If one makes a reckoning of the different institutions that are involved in a society, it is obvious that Indian Institutions in general and Khasi-Pnar Institutions in particular are declining, and the reason for it is too obvious though one would initially avoid hitting the nail on the head, as the expression goes. We have heard from no less than our own elected representatives that religion has failed us, politics has failed us, social-pressure groups have failed us and every Institution that we turn to has failed us. Why? There is only one answer – the people have become less conscientious of their responsibility to the society in a moral sense and a guilty conscience no more hurts those that deceive and come as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
I need not elaborate on the above accusations, as anyone can look at any one of the above institutions that are manifest in a society and see for oneself that personal profits and pleasures now are goals of the men and women that run these institutions, not the advancement of society. No society can afford to allow its members to earn more than it can afford and if those in power in political Institutions, religious groups, commerce, etc. use all the power in the system to earn for themselves alone there is bound to be a shortage of returns in the direction for which the institution was created in the first place. The essential ingredient has gone out of the entire system of social life in the society – the end as well as the means to the end.
The truth in the development of every society is that culture is the end goal – essentially a virtuous culture that is based on sound moral principles that every individual is instinctively born with and inherently knows is necessary in the growth and the development of humankind. As to how this apriori requirement permeates the individual is the greatest mystery that philosophy will ever seek to explain from one generation to the next, and society will ever seek to develop from one civilisation to the next. And as Khasi-Pnars we too were progressing on that track till we adopted other religions and other education systems.
As things stand these days, we must not deceive ourselves into believing that culture and politics (or religion for that matter) go hand in hand in the progress of the society, or to be more specific in the progress of a society that formerly developed itself from original time-tested moral principles. Under the current situation, our original culture is antagonized by our politics, our religion, our education, etc. and the “Cultural State” is now the dream – the dream that some leaders, especially the religious and the political ones, use to convince and deceive people. These leaders know that culture rooted in ancient traditions thrives at the expense of modern-day politics and religion, and they use their positions to ensure that this antagonistic trend is promoted in favour of the latter two and simultaneously kept hidden from the people.
A great deal of the current spiritual seriousness and passion has emigrated to the Khasi-Jaintia Hills, just as it always has been and perhaps always will be, because the people are still naïve and gullible and easily led to believe that parting away with their necessities, even disposing and ridding themselves of their ancestral roots, can be traded off for something better in the afterlife – the afterlife is supposedly greater than this current life. And in this way, we now have the Khasi-Christian, the Khasi-Hindu, the Khasi-Muslim, and of course the true Khasi. And all four have a different view on the purpose of this life.
In the Western countries such deceptions (the afterlife) have and are being speculated upon with incomparably greater direct and persuasive arguments and thoroughness that they’re gradually being disposed of now more than we can ever conceive of here in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills. People have drifted away from mingling religion with culture or from associating moral development with any religion – the Khasi-Pnar is incapable of such a kind of serious thinking just yet; we still believe that the centre of gravity of all our moral conduct must emerge from religion, perhaps because in modern day religion we can find forgiveness whereas in our ancient ways there was only the imposition of a penalty for every wrong committed.
Modern day religions, as compared to our indigenous religions, teach about a kingdom that exists nowhere on earth but is laid up in heaven, disassociated from the growth of a people’s moral conduct and the reality of the surroundings in which they exist and the experiences they encounter. In the West, for the past two thousand years religion was the basis upon which one’s moral conduct developed and heaven alone had any right to test and judge one’s actions as good or bad regardless of the circumstances or experiences or the surroundings in which the people lived in, and this has now manifested itself in the altered moral conduct in everything that the people are involved in – religion, politics, education, commerce: the entire gamut of what goes on in the life and development of any society has surrendered itself to this idea. Society expects us to conceive of a life on earth based on what it thinks is in heaven.
And the harsh truth of all this is that it is still culture – and ever since we adopted these western ways the original Khasi-Pnar way has been gradually erased from coming into effect any longer. The only question one can ask now is, “Is there no longer any real Khasi-Pnar thinker? Is it a fact that we desire to do away with the Khasi-Pnar way and adopt instead a “not mine but your will be done?” because if we are then we have no reason to complain or wish that things should be any different from what they are and what they are likely to become in the future – a society riddled with even greater immorality and greed.
The essential ingredient has gone out of the entire system of moral growth and development which was so dominant in the past…even the recent past (1980s) when the West Khasi Hills District was still in its infancy stage. At that point in time if one was outcasted or expelled from the village because of some grave immorality or misdeed committed by the person there was little chance of that person seeing the light of day – except if the person was fleet footed and could outrun the mob. That was the morality our society inherited and passed on at that point in time. A strict moral code was enforced for the attainment of a higher culture – one that was not dependent on the soft forgiving preachers and moral lesson teachers whose inspired teaching was never and is never at unity with itself any more than the clouds of heaven when the sun pierces through them.
That grounding upon which the Khasi-Pnar morality was developing has been forgotten and if we are ever to get anywhere near to what we once were we need leaders who live on the old indigenous ways, superior, noble, honest in word and deed, who prove themselves every moment by what they say and by what they do not say…living by the sweat of their brow, and not the so called learned degree holders whose names are prefixed and suffixed with qualifications that spell longer than their names.
Leaders – the first requisite in a leader is lacking these days (except for the exception of exceptions) hence the decline of the Khasi-Pnar culture. There may still be pre-eminent men and women among the Khasi-Pnar today, but they would not submit themselves to the indignation and embarrassment and indecencies of an election or a teacher of moralities – in short, they are leaders who live it out and one can only learn from them by dedicating oneself to searching them out.
What society has inculcated in the people now is the raising of leaders in the shortest possible time, individuals who know how to gain wealth and property because it is in wealth and property that one’s status is lifted above that of others. And in going about life in this manner “numberless” young men and women are coming to the forefront to act as today’s leaders and advisers, and “numberless” is the most incongruous quantity because higher individuals come one in a million: numberless is nobility’s greatest contradiction to start with.
Schools and colleges are overcrowded, teachers are overloaded, and in this kitcheree they are expected to churn out the future leaders of the State and if this was not challenging enough they are instructed and adjusted to promote a student regardless of the dubious mediocrity of the student, as if to say they have been negligent if a student in the early twenties is not yet “finished and ready” for public service, even when the person doesn’t know the chief answer to which “calling” he or she is most suited to. Experience tells us, excuse me for saying so, that there must be a motive if one is to defend this system since it is now a policy matter, and the only defence we can offer is – there are no grounds for doing so.
