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.

Keywords

environmental identity Khasi Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih literature of Meghalaya post-pastoral reconnection

The traditional Khasi culture is rooted in the Khasi Hills but after the government initiated rapid industrial growth, the Khasi Hills have experienced a reckless exploitation of their natural resources. Dramatic socio-environmental transformation has been underway since industrialization introduced new sets of ideas and opened up economic opportunities. In his collection The Yearning of Seeds (2011), Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, a prominent Khasi poet, 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.¹ 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.

Like other poets from Northeast India, Nongkynrih writes poems set in the present Khasi socio-environmental situation of a vanishing traditional past and a decline in the traditional environmental philosophy; that is, his poems show a strong communal commitment and concern for ecological sustainability. Poets from Northeast India in general conceive of culture and ecology as distinctive shapers of identity (Chandra and Das, 2007: v; Satchidanandan, 2013: n.p.).² These poets take responsibility for nature and culture as they witness a reckless plundering of natural resources and the erosion of cultural specificities. Their poems evince awareness, insight, and concern for the environmental degradation and the predicament of culture. This communal commitment and ecological concern bring together two types of poetry — ecopoetry and ethnopoetry. The idea behind ecopoetry is that it is a kind of nature poetry that expresses ecological concern and raises awareness about ecological issues such as urban sprawl, nuclear proliferation, species extinction, and other potential issues (Bryson, 2002: 2–3). Ethnopoetry engages with multitudinous aspects of a culture, such as the embedded wisdom of the cultural specificities of an ethnic group; cultural continuity, which includes past tradition, present conditions, and anxiety over the culture’s future; the social circulation of discourses and sociocultural expectations; and subsistence patterns and environmental philosophy (Chakraborty, 2017: 109–10). This innovative merging of ecopoetry and ethnopoetry by the poets from India’s Northeast, especially the tribal poets, has given rise to a new type of poetry — I call it ethno-ecopoetry — which constitutes a unique contribution to Indian English Poetry.³ Nongkynrih is a prominent ethno-ecopoet.

Post-pastoral directions: Reconnection and environmental identity

In The Yearning of Seeds Nongkynrih explores and gathers experiences of different places, both urban and rural, of the Khasi Hills. On the one hand, he experiences the hardship of subsistence and the harshness of nature, and on the other, he discovers the harmony and beauty of nature. He depicts the experiences which reflect the dark side of life through the anti-pastoral mode, and the bright side of life through the pastoral. In this poetry collection, the practicality of using pastoral and anti-pastoral in the contemporary socio-environmental context fits into the conceptual framework of post-pastoral, as defined by Terry Gifford.

Gifford has developed post-pastoral theory as a reaction against the dominant tendency of pastoral to engage in an idealization of countryside and the tendency of anti-pastoral to expose the falsity of this idealization (2006a: 17; 2006b: 12).⁴ Keeping in mind the present threat of environmental crisis, Gifford provides in-depth analysis of these tendencies in order to develop a realist aesthetics that contests and suggests probable alternatives to the ideologies that separate humans and culture from nature (2014: 26). Post-pastoral is a conceptual tool for ecocriticism that reaches beyond the limitations of the pastoral and the anti-pastoral modes but takes critical insights from both of the modes so as to understand from a realist perspective the complex interconnectedness of the natural and the human worlds and to emphasize human responsibility for the conservation of nature (Gifford, 2006a: 21–24; 2010: 718–19; 2014: 26–28).

Gifford’s post-pastoral reading of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain (1997) in “Terrain, Character and Text” (2001/2002) reveals the different dimensions of Inman and Ada’s social and environmental experiences. While Inman on his way back home after leaving hospital with a serious neck wound learns about the terrain of Cold Mountain, Ada after the death of her father learns the practical skills for living from her small-land holding. Their “survival in a landscape” depends upon the experience of “the difference between connecting and alienating attitudes towards land” (Gifford, 2001/2002: 89). Therefore, for Inman and Ada, the experience of negotiation with connecting and disconnecting factors leads to reconnection and the formation of an environmental identity.

