CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Marriage is strictly exogamous. The husband and wife must belong to separate clans—a Sangma cannot marry a Sangma or a Momin a Momin. The children take the mother's clan. If the mother is a Momin and the father a Sangma the children all become Momins, not Sangmas. The proposal for marriage always comes from the woman's side and it is the girl who normally chooses her husband. But an only daughter or the youngest daughter is generally given in marriage to the son of her father's sister or in the absence of such a first cousin to another person of her father's motherhood. After marriage the son-in-law comes to live in his wife's parents house and becomes the father-in-laws' nokrom, that is to say, a kind of representative of the father's clan in the mother's family. After the death of the father-in-law the nokrom marries the widowed mother-in-law, thus becoming the husband of both mother and daughter. This custom, which is beginning to be discarded amongst enlightened sections of Garos, is rather extraordinary and I do not know if there is anything parallel in any other primitive society. Mere marriage with the widow is not sufficient. In order that the female children may be entitled to inherit the mother's property there must be nuptial consummation between the young husband and in his old wife.

When there is no nokrom for a widow to marry, she is not allowed to remarry without the permission of the family of the deceased husband. As this custom, called the law of akim worked harshly on the womenfolk, the Government refused to recognise it. Never theless, the custom is still honoured in practice.

A man can marry as many wives as he wishes but if he marries two sisters he is required to marry the elder one first. Before a man marries a second wife he has to obtain the permission of the first. failing which he is liable to pay compensation (dai) to her. The first wife is called jik-mamung or principal wife and the other wives are called jik-gites, that is, concubines, but this does not mean social inferiority of the jik-gites. When a man marries his uncle's widow she always becomes jik-mamung irrespective of whether she is married earlier or later than the other wives, A widow who refuses to marry her husband's nephew is required to pay dai to the nephew.

There is no custom among the Garos of paying any marriage- price, which exists amongst the Mizos.

Divorce is common and easily obtained on grounds of adultery etc. A man or a woman is entitled to a divorce even without a cause in which case the party seeking the divorce has to pay the customary dai of rupees sixty only.

CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - A SOCIETY BASED ON MOTHERHOOD

Like the Khasis the Garos are a matrilineal people. The unit or group on which society is based is the machong which has been translated by Colonel Dalton as, 'motherhood' , which is not the same thing as a family. All members of a machong claim descent from a common ancestress or mother, descent always being through the female or the mother. The father, both amongst the Khasis and the Garos, is more or less an outsider and his family is hardly recognized by the children. Machongs are generally named after animals, rivers, caves etc., e.g. the Rangsan machong or 'the children of the bear', the dove machong, Wasra machong (after the Wasra stream) etc

CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS IN GARO - MAIN SEPTS OR CLANS

As already pointed out, there are large communities of Garos living outside the Garo Hills in the plains of Assam and East Pakistan. The Garos are divided into various sub-tribes with varying customs and manners. But the main septs or clans into which the race is divided are three, the Maraks, the Momins and the Sangmas. Each sept is exogamous, marriage within the clan being strictly taboo. Some sub-clans like the Abengs, Arengs, and Siras are beginning to branch away from the original clans and are developing into independent exogamous clans.

INDUSTRIES IN GARO HILLS

As has already been stated, the Garo is essentially an agriculturist. Except for weaving of cloth by the womenfolk, which is a common practice all over Assam, both hills and plains, and making of some bamboo and cane mats, dugouts and boats and rudimentary implements of metal, they have hardly any cottage industries. But the district is rich in mineral resources particularly coal of high grade.

A thermal power station has been set up at Nangalbibra near the Khasi Hills border, near which extraction of coal on a commercial scale is undertaken. If the district is connected by rail there is the possibility of an industrial complex growing up around this area which would alter the entire complexion of the district and the character of the people.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - DANCING

Along with drinking, dancing to the accompaniment of music produced by buflalo horn singas,

bamboo flutes and drums is also an integral part of all religious ceremonies and social functions. The men dance sword and shield in hand, interspersing the bodily movements with shouts of Kai, Kai. Men and women dance together in some dances and separately in others.

