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Revisiting Traditional
Institutions in the
Khasi-Jaintia Hills
Revisiting Traditional
Institutions in the
Khasi-Jaintia Hills
Edited by
Charles Reuben Lyngdoh

Revisiting Traditional Institutions in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills
Edited by Charles Reuben Lyngdoh
This book first published 2016
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2016 by Charles Reuben Lyngdoh and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-9969-0

ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9969-7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables ............................................................................................ viii
Preface ........................................................................................................ ix
List of Contributors .................................................................................... xi
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1

Introduction: Revisiting Traditional and Constitutional Institutions
in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills: Interface of Continuity and Change
L. S. Gassah
Chapter Two ................................................................................................ 6

The Khasi States and the British: Political Development on the Eve
of Independence
Charles Reuben Lyngdoh
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 21

The Kur and Dorbar in the Khasi Traditional Polity
Fabian Lyngdoh
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 38

Ka Pomblang: A Depiction of Khasi Polity
Sharalyne Khyriemmujat and Amanda B. Basaiawmoit
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 52

Revisiting the Institution of Wahadadarship of Shella:
Examining its Relevance in the Present Times
A. W. Rani
Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 80

Syiemship in Khasi Society: The Syiemship of Nongstoin
P. Gracefulness Bonney
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 93
Traditional Political Institutions in Jaintia Hills: Raliang Dolloiship
Spainlinmi B. Lapasam
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 112

Traditional Institutions and Urban Governance in Meghalaya
with Special Reference to Shillong City
A. W. Rani
Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 125

The Changing Dynamics of the Dorbar Chnong at Jowai Township:
The Lion Mission Compound Dorbar Chnong
Kerl'ihok L. Buam
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 138

Relations of Traditional Institutions with Modern Constitutional
Institutions
Monica Neeta Laloo
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 150

Women’s Participation in the Dorbar: A Case Study in West Khasi Hills
Ibabitnam Mawkhroh
Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 163

The Constitutional-Traditional Interface: The Autonomous District
Council and Traditional Institutions in the Khasi Hills
Dhiraj Borkotoky
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 179

Changing Structure, Status and Utility of the Traditional Institutions
in the Khasi Hills
Recordius E. Kharbani
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 188

Khasi Matrilineal Culture: Tradition, Continuity and Change
Banshaikupar L. Mawlong
Revisiting Traditional Institutions in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills vii
Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 200

Climate Change Mitigation and Traditional Institutions: Can REDD+
Revitalise Age-old Khasi Regimes of Community Based Forest
Management?
Bennathaniel H. Diengdoh and Banphira Bahun Wahlang
LIST OF TABLES
Table 5.1 The Nine Villages of Shella Confederacy

Table 5.2 Questionnaire and Responses
Table 8.1 Urban Areas of Meghalaya
Table 11.1 Registered Cases of Crimes against Women
Table 11.2 Rape Cases Registered District-wise: April 2012-March
2013
PREFACE
Traditional institutions in the Khasi-Jaintia society are “living

organisms” which have existed for centuries. During this time they have
internally evolved from one phase to another to provide for the exigencies
of time and necessity. In the pre-colonial period, these traditional
institutions evolved from the clan based council, ka Dorbar Kur, with
designated offices and office holders such as the Rangbah Kur (a clan
elder who was usually the eldest maternal uncle) to the state council, ka
Dorbar Hima, with designated offices and office holders such as the
Syiem, Lyngdoh, Sirdar, Wahadadar and Doloi (these heads or chiefs as
they were called, were chosen from specific clans) and their council
members. Each of these traditional institutions existed over a demarcated
area which was independently administered by the traditional head or
chief. The traditional heads and chiefs executed legislative, executive,
judicial as well as religious functions in accordance with the traditions,
customs and customary laws and usages of the land. When these
traditional institutions, especially the Khasi states came into contact with
other peoples and forms of administration, particularly the British, their
internally evolved system of functioning witnessed interference and
adjustment. By 1835 the British had suppressed most of the insurrections
in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills (insurrections by the Khasi state of Maharam
and the Jaintia Elakas were to continue for some more time) and began to
put in place an administrative system in these Hills. Thus what initially
began as a request (by the British East India Company) for right of
passage for British company troops from the plains of Sylhet (now in
Bangladesh) to the plains of Assam (now a state in India) through the
Khasi and Jaintia Hills ultimately concluded with the firm establishment of
British authority over these Hills.
In the wake of India’s independence in 1947 and the redrawing of the
geographical contours of the sub-continent, new states emerged which
would become the inheritors and successors of the British political and
administrative legacy. The process of transferring power and territories
formerly under British rule was undertaken through discussion,
negotiation, the signing of agreements, and mergers and in several
instances even through outright coercion. The inauguration of the new
Constitution of India in 1950 firmly put in place a federal structure to
redefine this nascent independent country’s relationship with its redrawn
x Preface
units and its citizens. In this sea of political change spanning over a
century, the Khasi states continued to exist and carry out their traditionally
entrusted responsibilities backed by local public opinion that called for
their continuity amidst diminishing responsibility and utility. Today these
traditional institutions continue to exist though public opinion has been
critical on several occasions of their defiance to adapt to changes.
In 2014 the Department of Political Science, Synod College, Shillong,
organised a workshop, “Revisiting Traditional Institutions in Khasi-Jaintia
Hills” to deliberate on a range of issues affecting these traditional
institutions. It was felt that the discussions and deliberations should see the
light of day in the form of a publication. This book is thus a collection of
the revised papers that were presented at the workshop. Several papers
have also been contributed by other scholars working on issues relevant to
traditional institutions. These papers, fifteen in all, weave together a
landscape that portrays traditional institutions as they exist in the present
Khasi and Jaintia Hills in the State of Meghalaya. The papers have blended
oral tradition on the evolution of traditional institutions with historical
records and available sources from secondary literature both in English
and local writings. These papers discuss traditional institutions both in the
urban as well as the rural setting. They discuss the structure of these
traditional institutions, their functions and relevance in the present day,
existing amidst other constitutionally mandated systems of administration.
The papers examine the interplay of power and functions between the
legitimate power holders such as the state government and the Autonomous
District Councils and the traditional power holders represented by the
traditional institutions across the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. Some papers
examine the role of women in these traditional institutions, an issue that
evokes intense academic discussion especially among the Khasi and
Jaintia people who practise matriliny. The last paper looks at the
traditional forest management regime existing in the Khasi Hills and its
adaptation of REDD+ as a climate change mitigation mechanism.
The publication of this edited volume would not have been possible
but for the efforts of several people. I would like to express my gratitude
to the contributors for their submissions and especially for their
enthusiasm and commitment to ensure that this collection of papers is
published. I thank Mankhrawbor Dunai and Sue Morecroft for their
thorough work of proof reading and I also express my sincere gratitude to
the publisher for the meticulous work and effort to publish this volume.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
1. Airpeace Well Rani is Assistant Professor, Department of Political

Science, Synod College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: airpeacerani@yahoo.in
2. Amanda B. Basaiawmoit is Assistant Professor, Department of
English, Shillong College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: amandanabner@gmail.com
3. Banphira Bahun Wahlang is Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Cultural and
Creative Studies, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya,
India. Email: banphirawahlang@gmail.com
4. Banshaikupar Lyngdoh Mawlong is Assistant Professor, Department of
Political Science, Union Christian College, Umiam, Ri Bhoi district,
Meghalaya, India. Email: ban1787@hotmail.com
5. Bennathaniel H. Diengdoh is Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Ecology &
Environmental Science, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
Email: diengdoh.benc87@gmail.com
6. Charles Reuben Lyngdoh is Associate Professor and Head, Department
of Political Science, Synod College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: reubenlyngdoh@gmail.com
7. Dhiraj Borkotoky is Assistant Professor, Department of Political
Email: dhirajborkotoky@gmail.com
8. Fabian Lyngdoh is former Chairman (Khasi Hills Autonomous District
Council), columnist and freelance writer, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: fabianthaiang@gmail.com
9. Ibabitnam Mawkhroh is Assistant Professor, Department of Political
Email: babs_262@yahoo.com
10. Kerl’ihok L. Buam is Assistant Professor, Department of History,
Synod College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: kylebuam@gmail.com
11. L. S. Gassah is Professor, Department of Political Science, North
Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya.
Email: lsgassah@gmail.com
xii List of Contributors
12. Monica Neeta Laloo is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,

Email: neetalaloo@gmail.com
13. P. Gracefulness Bonney is Assistant Professor, Department of History,
Email: bonneygracefulness@gmail.com
14. Recordius E. Kharbani is Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Political
Science, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: rikomg@gmail.com
15. Sharalyne Khyriemmujat is Assistant Professor and Head, Department
of Sociology, Shillong College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: sharalyne73@gmail.com
16. Spainlinmi B. Lapasam is Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Political
Science, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
Email: spainlapasam@gmail.com
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION:
REVISITING TRADITIONAL
AND CONSTITUTIONAL INSTITUTIONS
IN THE KHASI-JAINTIA HILLS:
INTERFACE OF CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
L. S. GASSAH
The existence of the office of chiefship and other institutions

connected with the administration is one of the common features among
the tribal communities of North-East India. These pristine institutions had
prevailed and are still prevailing among many of the tribal communities of
the North-Eastern region. Though among certain tribes the office of the
traditional chief was no longer there, we still find the existence and
continuation of the same among many other tribal communities. For
example, among the Mizos, the office of the once-powerful Lal or chief
had been abolished after the passing of the Assam-Lushai Hills District
(Acquisition of Chiefs Rights) Act, 1955 with a provision to pay
compensation to the chiefs for the loss of their traditional office. This Act
was actually the last nail in the coffin of the Mizo chiefs. Further, among
the Jaintia, the office of the Syiem was also abolished by the British
authorities on 15 March 1835 after the British decided to take over the
administration of the hill portion of the former Jaintia kingdom. However
the British administration retained the other offices of the traditional chiefs
among the Jaintias like the office of the Doloi, Pator and Waheh Chnong
(village headman) to assist the British authorities in running the
administration of the Elakas and villages. The British administration
passed and enforced many Acts, Rules and Regulations from time to time
during the course of their administration and these had serious
repercussions and effects on the traditional powers and functions of the
chiefs and their institutions. To be brief, the same happened and is still
2 Chapter One
happening after India’s independence with the introduction of the

constitutional institutions like the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs)
in certain hill areas and districts of North-East India. These political and
constitutional developments have greatly affected the relationship between
the traditional institutions and that of the constitutional institutions.
The new developments have also brought with them new challenges
and this has opened up new avenues for further examination and analysis
of the relationship between these two sets of institutions in a more
scientific way. There is therefore an urgent need to “re-visit” these
political and constitutional developments that took place during the time of
the British administration and after India’s independence.
On the basis of the power and functions held by the chiefs of numerous
tribes of the North-Eastern region, they can be classified into different
categories depending upon the extent of power entrusted to or held by
them. Further, the customary law of succession and inheritance, and the
methods of election or selection also differ from tribe to tribe and from
area to area. Variation in the laws of succession to the office could be
found even within the same tribal community; a clear example is that of
the different Naga tribes. The law of succession also determines the extent
of power or authority entrusted to the chief either by the chief’s family or
clan or the council of elders or the villagers themselves or whichever
body/institution or authority is responsible in determining the succession
process. A chief is either elected or selected for a definite period or for a
lifetime. The tenure of office of a chief therefore differs from tribe to tribe,
and even within the same tribe.
Among the tribes which follow the patrilineal system of descent and
where chiefship has become hereditary, the law of primogeniture is
generally observed. At the same time, it is a practice in which the eldest
surviving male child of the previous or deceased chief may not inherit the
office if he is known to be incapable, cowardly or having certain
drawbacks. From such a practice, it is thus evident that the son becomes
the chief by virtue of his personal qualifications and qualities of head and
heart. Among some other tribes, a chief is elected to the office on the basis
of his personal ability or qualifications rather than on the grounds of
hereditary rights and still among other tribes, the office is strictly confined
to the members of the privileged original or founding clan(s). These clans
are regarded as such because it was they who were the first or earliest
settlers in a particular area. Such clans under the leadership of the most
senior male member, after they decided to finally settle down, chose a
particular area, colonised it and claimed proprietorship over it.
Proprietorship over the land gave such clans the political authority to run
Introduction 3
the administration. In some cases, the principle of hereditary chiefship was

