the viral images and videos of three prominent but opposing politicians of Meghalaya – the Chief Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Member of Parliament of Tura – sharing moments of bonhomie and a few laughs thereby setting the agenda for the rest of us. The paths and the ideologies may differ, the tu-tu, main-main debates and speeches in the Assembly and elections can get heated up; but the goal remains the same. For the benefit of all Meghalaya’s citizens, we can all work-hard together and unwind with a good laugh.
The writer is at a loss for words, for a direct Khasi translation of ‘Thank You’. But we do have words for the more important Gratitude (Khublei Shibun, Chihajaar Ngooh). Well, algorithmic control is on and brain rot is setting in; how do we make our mother tongues lit and interesting? Now, for our Gen Z and definitely Gen Alpha, that’s one tough challenge!
PS: The writer’s formative years where monolithic, solid foundations were laid were in the Jaintia Hills.
(Disclaimer: Views expressed are strictly personal) Email: [email protected]
