By Dr. Omarlin Kyndiah
In the past the Jaintias were all grouped together under a single Kingdom. They were the first among the hill people of North East India to have evolved a centralized State system or Hima under the Syiem, the Elakas under the Dollois as the provinces, the Patorships as the division, the Raids and the Villages or Chnong under the village Headman or Waheh Chnong. It took the Jaintias approximately for about a thousand years from the Third Century B.C to the Eight Century A.D to complete the process of State formation. This period may be regarded as the ‘Golden Era’ in the political history of the Jaintias. However, when the British took over the administration of the Jaintia Hills on March 15, 1835, they destroyed the grand political edifice which had been laboriously built brick by brick by the Jaintias. The top structure, the office of the Syiem was abolished, though at the same time they retained the other traditional institutions viz. the office of Dolloi, Pator and Waheh Chnong. The Last Jaintia King was granted a pension of Rupees Five Hundred a month by the British till his death in 1861. This marks the beginning of the political insignificance of the Jaintia Hills.
Furthermore, the whole of Jaintia Hills along with a few villages in Khasi Hills were administratively grouped together under one system of administration by treating them as ‘British Areas’. While the Khasi States were given Semi-independent and internal autonomy. This different treatment and imposition of administration under two distinct types by the British created some sort of discontent among the Jaintias. As a result, the Jaintias were further pushed into political insignificance. The Solidarity movement thus started in Jaintia Hills with the establishment of the Jaintia Durbar in 1900, twenty-three years before the establishment of Khasi National Durbar. The Jaintia Durbar led by Rev. L. Gatphoh in a memorandum on May 14, 1928 demanded before the Indian Statutory Commission their inclusion in the statutory reform and protested against their conversion into a ‘frontier tribe’, which would retard their progress and deprive the Jaintias of their rights.
The political insignificance of Jaintia Hills was further reinforced after independence when the Khasi and Jaintia Hills were constituted under one common administrative unit, the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District and also under one ‘united’ Autonomous District Council. The United District Council was never welcomed by the smaller ethnic group the Jaintias, who are the closest cousins of the Khasis. The movement led by Late S. Bareh for the creation of a separate autonomous District Council for the then Jowai Subdivision can be traced back to the time when the Bordoloi Sub-Committee, a Committee of the Constituent Assembly of India was considering the formation of district councils in all autonomous districts of Assam. Rev. J.J.M. Nichols Roy, a member of the Committee, managed to persuade the leader of the movement to agree to a United District Council for the entire Khasi and Jaintia Hills with an assurance that there would be a uniform administration. Subsequently, the United Khasi-Jaintia Autonomous District Council was created in 1952. The working of the Council came under fire quite early. No efforts were being made towards uniform administration.
In 1953, the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District Council enforced the Assam Land and Revenue Regulations, 1886 to collect house-tax and revenue from the Jaintia area, whereas, from Khasi areas proper no collection could be made. In the same year the Council brought all the four kinds of markets – under private ownership, syiemship, dolloiship and sirdarship under its control. The Jaintia market is privately owned and the income from the Jaintia market is over Rs 2 lakhs and that from the Khasi markets was about Rs. 10000/- a year only. The revenue from the grazing lands in Jaintia is paid to the District Council, whereas that from the Khasi Hills to the Syiems. The Jaintia see no reason why they should be taxed when the Khasi States are untaxed. There is no equal distribution of Government grant, although much of the income of the United Khasi Jaintia District Council comes from Jowai Subdivision. In order to appease the disenchanted Jaintias the District Council tried to introduce house-tax in Khasi Hills, but it failed due to opposition of the Khasi States. The only alternative left was to withdraw the house-tax in Jaintia Hills. This, among other things, has convinced the Jaintias that the Khasis are capable of taxing themselves. All this created a fear psychosis in the minds of the Jaintia people that they were being ill-treated, deprived of their legitimate rights in matters of employment and development activities.
The Jaintia people felt the creation of a separate District Council for the Jowai Subdivision will bring a sense of new hope, among others in the political fortunes of Jaintia Hills. The reaction was immediate. Series of representations and memoranda were submitted in 1957. In a memorandum submitted on the 1st November 1957 to the then Union Home Minister, Pt. Gobin Ballabh Pant by the representative of the District Council, an issue was raised on an inequitable treatment. Further, the memorandum made it very clear that nothing short of a separate District Council would be the solution for the less advanced Jaintias. The memorandum further reiterate that in case the authority does not find it proper to grant a separate District Council to the Jowai Subdivision, the Jaintias would prefer to be severed from the District and Centrally administered as otherwise there is a genuine fear that the Jaintias as a distinct people with rich history, age-old culture and custom would gradually pushed to political oblivion as a result of domination by the majority of the United Khasi Jaintia autonomous District Council. The terms ‘majority group’ and ‘minority group’ may mean religious stratification in Indian context, and generally racial and ethnic stratification. According to one opinion, it seems more accurate to use the term dominant group for majority group and subordinate group for minority group.
In another memorandum submitted to Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 30.12.1957, the leaders once again repeated the demand for a separate District Council for the Jowai Subdivision. The key argument for a separate District Council is that, firstly, it will dispel the sense of slavery and inferiority complex that is still lingering in the hearts of the people of the Jaintia Subdivision and which the United Khasi- Jaintia Hills District Council has not. Secondly, in a separate District Council of their own, the people of the Jaintia Subdivision will have the sense of having the right to govern themselves as the people of a democratic Government will infuse the spirit of freedom as enjoyed by our brethren in India
There isn’t enough room for all the information provided in all the memoranda that have been submitted over a period of six to seven years to be included in this write up. Altogether forty-three memoranda were submitted by various organisations, groups and individuals. In the fitness of things, it is worthy to mention the point at issue that has been raised and urged by the leaders of the movement. Among others, the demand for a separate District Council for Jaintia Hills is in order to help them maintain their separate ethnic identity as well as safeguard their political significance. Moreover, there is a conscious feeling among the Jaintias that their identity might eventually be threatened if they were to continue under the same administrative roof along with the dominant Khasis.
In response to the persistent demand for a separate District Council for Jowai Subdivision, the Government of Assam in 26th August, 1963 constituted a Commission to consider bifurcation of the United Khasi Jaintia District Council under the Chairmanship of G.P.Jarman. The Commission after a careful study of the forty-three memoranda recommended that “we feel that if the inhabitants of Jaintia Hills work together and maintain the existing system of administration, there is no reason why a separate District Council would, we think, resolve the prevailing tension and bitterness, due to lack of uniformity in administration between them and the Khasis and we hope lead to a better understanding between them. We accordingly recommended the creation of a new Autonomous District Council…. from the United Khasi Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council”.
Following the Jarman Commission recommendation the Jowai Autonomous District Council was created with effect from 1st December 1964 by the Assam Government by notification No. TAD/R/50/64 dated 23.11.1964. The Council was rechristened as Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council after Jowai Subdivision was upgraded as Civil District known as Jaintia Hills District.
The Jaintias aspiration of having the right to govern themselves had been fulfilled. But unfortunately, the working of the Council is so far unsatisfactory. Anyway, the working of the Sixth Schedule is subject to scrutiny quite early. In 1960, the Committee appointed by the Governor of Assam to examine the financial conditions and working of each District/Regional Council reported that “the financial condition of most of the District/ Regional Council is not satisfactory”. In 1966, the Pataskar Commission also found the performance of the Councils generally unsatisfactory. The Commission further observed that “there were serious complaints against the accounts of the Councils”. The questions that linger in the back of our minds is ‘What was wrong with the Sixth Schedule’ ?