introduced by the British authorities after taking over the administration of
the area. They did this in order to ensure political and administrative
stability and more importantly to gain the loyalty of the chiefs towards the
British administration. Basically, a simple typology of chiefship could not
be found to exist among the various tribal communities of the North-
Eastern region.
The case of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in the State of Meghalaya is
unique in many ways. Both of the areas had a long experience under the
administration of their traditional chiefs and their institutions even before
the coming of the British. During the entire British administration over the
Khasi and Jaintia Hills they allowed these chiefs and their authorities to
continue under the overall supervision and control of the British
authorities. The British authorities had either taken away most of their
traditional power and functions especially their traditional judicial
functions or had curtailed their power and functions to suit the British
interests in administration.
After India’s independence, the framers of the Indian Constitution did
not totally overlook the situation that prevailed during that time in terms of
the role and function of the existing traditional administration in the form
of the chiefs and other institutions in the hill areas of North-East India in
general and the Khasi-Jaintia Hills in particular. Under the Directive
Principles of State Policy, administration in other parts of India was
introduced right down to the grassroots level under Panchayati Raj
Institutions (PRIs). However, the political leaders and constitutional
experts felt that the PRIs may not be administratively suitable to serve the
needs of the tribal people of the region and their societies. Therefore some
other constitutional institutions had to be introduced to suit their interests
and political aspirations to enable them to take part in decision-making
when the new Constitution came into operation. To cut it short, a Sub-
Committee was appointed to study and examine the prevailing
administration under the traditional chiefs and their institutions, traditions,
customs, usages of the land and people and other related matters of
administration. The members of the Sub-Committee, in short,
recommended the setting up of the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs)
in the hill districts of the then undivided State of Assam.
The recommendations of the Sub-Committee were accepted by the
Constituent Assembly after heated discussions on the pros and cons of the
draft proposal. The ADCs are incorporated into the Indian Constitution
under Articles 244(2) and 275(1). The ADCs as per the Sixth Schedule are
empowered to run the administration within their jurisdiction relating to
4 Chapter One
land, unreserved forests, the management and control of primary school

education, the appointment and succession of traditional chiefs like the
Syiems, Sirdars, Lyngdohs, Wahadadar and village headmen in the Khasi
Hills and the Dolois, Pators and village headmen in the Jaintia Hills.
With the new constitutional development that took place after India’s
independence, the Khasi-Jaintia society has undergone a sea-change and
experienced something which it had not even encountered before and
during the British period of administration. The change that has taken
place is from a position of tradition to one of modernity. It is this new
development which brings another interesting chapter, a new chapter that
creates a strained relationship between the traditional institutions
represented by the traditional chiefs and their institutions and the
constitutional bodies or institutions under the ADCs and the State
Government. The introduction of the ADCs has affected the traditional
power and functions of the traditional chiefs and their institutions from
time to time. The passing in 1959 of the Act, Appointment and Succession
of Chiefs and headmen and its subsequent amendments have further
deteriorated the power and functions of the chiefs and their institutions.
This is due to the fact that the Sixth Schedule has empowered the ADCs to
supervise and have control over the chiefs and their institutions. It is with
this background that the contributors of this book have brought out their
research findings after re-visiting those problems and issues facing both
the traditional and constitutional institutions, the relationship between the
two institutions and the effects of the constitutional institutions on the
traditional ones.
There is no doubt that a number of studies had been conducted earlier
both by local and non-local researchers. Such studies have come up with
their varied findings. However, as most of the tribal societies and their
traditional institutions are experiencing and facing the forces of change
especially with the introduction of constitutional institutions, most of the
power and functions of these traditional institutions are seriously affected
when their functions are either curtailed or taken away. This changed
situation obviously calls for a proper examination and analysis of the
relationship between the two institutions. Revisiting the traditions is
therefore necessary in order to make a serious attempt to evaluate and
analyse the issues involved, especially the changing role and functioning
of these institutions from the theoretical and conceptual framework which
is lacking in many earlier studies. Some such earlier studies were more
expressionistic in character. There is also a need to update the data and
information on the current political relationship between the traditional
Introduction 5
and constitutional institutions in a changing political scenario in the Khasi

and Jaintia Hills of the State of Meghalaya.
CHAPTER TWO
THE KHASI STATES AND THE BRITISH:

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
ON THE EVE OF INDEPENDENCE
CHARLES REUBEN LYNGDOH
Introduction
Traditional political institutions occupy a central place in the tribal
milieu of North-East India. These institutions evolved in tribal societies to
bring order to and regulate settled life among the inhabitants. Among the
Khasi and Jaintia people, the development of these traditional political
institutions had been gradual. Over the centuries these institutions evolved
beyond the confines of village settlements to higher forms exhibiting
remarkable foresight in village leaders and their kin groups (Lyngdoh,
2009: 4). The Hima, that is, the state (Note 1) was the highest traditional
political settlement that evolved among the Khasi and Jaintia people. The
political office that administered the affairs of the Hima was the
Syiemship under an administrative head called (by various nomenclatures
in different Hima), Syiem, Lyngdoh, Sirdar and Wahadadar (Lebar, 1964:
10). Syiemlieh notes that:
This rudimentary stage of state formation probably arose out of voluntary

association of villages when new developments such as opening of
markets, execution of marriage laws, organisation of land tenure and
judicial administration brought in the need for a central common ruler.
(1989: 4)
Similarly Bareh observed that:
Syiemship was devised to amalgamate identical pursuits, interests and

necessities of clans and units near and far. It was instituted on the spirit of
The Khasi States and the British 7
reciprocity along with a consolidation of other intimate relations amongst

different sections of people who made up their units. (1985: 41)
Prior to the advent of the British in the Khasi Hills, the Khasi states
exercised independent control over their respective territories. The arrival
of the British at the periphery of the Khasi Hills (Note 2) ushered in a
phase of uneasy relations between the British and the Khasi states. These
relations were marked by contact, trade, incursions, resistance to
restrictions and impositions and finally, insurrection of the Khasi states
against the British. The Khasi states were against the British larger
interests of connecting the Surma valley with the Brahmaputra valley
through routes across the Khasi Hills where the territories of the Khasi
states were located. The British suppressed the insurrections (which took
place between 1829 and 1839) of the Khasi states that opposed their
authority. The Khasi states ultimately came under “the protection and
authority of the Government” and were bound “to obey without demur all
the mandates of the Government” (Allen, 1903: 26-27). The Khasi states,
reported to be twenty-five in number were then categorised by the British
as semi-independent and dependent (Ibid). The semi-independent states
(such as Cherra, Khyrim, Nongstoin, Langrin and Nongspung) were
regarded to be of a higher rank as these states never came into conflict
with the Government. Of these, with the exception of the Chief of Cherra,
the rest had no written agreement with the Government (Dutta, 1982: 131).
The dependent states were, on the other hand, inferior in rank since they
were restored as a gift after conquest by the Government (Ibid.).
With the subjugation of most of the Khasi principalities by 1834, the
British began making new political arrangements to administer the Khasi
Hills. In 1834 the Khasi Hills were placed under the political supervision
of the Agent to the Governor General. In 1835 a separate Political Agency
for the Khasi Hills was created with its headquarters at Cherrapunjee. In
the initial phase of preparing and adopting a pattern of administration for
the Khasi Hills, the British wanted to follow a system of indirect rule
cementing it through subsidiary alliances. Thus, in due course the political
relations of the Khasi states and the British were conducted through
subsequent official documents such as sanads and parwanas (Syiemlieh,
2007: 182).
The territorial contours of the Khasi Hills were never to remain static.
These contours changed with the passage of time and in accordance with
subsequent acts and regulations passed by the British government. Two
distinct categories of administration emerged in the Khasi and Jaintia
Hills. The first was the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district which was created
in 1854. This district was administered by British officers duly appointed
8 Chapter Two
by the government. After 1861, the district came under the administrative
charge of the Deputy Commissioner. This district was comprised of the
annexed territories of the Jaintia Hills and thirty-two villages including
Shillong British area––Cantonment and Municipal. The second was the
administration of the 25 Khasi states which had direct relations with the
British government. The relations between these states and the British
government were carried out through agreements, ki sanad, administered
by the Deputy Commissioner (after 1861) who acted as Political Agent to
the Khasi states (Lyngdoh, 2013: 108-109). As mentioned, in 1854 the
Khasi and Jaintia Hills district was created and subsequently, the
jurisdiction of this newly-created district was transferred to the Commissioner
of Assam. On February 6, 1874 the Chief Commissionership of Assam was
created and it comprised of the five districts of Brahmaputra valley, the
Naga Hills, the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, the Garo Hills, Goalpara, Cachar
and Sylhet (Chaube, 1999: 11; Syiemlieh, 1989: 137).
Political Development in the Khasi Hills

The twentieth century further witnessed a realignment of the province
of Assam which in turn resulted in the re-categorisation of its districts. The
appointment of various commissions in the late 1920s to examine the level
of development in India also evinced interest in the Khasi Hills (Lyngdoh,
2009: 96-98). The new sense of awareness and engagement visible in the
emerging Khasi elite enabled the Khasi leaders as well as leaders of the
Khasi states to engage in dialogue, through petition, representation and
assembly, with the British government as well as with the people. By the
1940s it became evident that independence from British rule was close at
hand. This period witnessed heightened political activity among the
leaders who were determined to carve a unified political destiny for the
Khasi and Jaintia Hills.
The Government of India Act, 1935 was adopted on August 2, 1935
and was implemented in 1937. As per provisions of Chapter III paragraph
60 (a) of this Act, the Legislature in Assam became bicameral. The Assam
Legislative Assembly (Lower House) had the strength of 108 members
and all of them were elected. The strength of the Legislative Council
(Upper House) was not more than 22 members. Electoral politics was
introduced in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills through the provisions of the
Government of India Act, 1935. The Act allotted three single member
constituencies to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills––one seat for Jowai, a second
seat for Shillong and the third seat, a reserved seat, for the Shillong-
Women constituency. No seat was allotted to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in
the Assam Legislative Council. Prior to the creation of the three single
member constituencies, there existed only one constituency in the Assam
Legislative Council, the Shillong-Karimganj constituency (Syiemlieh,
1989: 177). In 1920 James Joy Mohan Nichols Roy was elected from this
constituency and his presence ensured that the political and administrative
concerns of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills district were articulated in the
Assam legislature.
The next two decades witnessed various political developments in the
Khasi Hills as the educated Khasi gentry attempted to prepare a political
roadmap for the future progress of the Khasi states. This period witnessed
two significant political developments in the Khasi Hills:
a. the establishment of the Khasi National Dorbar (hereafter KND) on

September 4, 1923 (Ki Proceedings, 1923: 1). The establishment of the
KND was the first attempt to bring together all the Khasi states under
one organisation and to discuss and document important socio-cultural
and political issues relevant to the people such as land rights, residency
rights and rights to ancestral property amongst other issues (Lyngdoh,
2009: 183-184). Gassah writes:
the Khasi National Durbar was formed in 1923 to find out ways and
means to bring about closer unity and cooperation among the Khasi
States, to find out a possibility of constituting a common organisation,
and to consider the future of the Khasi States under the new
constitutional set-up. (2007: 176)
b. the establishment of the Federated Khasi States (hereafter FKS) on

December 16, 1934. This organisation was established to forge closer
relations among the Khasi states and to also improve relations of the
Khasi states with the British government (Cantlie, 1974: 183-184). The
FKS was intended to be a visible and collective political platform to
demand for improved political relations under proposed constitutional
reforms in 1935. Among the many objectives of the FKS was the
desire for assured representation in the Federal Legislature in India
through the Chamber of Princes.
The political ambitions of the Federated Khasi States were short-lived.

