Khasi and Jaintia Hills

This article is about the district during the British Raj. For the mountain range, see Khasi Hills.
Khasi-Jaintia Hills
District of Assam Province, British India
1912–1947
The Khasi and Jaintia Hills in the Bengal Gazetteer, 1907
History
 - Bifurcation of Eastern Bengal and Assam 1912
 - Independence of India 1947
Area
 - 1901 15,947 km2 (6,157 sq mi)
Population
 - 1901 197,904 
Density 12.4 /km2  (32.1 /sq mi)
Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Khasi states, 1947

The Khasi and Jaintia Hills are a mountainous region that was mainly part of Assam Province in British India.[1] This area is now part of the present Indian constitutive state of Meghalaya, formerly Assam, including Jaintia district, capital Jowai, East Khasi district, capital Shillong, and West Khasi district, capital Nongstoin.[2]

Jaintia Hills

The Jaintia Hills are located further to the east from the Khasi Hills. The twelve Chiefs of the elaka (tribal province) of the Jaintia, a Khasi subtribe of the) Pantars = Syntengs tribes, are styled Dolloi, and the land is called after them in Khasi: KA RI KHADAR DOLLOI ‘Land of 12 Tribal Chiefs‘) - they are in Nartiang itself (see the Raja, uniquely also styled, as premier Chief: U Kongsong), and in Amwi, Jowai, Lakadong, Mynso, Nongbah, Nongjngi, Nongphyllut, Nongtallang, Raliang, Shangpung, Sutnga (see below; also cited as seat of a Syiem)

Above them is the only true princely ruler of the area, the Raja of Jaintiapur. His winter capital is now in Bangladesh, with his summer residence shifted from Sutnga (where the family started as Syiems) to Nartiang; also a palace in the commercial center Borghat.

Khasi Hills

Main article: Khasi Hills

The Khasi Hills are located east of the Garo Hills. The other Khasi tribes did not have princes but their twenty petty states (hima), and sometimes even smaller tribal divisions, are led by one or two Chiefs -selected in various ways- usually styled Siem, Syiem.[3]

The names of these chieftainships are: Bhawal, Cherra (or Sohra; capital Cherrapunji), Dwara (capital Hat Dwara), Jirang, Khyrim, Langrin, Lungiong, Maharam, Malai Sohmat, Marriw, Mawdon, Mawiang, Mawlong, Mawphlang, Mylliem (including Shillong city, the colonial capital of all Tribal Assam), Nobosohphoh, Noglwai, Nongkhlaw, Nongspung, Nongstoin, Pamsanggut, Rambrai, Shella, Sohiong. or Sardar ...

References

  1. ↑ The Assam Legislative Assembly
  2. ↑ Integration of the North East: the State Formation Process
  3. ↑ Great Britain India Office. The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.

External links