By Mankular Lamin Gashnga
I was reading Bhogtoram Mawroh’s article where he used the word Synteng to refer to who we also call Pnar, and I found myself wondering whether he was wrong. Then the word Khynriam came to mind and I wondered if it is wrong. Then the word Maram came to mind and I again wondered whether it is wrong. Then came the word Dkhar. Then came the word Mawlai and so on.
It made me wonder that if Pnar people say Khynriam whether it is derogatory; or when we, the War-Amlarem people, say Hynriem, or when War-Pynursla people say Phlang. I wonder if when a Khynriam says Synteng whether it is derogatory. Or when a Khynriam or a Synteng says Maram whether it is derogatory. O whether Bhoi can be similarly construed as derogatory because, when in War-Amlarem we say Nongtalang Bhoi, is it really derogatory. I was also thinking whether Dkhar is actually derogatory because it must have been once a perfectly respectable term to have been used as a clan name and as part of many clan names through the tangjait system.
My mind also wandered into how we use even everyday words to mean dirty things when, in fact, those words are actually clean and harmless. For example, one has to be very careful when speaking Khasi so as not to use the word pylleng, lest it be given a vulgar meaning. In fact, I have heard one person strongly cautioning against using the word to refer to eggs. Take the word kpu, or bread, as another example. It has been so sexualised that it is now very rarely used in common parlance. If you want to say bread or biscuits, you’d have to say some vague word like jingbam or something, when in fact kpu is very reverently used in the Bible even for sacramental bread. In recent times I have noticed that people are very cautious when using the word lok, or partner, for example, and prefer to use instead menkpa/menkmie so as to avoid the awkwardness. This is after the word tnga, or spouse, has been stigmatised to mean something derogatory; though it is a word used very generously in the Bible, which means that this word must have once been a very dignified word in the Khasi vocabulary. I have even heard words like ‘Catholic’ (Roman), ‘Protestant’ (Prot), ‘Hindu’ (traditional religion), and so on being used contemptuously when people speak of each other’s religions, using otherwise innocent words as insults. This is not yet even taking into account how we attach epithets to almost every proper noun (even names of people) we can get our tongues on in order to tear them to shreds and to brutalise those we consider as the other, the examples of which I will not even care to point out as we all know them too well.
I also came to the realisation that the problem is not with the words, but the problem is how we use words to mean dirty things. The problem, therefore, is with our mindset — with our tribal mindset. We have the tendency to tribalise words to create alienation and otherness in order to satisfy our tribal instincts. Therefore, it is very easy for us to take any word and make it sound derogatory and offensive for no reason at all other than to satisfy our baser instincts.
I also began to realise that, as writers, we should not add insult to injury or lend validation to pejoration, and that we should be very careful in what we write and what we speak. We have a moral responsibility.
At this point, I apologise because I think I will have to quote our discussion as writers, sometimes intense, with no ill intention personally to anyone but just to illustrate my point. During a discussion on social media about the above-mentioned article, I came across HH Mohrmen’s comment where he equated the use of the word Synteng to the use of the words Negro and Redskin. I criticised the comparison as too serious a comparison and said that, as a writer, one should tread with caution in using words, and that nor do the words Khynriam or Maram carry such equivalence.
With due apologies and with all due respect to the elder and fellow writer, I’ll have to cite one more example, just to illustrate my point more strongly because it is pertinent, but again with no ill feelings or personal attack but purely for intellectual discussion. For example, in one of his 2018 articles, Mohrmen wrote that there is a clan name in our War-Amlarem area, and I quote, “which is Pohtam that literarily means, the lowest status or rank, and there is a man from this clan whose name is High Born. If one reads the name and surname together, his name reads as High Born Pohtam in which the name and the surname have the total opposite meaning – ironic indeed. The name is High Born, who is of a lowest status or rank.” This anecdote, while it sounds amusing, could not be further from the truth and has, in fact, so badly misconstrued a very noble word Poh to mean low rank, when in fact in War-Amlarem it means the womb or the belly. Hence Pohtam does not mean the lowest rank; it simply means “from the womb (poh) of a mother named Tam.” There are many such clan names in the War-Amlarem society such as Pohlong, Pohkshang, Pohti, Pohkyrnu, Pohthmi, and so on, and they have nothing to do with how Mohrmen has connoted them to mean.
Then I came to the realisation: Why me? Why should I be the only one responsible for correcting the terms other people use? Are we not all responsible as a community for the words we use? Is that not more applicable to us as writers?
Ultimately, only Bhogtoram can answer the premise of the article because, if it is used in good faith, and in accordance with the sources he cites, then why not? The term Synteng carries no derogatory meaning in and of itself.
Therefore, it really depends on us as native speakers of the Khasi language how we use terms like Poh, Tam, Khynriam, Pnar/Synteng, Maram, Bhoi, Lyngngam, and so on, and how we use even ordinary words like kpu, pylleng, Hindu and so on, to be able to rise above such pettiness. I think that is fair to say so because that is the beauty of the human mind: it can either create heaven or hell and be utterly corrupt or profoundly refined.
How we use words depends on how much hostility and resentment we harbour in our hearts against each other for no other reason than that we perceive someone to be different from us. It depends on how much perversion we carry within our own minds to make innocent words mean or imply dirty things. That is the root of tribalism. Words can become instruments of tribalism. If we continue along this path, our society will be more and more fragmented and broken by how we weaponise words in order to sustain our tribal worldview. This is the time to reflect and repent about carrying such mindsets lest every innocent, respectable word we have today becomes corrupt and unusable. For if we continue along this current path with this current tribal mindset, it will not be long before words like Khasi, Pnar, War, Dkhar, and so on are rendered unusable in common parlance because they will be burdened with the baggage of misplaced resentment. It is time we purified our minds and reclaimed our lost vocabulary.