The Government of India Act, 1935 did not define their position or status
in relation to the Government. The Federated Khasi States were excluded
from the Chamber of Princes and could not send a common representative
along with other small Indian states. This proposed scheme for the
participation of Indian states in the Indian federation itself did not
10 Chapter Two
materialise. Further, the recognition granted to them by the government in

May 1934 was withdrawn after a brief period. Even their request for
establishing a direct relationship with the Viceroy through a Political
Agent or Agent was not granted.
Political Interest and Articulation on the Eve

of Independence
The years preceding India’s independence saw that the Khasi and
Jaintia Hills District comprised of two administrative categories. In the
first category certain areas were directly under the administration of
British authorities. These areas included the Shillong Municipality and
Cantonment Areas, Jowai sub-division and thirty-one British villages
directly under British administration. These areas were represented in the
Assam Legislative Assembly by three members, two from demarcated
constituencies––the Shillong seat and the Jowai seat and one from the
reserved seat for women (Assam Legislative Assembly, Internet). The
second category comprised of 25 Khasi states which were administered by
traditional rulers whose relations with the British were stipulated by
treaties and agreements. The political interests in the district comprised of
two assemblages––the traditional and the modern. The traditional political
interests were represented by the rulers of Khasi states who wanted to
preserve the continuity of existing systems of governance against the
rising tide of political change. Modern political interests were represented
by elected representatives to the Assam Legislature who wanted greater
participation in the modern system of governance. The progress of these
two opposing political interests was to unfold through various events
across the late 1940s till India’s independence and even after, till the
enactment of the Constitution of India in 1950 (Lyngdoh, 2009: 113-114).
By 1946 it had become very clear that India’s independence was close.
The arrival of the three-member cabinet delegation, also called the Cabinet
Mission (Note 3), and the subsequent preparation of the Cabinet Mission
Plan confirmed the rapid political developments that were unfolding in
India. The Cabinet Mission made several important observations with
regard to India’s political future.
a. To allay fears on the future of the Indian states the Cabinet Mission
observed that with the attainment of independence by British India the
relationship which had existed between the states and the British
Crown would no longer be possible, though it was expected that the
states would co-operate with the new Government in building up a new

constitutional structure;
b. During the interim period which must elapse before the coming into
operation of a new Constitutional structure under which British India
will be independent or fully self-governing, paramountcy will remain
in operation. But the British Government could not and will not in any
circumstances transfer paramountcy to an Indian Government;
c. In the meantime the Indian states are in a position to play an important
part in the formulation of a new Constitutional structure for India, and
His Majesty’s Government has been informed by the Indian states that
they desire, in their own interests and in the interests of India as a
whole, both to make their contributions to the framing of the structure,
and to take their due place in it when it is completed;
d. When a new fully self-governing or independent Government or
Governments come into being in British India, His Majesty’s
Government will cease to exercise the powers of paramountcy. The
rights of the states which flow from their relationship to the Crown will
no longer exist and all the rights surrendered by the states to the
paramount power will return to the states. Political arrangements
between the states on the one side and the British Crown and British
India on the other will thus be brought to an end. The void will have to
be filled either by the states entering into a federal relationship with the
successor Government or Governments in British India, or failing this,
entering into particular political arrangements with it for them;
e. During the interim period it will be necessary for the states to conduct
negotiations with British India in regard to the future regulations of
matters of common concern. Such negotiations which will be
necessary will occupy a considerable period of time and some of these
negotiations may well be incomplete when the new structure comes
into being. To avoid administrative difficulties it will be necessary to
arrive at an understanding, between the states and the succession
Government or Governments, that for a period of time the then existing
arrangements as to these matters of common concern should continue
until new arrangements are completed (Mansergh, 1977: 522-523).
The Cabinet Mission’s visit to India gave an opportunity to the hill

districts to express their political views and aspirations in the light of
impending independence. In the Khasi Hills two organisations submitted
representations to the Cabinet Mission.
12 Chapter Two
a. The Khasi Jaintia Political Association (hereafter KJPA), formed in

early 1946, submitted a memorial to the Cabinet Mission which
asked for the creation of a federation of all the Khasi areas within a
“Sovereign Assam” with adequate “cultural and political
autonomy” (Chaube, 1999: 75);
b. The Khasi Jaintia Federated State National Conference (hereafter
KJFSNC) proposed the creation of a Khasi Jaintia Federated State
within Assam through the integration of British areas with the
Khasi states. It also proposed the setting up of all the three organs
of government (a National Council, an Executive Council and a
Federal Court) with commensurate powers (Chaube, 1999: 76; Giri,
1998: 229).
Both of these organisations spoke of an autonomous but unified and

integrated Khasi and Jaintia Hills District within the State of Assam yet
they represented two different political assemblages. The KJPA
represented the Khasi states and strongly urged their continuity but
through a modified political organisation (the proposed federation of all
Khasi areas). The KJFSNC on the other hand represented the modern
parliamentary system proposing a federal structure through the division of
powers between the organs of government.
On August 22, 1946 the dormant Federated Khasi States were revived
and renamed, the Federation of Khasi States (hereafter FKS). The
Federation of Khasi States sought to establish itself as the legitimate
organisation to negotiate with the successor government on the political
future of the Khasi States. While the FKS of 1933 was mired in
uncertainties the revived FKS of 1946 saw before it a political world of
opportunities. The individual states comprising the Federation appeared to
have temporarily submerged their individual interests for the larger
collective good of the FKS. The opportunities for discussion and
negotiation were much wider than what was possible in 1933. The FKS
could now look forward to dialogue and political engagement with a larger
number of administrative-legal agencies, some of which were already
present while others had emerged during this time, on the question of the
political future of the Khasi states. These administrative-legal agencies
included the Chamber of Princes, the States Department and the
Constituent Assembly.
a. The Chamber of Princes on June 19, 1946 appointed a Negotiating

Committee to discuss constitutional matters with the Government
and fix the representation of states to the proposed Constituent
Assembly. The FKS was desirous of being represented in the

Chamber of Princes so that it could present its views before the
Chamber. The FKS further declared that with the transfer of power
to a new Dominion, it would form a government for the Khasi
states. Its position in relation to the new successor Government in
India would be in line with that taken by the Indian States through
the Chamber of Princes (Lyngdoh, 1996: 175-176). On February
20, 1947 the Standing Committee of the FKS observed that due
recognition was granted to it by the Chamber of Princes. This
meant that as an umbrella entity the Federation of Khasi States
could demonstratively negotiate a political settlement with the
future Government of India on the lines of the Cabinet Mission’s
Memorandum of States and resolutions of the Chamber of Princes
(Lyngdoh, 2009: 127);
b. The Constituent Assembly was formed on the recommendation of
the Cabinet Mission Plan. The Constituent Assembly met for the
first time on December 9, 1946 and thereafter began to work
(through its various committees) to compose and draft a new
constitution for India. The North-East Frontier Tribal Areas and
Assam Excluded and Partially Excluded Areas Sub-Committee
(also known as the Bardoloi Sub-Committee) was entrusted with
the task to recommend an appropriate administrative framework for
the tribal people of the region in order to protect their institutions
and their rights as well as their mechanisms of self-government
commensurate with the political progress of the whole country. The
FKS could now engage with this sub-committee more intensively
on issues relating to the political future of the Khasi states;
c. The States Department was established on July 5, 1947 to deal with
matters of common concern to the states and to also draw up a
policy on behalf of the incoming government, on Indian states. It
was headed by Sardar Vallabhai Patel while V. P. Menon was the
Secretary. On taking over the States Department, Sardar Vallabhai
Patel immediately drew up a policy of the Government of India on
the Indian states. He invited the states to accede to the Dominion of
India on the three mentioned subjects––Defence, Foreign Affairs
and Communications which concerned the national interests of the
country. On the other subjects he noted that the States Department
would respect the autonomous existence of the states (Lyngdoh,
2009: 129-130).
14 Chapter Two
The Standing Committee of the Federation of the Khasi States was

authorised to draft a Constitution which could then be discussed, finalised
and adopted at the general meeting of the FKS. On February 20, 1947 the
Standing Committee of the FKS met to prepare its draft constitution. This
draft was circulated to all the Khasi states and they were requested to
report back to the FKS, sending their comments and observations by
March 25, 1947. The duly approved draft constitution was presented to the
Government. After careful study of the draft constitution of the FKS the
Government found that its approach was too rigid. On May 10, 1947 the
Political Officer of the Khasi states reminded all the rulers of the Khasi
states to make their constitutions more flexible so as to allow the people a
share in the administration. The rulers were requested to ensure that the
people had proper representation in the state council. The Political Officer
wanted to get their views as early as possible (Lyngdoh, 1996: 181).
Earlier on February 20, 1947 the British government announced that it
would quit India. The Federation of Khasi States had little time to prepare
a roadmap for the political future of the Khasi states. Of the three
administrative-legal agencies the FKS focused on their discussions with
the States Department through the Governor of Assam, Akbar Hydari. The
FKS did not make any representation to the Bardoloi sub-committee,
probably due to the simmering differences with J. J. M. Nichols Roy (who
was a member of this sub-committee) on the proposed administrative set-
up for Khasi and Jaintia Hills (Lyngdoh, 2009: 138). On the other hand, it
was Macdonald Kongor who spoke in favour of the Khasi states and urged
the Bardoloi Sub-Committee to recommend full autonomy to the Khasi
states to administer themselves as a single unit under the Federation of
Khasi States. He expressed his hope that the Bardoloi sub-committee
would recommend full independence for the Khasi states (Lyngdoh, 1996:
197). Akbar Hydari was entrusted with the task of negotiating with the
Khasi states. During their visit to Delhi in July 1947, the two advisors of
the FKS, Ajra Sing Khongphai and Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh, briefed G. S.
Guha the representative of the FKS to the Constituent Assembly (Note 4).
They also met Sardar Vallabhai Patel who assured them that except for
Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication, the Khasi states
individually and the FKS would enjoy internal autonomy. On July 14,
1947 Hydari proceeded to negotiate with representatives of the Khasi
states to try and reach an agreement. He urged the Khasi states into
accepting these terms communicated to them by Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
His efforts culminated with the Federation of Khasi States signing the
Standstill Agreement on August 8, 1947 a week before independence. This
agreement bound the FKS, as a representative of the Khasi states, to
continue to maintain administrative relations with the Province of Assam

and thereafter with the new Dominion of India (Note 5). The agreement
was to continue for a period of two years or until new or modified
arrangements were arrived at between the authorities concerned. In the
subsequent days and months the Khasi states also signed the Instruments
of Accession.
These political developments that took place on the eve of India’s
independence present interesting facts:
a. The States Department in New Delhi was aware that the legal
position of the Khasi states was no different than that of other
Indian states. To avoid legal consequences of the lapse of
paramountcy the authorities in Delhi needed to take steps to initiate
negotiations with the Khasi states;
b. The negotiations were hurriedly initiated to pre-empt any
possibility of the Federation of Khasi States or the individual Khasi
states to think otherwise, that is, either to initiate the process of
self-determination and complete independence after the lapse of
paramountcy of the British, or to join the other newly-created
Dominion of Pakistan through the District of Sylhet (East Pakistan)
(Note 6);
c. The Governor of Assam had seriously contemplated incorporating
the Khasi states into the province of Assam. However this proposal
would not have received their consent and may have even
influenced separatism. The next alternative was to retain similar
measures of control which had then been exercised by the Crown
Representative through the Agency of the Assam Government
(Political Department, 1947: 20);
d. If certain agreements were not arrived at with the Khasi states
before the lapse of paramountcy, all rights ceded to the paramount
power that (the British) would return to the Khasi states. The
governor of Assam realised that:
i. The Shillong Administered Areas and Cantonments would
revert back to the Syiem of Mylliem;
ii. British Indian laws would cease to have legal force in the
Khasi states;
iii. Mineral rights granted to the British authorities will revert
back to the respective states;
iv. The Syiems will have jurisdiction over foreigners residing in
their respective States;
v. Sanads granted to Khasi traditional rulers will lapse;
16 Chapter Two
vi. Perpetual leases by the Khasi states to the Crown will