Put simply, environmental identity entails an individual’s different natural encounters which eventually lead to a self-conception based on direct contact with nature and social relations (Clayton, 2003: 45–46; Clayton and Opotow, 2003: 8–12). Embodied interaction with the physical aspects of a place directs one’s attachment towards that place and serves to define one’s identity (Gosling and Williams, 2010: 299; Scannell and Gifford, 2010: 290). Besides natural encounter, the dynamic exchanges between the social and the environmental constitute an important dimension of place attachment which mediates the formation of identity (Clayton and Opotow, 2003: 2; Scannell and Gifford, 2010: 290). Exploitation of natural resources affects an individual’s sense of self, and in such situations of crisis individuals express their concern over economically motivated and socially created environmental degradation and adopt socio-political responsibility for the preservation and protection of the environment (Clayton and Opotow, 2003: 3–4). Environmental identity, understandably enough, eludes any easy definition, but we can argue that it is a locational question for an individual who explores the fundamental aspects that determine her or his connections with the natural world, and that these connections are mediated by social and environmental influences.

In The Yearning of Seeds, Nongkynrih develops a sense of self as he explores and travels through different places, both artificial (urban) and natural (rural). Each of the places, although located on the Khasi Hills, has particular physical attributes and such attributes exert particular influences on identity formation. While place refers to a particular location (Cresswell, 2004: 1–8), environment refers to a greater area of distribution (Devine-Wright and Clayton, 2010: 268). Since Nongkynrih’s identity constitutes localized experiences of the varied tones and shades of different places in the Khasi Hills, I prefer the term environmental identity in discussing his poetry.

After environmental identity, let us turn to reconnection. In “Pastoral, Anti-pastoral, and Post-pastoral” Gifford argues that post-pastoral “is more about connection than the disconnections essential to the pastoral” (2014: 26) and that this hypothesis gives “insight of connectedness”, in various forms, within material realities (2014: 28).⁵ Post-pastoral strives for countering disconnection embedded in pastoral and anti-pastoral and lays emphasis on establishing connections with the physical environment while remaining aware of the disconnections that exist. What happens then is that a sense of crisis, or an experience of disconnection, precedes the search for connection. Reconnection stems from this process of negotiation between connection and disconnection, leading to the realization of the need to establish a renewed relationship with the environment.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “reconnect” as “to connect again” and defines “connect” as “to join, fasten, or link together”. These dictionary definitions barely suggest the conceptual signification of the word as conceived in post-pastoral theory. Reconnection is a post-pastoral concept of conditions for existence that attend to the means of establishing a renewed relationship between nature and culture, and human and nonhuman. “Conditions for existence” refers to those circumstances affecting existence — the connecting and the disconnecting factors. Understanding of the circumstances that support and disturb existence requires an awareness of how the disconnecting factors break down and how the connecting factors establish the relationship between nature and culture, and between the human and the nonhuman. The establishment of a renewed relationship is the initiative for environmental conservation and a sustainable means of inhabitation, and this sense of a sincere need to take responsibility for the protection of nature comes through a process of negotiation. Since reconnection evolves through a process of negotiation of the connecting and the disconnecting factors, it is never fixed and stable. In other words, reconnection is an evolving and mutating process whereby one constantly interacts and interrogates, knows and alienates, and connects and disconnects. This process of negotiation for practical place attachment is fundamental to the formation of ecological social consciousness and identity formation. Reconnection is the central route for post-pastoral enquiry.

In The Yearning of Seeds I look into Nongkynrih’s “way of learning to live in a landscape” (Gifford, 2001/2002: 89). As he gathers practical knowledge about the socio-political and environmental conditions of the Khasi Hills, he negotiates with those factors that connect to and disconnect from the Khasi Hills, and thereby develops a deep realization of a new sense of existence and of identity. An obvious question arises from taking a post-pastoral approach to The Yearning of Seeds. Do these poems fit into the pastoral tradition?

The use of the pastoral in the Khasi context requires caution. Neither the Khasi Hills nor the Khasis fit neatly into the classical pastoral landscape; moreover, Nongkynrih is not writing in the classical pastoral tradition of Theocritus and Virgil, or English pastoral tradition. Yet, one can find features of the pastoral in his poems. Nongkynrih engages with the Khasi myths, folktales, and legends, the Khasis’ natural interaction with the Khasi Hills, their dispossessed and marginalized condition, and their endangered relationship with the Khasi Hills. Therefore, in his poems one can find factors that both strengthen and disturb his and his community’s relationship with the Khasi Hills. He uses the pastoral mode to represent the factors that strengthen, and anti-pastoral to represent factors that break down the Khasis’ relationship with the Khasi Hills. Tension arises from the simultaneous use of the pastoral and the anti-pastoral, indicating a negotiation between connection and disconnection, and this negotiation leads to a realization of the need for establishing a renewed relationship.