Garo dances are however rather tame compared with those of the Nagas or even the Lushais.

The only musical instruments used are those mentioned above, namely drums, wind instruments made of horn or bamboo, brass gongs and cymbals.

Besides drinking and dancing they have hardly any other form of communal amusements, games being generally trials of physical strength only and not of skill or dexterity. Hunting and fishing are popular but hunting is hardly ever done with weapons. The usual method is to set traps which are often dangerous to human beings. In catching fish which is their favourite item of food, the Garos use similar methods of trapping by building weirs across streams and rivers, but in the Someswari river one comes across the sight of Garos killing fish in running water with spears made of bamboo. The Garos of this area are experts in this form of fishing.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - FOOD AND DRINK

Naga Chilli

Rice is the main food and it is eaten three times a day. So far as animal food is concerned the Garos eat almost everything—goats, pigs, fowls, ducks, dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, bats, and even flying white-ants. Elephant's flesh is highly prized. The only line drawn is at the Tiger's flesh. Dried fish called nakam is a daily dish.

A local Naga Market

As with the other hill-tribes, drink is an indispensable part of life, although Christianity is interfering with it perhaps to an undesirable extent. The liquor is not distilled but is always brewed out of rice, maize or millet. Apart from its daily use, drinking in profuse quantities is a must in religious ceremonies and at feasts, the prestige of a nokma or any other person of importance being dependent on the quality and quantity of drinks served on such occasions in addition to the abundance of solids.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO PEOPLE - CROPS

The Garo is essentially a cultivator. "Cultivating the soil," says Major Playfair, "with him is the beginning and the end of his life's work, and the occupation to which he devotes all the energy he possesses."

Like the other hill-tribes of Assam they follow the destructive jhumming method of cultivation. An extensive area covered by valuable trees is chosen each year for an entire village, the trees are felled and after allowing sometime for the timber to dry the entire area is destroyed by fire. After manuring the land in this fashion, seeds are broadcast. Similar treatment is given to another area the following year. As land in the possession of a particular village is limited in area the villagers have to go back to the same land after some years (the jhumming cycle) and destroy once again the trees which in the meantime have grown. Because of growth of population the jhumming cycle is gradually becoming shorter and shorter, from ten or twelve years to five or even three years. The soil erosion caused by this method of cultivation is enormous. Unless this devastation of virgin forests can be stopped by replacing the present methods of cultivation by permanent ones, such as terracing as practiced by the Angami Nagas, most of these hill areas will turn, in the not distant future into the deserts unfit for human habitation.

The principal crop is rice which is also the staple food.

Millets, maize, vegetables, ginger and indigo are grown extensively. Cashew- nuts and tapioca have been recently introduced. But the most important crop next to rice is cotton, abundant cultivation of which gives the Garos an economic advantage over the other hill- tribes of Assam. By far the largest part of the wealth of the Garos comes from this product. Lac is also cultivated in several parts of the district.

DOMESTIC LIFE OF GARO - DRESS

The Garo dress is simple. The man's attire consists of a loin cloth, six or seven feet long and about six inches wide. A blouse is sometimes worn to cover the upper part of the body but more commonly it is left bare except in winter when it is covered with a wrapper of blue cotton cloth. A turban, which is generally worn, goes round leaving the top of the head bare. The woman's attire is similar—a cloth about a foot and half long and about a foot wide round the waist, sometimes a blouse or a wrapper and a turban, but except during the cold weather the upper part of the body is not encumbered by any covering.