terminate (Political Department, 1947: 23);
e. The Standstill Agreement also paved the way for the unification of
all areas in the Khasi Hills. All Khasi villages which were once part
of a Khasi state should be allowed to join their former state if they
so desired. Other parts of British India-Khasi territory (that is, the
British areas) should, if they desired, be allowed to join the
Federation as units (Basan, 1948: 1-3).
Conclusion
The hectic political developments in the Khasi Hills in the years 1946-
47 enabled the Khasi states to engage in consultation with numerous
agencies and groups. The political discussions and the desire of the Khasi
states for a unified Khasi Hills (through a federal autonomous pattern with
Assam) under the administration of traditional elements of polity were
countered by the proponents of a democratic electoral framework within a
federal, parliamentary structure of administration. The proponents of the
latter had experienced the functioning of this type of administration in the
Assam Legislative Assembly and wanted the Khasi Hills to be associated
with Assam through this more representative system of administration. It
was ultimately the Khasi states that were the preferred political agency to
engage in direct negotiations with the States Department.
What concerned the British authorities as well as the British India
authorities on the eve of India’s Independence was the legal status and
position of the Khasi states. In his letter to Sardar Vallabhai Patel on
September 2, 1947, Akbar Hydari, the Governor of Assam wrote that the
legal position of the Khasi states was no different from that of other Indian
states and “subject to paramountcy, the Siems are sovereign in respect of
their own territories” (Political Department, 1947: 19). Thus, to avoid the
legal consequences of the lapse of paramountcy where the Khasi states
would once again assume sovereign status, British India authorities were
keen to take steps to initiate negotiations with the Khasi states. Initially,
the Khasi states were treated on a par with other Indian states. They were
asked to appoint a representative (along with the states of Manipur and
Tripura) to the Negotiating Committee of the Constituent Assembly. The
Khasi states were also invited for a meeting with the States Department on
July 25, 1947. However the Governor of Assam expressed his reservations
at offering the Khasi states this status that was extended to other Indian
states. Owing to the “geographical position, backwardness and smallness
of Khasi states” he suggested that negotiations with the Khasi states be
held at the provincial level (that is, in Shillong) instead of Delhi. Further,
the Governor of Assam desired that the integration of the Khasi states (to
the Dominion of India) should be undertaken through the Provincial
Government of Assam to prevent them from joining the Dominion of
Pakistan through Sylhet. The Federation of Khasi States was the useful
instrument to actualise this process of integration since a majority of the
Khasi states had joined the Federation (Political Department, 1947: 20).
Thus the provincial administration, through the Governor of Assam
executed the necessary Agreements (the Standstill Agreement and the
Instruments of Accession) with the recognised organisation of the
Federation of Khasi States as well as with the Khasi states. The FKS at
this time had a larger following and acceptance despite the existence of
other organisations such as the Khasi and Jaintia Federated State National
Conference. Moreover the Khasi states had treaty rights and obligations
with the British; hence they were the legal local authorities with whom to
engage in negotiations.
The signing of the Standstill Agreement and the Instruments of
Accession before the actual lapse of paramountcy denied the Khasi states
the taste of independence. The Khasi states witnessed no interim period to
decide their future political course of action when suzerainty of British
paramountcy came to an end and the paramountcy of the Dominion of
India took over. The agreements signed by the Federation of Khasi States
and the Khasi states sought to maintain the status quo ante with the
difference that the Khasi states now formed an integral part of the
Dominion of India through administrative relations with the province of
Assam. In his letter to Sardar Vallabhai Patel in September 1947, Akbar
Hydari wrote that,
the Agreement with the Federation gives the Khasi Siems very little
beyond what they already have and certainly not more than the measure of
local autonomy which we have publicly announced we are willing to give
to Tribal people, subject of course to safeguards. (Political Department,
1947: 21)
Hydari further adds that he has stopped implementing the Standstill

Agreement which came into force on August 15, 1947. As a result no
judge or magistrates have yet been appointed (as per the Standstill
Agreement the judges of the Federation’s Court would enjoy the powers of
a Sessions Judge) and the Deputy Commissioner of Shillong still carries
on the functions of the old-time Political Officer (Political Department,
1947: 21-22). This correspondence reveals that the same relations that
18 Chapter Two
existed with the British continued to exist after August 15, 1947 the only
difference being the new political authority was the Dominion of India.
Notes
1. The term “state” is used in a very general sense as there is no equivalent term
for the word Hima in English. The Khasi Hima like a state had certain
characteristics––a demarcated territory, a stratified population, a system of
administration and independence especially in the pre-British period. Further,
the term “state” was commonly used by the British in their writings when they
referred to the Khasi Himas as Cossyah states or Kasia states.
2. Following the Battle of Buxar in October 1764, the English East India
Company received the right of Dewani over the Bengal Subah whose area
stretched to the southern lowlands of the Khasi Hills. This phase of British
administration brought the English East India Company into trade relations
with the Khasi states (see Syiemlieh, 1989: 10-12).
3. This three-member delegation comprised of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the
Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of
Trade, and A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
4. G. S. Guha was chosen to represent the Khasi states, Manipur and Tripura in
the Constituent Assembly. He was expected to participate in the negotiations at
the Constituent Assembly on behalf of the princely states that he represented.
Guha presented his credentials before the Constituent Assembly and signed the
register on July 14, 1947 [Lyngdoh, 1996: 181; Constituent Assembly of India
Debates (Proceedings), IV].
5. The Indian Independence Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom
on July 18, 1947 provided for the partition of British India into two new
sovereign Dominions, Indian and Pakistan with effect from August 15, 1947.
On this date British suzerainty over the princely states lapsed and Indian states
would become independent in their political relations with the governments of
the new Dominions.
6. On July 6, 1947, following a referendum, almost all of the erstwhile district of
Sylhet became a part of the new Dominion of Pakistan’s province of East
Bengal, barring the Karimganj sub-division which was incorporated into the
province of Assam of the Dominion of India.
References
Books and Reports
Allen, W. J. 1858. Report on the Administration of the Cossyah and
Jynteah Hills Territory (Reprinted 1903). Shillong.
Bareh, Hamlet. 1985. The History and Culture of the Khasi People (2nd
Edition). Guwahati: Spectrum Publications.
Basan, L. L. D. 1948. The Khasi States under the India Union. Shillong.
Cantlie, K. 1974. Notes on Khasi Law (edited and reprinted by A. S.
Khongphai). Shillong: Ri Khasi Press.
Chaube, S. K. 1999. Hill Politics in Northeast India (updated edition).
Hyderabad: Orient Longman.
Dutta, P. N. 1982. Impact of the West on the Khasi and Jaintias. New
Delhi: Cosmo Publications.
Gassah, L. S. 2007. “Prelude to Integration: Political Consciousness,
Political Organisations and Development in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills”. In
Sajal Nag et al. Making of the Indian Union: Merger of Princely States
and Excluded Areas. New Delhi: Akansha Publishing House.
Giri, Helen. 1998. The Khasis under British Rule (1824-1947). New Delhi:
Regency Publications.
Ki Proceedings Jong Ka Khasi National Dorbar (Dorbar Hima Khasi).
1923. Shillong: Shillong Printing Works.
Lebar, M. Frank et al. 1964. Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia.
New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press.
Lyngdoh, C. R. 2013. “Identity Formation in the Khasi Hills: The Khasi
National Dorbar”. In Apurba K. Baruah & Susmita Sen Gupta (eds.)
Social Forces and Politics in North East India. Guwahati: DVS
Publishers.
Lyngdoh, R. S. 1996. Government and Politics in Meghalaya. New Delhi:
Sanchar Publishing House.
Mansergh, N. 1977. Constitutional Relations between Britain and India––
The Transfer of Power, 1942-1947. Vol. VII. The Cabinet Mission 23
March-29 June 1946. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Syiemlieh, D. R. 1989. British Administration in Meghalaya: Policy and
Pattern. New Delhi: Heritage Publishers.
Syiemlieh, D. R. 2007. “The Integration of the Khasi States into the Indian
Union”. In Sajal Nag et al. Making of the Indian Union: Merger of
Princely States and Excluded Areas. New Delhi: Akansha Publishing
House.
20 Chapter Two
Other Sources
Assam Legislative Assembly––since 1937. Accessed through,
http://assamassembly.gov.in/ala-since-1937.html.
Constituent Assembly of India Debates (Proceedings). Volume IV. 1947.
Accessed through
http://164.100.47.132/lssnew/constituent/vol4p1.html.
Lyngdoh, C. R. 2009. Demand for Constitutional Recognition of the Khasi
States: Role of the Syiems of Khyrim and Mylliem. Unpublished Ph.D.
thesis. Shillong: NEHU.
Political Department and the Ministry of States. 1947. File No. 34–P.R.
CHAPTER THREE
THE KUR AND DORBAR IN THE KHASI

TRADITIONAL POLITY
FABIAN LYNGDOH
Introduction
According to the Meghalaya Human Development Report 2008, the
Khasi are one of the three major tribes of Meghalaya; the other two being
the Jaintia and the Garo (GOM, 2009). But in reality, the people of the
Khasi and Jaintia Hills belong to the same tribe called “Ki Hynniew Trep
Hynniew Skum” (Nongkynrih, 2001: 120; War, 1998: 16). Linguistically,
the Khasis stand apart from the other tribes of North-East India, because
they speak a dialect of the Mon-Khmer linguistic group which belongs to
the Austro-Asiatic language family. The Austric speaking Khasi are living
in an isolated pocket encircled by peoples who speak the Tibeto-Burman
languages. In 1960, Pater Schmidt showed that linguistically the Khasi are
related to Mon-Khmer speakers of the Malay Peninsula as well as to the
Nicobari. On the other hand he proposed an association between the Mon-
Khmer and the Munda language (Das, 1998: 45). It is also said that the
Khasis are closest to the Vietnamese in terms of linguistic family and that
there is evidence of a Khasi migration route from Vietnam and South East
Asia (Mitri, 2011: 91). The Khasis were the first to migrate into the north-
eastern region of India and were later followed by the various Tibetans,
Shans and Tibeto-Burman tribes (Chatterjee, 1951; Hazarika, 2011: 18;
Kamkhenthang, 2011: 104-105). The Khasi society is now universally
recognised as having a distinct identity historically and culturally, and its
traditional political institutions are also recognised by the Constitution of
India through the Sixth Schedule.
22 Chapter Three
The Concept of the Kur (clan)

The Khasi traditional political system is said to be operating through
the three-tier institutions of the dorbar shnong (village council), the
dorbar raid (council of a cluster of villages) and the dorbar hima (state
council), and revolves around the institution of the kur (matrilineal kinship
system) and the dorbar (council). In all the stages of political evolution,
the kurs (clans) played the vital role.
The kur among the Khasis is the kinship system based on matrilineal
descent and avunculate leadership. The concept of kur is an expression of
the underlying kinship system which itself is related to the basic structural
organisation of Khasi society (Choudhury, 1985: 137). The kur is the first
social entity of the Khasis around which every social institution revolves,
and the Khasi system of dorbars starts with the dorbar kur or clan council
(Giri, 1985: 159). The kinship system is the most important aspect of the
Khasi social system that provides the primary norms of behaviour in Khasi
society. As Khasi society is matrilineal, where lineage and descent are
traced through the female, primary importance is given to the relationships
with the matrilineal kin (War, 1998: 18).
According to Sohblei Sngi Lyngdoh the original Khasi matrilineal
system constitutes the following elements: (i) the uncle as the centre of
authority and economy; and (ii) the uncle’s sister with her children from a
father from another clan, who has nothing to do with this family except
procreation. In this system, the uncle is the pivot around which the whole
family revolves. First of all, the uncle is the centre of authority over the
whole clan or over a particular branch of the family. He is the
administrator of all the goods movable and immovable, of the family or
even of the whole clan, and his authority is supreme and undisputed. Of all
the members of the family, the uncle is the chief earner and worker; hence
he administers principally the products of his toil and moil, of his sweat
and perspiration (Lyngdoh, 1998: 33).
So, a Khasi family was primarily a family of mother, children and
uncles. A maternal uncle in the Khasi-Jaintia custom used to occupy a
place of pride in a family or kinship group (Passah, 1998: 75). However,
though the uncle’s status in the house of his sisters, among his nephews
and nieces, is supreme, authoritative and decisive, he is nevertheless a
mere dummy in the house of his wife (Snaitang, 1998: 56). In contrast with
the uncle, the father is an outsider, who has no authority; he has no control
and no say whatsoever in the lives of his wife and children. He is only the
respected, esteemed and appreciated procreator. As a matter of fact, the
father is completely absent from his wife and children during the day.
The Kur and Dorbar in the Khasi Traditional Polity 23
Only at night is he with his wife and not necessarily with his children
(Lyngdoh, 1998; Nongkynrih, 2002). It is also said that among the
traditional Jaintias, the husband only visits his wife at night and generally
leaves her house at dawn. Therefore, he is like a stranger in his wife's
house and can hardly interfere in the family matters of her clan (Passah,
1998: 75-76).
What the clan needed most was to have as many children, especially
daughters, so that it could provide continuity and not face the unfortunate
fate of extinction (Snaitang, 1998: 58). The father may leave his wife and
children but the uncle can never disown his sister and her children nor can
his sister and children disown the uncle. In the past, it was never known
for a Khasi family to be broken and destroyed. Whatever the father might
do as an outsider, the uncle remains with his sister and her children all the
time except for a few hours of the night when he goes to sleep with his
wife in her house (Lyngdoh, 1998: 35). In any three-generational Khasi
iing, husbands in two consecutive generations may be found. These
husbands, as affines, always remain and behave as outsiders, vis-à-vis
other members of the iing in matters concerning the domestic and extra
domestic domains of the iing. Their only role was in “husbanding” the
wives and showing affection to the children in whatever manner they
desire (Nongkynrih, 2002: 52-53).
It is also opined that in the traditional set-up, the Khasis never knew
the term “illegitimate child” because the child carries the mother’s clan
name and once conceived, is an organic part of the mother’s clan. When a
child is born it is part of a larger extended family and does not feel the
pangs of having been abandoned even if the father leaves the family
(Mukhim, 2008). So, other than the requirement of procreation, a Khasi
traditional family can survive normally and well without the father if the
uncles are around to provide economic support and social security. This
kind of social situation may not be a peculiarity of Khasi society alone.
Scholars say that in matrilineal descent groups, married men are not
completely transferred to their affinal group and they retain their
membership and authority in their natal groups (Schneider and Gough,
1961), and a matrilineal system can survive and flourish, only if the males
are completely dependent on their own natal matrilineal descent groups
except for the minimal necessity of marriage. Matriliny requires an
interdependence of brother and sister (Chacko, 1998: 11).
Traditionally, the kur among the Khasis has four institutional
identities:
24 Chapter Three
a. the kur is a religion binding on all its members;

b. it is an independent economy in which all members were socially
and economically secured;
c. it is a sociological member of society through which all clan
members could have social identity; and
d. it is a political institution, through which every clan member can
have political relations with the society.
The Kur as a Political Organisation