For a post-pastoral reading of The Yearning of Seeds through the concept of reconnection, a simple technique of analysis is adopted. Since disconnecting factors giving rise to a sense of crisis precede an urgent search for connection, we shall first look into the anti-pastoral, highlighting the socio-environmental crisis and then the pastoral highlighting socio-environmental harmony.

Reconnection in The Yearning of Seeds

The Khasi Hills, an umbrella term to designate several small hills, form a part of the Himalayan Mountain range and are located in Meghalaya (megh means “cloud” and alaya, “abode”, meaning the abode of clouds). The Khasi Hills are the homeland of the Khasi tribal community and the bedrock of Khasi culture. In the Khasi language lum means “hill”. The Khasis believe that U Blei is the Supreme Being, the creator and the sustainer (Mawrie, 1981: 1).⁶ Skim Sing Khongkliam tells us that “[t]he Khasi concept of U Blei is the concept of the sacred” (Khongkliam, 2012: 13). The Khasi creation myth recounts that Ki Hynñiew Trep Hynñiew Skum (“The Seven Huts–The Seven Roots”), the seven families from whom the seven Khasi clans evolved, settled on Lum Sohpet Beng (Mount of Heaven’s Navel) (Malngiang, 1991: 9–10; Nonglait, 2012: 32–33; Roy, 1936: 383; Rymbai, 1994: 1). This divine origin gives the Khasis the idea of maintaining a balanced relationship with the physical environment (Shangpliang, 2010: 47; Mawrie, 2009: 28–35; Miri, 2001: 67–68). The forests of the Khasi Hills are considered as sacred in the cultural life of the Khasis (Cajee et al., 2005: 89–90; Hayong, 2008: 95–97; Rymbai, 1998: 11; Shangpliang, 2010: 29–30). The concept of the forest as sacred evolves from the Khasis’ vision of reality where the divine, the natural, and the human are imagined as indivisible entities (Hayong, 2008: 87; Ramsiej, 2006: 37–45; War, 1998: 47–48).

Although traditional Khasi culture is inextricably connected with the Khasi Hills, the spread of the ideologically-driven notion that economic growth is the primary means of achieving development resulted in a proliferation of industrialization and urbanization, and reckless plundering of natural resources of the Khasi Hills (Mishra et al., 2004: 422). This idea has severely affected the traditional culture, and as an effect of the erasure of the cultural meanings which are the foundations of communal identity and self-conception, the gap between traditional Khasi culture and the Khasi Hills has widened. This gap has consequently generated existential anxiety and identity crisis, as the Khasis deeply understand the significance of the Khasi Hills for their indigenous culture’s very existence.

The dialectic of the pastoral and the anti-pastoral captures the present tensions experienced by the Khasis. The anti-pastoral images in The Yearning of Seeds express hostile natural and violent social experiences: disappearing tradition, insurgency, demographic change, the collapse of the matrilineal social order, and environmental degradation. These bleak and violent images signify a struggle for survival in an industrialized and consumerist culture. As Nongkynrih feels detached from Khasi Hills and Khasi culture, he is caught up in a conflict between his inner self, society, and the natural world.

In the poem “Khangchen-Dzonga”, Nongkynrih interrogates the contemporary significance of the origin myths of the Lepcha and the Khasi community. The Lepchas believe that their first progenitors Fadróng thíng and Nazóng nyú were created from the snow of Mount Kangchendzonga (Bentley, 2008: 102–03; Tamsang, 2008: 3). To the Lepchas, Mount Kangchendzonga is sacred and to the Khasis, the same is true of Lum Sohpet Bneng. However, following the advent of industrialization and changes to the economy, the traditional cultural beliefs of these tribal communities are changing. Both Mount Kangchendzonga and Lum Sohpet Bneng attract tourists who remain oblivious of their mythical significance to the respective tribal communities. In the following lines from “Khangchen-Dzonga”, Nongkynrih is apprehensive about the cultural future of indigenous communities as these cultures are constantly being shaped by the dominant economic, political, and cultural forces:

We who offer the same reverence to mountains,

Sohpet Bneng, shall we offer our land

to vultures too? Will the dark impenetrable

mist of time shroud our lives forever? (Nongkynrih, 2011: 26)⁷

Commercialization, especially the tourist industry, has transformed Kangchendzonga and Lepcha culture and Sohpet Bneng and Khasi culture into consumer commodities for the tourist market. These mountains are sacred to the tribes, who believe that the sacred should be left undisturbed. Although the origin myth signifies a fixed symbol of traditional identity for both communities, the tribes are uprooted from their origins due to the treatment of their creation myth as a commodity by dominant economic and cultural forces. The image of a scavenger, as the word “vultures” reflects, stands for exploitative agents such as politicians and developers, who promote commercialization and try to attract large investments, neglecting the traditional indigenous belief system. Central to this image is a tension between undisturbedness and human interference, and between the sacred and the commodity. Here, the rhetoric of disconnection exposes a discriminatory socioeconomic order that breaks down the tribes’ traditional connection with the origin myth.

Not just satisfied with eroding the traditional significance of the origin myth, the present socioeconomic order has brought about spatial changes in population distribution. “The Ancient Rocks of Cherra” relates how the economic prospects and hope for a better lifestyle in the city compel people to leave their village: “Men and trees have left their habitats | to a crude and lowly breed like brush” (84). However, in reality these people hardly get what they expect from the city and they end up settling in the slums. As people move to cities and adopt the urban lifestyle, they are moving far away from their traditional practices.

In “Weiking” and “Identification Marks”, Nongkynrih interrogates the contemporary significance of traditional Khasi festivals. The poem “Weiking” mocks the significance of matrilineality that the traditional festival of Ka Shad Suk Mynsiem or Ka Shad Weiking symbolizes.⁸ Ka Shad Weiking, celebrated for three days, is a thanksgiving dance for U Blei. Unmarried girls dance with downcast eyes in the inner circle, and men beat drum and sing songs around the girls (Lyngdoh, 2009: 138). This dancing pattern symbolizes that women are the keepers of household affairs, and men the providers and defenders (u nong bsa u nong btiah). The Khasis believe that women only possess ka kynthei shibor (one power) and they are suitable for managing household affairs; men are endowed with u rangbah khaddar bor (twelve powers) and are biologically and intellectually stronger. Since men are supposed to possess superior qualities, they should therefore take on multiple responsibilities. However, in modern Khasi society, as the following lines from “Weiking” depict, men take up only one responsibility of impregnation, while women run the family, even when pregnant:

I know a woman

who divorced her drunk

five years back,

only to carry a new belly

each year, because the drunk

returned to repent

whenever the belly was flat.

I know another one,

a quiet little girl

big with child,

looking for a job

as a maid …

Where is the husband? (21–22)

Here, “belly” and “big with child” are images of a pregnant woman, and “drunk” of her alcoholic partner. The two stanzas give two different snapshots, but the underlying social condition in both snapshots is the same. In the first picture, the woman has divorced her drunkard husband five years back, but the husband only comes back to impregnate her. In the second, a pregnant “little girl” is searching for a job as a domestic servant to run the family and the husband is not around to support her. The word “returned” and the question in the last line mock the traditional image of men as the provider and defender (u nong bsa u nong btiah) of women. These images make it clear that although men are traditionally supposed to take care of women, at present men are careless. “Weiking” ends with the implication that the traditional matrilineal social order is breaking down. The dance Suk Mynsiem means “peace of mind” (Khongphai, 1979: 131–32). The poem develops a tension between the traditional matrilineal social order where women are treated with respect and the present carelessness of men about women, and this tension is an irony undergirding the dance’s meaning.

In “Identification Marks”, Nongkynrih searches for an answer to a big question asked of him: “How do you spot a Khasi?” (76). He maps various cultural dimensions that define the traditional identity of a Khasi — mother tongue, dress, religion, food habits, and leadership. The subsistence pattern of the Khasis is agriculture. They celebrate Pomblang Nongkrem or Nongkrem Dance, the most important Khasi festival, and Ka Shad Suk Mynsiem to invoke divine blessings for good agricultural yield and for the prosperity of the community (Khongphai, 1979: 131–32; Rymbai, 1979: 125–27; Singh, 1979: 147). Although Khasi cultural practices draw on existing cultural connections and continuities, the Khasis are gradually becoming oblivious to their traditional cultural practices because throughout the year they engage with different professions which are not connected to their traditions. The implication is that “[a] Khasi is a man, who once a year” participates at celebrations such as “Weiking or Pomblang” pompously dressed in traditional attire as “a muka-mulberry turban” and “an eri shawl”, without according the appropriate importance of the festivals to the Khasis’ cultural life (77).

