Khasi hills and Khasi culture: Reconnection in Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s The Yearning of Seeds

Abstract

This article attempts a post-pastoral reading of Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s The Yearning of Seeds through the concept of reconnection in the context of contemporary socio-political and environmental conditions of Meghalaya. The traditional Khasi belief system considers the physical environment as sacred, but at the present time the Khasi Hills are experiencing reckless plundering of natural resources as commodities for consumption. Nongkynrih probes deeply into the present relationship between the Khasi Hills and the Khasi culture, and engages in a complex negotiation with this society and its environment. This negotiation leads to the realization of the need for establishing a renewed relationship between the Khasi Hills and the Khasi culture in the present context of a changing environment and the withering of the traditional culture. A post-pastoral reading of Nongkynrih’s poems exposes the complexity of the negotiation that leads to this realization, of a new sense of Khasi experience and identity.

Characterizing Regenerative Aspects of Living Root Bridges

“…An extensive literature review on Khasi philosophy is provided by Malngiang [10], while Lyngdoh [11] contrasts traditional Khasi ecological frameworks with contemporary Cartesian dualism. For a deeper understanding of the key interactions between Khasi culture, community structures, and ecology, see Chakraborty's review of Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih's The Yearning of Seeds [12,13] as well as Shangpliang's description of the traditional position of forests in Khasi society [14]. Tiwari et al [15] and Cajee et al [16] discuss Khasi community forest management systems and their social and environmental roles; Tiwari et al [17] and Ormsby [18] focus specifically on the Sacred Grove system.…”

“…In a biologically degraded or heavily built-up context, this would be quite different. It is important to reiterate that the traditional worldview of rural Khasi communities includes non-mechanistic, holistic themes, resonating well with the regenerative approach [11,12].…”