Basically, Khasi society was established and regulated not by the
polity, but through ka longkur-longkha (inter-marriage of the clans).
Socially and spiritually the kurs are conceived of as equal and independent
entities. Political institutions emerged among the kurs in the village, the
raid and the hima for the purpose of regulating ka longkur-longkha, the
maintenance of peace, and for common defence. Religious affairs and
economy are the internal affairs of the kurs. Hence, the Khasi political
system was based on the foundation of the kur system historically and
ideologically.
Politically the Khasis consider the clan as a political unit. The
individual male representatives from each clan of the dorbar-shnong,
dorbar-raid or dorbar-hima were recognised not in their own personal
capacity but always on behalf of their kur. A man who is the syiem in
office, whether he be an uncle, brother, son or grandson of ka syiem-sad
(syiem’s mother) is only a representative in society, dorbar or kur on
behalf of ka syiem-sad (Lyngdoh, 1938: vi). Ka syiem-sad, here represents
the syiem clan. This principle applies not only to the syiem but to all
myntri or bakhraw (noble) clans as well. As the Khasis are following a
matrilineal descent, they institute the family, religion and also the state and
political system on the basis of the woman (Lyngdoh, 1938: 67). The
syiem as well as the bakhraws (founding clans’ representatives) are only
the representatives and functionaries on behalf of their clans (Lyngdoh,
1938: 84). British colonial officers have also recorded that the dorbar can
disqualify the syiem from holding that office if he has no sister or other
near female relative to assist him in the performance of the requisite state
religious ceremonies and if he declines or is unable to obtain adoption by
another branch of the syiem family (Herbert, 1903).
Ka Kur-Ka Jait in Political Affairs

It has been commonly described that the concept of “jait” refers to the
various sub-divisions of a kur (Giri, 1985: 163-166). In reality the concept
of ka jait does not refer to the sub-divisions of the kur as commonly
believed, but it refers to the political office which a kur holds in a political
community. The sub-divisions of a kur or anything may be called “jaid”,
but not “jait”. The word “jaid” means kind, and it has a general
application to all things. “Bun jaid ki syntiew” means many kinds of
flowers. “Bun jaid ki kpoh ka kur” means many kinds of sub-divisions of
the kur. But the word “jait” refers only to the kind of office a particular
kur is holding in a particular State. The word jait seems similar to the
word jat or jati, a concept prevalent among other Indian societies. But the
Khasi concept of jait does not carry a similar meaning. It is not an
economic division of labour like “jati”, and it is also not a hierarchy of
social order like “varna”, but it is a political division of labour among the
founding clans of the raid or hima.
At the time when the small political communities were formed, every
kur was also a jait. Every kur in the past was a binong-bishon (aristocratic
clan) with a particular jait in its own original raid. When a group of clans
settled in a certain geographical territory and constituted a raid or hima
(state), as the founding clans they distributed among themselves various
political and religious responsibilities or jaits, as the syiem, lyngdoh,
basan, daloi, pator, sangot, maji, soh-blei, shutia, etc., and collectively
they constituted the dorbar-longsan or the dorbar-ki bakhraw (council of
elders or council of noble ones). All the people in the state belonging to
these longsan clans have a kur as well as a jait, hence the concept of, “ka
kur-ka jait”.
In Raid Thaiang (this commune is located in the Ri Bhoi district of
Meghalaya), the kur Thaiang functions as a jait lyngdoh, the kur Myrsing-
syiem functions as the jait syiem, the kur Myrsing-lubra functions as the
jait daloi. The kur Narlong was formerly a jait syiem in Raid Thaiang, but
when it was ousted from Raid Thaiang and migrated to Raid Nongkhrah it
was adopted there as a jait kong-san. In Raid Iapngar, the jait syiem is of
the kur Shadap-Kharpati, while the jait lyngdoh is of the kur Shadap-Pnar.
A jait lyngdoh Mylliem is of the kur Marbaniang; a jait lyngdoh Sohiong
is of the kur Thabah; the kur Malngiang is the jait syiem in hima
Mawsynram. The kur Syngkli is a jait pator in Raid Nongkhrah; the kur
Malai is a jait syiem in Hima Malai-Sohmat but it is a jait daloi in Raid
Nongtluh, and so on and so forth.
26 Chapter Three
When a kpoh (section) of the kur migrates to another raid it cannot

carry its status as an aristocratic clan into that raid, but becomes an
ordinary clan or ki shongthap-shongbiang, unless it is adopted by the
dorbar longsan (council of elders) of the raid and assigned a particular
jait. The Masharing clan which was a kpoh (section) of the jait Lyngdoh of
Raid Thaiang migrated to Raid Nongtung, and in due course of time they
were conferred with a new jait called basan-pator in Raid Nongtung. So,
the Thaiang and the Masharing are of the same kur, but of different jaits.
It is said that in Hima Shella there are ki kur (clans) but there are no jait
because the kur has nothing to do with the political affairs in the villages
or hima. The wahadadars at the hima level, as well as ki tymmen ki san
and ki rangbah shnong in the village dorbar called “u sandi”, are elected
by all the male adults of the community irrespective of clan (Dkhar, 1993:
59). This indicates that the Shella people in their migration into their
present hima had not constituted themselves as founding clans in various
jaits as lyngdoh, daloi, pator, maji, sangot, etc.
So, the dorbar in the Khasi traditional concept is the council of the
representatives of the kurs who have also a jait in any political
community. The immigrant clans who have no jait in the political
community are called ki shongthap-shongbiang and they have no part in
the dorbar and political affairs of the raid or the hima.
Ka Sad-Ka Sunon and the Dorbar

The male representatives of the founding clans of the raid or hima
have rights in the affairs of the dorbar on the grounds that they have ka
sad-ka sunon. No ruling syiem can be considered traditionally and
constitutionally a syiem unless he has ka sad-ka sunon because it is the
real power behind his seat of power, and the custodian of this institution is
not the ruling syiem, but the eldest female member of the syiem family
(Lyngdoh, 1985: 3). The institution of ka sad-ka sunon is prevalent not
only at the hima level but also at the level of the raid, and it exists not only
in the jait syiem but also in the jait lyngdoh and jait bakhraw basan as
well. In some raids it is called ka sad-ka dor, and in some others it is
called, ka sad-ka duwa. The existence of ka sad-ka sunon among the
founding or ruling clans in any political community indicates that that
political community has an independent and sovereign political existence.
The Khasi society is not a web of social relationships of individuals
with a limited life span, but a web of social relationships of the permanent
living members in the form of the kurs which have the capacity for self-
renewal or perpetual succession from generation to generation. It is on the
concept of the permanent social membership of the kurs that the institution
of ka sad-ka sunon is established. The Khasi society does not recognise
the fully-fledged membership of an individual in the society because his
age is limited. That is also why the Khasis say that the testimony of a man
whose kur has become extinct is not acceptable in the dorbar however true
his testimony might be because he has a limited period of time to live, and
he has no permanent institution to back up the covenant of his statement
whether true or false and to carry the good or evil repercussion of his
statement for generations to come.
According to oral tradition, ka sad-ka sunon is the “ka thymmei”
(foundation) of the jait which rests with the kur (matrilineal clan); and the
“u thning” (source or living root) which is embodied in the person of a
female member of the jait. So, the concept of “ka sad-ka sunon” stands for
the continuing existence or source of perpetual succession of the jait,
which legitimises the position of the syiem, or the lyngdoh, or the basan-
bakhraw of the raid or the hima; and “ka sad” is the woman who
embodies that source of perpetual succession. The office of the
representative of the jait in the dorbar has to be backed up by a female
member of his jait. This concept takes concrete material form not in a
building called ka Iingsad Iing Sunon as commonly expressed, but in the
person of the eldest female member of the jait.
The fundamental concept of ka sad-ka sunon is not the seat of the
sovereignty of the state, but the sociological guarantee of the jait for the
legitimacy of its representative in the political affairs of the community.
The sovereignty of the hima does not rest with ka sad-ka sunon of the jait
syiem, or with any of the jaits. Even if the jait syiem becomes totally
extinct and the surviving male members lose ka sad-ka sunon, the
sovereignty of the hima (state) is not destroyed because ka sad-ka sunon of
the syiem does not stand for the sovereignty of the hima. Such cases have
actually happened in many raids and himas. It has been pointed out that
the jait syiem of Hima Bhowal became extinct but the sovereignty of the
Hima was not destroyed. The eight founding clans or bakhraws appointed
the Nandah clan which was from outside the hima as the new jait syiem
(Singh, 1985: 17). From that time on, the Nandah clan also became the jait
syiem in Hima Bhowal.
Traditionally, the custody of ka sad-ka sunon was always held by the
eldest female member of the jait. Every jait in the political community is
only a political aspect of the kur which is a wider and greater institution.
The kur is also a religion which is considered pure and holy. The kur
religion has a religious house or temple in the iing-khatduh, the natal
household where the youngest daughter lives in line with customary
28 Chapter Three
succession. The religious name of this iing-khatduh is “ka iing-seng”. The

centre of the social, religious and economic aspects of the kur is in the
house of ka khatduh, while the centre of the political aspect or the jait of
the kur is in the house of ka khun-rangbah (the eldest daughter) which is
called ka iing-sad. The eldest lineage is the custodian of ka sad-ka sunon,
and the youngest lineage is the custodian of the economy, the religion and
the social membership of the kur. The reason for this functional division is
because the sanctity of the kur religion cannot be mingled with the state
affairs. Among the jait lyngdoh and jait basan in any traditional raid, the
chief priest of the kur religion is an uncle of the iing-khatduh who is called
u sohsla. The representative of the jait to offer sacrifices to ki blei-ki dken
(state deities) of the raid or hima is called u lyngdoh or u sohblei. Those
who have offered sacrifices to the state deities are considered tarnished to
officiate in the kur religion. For this reason, members of the iing-khatduh
generally, cannot participate in state politics and state religion. The syiem
and the syiem-sad, or the lyngdoh and the lyngdoh-sad are in charge of the
iingsad, while u sohsla and ka khatduh are in charge of the iingseng. So, in
a traditional Khasi dorbar only the representative of the binong-bishon
(founding clan) which was a kur as well as a jait, was entitled to
participate; and moreover, he should be backed up by the institution of ka
sad-ka sunon in the person of his female clan member called ka sad.
Today, the kur has lost all of its four traditional characteristics. The
Khasi society today rests on the economy of each nuclear family, and the
concept of the kur economy becomes irrelevant; the kur is no longer a
religion, and in this new situation the maternal uncle has lost his
controlling authority because his role and status as the priest and the
manager of the kur economy have become irrelevant too. The present
Khasi society is no longer a web of social relationships between the kurs,
and all individuals, men and women have become fully-fledged members
of society apart from the kur. The kur has also drastically lost its role in
the political affairs of the present Khasi society at the raid and hima level,
and at the present village dorbar level, its role is totally absent.
Nature of the Khasi Dorbar