As Nongkynrih experiences the erosion of cultural practices in his community, he turns towards the ethical foundations of Khasi society. The Khasis believe in three divine commandments: tip briew tip Blei (know Man, know God), kamai ú aka hok (earn righteousness), and tip kur tip kha (know maternal and parental relations). Tip briew tip Blei means to respect each and every human and to help one another (Mawrie, 2005: 22; Khongkliam, 2012: 40; Sen, 2004: 61; Syiem, 2011: 2). Kamai ú aka hok implies that one should earn righteousness through one’s own efforts and labour, and should strive to live a righteous life (Khongkliam, 2012: 40; Mawrie, 2005: 20; Sen, 2004: 61; Syiem, 2011: 2). Tip kur tip kha indicates that lineage should be traced from the mother (Khongkliam, 2012: 40; Mawrie, 2005: 24; Sen, 2004: 61; Syiem, 2011: 2). The following lines from “Identification Marks” relate how the ethical foundation that binds a Khasi society is falling apart:

Who once a year, says

‘to Know Man-to Know God,

to Know Maternal-Paternal Relations,

to Earn Righteousness’ is our faith.

But this, only once a year. (77)

The formal structure of the stanza reveals interesting connotations of the commandments in the present Khasi socio-religious condition. The three commandments are bracketed within the phrase “once a year”, and the last line begins with the adverb “but” to mean “only” while the phrase is preceded by the adverb “only”. Nongkynrih emphasizes cultural amnesia through his repetition of “once a year”. These formal features highlight the unfortunate erosion of the traditional belief system. When people stop believing in tip briew tip Blei and kamai ú aka hok, they can think of involving themselves in ethnic violence and armed insurgency.

The theme of ethno-nationalism in the “Play of the Absurd” assumes interesting meaning when it is read alongside “Identification Marks”. Although the Khasis are oblivious to their cultural practices and belief system, Khasi ethnicity — based on shared cultural heritage, oral tradition, homeland, language, cultural practices, social structure, and rites and rituals — has developed into the political ideology of ethno-nationalism which has given rise to ethnic violence and armed insurgency:

Somewhere in a forgotten little corner of the world

a hill tribe of one million, fearful of its extinction,

waged an arms insurrection against a nation

of one billion. (46)

The mocking tone of the poem expresses Nongkynrih’s detachment from the agenda of ethno-nationalism. Bloodshed and violence has become a routine phenomenon and part of the Khasis’ everyday experience. “Waking Sounds” has the same theme of armed insurrection, but Nongkynrih juxtaposes violent social reality against the scenic beauty of the hilly landscape:

How chaste were the hills! How strangely,

divinely lovely that morning when guns

were dispensing panic and lusting bullets

bent on seeking blood. (27)

This reckless killing is a violation of tip briew tip Blei and kamai ú aka hok. Although the scenic beauty of the hills reflects the aura of U Blei’s creation, humans are violating U Blei’s commandments. This juxtaposed image is an irony of inhabitation implying that social instability disturbs a peaceful relationship with nature.

The relationship with nature also breaks down due to reckless deforestation. Deforestation causes anxiety for Nongkynrih due to the fact that it destabilizes the Khasi environmental philosophy which stems from tip briew tip Blei. The Khasis believe that U Blei lives in nature, and that to know the divine and reach Iing U Blei (the house of the divine creator), a Khasi should respect nature (Ramsiej, 2006: 40–41; Shangpliang, 2010: 28). Moreover, the Khasis believe that in the forest reside many deities, and that woodland should therefore be left in an undisturbed condition. Deforestation ignores Khasi environmental philosophy, as the poems “The Parking Lot” and “Kynshi” describe. To rub salt into the wound, deforestation in the Khasi Hills was taking place at a time when environmental activists and thinkers were debating the global environmental crisis and proposing strategies for environmental conservation in the Rio Earth Summit of 1992:

In Rio

the world talked

of global warming

the ozone layer

pollution

and eroding rain forests.

