The Seng Khasi - Charting a Course towards a Distinctive Identity
Sharmila Ghosh2013, The Oriental Anthropologist: A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man
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Abstract
For identity to be the subject of a focus, it must first become a problem, a point asserted by Sartre in 1954, who said that "it's not the Jew that creates the anti-Semite; it's the anti-Semite that makes the Jew." The matrilineal system has long been the most important distinctive marker of the Khasi socieh; and the other elements of the culture have been absorbed within this aspect. The Khasi identity, the very raison-d'etre of the group, was forced to come into focus when there was a felt threat-the threat of Bn'tish colonialism and Christianity in this case. Prior to the coming of the British, the identity markers of the Khasis were not structured, as there was no differentiation within the group and the mere intermittent interaction with outsiders. Structuring the elements making up the essential cultural identity of the group came into focus with their perception of threat to it. This perception of a real threat ensured that the elements of Khasi culture that were considered to be unique and most threatened be classified and then protected through assertion. This classification attempted to structure, enumerate and create a 'Great Tradition' out of the inchoate elements of Khasi life as it was practiced. A group coalesced around this attempt, which was called the Seng Khasi. The Seng Khasi then became the reference group around which the elements of a distinct Khasi identihj began to be organized. This paper charts the progress of this event through various instances and ethnographies from Khasi society.
Key takeaways
- The total population of Khasi and Jaintia hills together is 1,448,870, while the schedule tribe population is 1,257,164.
- The identity of the Khasis has never been a clearly defined category, the evanescent and flexible nature of the category prompt me to use the term fuzzy (Ghosh, 2003: 15) in the context of Khasi identity.
- He also wrote books bringing the Khasi way of life into focus not only for the Khasis themselves, but also for the reading public, who wished to know of the Khasis.
- The traditional religious beliefs of the Khasis in opposition to the new beliefs came to be an essential feature of Khasi identity from this point onwards.
- Nevertheless, the point that emerges here is that the process of formation of the Seng Khasi and its activities has been greatly instrumental in demarcating certain boundaries of identity of the Khasis.
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