The term “Dorbar” in Khasi polity is a loan word, probably derived
from the Persian “darbar” or “durbar”. Whatever may be the origin of the
term, information from various sources indicates that the concept of a
political council was prevalent among the Khasis, and they had been
conducting their political affairs on the basis of the dorbars long before
the advent of British rule.
According to Khasi tradition the dorbar was considered as a sacred

and divine institution. Strict rules were prescribed for how the dorbar
should be observed because it was considered a divine agency which was
also called ka dorbar ki blei, the dorbar of the gods (Bareh, 1964: 66). It
was so-called because the Khasis considered the dorbar like a goddess
which they should honour and respect and never take lightly (Mawrie,
2000: 73). According to E. Weston Dkhar, the place where a dorbar is
conducted is called “ka lympung-ka duwan” (a gathering at the altar) or
“ka pyndem-ka duwan” (a submission to spiritual authority at the altar).
Before the commencement of a dorbar, the Khasis cried out three times to
honour God and to inform all concerned that the dorbar was about to
commence. The lyngdoh or basan or tymmen-shnong also invoked the
presence of God, and the gods and goddesses, as witness and for guidance,
and only then would the sitting of the dorbar be legitimately constituted
(Dkhar, 1993: 18). At every important dorbar the elders leading the
dorbar invoke the presence of u ryngkew-u basa (protecting the god of the
commune), as well as the spirits of the ancestors who first constituted
politics and religion in the commune. They also invoke in general the
presence of the spirits of all preceding lyngdohs and basans who have
passed away before them. The resolutions of the dorbar thus duly
constituted were considered sacred because they had been witnessed by
the presence of God and the deities of the commune as well as by the
spirits of the ancestors. So, the Khasi traditional concept of “dorbar” is not
only mundane and social, but sacred and divine. The authority of the
dorbar does not depend only on the coercive authority of the political
institution, but also on mutual submission to sacred and divine authority.
It is generally opined that the basic political communes administered
themselves by councils of which every adult male was a member (Singh,
1985: 15-16). However, according to some other authorities, not all male
adults of the community can participate in the Khasi traditional dorbar, as
it was constituted only of male adults above fifty years of age and
representing their respective clans (Bacchiarello, 2005: 92). In the view of
Kynpham Singh, the idea that all adult males can be members of a dorbar
is a recent concession (Singh, 1985: 21). A few decades ago it was the
syiem, the bakhraw and ki tymmen ki san, elders above 50 years of age,
who constituted a dorbar (Abele, 1903: 29-32). H. O. Mawrie (2000: 73)
and J. K. Tariang (2012: 184) are also of the view that members of the
dorbar should be elders who have attained the age of 50 years and above.
On the restriction to the dorbar’s representation, Kynpham Singh
pointed out two main reasons: (i) because recorded proceedings were yet
unknown, so the dorbar had to depend on the memories of its members to
30 Chapter Three
recall precedents; and (ii) by restricting the age limit, the dorbars were
kept small and manageable (Singh, 1985: 21). Another reason besides the
above pointed out by Kynpham Singh, is that a person well qualified to
represent his kur (clan) in the dorbar is one who is an uncle representing
as many iings (households) or as many kpohs (lineages) of the clan as
possible; therefore he must necessarily be a man senior in age.
According to Khasi traditional political thought, for a dorbar to be
legally valid, the presence and participation of the following categories of
members are a necessary condition: (i) u syiem, ki bakhraw (representatives of
founding clans), and ki tymmen ki san (village elders); or (ii) ki bakhraw,
and ki tymmen ki san; or (iii) ki bakhraw only. The dorbar would be
invalid if it is attended and participated only by: (i) u syiem and ki tymmen
ki san; or (ii) only ki tymmen ki san; or (iii) only u paid u phew (the
commons) (Bacchiarello, 2005: 92). Analysis of these conditions indicates
that for a Khasi traditional dorbar to be valid, the presence and
participation of the bakhraws were absolutely necessary. This was so
because the bakhraws were the representatives of the founding clans in
whom territorial authority was vested, severally at the raid level and
collectively at the hima level.
The Position of Women in the Khasi Dorbar

It is the institution of “ka sad-ka sunon” which is embodied in a female
member of the jait called ka sad which legitimises the position of the
syiem, or the lyngdoh, or the basan or bakhraw of the raid or the hima.
This shows the importance of women in Khasi traditional political
thought. But in spite of all this importance given to women, their
involvement in public administration and political dorbars is forbidden.
The question arises as to why the participation of women in the dorbar
and other public affairs is restricted. The reason generally given for such a
restriction is because politics, civil defence, justice and priesthood were
considered the domains of men (Roy, 1937; Roy, 2012: 112-113). Hence,
women who dare to voice their opinions on such public affairs are
regarded as crowing hens, which is almost a taboo (Dkhar, 1993: 27), and
are chastised and regarded as freaks of nature (Nongbri, 2003: 187)
because they portend the end of the world (Dkhar, 1993: 28). Even to this
day, some people in the villages still kill the hen that crows and attach its
head to a pole, displaying it at the road junction in the village to thwart
such a curse.
There are three actual reasons why the participation of women in
dorbars and other public affairs is restricted. The first reason is because
the Khasi traditional iing (family) is said to be a family of a woman and