At Nan Polok

the parking lot

humbled down

hundreds of our proudest

pines. (4)

Nongkynrih ironically juxtaposes deforestation in the Khasi Hills with the aims of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, where environmental activists and thinkers pondered the global environmental crisis and proposed strategies for environmental conservation. Through this juxtaposition he highlights how in reality summits and seminars, such as the Rio Earth Summit, have failed to address environmental issues at the local level, in places like Nan Polok. The following lines from “Kynshi” furnish readers with a violent image of commercial logging for timber, as well as the explosion of hills for rocks, pebbles, and sand for use in construction projects:

Pines like filth are lifted

from woodlands in truckloads.

Hills lose their summer green,

blasted into rocks,

into pebble and sand

and the sand is not spared. (44)

These lines not only present an image of deforestation but also show the impact of modern technology — explosive devices — in changing the landscape of the Khasi Hills. “The Parking Lot” and “Kynshi” present the subjective responses of Nongkynrih, who is overwhelmed with fear and anger. While “our proudest” implies the traditional relationship between nature and culture, “filth” suggests how the dominant economic forces disregarding the Khasi cultural significance of nature engage in reckless exploitation of natural resources. The images of deforestation intensify the tension between honour and insult, and between the sacred and the commodity. The implication is that humans are disrespectful to U Blei’s creation and are violating U Blei’s commandments.

The poems we have examined so far show disconnection due to disturbances in the origin myth, demographic change, the collapse of matrilineal social order, and the dissolution of traditional practices, insurgency, and environmental philosophy. The bleak images in these poems signify a struggle for survival. The underlying meanings disclose acute tensions and frustrated emotions. The anti-pastoral experiences bring about a deep sense of loss, and thereby Nongkynrih searches for spaces that give a new meaning to life. These experiences are the source of the pastoral.

The anti-pastoral experiences show Nongkynrih is caught up in a conflict between vanishing tradition and present social order. This conflict restrains him from expressing his fullest self, and as a result he develops the attitude of distancing himself from the society. This distancing attitude takes him towards the environment, and in the process he engages, as the poems “Living with Maligning Neighbours, I Remember the Hills and Quiet Hideaways” and “Self-actualization” show, in a negotiation with the present social order and the environment.

“Khangchen-Dzonga”, “Weiking”, and “Identification Marks” display the people’s attitudes towards their traditional belief system. Amid these people, Nongkynrih finds himself socially unaccepted because of his faith, belief, and ideas. “Self-actualization” expresses this struggle:

A retrograde, since I want trees on the hills,

birds in the woods, fishes in the streams.

A heathen, since I believe in sacred groves. (107)

The poetic persona’s excruciating feelings of disgust at his social stigma, implied by diction such as “retrograde” and “heathen” levelled at him because he believes in U Blei’s creation and commandments, distances him from society. He is considered an inferior person because of his strong preference for having trees, birds, fish, and animals in the jungles and rivers. This desire for the preservation of trees and animals maps onto a yearning to move closer to the creator, U Blei. The poetic persona is also considered a person lacking cultural principles because he has a deep faith in the traditional deities of the sacred groves. In Meghalaya there are 79 sacred groves, which are known as Law Lyngdoh, Law Niam, or Law Kyntang depending on their location (Jeeva et al., 2006: 564; Misra and Rangad, 2008: 24; Tiwari et al., 1999: 24). Ryngkew, Basa, and Labasa are presiding deities to whom these sacred groves are dedicated (Misra and Rangad, 2008: 24). Here, Nongkynrih finds himself in conflict with the cultural values of progressive modern society which believes in urbanization over traditional Khasi cultural values. His adherence to tradition, expressed powerfully through “want” and “believe”, imply his positive intention to preserve U Blei’s creation. These lines reflect the dialectic between the social and the environmental. “Living with Maligning Neighbours, I Remember the Hills and Quiet Hideaways” is a powerful expression of his realization of his social position and, as the poetic persona’s distance from society increases, he gradually becomes intimate with nature, searching for silence and growing in self-confidence:

Sometimes I like to be

away from maligning neighbours,

in shadowy pine groves

or among the quiet hills.

I like to sing wild songs,

to shout and laugh loud and long

and listen to stones mimicking.