Such exposure, especially on the part of buxom young females, gives to outsiders (particularly young people) at first sight a funny sensation. The loin cloths are some times ornamented with beads or cowries. Both men and women are very fond of ear-rings, the women wearing up to fifty of them, the weight of which distend the ear-lobes, sometimes splitting them in two. On festive occasions and when dancing, both men and women ornament their head-dress with rows of beads and stick to them feathers of the bhimraj (horn-bill). Brass or silver bangles are popular with men as well as women. Important persons like nokmas (headmen of villages or clans) wear a heavy ring of iron above the elbow, which is called jaksil. A belt covered with beads completes the attire. The men are often seen carrying weapons—spears or swords.

HISTORY OF SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF GAROS

As regards the history of the Garos, practically nothing is known. They are no doubt still very primitive. Till recently they were regarded as nothing more than cruel, blood-thirsty savages, this notoriety having been gained by them as a result of frequent and numerous raids carried out by them on the people of the neighbouring plains districts. On the occasion of each such raid a number of people were killed and their heads carried off as trophies, head- hunting having been with them as with the Nagas, their most favourite pastime. Apart from this killing for sheer fun, human victims were required for sacrificial purposes also. The sacrifices were made to propitiate the gods after a fateful event such as the death of nokma (the head of a village or a clan). Similar human sacrifices were performed by the Jaintias of the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills District. The stone on which the victims were decapitated can still be seen on the bank of the Kopili river (See the Picture below)

near Garampani in the Jaintia Hills(See the Picture below) .

Head-hunting was effectively stopped in the Garo Hills as late as 1876 only. in that year not less than two hundred skulls were surrendered by the Garos to the Deputy Commissioner or in his camp at a place called Rangrengiri, a few miles from Tura, the district headquarters of the Garo Hills District. It was due mainly to these depredations that the British, whose policy till then was to leave the hill-tribes alone (because of absence of potentialities of exploitation of resources in these barren areas), were compelled to occupy the land of the Garos physically in 1872, along with the effective extension of their administration to the rest of Assam. Prior to this, Goalpara, including Garo Hills, but excluding Eastern Duars, was administered from Rangpur in Bengal and as such formed a part of the province of Bengal, which by the Mughal Emperor's farman of the 12th August 1765, was transferred to the East India Company. It became a part of Assam in 1874, when Assam was constituted into a separate Chief Commissioner's province.
Since then, till shortly after independence, when tribal District Councils were established, the Garo Hills District was administered by a Deputy Commissioner, who was more or less the final authority in all matters, judicial and executive. He was, however, only some kind of an overlord. The villagers themselves managed their affairs with the help of village elders. A group of villages elects a Laskar for life and he functions as a magistrate for the purpose of petty cases (serious crimes are rare). Real power is, however, exercised not by the Laskars but by the heads of clans called Nokmas who elect the Laskars. This system worked democratically and efficiently; but with the establishment of the District Councils authority is gradually shifting from the villages to the centralised headquarters at Tura. It is doubtful if this is proving beneficial for the common man.

PROCESS OF ASSIMILATION WITH THE ASSAMESE IN NORTH EASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

All these tribes, as a result of living in the plains under the suzerainty of Assamese kings and coming under the influence of Hinduism, have become completely assimilated with the Assamese. Although the older folk are still to some extent bilingual, complete disappearance of their tribal languages is only a matter of time like the disappearance of the languages of the once powerful Ahoms (See the Picture below)

(The Ahoms are an important branch of the Tai people.(See the Picture below)

The Tai-Ahoms entered the Brahmaputra valley from the east, from Moung Mao in China through the Shan states of Burma, in the early part of the thirteenth century ) and the Chutiyas and numerous other races which had been inundating from time immemorial the fertile and alluring valleys of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
This process of assimilation did not extend to the hill-tribes mainly because of the inaccessibility of their habitat. There is little doubt that with the development of communications the same process would have taken place amongst the Garos (as has been happening before our eyes amongst the Mikirs) but for the advent of the British and in their wake the Christian missionaries, who in their zeal to preserve 'the separateness and originality' of the hill-tribes and to civilize them, admirably succeeded in dividing them from the people of the plains. The consequences of this civilizing zeal have become painfully visible today in the demand for a separate hill-state by the Garos and other hill-tribes of Assam.