her children, with caring and protecting uncles. The father’s presence or
absence was insignificant in the social interactions of ka iing. In fact, a
man was not allowed to represent his wife and children in the traditional
dorbars. Dorbar representation was always on behalf of the kur. The basic
political institution among the Khasis had been the dorbar-kur (clan
council). In the dorbar-kur, all clan members, male and female can
participate. Indeed, a dorbar-kur is invalid if no female clan member is
present. In the dorbar-kur all interests of the clan, especially the interests
of the women were thoroughly discussed and the resolutions passed in the
clan dorbar were presented and pursued by u kni rangbah (the chief uncle)
who attended the state dorbar on behalf of his clan, and all matters relating
to the welfare and interests of his mother, sisters and nieces were
presented and championed by him together with the support of other
uncles. When resolutions were adopted in the dorbar-kur, all clan
members were bound to stand in one voice through the mouth of their clan
representative, the basan or bakhraw supported by his brothers and
nephews. The popular slogan is, “Tyrrak tak tak, ngin ia leh ha ban da jop
kumba phah i mei na ïing”. Literally this would mean, “Hurray! We will
fight victoriously as instructed or desired by mother”. But in the real sense
the slogan means, “Hurray! We will fight and pursue our cause vigorously
until victory as per resolution passed in our clan council”. It is in this spirit
of the uncles representing and defending the clan that Soso Tham (1976:
32), in his poem says:
Namar ka iing, ka kur ka jaid (For the family and the clan),
Un khie u sum ka stieh ka stieh ka wait (Shall rise the spear the shield and
the sword).
The idea of a crowing hen was not really based on the belief that the
world would end when the hen crows or when a woman speaks in a
dorbar, but it was merely a sarcastic remark which a Khasi man or woman
would make to a woman of another clan generally in events of inter-clan
feuds. The remark is an implication not to the person of the woman alone,
but to her kur as a whole. The insult is aimed at the uncles who failed to
successfully conduct social interactions on behalf of their kur, thus
compelling the mother, the sister or the niece to come forward and assert
her claim. The reason that a woman is chastised as a crowing hen is
because when she attends a dorbar and pleads for herself it reflects on a
kur without uncles which is called sah-kynthei-khynnah, and this amounts
to insult and embarrassment for her brothers and uncles. So, in principle, it
was not that Khasi women were disallowed from attending public dorbars,
32 Chapter Three
it was then unnecessary for them to do so as it was solely for their own
interests that their uncles were attending the public dorbars.
The second reason why Khasi women were not allowed to participate
in a public dorbar is because in the past every political community had its
own state deities, whether gods or goddesses. As said in the foregoing, in
every dorbar the presence not only of God Almighty but also the presence
of whosoever among these state deities according to the subject matter of
the dorbar were invoked to stand witness and record accounts of the
resolutions or covenants that the participants in the dorbar were entering
into. Therefore the traditional Khasi dorbar was charged by the presence
of spirits to which a man would not like his sisters or nieces to be exposed.
The elders say that “Ym ju don rukom hakhmat ki blei ban ia suid ia shor
ne ia tang ia pung bad ka kynja ba pun ba kha” (Dkhar, 1993: 27). This
means that it is not proper for a woman who carries in her person the
faculty of conceiving and giving birth, to be involved in communications
with spiritual beings. The women carry in their persons the wombs which
stand guarantee for the kur’s continuing existence from generations to
generations, and hence, also guarantee the perpetual succession of the
clan’s political membership in the community. The womb which every kur
member is carrying in her person was called, “ka jar-ksiar iawbei” (the
golden enclosure of the ancestress). This golden enclosure of the
ancestress must be protected at all costs from being tarnished by human
beings or spirits. It was considered unfortunate if a woman in the fullness
of youth or in pregnancy were to be compelled by circumstances to attend
a dorbar charged by the presence of spirits. That is why, the dorbar, where
men and spirits are mingled in a charged atmosphere was considered to be
a male affair. In some state religious rituals where the presence of women
is necessary they usually appoint women who are past the productive age
or old women to take part in the rituals. So according to Khasi thought on
these grounds too it was not a question of gender discrimination when
women were excluded from public dorbars, but a question of honour and
protection.
The third reason why the restriction on women’s participation in the
dorbar was not considered as gender discrimination is because the
restriction is not seen as a defect in the sociological legitimacy of the
dorbar in Khasi society. As a matter of fact the act of attending a dorbar
shnong is considered not as a matter of right conferred upon the male
adults, but on the contrary it is considered as a socially imposed
responsibility or compulsion imposed on the male adults that they are
bound to attend the dorbar. That is also why fines are imposed on the male
adults of the village who fail to attend the session of the dorbar shnong.
Hamlet Bareh (1964: 62) describes the village dorbar as a very important
dorbar which all male adults ought to attend. Bareh used the phrase
“ought to” because the Khasis consider the act of attending a dorbar not as
a personal right but as a socially imposed responsibility. This concept is
also reflected in the “Ceremony of ka Teh Rangbah” provided in Section 6
of the (Village Administration) Bill, 2014, recently passed by the Khasi
Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC). This ceremony indicates
that it is not a right conferred on every male who attains the age of 18
years to participate in the dorbar but it is an imposition of a social
responsibility. The very word “teh” which means “to bind” indicates the
concept behind it. Sometimes, the concept, teh rangbah is also called bat-
dorbar (catching a person to the dorbar). People in the villages also do not
usually say that women are not permitted to attend a dorbar, but they say
that women are not compelled to attend and participate in the dorbar or
that they are not fined for not attending it.
In today’s social situation, it is found that the traditional functionaries
in the raids exercise power mostly for their own individual interests, and
their answerability to the kur or the female clan members is negligible. So
the principle that the uncles are representing the interests of the female
clan members in the dorbar is no longer relevant. The principle that
female clan members embody ka sad-ka sunon which legitimises the
political offices of the male representatives in the dorbar has become
irrelevant as far as the dorbar shnong is concerned. As such, the women’s
role of producing the heirs necessary to maintain the clan’s perpetual
succession in political office has become irrelevant too. In the present-day
dorbar shnong, the male adults attend dorbar not on behalf of their clans
at all but for their own personal interests and on behalf of their nuclear
families. God or other spirits are no longer religiously invoked to be
present as witnesses in the dorbar of the villages or the raids. So the
principle of protecting women from defilement of the occult relations has
also become irrelevant. In today’s context, it is a matter of right for an
individual to participate in the political affairs of the community. Hence
the idea that the act of attending a dorbar shnong is not a matter of right
but a responsibility or a compulsion imposed on the male adults, is no
longer relevant in the modern context. Therefore, the grounds for the
restriction of women’s participation in public affairs have become
irrelevant, and the restriction itself has no longer traditional grounds of
justice, and hence it becomes gender discrimination.
Another random document with
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“Overseers are changed every year; a few remain four or five
years, but the average time they remain on the same plantation
does not exceed two years.”—Southern Agriculturist, vol. iv., p.
351.
[24] “On Monday last, as James Allen (overseer on Prothro’s
plantation at St. Maurice) was punishing a negro boy named Jack,
for stealing hogs, the boy ran off before the overseer had
chastised him sufficiently for the offence. He was immediately
pursued by the overseer, who succeeded in catching him, when
the negro drew a knife and inflicted a terrible gash in his
abdomen. The wounds of the overseer were dressed by Dr.
Stephens, who pronounces it a very critical case, but still
entertains hope of his recovery.”—Nachitoches Chronicle.
[25] Mr. Russell makes an observation to the same effect with
regard to the Cuba plantations, p. 230. On these large cotton
plantations there are frequently more men than women, men
being bought in preference to women for cotton picking.
The contrary is usually the case on the small plantations, where
the profits of breeding negroes are constantly in view.
[26] “A woman, calling herself Violet Ludlow, was arrested a few
days ago, and committed to jail, on the supposition that she was a
runaway slave belonging to A. M. Mobley, of Upshur county,
Texas, who had offered through our columns a reward of fifty
dollars for her apprehension. On being brought before a justice of
the peace, she stated that she was a white woman, and claimed
her liberty. She states that she is a daughter of Jeremiah Ludlow,
of Pike county, Alabama, and was brought from that country in
1853, by George Cope, who emigrated to Texas. After arriving in
Texas, she was sold by George Cope to a Doctor Terry, in Upshur
county, Texas, and was soon after sold by him to a Mrs. Hagen, or
Hagens, of the same county. Violet says that she protested
against each sale made of her, declaring herself a free woman.
She names George Gilmer, Thomas Rogers, John Garret, and
others, residents of Pike county, Alabama, as persons who have
known her from infancy as the daughter of one Jeremiah Ludlow
and Rene Martin, a widow at the time of her birth, and as being a
free white woman, and her father a free white man. Violet is about
instituting legal proceedings for her freedom.”—Shreveport
Southwestern.
“Some days since, a woman named Pelasgie was arrested as a
fugitive slave, who has lived for more than twelve years in this city
as a free woman. She was so nearly white that few could detect
any traces of her African descent. She was arrested at the
instance of a man named Raby, who claimed her as belonging to
an estate of which he is heir-at-law. She was conveyed to the First
District guard-house for safe keeping, and while there she stated
to Acting Recorder Filleul that she was free, had never belonged
to Raby, and had been in the full and unquestioned enjoyment of
her freedom in this city for the above-mentioned period. She also
stated that she had a house, well furnished, which she was in the
habit of letting out in rooms.”—New Orleans Picayune.
[27] “Bishop Polk, of Louisiana, was one of the guests. He
assured me that he had been all over the country on Red River,
the scene of the fictitious sufferings of ‘Uncle Tom,’ and that he
had found the temporal and spiritual welfare of the negroes well
cared for. He had confirmed thirty black persons near the situation
assigned to Legree’s estate. He is himself the owner of four
hundred slaves, whom he endeavours to bring up in a religious
manner. He tolerates no religion on his estate but that of the
Church. He baptizes all the children, and teaches them the
Catechism. All, without exception, attend the Church service, and
the chanting is creditably performed by them, in the opinion of
their owner. Ninety of them are communicants, marriages are
celebrated according to the Church ritual, and the state of morals
is satisfactory. Twenty infants had been baptized by the bishop
just before his departure from home, and he had left his whole
estate, his keys, &c., in the sole charge of one of his slaves,
without the slightest apprehension of loss or damage. In judging
of the position of this Christian prelate as a slave-owner, the
English reader must bear in mind that, by the laws of Louisiana,
emancipation has been rendered all but impracticable, and, that, if
practicable, it would not necessarily be, in all cases, an act of
mercy or of justice.”—The Western World Revisited. By the Rev.
Henry Caswall, M.A., author of “America and the American
Church,” etc. Oxford, John Henry Parker, 1854.
[28] In White’s ‘Statistics of Georgia’ (page 377), the citizens of
Liberty county are characterized as “unsurpassed for the great
attention paid to the duties of religion.”—Dr. Stevens, in his
‘History of Georgia,’ describes them as “worthy of their sires,” who
were, “the moral and intellectual nobility of the province,” “whose
accession was an honour to Georgia, and has ever proved one of
its richest blessings.”—In the biography of General Scrivens the
county of Liberty is designated “proud spot, of Georgia’s soil!”—
Dr. J. M. B. Harden, in a medical report of the county, says: “The
use of intoxicating drinks has been almost entirely given up” by its
people.—White says (‘Statistics,’ p. 373), “The people of Liberty,
from their earliest settlement, have paid much attention to the
subject of education. Excellent schools are found in different
portions of the county, and it is believed a greater number of
young men from Liberty graduate at our colleges than from any
[other] section of Georgia. Indeed, it has been proverbial for
furnishing able ministers and instructors.”
[29] The following newspaper paragraph indicates the wholesale
way in which slaves may be nominally Christianized:—
“Revival among the Slaves.—Rev. J. M. C. Breaker, of Beaufort,
S.C., writes to the Southern Baptist, that within the last three
months he has baptized by immersion three hundred and fifty
persons, all of them, with a few exceptions, negroes. These
conversions were the result of a revival which has been in
progress during the last six months. On the 12th inst., he baptized
two hundred and twenty-three converts—all blacks but three—and
the ceremony, although performed with due deliberation, occupied
only one hour and five minutes. This is nearly four a minute, and
Mr. Breaker considers it a demonstration that the three thousand
converted on the day of Pentecost could easily have been
baptized by the twelve apostles—each taking two hundred and
fifty—in an hour and thirteen minutes.”
[30] “A small farmer,” who “has had control of negroes for thirty
years and has been pursuing his present system with them for
twenty years,” and who “owning but a few slaves is able,” as he
observes, “to do better by them” than large planters, writing to Mr.
De Bow, says: “I have tried faithfully to break up immorality. I have
not known an oath to be sworn for a long time. I know of no
quarrelling, no calling harsh names, and but little stealing. Habits
of amalgamation, I cannot stop. I can only check it in name. I am
willing to be taught, for I have tried everything I know.” He has his
field-negroes attend his own family prayers on Sunday, prayer
meetings at four o’clock Sunday mornings, etc.—De Bow’s
Resources, vol. ii., p. 337.
[31] The “Southern Presbyterian,” in reviewing some observations
made before a South Carolina Bible Society, in which it had been
urged that if slaves were permitted to read the Bible, they would
learn from it to be more submissive to the authority which the
State gives the master over them, says that the speaker “seems
to be uninformed of the fact that the Scriptures are read in our
churches every Sabbath day, and those very passages which
inculcate the relative duties of masters and servants in
consequence of their textual, i. e. legally prescribed connections,
are more frequently read than any other portions of the Bible.”
[32] Organized action for the abolition of slavery in the island of
Java, has since been authentically reported.
[33] Twice it happened to come to my knowledge that sons of a
planter, by whom I was lodged while on this journey—lads of
fourteen or sixteen—who were supposed to have slept in the
same room with me, really spent the night, till after daybreak, in
the negro cabins. A southern merchant, visiting New York, to
whom I expressed the view I had been led to form of the evil of
slavery in this way, replied that he thought I over-estimated the
evil to boys on the plantations, but that it was impossible to over-
estimate it in towns. “I have personal knowledge,” he continued,
“that there are but two lads, sixteen years old, in our town, [a
small market town of Alabama,] who have not already had
occasion to resort to remedies for the penalty of licentiousness.”
“When on my brother’s plantation, just before I came North,” said
another Southern merchant, on his annual visit to New York, “I
was informed that each of his family-servants were suffering from
——, and I ascertained that each of my brother’s children, girls
and boys, had been informed of it, and knew how and from whom
it had been acquired. The negroes being their familiar
companions, I tried to get my brother to send them North with me
to school. I told him he might as well have them educated in a
brothel at once, as in the way they were growing up.”
[34] Jefferson fails to enumerate, among the evils of slavery, one
of its influences which I am inclined to think as distinct and as
baneful to us nationally as any other. How can men retain the
most essential quality of true manhood who daily, without
remonstrance or interference, see men beaten, whose position
renders effective resistance totally impracticable—and not only
men, but women, too! Is it not partially the result of this, that self-
respect seldom seems to suggest to an angry man at the South
that he should use anything like magnanimity? that he should be
careful to secure fair play for his opponent in a quarrel? A
gentleman of veracity, now living in the South, told me that among
his friends he had once numbered two young men, who were
themselves intimate friends, till one of them, taking offence at
some foolish words uttered by the other, challenged him. A large
crowd assembled to see the duel, which took place on a piece of
prairie ground. The combatants came armed with rifles, and at the
first interchange of shots the challenged man fell disabled by a
ball in the thigh. The other, throwing down his rifle, walked toward
him, and kneeling by his side, drew a bowie knife, and deliberately
butchered him. The crowd of bystanders not only permitted this,
but the execrable assassin still lives in the community, has since
married, and, as far as my informant could judge, his social
position has been rather advanced than otherwise, from thus
dealing with his enemy. In what other English—in what other
civilized or half-civilized community would such cowardly atrocity
have been endured?
[35] Richland District contains seven thousand white, and thirteen
thousand slave population. The Report is published in the
Charleston Standard, October 12th, 1854.
[36] “Most persons allow their negroes to cultivate a small crop of
their own. For a number of reasons the practice is a bad one. It is
next to impossible to keep them from working the crop on the
Sabbath. They labour at night when they should be at rest. There
is no saving more than to give them the same amount; for, like all
other animals, the negro is only capable of doing a certain amount
of work without injury. To this point he may be worked at his
regular task, and any labour beyond this is an injury to both
master and slave. They will pilfer to add to what cotton or corn
they have made. If they sell the crop and trade for themselves,
they are apt to be cheated out of a good portion of their labour.
They will have many things in their possession, under colour of
purchases, which we know not whether they have gained
honestly.”—Southern Cultivator.
[37] P. W. Fraser, p. 574, Pub. Doc. VI., 1846.
[38] Among the thousands of applicants for soup, and bread, and
fuel, as charity, I never saw, during “the famine” in New York, one
negro. Five Points Pease said to me, “The negro seems to be
more provident than the Celt. The poor blacks always manage to
keep themselves more decent and comfortable than the poor
whites. They very rarely complain, or ask for charity; and I have
often found them sharing their food with white people, who were
too poor to provide for themselves.” A great deal of falsehood is
circulated and accredited about the sufferings of the free negroes
at the North. Their condition is bad enough, but no worse than
that of any men educated and treated as they are, must be; and it
is, on an average, far better than that of the slave.
[39] In the obscure country papers of Northern Alabama and
Georgia, and Western South Carolina, I have seen many more
descriptions, similar to these, of this famine; but I cannot now lay
my hand on them. These I have by accident, not having taken
pains to collect them for this purpose. In a district of the Slave
States, where it is boasted that more than a hundred bushels of
maize to the acre has been raised, and where not one out of five
hundred of the people is engaged in any other than agricultural
industry, I have myself bought maize, which had been raised by
free labour, in Ohio, at two dollars a bushel.
[40] “North America, its Agriculture and Climate,” by Robert
Russell, Kilwhiss. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1857.
[41] De Bow, vol. iii., p. 342.
[42] See De Bow’s “Resources,” art. Tobacco.
[43] Vol. i., p. 175, “Resources.”
[44] In my Notes on Eastern Virginia, it was mentioned that a
tobacco planter informed me that he could not raise the finer sorts
of tobacco with profit, because he could not make his slaves take
pains enough with it; and in certain localities in Ohio, having a
favourable soil for the production of fine or high-priced tobacco, it
appears that free labour is engaged more profitably in the
cultivation of tobacco than in the cultivation of corn. It is the same
in parts of Connecticut and of Massachusetts. Except in these
limited districts, however, it is found that the labour of Ohio, as of
Connecticut and Massachusetts, is more profitably directed to the
cultivation of Indian corn and other crops than of tobacco.
[45] “Resources,” p. 175.
[46] Virginia, with 10,360,135 acres of improved land, produced,
according to the last census returns,
35,254,319 bushels of corn,
56,803,227 pounds of tobacco.
Ohio, with 9,851,493 acres of improved land, produced
59,078,695 bushels of corn,
10,454,449 pounds of tobacco.
The aggregate value of these two products alone, at present New
York prices, would be
Ohio $5,127,223,565
Virginia $3,564,639,385
Actual crops per acre, on the average, as returned by the
marshals for 1849-50 (Census Compilation, p. 178):
Corn. Tobacco.
Ohio 36 bushels 730 pounds.
Virginia 18 ” 630 ”
[47] “North America, its Climate,” etc., p. 286.
[48] De Bow’s “Resources.” See “Seaboard Slave States,” pp. 463
and 586, for further southern evidence.
[49] A writer in “Household Words,” speaking of the “popular
fallacy that a man cannot do a hard day’s work in the climate of
India,” says:—
“I have seen as hard work, real bone and muscle work, done by
citizens of the United Kingdom in the East, as was ever achieved
in the cold West, and all upon rice and curry—not curry and rice—
in which the rice has formed the real meal, and the curry has
merely helped to give it a relish, as a sort of substantial
Kitchener’s zest, or Harvey’s sauce. I have seen, likewise,
Moormen, Malabars, and others of the Indian labouring classes,
perform a day’s work that would terrify a London porter, or coal-
whipper, or a country navvy, or ploughman; and under the direct
rays of a sun that has made a wooden platform too hot to stand
on in thin shoes, without literally dancing with pain, as I have done
many a day, within six degrees of the line.”
[50] Dr. Barton, of New Orleans, in a paper read before the
Academy of Science of that city, says: “The class of diseases
most fatal in the South are mainly of a ‘preventible nature,’ and
embraces fevers and intestinal diseases, and depends mostly on
conditions under the control of man, as drainage, the removal of
forest growth—of personal exposure and private hygiene. The
climate further north is too rigid the greater part of the year for
personal exposure to the open air, so essential to the enjoyment
of health, and when the extremes are great and rapid, another
class of maladies predominate—the pulmonary, as well as others
arising from crowding, defective ventilation and filth—exacting
preventive measures from the public authorities with as much
urgency as the worst fevers of the South.”
[51] Indian corn has been considered an exception, and there are
probably larger corn fields in Indiana than cotton fields in
Mississippi.
[52] I believe that plantations or agricultural operations devoted to
a single crop are, as a general rule, profitable in proportion to their
size in the Free States, unless, indeed, the market is a small one
and easily overstocked, which is never the case with the cotton
market.
[53] Vol. i., p. 175, “Resources.”
[54] Some one can render a service to civilization by publishing
precisely what feudal rights, so called, were abolished in large
parts of Germany and Hungary in 1848, and what results to the
commerce of the districts affected the greater freedom and
impulse to industry arising therefrom has had. If I am rightly
informed, trade, in many cases, both export and import, has
already much more than quadrupled in value, thousands of
peasants now demanding numerous articles and being able to
pay for them, which before only a few score or hundred
proprietors were expected to buy.
[55] From an “Address on Climatology,” before the Academy of
Science, by Dr. Barton, of New Orleans:—
“The institution of slavery operates by contrast and comparison; it
elevates the tone of the superior, adds to its refinement, allows
more time to cultivate the mind, exalts the standard in morals,
manners, and intellectual endowments; operates as a safety-valve
for the evil disposed, leaving the upper race purer, while it really
preserves from degradation, in the scale of civilization, the inferior,
which we see is their uniform destiny when left to themselves. The
slaves constitute essentially the lowest class, and society is
immeasurably benefitted by having this class, which constitutes
the offensive fungus—the great cancer of civilized life—a vast
burthen and expense to every community, under surveillance and
control; and not only so, but under direction as an efficient agent
to promote the general welfare and increase the wealth of the
community. The history of the world furnishes no institution under
similar management, where so much good actually results to the
governors and the governed as this in the Southern States of
North America.”
“It is by the existence of slavery, exempting so large a portion of
our citizens from labour, that we have leisure for intellectual
pursuits.”—Governor Hammond, in South. Literary Mess.
“Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox, by giving him a
cultivated understanding, or fine feelings? So far as the mere
labourer has the pride, the knowledge, or the aspirations of a free
man, he is unfitted for his situation, and must doubly feel its
infelicity. If there are sordid, servile, and laborious offices to be
performed, is it not better that there should be sordid, servile, and
laborious beings to perform them?”—Chancellor Harper; Address
to South Carolina Institute.
“The relations between the North and the South are very
analogous to those which subsisted between Greece and the
Roman Empire, after the subjugation of Achaia by the Consul
Mummius. The dignity and energy of the Roman character,
conspicuous in war and in politics, were not easily tamed and
adjusted to the arts of industry and literature. The degenerate and
pliant Greeks, on the contrary, excelled in the handicraft and polite
professions. We learn from the vigorous invective of Juvenal, that
they were the most useful and capable of servants, whether as
pimps or professors of rhetoric. Obsequious, dexterous, and
ready, the versatile Greeks monopolized the business of teaching,
publishing, and manufacturing in the Roman Empire—allowing
their masters ample leisure for the service of the State, in the
Senate or in the field.”—Richmond Enquirer.
[56] The business committee of the South Carolina State
Agricultural Society reported, Aug. 9, 1855:—
“Our old fields are enlarging, our homesteads have been
decreasing fearfully in number. * * * We are not only losing some
of our most energetic and useful citizens to supply the bone and
sinew of other States, but we are losing our slave population,
which is the true wealth of the State, our stocks of hogs, horses,
mules, and cattle are diminishing in size and decreasing in
number, and our purses are strained for the last cent to supply
their places from the North-western States.”
[57] De Bow’s “Review,” vol. xviii. p. 790.
[58] “Georgia Scenes,” by the Rev. and Hon. Judge Longstreet,
now President of the University of Mississippi. Harper’s edition, p.
76.
[59] Address before the South Carolina Institute.
[60] Fifth Annual Report to Directors of Graniteville Company.
[61] Mr. Russell uses the language of England. There are several
collections of houses on this river bank, the inhabitants of which
would consider it an insult if they should hear such a humble term
as “village” applied to their pseudo towns and cities.
[62] “North America; its Agriculture and Climate,” p. 290.
[63] It was not long since estimated in the Legislature of Kentucky
as seven to one in that State.
[64] I fear that it must be confessed that this general rule has now
a multitude of exceptions in our large towns, where, in New York,
especially, we seem taking some pains to form a permanent lower
class. With the present great and apparently permanent falling off
in the European emigration it can hardly last, however.
[65]
The ratio of white illiterate to white population, per cent., as
returned, is,
{Free 3.36
States,
{Slave 8.27
States
of the native population, over twenty years old, it is,
{Free 4.12 (Census Compendium, pp. 152,
States, 153).
{Slave 17.23
States
The ability to merely read and write may itself be of little value, but
the fact of a child’s having had the painstaking necessary to so far
instruct him is in some degree a means of measuring his other
inherited wealth, and thus his breeding.
[66] “Resources,” vol. ii., pp. 197, 198.
[67] The late Mr. Brooks’ character should be honestly
considered, now that personal enmity toward him is impossible.
That he was courteous, accomplished, warm-hearted, and hot-
blooded, dear as a friend and fearful as an enemy, may be
believed by all; but, in the South, his name is yet never mentioned
without the term gallant or courageous, spirited or noble, is also
attached to it; and we are obliged to ask, why insist on this? The
truth is, we include a habit of mind in these terms which slavery
has rendered, in a great degree, obsolete in the South. The man
who has been accustomed from childhood to see men beaten
when they have no chance to defend themselves; to hear men
accused, reproved, vituperated, who dare not open their lips in
self-defence or reply; the man who is accustomed to see other
men whip women without interference, remonstrance, or any
expression of indignation, must have a certain quality, which is an
essential part of personal honour with us, greatly blunted, if not
entirely destroyed. The same quality which we detest in the
assassination of an enemy, is essentially constant in all slavery. It
is found in effecting one’s will with another, when he cannot, if he
would, defend himself. Accustomed to this in every hour of their
lives. Southerners do not feel magnanimity and the “fair-play”
impulse to be a necessary part of the quality of “spirit,” courage,
and nobleness. By spirit they apparently mean only passionate
vindictiveness of character, and by gallantry mere intrepidity.
[68] From the Introduction to “The Englishman in Kansas,” (by the
author of this work).
[69] That slaves have ever been burned alive has been
indignantly denied. The late Judge Jay told me that he had
evidence in his possession of negro burnings every year in the
last twenty.
[70] 2 Devereaux’s North Carolina Reports, 263.
[71] The real object of the systematic mail robbery which is
maintained throughout the South, and of the censorship of the
press which is otherwise attempted, was once betrayed by a
somewhat distinguished Southern editor, Duff Green, in the
United States Telegraph, in the following words:—
“The real danger of this [slave insurrection] is remote. We believe
we have most to fear from the organized action upon the
consciences and fears of the slaveholders themselves; from the
insinuation of their dangerous heresies into our schools, our
pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is only by alarming the
consciences of the weak and feeble, and diffusing among our
people a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery, that the
Abolitionists can accomplish their object.”
[72] Elsewhere the Messrs. Appleton are spoken of as “the great
Abolition publishers of New York.”
[73] Note the argument, I pray you, reader. Why, indeed? Why is
there not a Feejee Iliad? Are not the Feejees heathen, as Homer
was? Why should not the Book of Mormon be as good a thing as
the Psalms of David? Was not Joseph Smith also a polygamist?
[74] From the Columbia (S. C.) Times, quoted without dissent in
the conservative South Carolina paper, the Charleston Mercury:—
“The loss that the South annually sustains by the running of
slaves into Canada, is of sufficient importance to justify her public
men in insisting upon some action of the Government of the
United States in the premises. And we confess our surprise that
Southern statesmen have submitted with so much patience to the
annual robbery of thousands of dollars’ worth of property to which
she has as good a right as the land they cultivate. The time is
propitious for the acquisition of all disputed rights from European
powers. They cannot afford to break just now with the United
States. Let our public men move in the matter, and we question
not but that the President and the American Minister at St.
James’s will give the movement a cordial support. Besides, this is
a golden moment which may never return. Before we get another
sound man in the presidential chair, peace may be made in
Europe, and the European powers be less inclined to look with
favour upon the demands of America.”
[75] “While it is far more obvious that negroes should be slaves
than whites, for they are only fit to labour, not to direct; yet the
principle of slavery is itself right, and does not depend upon
difference of complexion. Difference of race, lineage, of language,
of habits, and customs, all tend to render the institution more
natural and durable; and although slaves have been generally
whites, still the masters and slaves have generally been of
different national descent. Moses and Aristotle, the earliest
historians, are both authorities in favour of this difference of race,
but not of colour.”—Richmond Enquirer.
[76] Abstract of the Seventh Census, and the able work of
Professor Tucker, on the “Progress of the United States in
Population and Wealth.”
[77] The population, following Mr. White, is given in round
numbers, from the State Census of 1845; average personal
estate, per family of citizens, reckoned from an official return,
published in the “Soil of the South” (Columbus, Georgia, 1852, p.
210), the amount given for each county being divided by one-fifth
the number of its population (for families). Observations on
education and the character of the people, from “White’s Statistics
of Georgia” (generally in quotations). School, library, and church
statistics, in figures from official United States Census, 1850.
[78] The presence of these few planters, with their valuable
human property, makes the average nominal wealth of each white
family, at first sight, appear large. If, however, the slaves had been
appraised at only $500 each, which would be low, they would
alone amount in value in some counties to the sum assigned for
the whole personal property of the citizens. This item is not,
therefore, trustworthy, but, in comparing the coast and second tier
counties, it serves to show the great difference in the average
wealth of the citizens of each. A similar division of personal
estate, as officially returned for the city of New York, would give
$4,660 to each family.
[79] “White’s Statistics,” p. 224.
[80] Hewitt, —; “Seaboard Slave States,” p. 528.
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(Download PDF) Revisiting Traditional Institutions in The Khasi Jaintia Hills Charles Reuben Lyngdoh Editor Full Chapter PDF