The trees, the hills, the grass

and flowers of unknown names,

they do not call me a fool. (88)

Nongkynrih’s emotional attachment with the Khasi Hills develops through dialectical lived experiences — the social constraint of maligning neighbours and the interaction with nature where he expresses himself unhindered. His resignation from social participation and his actions — singing, shouting, laughing, and listening — after environmental interactions, imply a feeling of self-accomplishment. In these poems he is caught up in a conflict between his inner self, society, and the natural world. His inner self believes in U Blei, but society is forgetful of U Blei, and the natural world is U Blei’s creation. As such, by distancing himself from society, he can get closer to U Blei.

Nongkynrih develops an affective bond with the natural environment through a dynamic evaluation and assessment of different environmental experiences. His deep feeling for home is reflected in the poems “The Ancient Rocks of Cherra” and “The Invitation”, in lines such as “the sight of dark-grey rocks like sages | spells home to me” (84) and “it is always | with cold feet that I undertake | to leave these hills” (86). His unwillingness to leave the hills — his emotional attachment to and embodied understanding of the Khasi Hills expressed through “cold feet” — implies his functional reliance on the hills. The word “home” shadows forth a positive connection, while the spirited tone of the poem expresses Nongkynrih’s sense of self-location. This place attachment and sense of security redefines his relationship with U Blei’s creation.

His environmental sensitivity and emotional relationality is reflected in “Pain” and “Summer Drought”. He perceives in silence the beauty of nature cut off from social interaction. In “Pain” he describes a night scene on the hills:

Upon the hills

the fireflies twinkled

and the early moon waited

creeping silently across the sky. (101)

He describes in “Summer Drought” the hill by a lake just after rain. The azure water scintillating with sunlight and fringed by bluish-green hills replete with floating clouds make this a place of exquisite natural beauty:

The shreds of mist on green hilltops

are a wasted sight

when words decline to sketch. (92)

The movements of fleeting mist, scuttling fireflies, and the rising moon make the environmental experiences dynamic. Moreover, he sees Lei Lum (a hill spirit — “hills” and “hilltops” are metonymies for the hill spirit), U Bnai (Moon), and Lei Khlaw (a forest spirit — meaning “green”, which symbolizes the forest) in harmony with each other — this sublime environmental experience fills him with awe, wonder, and ecstasy. He finds this experience ineffable, and such experience has a positive impact on his personality.

The environmental experiences strengthen his affective bonds with the place, as powerfully expressed in “Laitlum” and “Laitkynsew”. Laitlum and Laitkynsew are two villages in the Khasi Hills that possess unsurpassed natural beauty:

The jungle is a village enclosing villages, crisscrossed

by ancient pathways, fed by shadowy springs running

through split bamboos like flyovers in cities. In this village,

the silence is its peace; the soft rivulets, its secrets;

the songbirds, its celebration; the boulder-strewn rivers,

its magnificence. In this village, the living roots of fig

trees are the lifeblood. (71)

These lines express Nongkynrih’s deep respect for the natural world. Compelling environmental experiences and intensified place identification evoke powerful self-impressions. This form of identity formation is not a romantic embracing of nature but progresses through negotiation; it is a knowledgeable, both romantic and adversarial, understanding of the significance of nature in one’s socio-personal life:

I have come here feeling like a kitchen rag,

only to emerge from the jungle with the taste of ripe

fruits and the scent of bay leaf forever in my soul. (73)

“Kitchen rag” expresses an exasperation with urban social life. Nongkynrih leaves behind the urban lifestyle and moves into the deep jungle: in the jungle, he eats fruit plucked from trees and smells bay leaves. The interaction with the natural environment rejuvenates him with positive emotions, powerfully expressed through “forever in my soul” — a devout “soul” dedicated to U Blei. This new sense of existence is powerfully expressed through “emerge” and emphasized through “only”.

The relationship between the Khasis and the environment is reflected in H. O. Mawrie’s words, “U Khasi U im bad ka mariang, bad ka mariang ka im bad U” (“A Khasi lives with nature and nature lives with him”) (1972: 78). “Laitlum” evokes Nongkynrih’s awareness of the significance of nature in the existence of the Khasis and Khasi culture:

Between all of us

is the essence of Laitlum —

ranging far and deep into the clouded valleys

of our lives, enfolding us like ravine hamlets,

in the great friendship of high hills. (112)

Although the present social order is oblivious, Nongkynrih is aware of the traditional identity markers of the Khasis — “us”. The indispensability of U Blei’s creation in the existence of a Khasi is captured in “essence”. The last three lines depict U Blei’s creation. A positive emotional bond implying closeness is expressed through “great friendship”, and the rhetoric of connection foregrounds the valued object — “hills” — which defines Nongkynrih’s broader sense of both self and community. His direct interaction with nature makes him aware that in order to preserve his identity, as well as the identity of his community, the Khasi Hills need to be protected.

