Introduction
by: James M. Perry
Khasi Seng Kut Snem
Seng Kut Snem is the yearly celebration of the
establishment of ‘The Seng
Khasi.’ This year’s
celebration marked 101 year since the establishment of the group with its
aim to bring together those who hold to the original Khasi faith and who
follow the traditional custom of matriliny.
The Seng Khasi holds in their Constitution the four following
points: as taken from an
article by Sweetymon Rynjah:
I had the privilege this year, as an observer and
sometime participant in Khasi religious gatherings, to be a part of one of
the bigger gathering seen in recent years.
This year the Seng Khasi held a parade through some of the streets
of Shillong with depictions of the life and culture of the Khasi and
Jaintia people.
Often as I sit and watch goings on within the Seng
Khasi I am pleased to see the survival of the culture even with the long
and war like effort that the Christian Missionaries started in the North
East regions back in the 1800’s.
I myself come from a Christian missionary family background, born
to a family who spent some 15 years in Shillong doing work in the name of
Church. I hold no animosity to my family nor to their effort, however
after much contemplation and thought into the ways and process of the
Christian conversion movement I must stand in principle against much of
their actions.
Let me clarify my stance: I hold in deep respect
those who have a faith in something; whether it be a Christian faith or
otherwise. However I am much
disturbed by the way mission work takes place.
Here in the Khasi hills and North East in General we see foreign or
local missionaries sponsored from outside living a good life here in
India, telling the people they should convert to Christianity so as to
have everlasting life. All
this is fine and well but what statement does it make on a persons faith
and conviction when they do not understand the locals struggles or needs.
When a villager sees that Christians are more modern, have more and
are more western, naturally his or her tendency is to convert.
Christianity to them means ‘westernianity’ (or in other words a
better life here on earth).
The day I see a missionary from a foreign country or
from here – give up all his or her worldly possessions and securities of
monthly wages from outside, get a job with the locals, work amongst the
locals as the locals and live day to day like many do here and at the same
time preach the word of everlasting life – that may be the day that I
have some faith in the missionary work.
There are many statements in the bible in respect to not worrying
about tomorrow and not being concerned about a resting place or home for
it will be provided yet when do we see the foreign paid missionaries
living like this – most are unwilling to even give up some of the
conveniences of the west let alone learning what the common man struggles
with on a day to day basis.
This is not to say that Christianity cannot go hand
in hand with the Khasi traditions; it is only my viewpoint and one of the
many aspects of the diminishing of the Khasi traditional way of life.
It is with this short statement of an aspect of my views that I present to you a series of articles on Khasi Life, Religion and Culture. I present these over the course of time and as time will allow me on typing them on to the web page, with respect to all those who write, I make no statement or bias as to my beliefs. They are meant to provide a base of information about the Khasi people.