Impact of West on Khasis and Jaintias

This work is the result of author’s years of research into the history of the changes that had transformed a primitive tribe into a modern people in the wake of the British contact. In the process the author has challenged a pet theory and formulation such as the motives behind the British annexation of the Khasi Hills. The history of the Khasi-Jaintia hills especially the early years of the contact with the British has some uniqe features. These hills were virtually the laboratory of Briths experiments in hill administration in north-east India and the attempts to reclaim, what was called, a primitive tribe to civilisation. The model forged here was extended later on to other hill districts of Assam as and when they were brought under the direct British administration. It was in the Khasi-Jaintia hills the British met with conspicuous success evidenced by the phenomenal advancement of the tribe and its complete reconciliation to the British rule after initial resis¬tance. This work deals with the formative period of the tribe’s modern culture, a century and odd years (1765-1874)–hence a crucial period of development when it was slowly emerging from the welter of its primitive culture under the tutelege of a western nation.