This extremely serious necessity for protecting the valued object, the Khasi Hills, from reckless exploitation of its natural resources is reflected in “Lawsohtun”:

Maybe, after all, someone has to save your

streams and pine groves. Despite the cold

wind, there are times when I feel determined

to liberate your hills. (56)

Despite the social constraint — “after all” — Nongkynrih realizes that the preservation of his culture depends on the preservation of “your” “streams and pine groves” and “hills” — U Blei’s creation. This comprehension comes from a deep knowledge of the traditional belief system and direct natural interaction which leads to ecological social consciousness.

Conclusion

Nongkynrih’s poetry is inseparably tethered to the natural world and deeply rooted in the Khasi ethnicity. His ethno-ecopoetry shows concern for the Khasi Hills and Khasi culture. This concern develops through experiences of the varied aspects of society and of nature, and these experiences form a complex grounding for everyday negotiations with the personal and the political, and the natural and the cultural. In The Yearning of Seeds, the dialectic of the pastoral and the anti-pastoral captures the tensions of placement and displacement, of silence and sound, of self and society, of environmental stability and social instability, and of traditional culture and exogenous forces. He simultaneously experiences being located in the present, the bright, and the bleak. Interestingly, both the pastoral and the anti-pastoral passages are presented in the present tense. Since Nongkynrih’s pastoral and anti-pastoral are located in the present, his poems neither have features of temporal movement and nor do they use the devices of return and retreat. The post-pastoral succeeds in capturing tensions that develop due to the different forms of negotiations of different place experiences.

Nongkynrih’s anxiety due to the loss of the significance of the origin myth and the traditional cultural practices under the impact of dominant economic order is captured in “Khangchen-Dzonga”, “Weiking”, and “Identification Mark”, while his ecstatic happiness about communing with U Blei’s creation is reflected in “Self-actualization”, “Living with Maligning Neighbours”, “Pain”, “Summer Drought”, “Laitlum”, and “Laitkynsew”. “The Ancient Rocks of Cherra” on the one hand shows that people are leaving their village homes and moving to the cities for better economic prospects, and, on the other hand, the ancient rocks of Cherra give Nongkynrih ground beneath his feet and make him feel secure. “Invitation” further strengthens the poetic persona’s emotional attachment to his homeland. “Self-actualization” and “Living with Maligning Neighbours” tell about his negotiation with the damaging effect of social interactions and the constructive impact of nature. “Play of the Absurd” and “Waking Sounds” express his restlessness due to the activities of the insurgents, while “Parking Lot” and “Kynshi” express his restlessness due to deforestation. Interaction with nature brings him tranquillity as in “Living with Maligning Neighbours”, “Pain”, “Summer Drought”, “Laitlum”, and “Laitkynsew”. In the process of negotiations, the connecting factors empower him, while the disconnecting factors undercut the connections: this fluid position makes him realize finally that he has to take responsibility for nature, since his and his community’s existence depends upon the Khasi Hills, U Blei’s creation. “Lawsohtun” expresses this commitment to the preservation of the Khasi Hills. The realization of the need for environmental conservation comes through a process of negotiation wherein disconnecting factors constantly destabilize the connecting factors — this position makes the realization knowledgeable and practical, and never escapist and romantically deluded.

I have tried to understand Nongkynrih’s negotiation with society and the environment, as reflected in his poems, through environmental identity and the post-pastoral, and, in the process, I have extended the boundaries of post-pastoral research in the postcolonial context. It is important to read cultural texts that represent the processes of self-conception and development of place attachment of an individual, and also of a community, amidst dispossession and dislocation triggered by uneven development in different social formations and environmental settings, or socio-environmental contexts. Such interdisciplinary research would encourage socio-environmental debates about the significance of place in identity formation to people and groups who are grappling with global economic, political, and cultural forces that shape their culture.

Footnotes

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

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