‘Tipkur Tipkha Movement’ launched to revive Khasi clan institutions
Shillong, Aug 2: Synjuk Ki Rangbah Kur Ka Bri U Hynñiewtrep, a body of traditional chiefs of Khasi-Jaintia Hills, has accused the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) of failing to protect the Khasi traditions and resolved to revive the clan institutions.
Leaders of the Synjuk, including hundreds of clan elders, traditional heads and scholars converged at Smit as part of the first major assembly of the “Tipkur Tipkha Movement”.
The movement, being rolled out across Khasi and Jaintia Hills, aims to strengthen Seng Kur and Dorbar Kur as the core units of Khasi-Jaintia identity.
The assembly, chaired by SKRK president RL Kharpran, centered on what speakers called the three pillars of the community: Land, Language and Maternal Lineage.
SKRK general secretary Raphael Warjri reminded the gathering that Khasi identity flows through the mother.
“The spirit of Mei Ramew is the source of life through whom successive generations are born from the seed of the father,” he said, adding that fathers and maternal uncles continue to serve as legal guardians and clan elders under tradition.
Meanwhile, the assembly strongly criticised the current KHADC Executive Committee for failing to protect the Khasi matrilineal system.
SKRK spokesperson RL Blah and legal adviser Robert June Kharjahrin alleged that the Council was quietly allowing patriarchal practices to take root and weakening traditional land tenure systems.
They said such actions violate the spirit of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India, which was meant to safeguard tribal customs and self-governance.
Both leaders urged the Council to stop tolerating practices that dilute matrilineal inheritance and community control over land.
The assembly also rejected growing attempts to introduce surname-based identity in place of birth through the mother’s lineage.
Speakers stressed that clan membership in Khasi society is determined only by the umbilical link to the mother, not by formal naming.
