SHILLONG, February 25: The Advisory Committee on Law and Traditional Affairs constituted by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council to examine the KHADC (Khasi Social Custom of Clan Administration)Bill, 2018, today submitted its recommendations to the Chief Executive Member of the KHADC, Titostarwell Chyne.
The Chairman of the special Committee, Bindo M.Lanong while speaking with media persons elaborated on the Bill and the main point of the Bill pertains to the practice amongst the Khasis in which the clan name must be taken always from the mother’s side and not from the father’s.
In this Bill the Committee has clearly stated that if anyone takes the father’s clan name, they shall no longer be considered Khasis and with this being the main point in the Bill, a detailed rectification was also added to protect against the misuse of clan names by other communities.
With regards to the spellings of clan names, the Committee recommended spellings be used as per the Khasi alphabets and not as per foreign languages, however he stated that as per the Bill, a special exemption is extended to ‘ringbia’, a common practice in Bhoi area and in many parts of the Khasi Hills as well in which the male without any female siblings marries a woman from another community and takes up a new clan name through the process of ‘tangjait’ to continue his legacy.
This Bill was approved in the Session of the KHADC in 2018 when (Late) H.S Shylla was the CEM but the Governor had returned the Bill to the KHADC with questions posited by the Governor and in 2020 the Committee was constituted to closely examine the Bill again.