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Revisiting Traditional Institutions in the

Khasi-Jaintia Hills Charles Reuben

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Little House in the Hollywood Hills Charlotte Stewart

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The Hills of Rome Caroline Vout

Case studies in the traditional food sector: a volume

Charles Reuben Lyngdoh

Edited by Charles Reuben Lyngdoh

This book first published 2016

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Copyright © 2016 by Charles Reuben Lyngdoh and contributors

ISBN (10): 1-4438-9969-0

List of Tables ............................................................................................ viii

List of Contributors .................................................................................... xi

Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1

Chapter Two ................................................................................................ 6

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 21

Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 38

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 52

Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 80

Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 112

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 125

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 138

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 150

Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 163

Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 179

Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 188

Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 200

Table 5.1 The Nine Villages of Shella Confederacy

Traditional institutions in the Khasi-Jaintia society are “living

1. Airpeace Well Rani is Assistant Professor, Department of Political

12. Monica Neeta Laloo is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,

The existence of the office of chiefship and other institutions

happening after India’s independence with the introduction of the

the administration. In some cases, the principle of hereditary chiefship was

land, unreserved forests, the management and control of primary school

and constitutional institutions in a changing political scenario in the Khasi

THE KHASI STATES AND THE BRITISH:

CHARLES REUBEN LYNGDOH

This rudimentary stage of state formation probably arose out of voluntary

Similarly Bareh observed that:

Syiemship was devised to amalgamate identical pursuits, interests and

reciprocity along with a consolidation of other intimate relations amongst

Political Development in the Khasi Hills

a. the establishment of the Khasi National Dorbar (hereafter KND) on

b. the establishment of the Federated Khasi States (hereafter FKS) on

The political ambitions of the Federated Khasi States were short-lived.

materialise. Further, the recognition granted to them by the government in

Political Interest and Articulation on the Eve

states would co-operate with the new Government in building up a new

The Cabinet Mission’s visit to India gave an opportunity to the hill

a. The Khasi Jaintia Political Association (hereafter KJPA), formed in

Both of these organisations spoke of an autonomous but unified and

a. The Chamber of Princes on June 19, 1946 appointed a Negotiating

Assembly. The FKS was desirous of being represented in the

The Standing Committee of the Federation of the Khasi States was

continue to maintain administrative relations with the Province of Assam