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH EASTERN INDIAN TRIBES

As regards their physical features, the following picturesque description given by Colonel Dalton in his 'Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal' could not perhaps be improved upon. "Their fates are round and short. The forehead is not receding, but projects very little beyond the eye, which is small, on a level with the face, very dark and obliquely set. The want of prominence in the nose is remarkable. The whole face has the appearance of being flattened out, the mouth sharing in the compressed appearance and not at all prognathous." The average height of the male would be just above five feet and that of the female 4-3/4 ft.A few more characteristics added by Major Playfair would make the description complete:
"The women are not beautiful, especially when they pass middle age, but when young they are buxom and healthy in appearance and their good natured smiling faces are far from unattractive. A great disfigurement is the distension of their ears by the weight of enormous ear-rings, which often break the lobes in two. The men rarely have hair on their faces though some grow apologies for beards. If a moustache is worn, it usually consists of a few hairs on either side of the upper lip, owing to the custom of pulling out the rest."

This description of physical features would apply with equal aptness to most of the tribals inhabiting the plains of Assam, particularly the Kacharis.

"garos" From Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal 1872, engravings with modern hand coloring

"kachari" From Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal 1872, engravings with modern hand coloring

LINGUISTIC RESEMBLANCES AMONG NORTH EAST TRIBES

The Garos(see the Picture Above) belong to the linguistic stock called by ethnologists the Tibeto-Burman. They have close linguistic affinity with tribal races inhabiting the plains of Assam, the North Cachar Hills and parts of Tripura. Grierson, in his Linguistic Survey of india, encadres the languages of all these tribe under a single group called the Bodo.(see the Picture Below)

Among all these tribes, the Garos bear the strongest resemblances linguistically as well as physically to the Kacharis(see the Picture Below).

In fact the resemblances are so strong that they have led Major Playfair to believe that these two tribes originally constituted one, subsequently separating themselves into two, the Kacharis spreading over the North and the Garos over the south bank of the Brahmaputra. In support of this view he points out the similarity between the monoliths of Dimapur (Manipur Road) ,(see the Picture Below)

the ancient capital of the Kachari Kingdom and the Kimas or memorial posts which the Garos erect in memory of their dead. But this, as Major Playfair himself admits, is a comparison of the great with the small.

In his attempts to trace the origin of the Garos, Major Playfair further observes: "One of the evangelists of the American Baptist Mission in Tura (a Garo) who spent some time in the Ao country (Nagaland), told me that he had been asked by some Aos if he was not one of the descendants of a party of 700 Aos who left their country and travelled westward in the long forgotten past." Certain features common to the Nagas (see the Picture Below)

and Garos in the performance of their funeral ceremonies (the practice of tethering a bull to a Y shaped post before it is sacrificed) and other customs, especially the practice of head-hunting, point towards a link between Nagas and the Garos. Head-hunting was never in vogue amongst any other tribe in this region except amongst these two. Major Play fair surmises from these facts that the Garos probably inhabited originally some area near Dimapur and there, because of proximity, picked up some of the Naga customs and habits.

ORIGIN OF GARO TRIBES

THE GAROS inhabit the Garo Hills District on the western extremity of Assam adjoining the Mymensingh District of Bangladesh. Besides, there are large groups of Garos in the contiguous plains areas of the Districts of Goalpara
and Kamrup in Assam. A sizeable population also lives in the Mymensingh District of Bangladesh. About a lakh of these Mymensingh plains Garos— mostly Christians—migrated to Assam in the beginning of 1964 due to systematic persecution in Pakistan. Some thousands of these unfortunate people, deprived suddenly of their hearth and home, have been rehabilitated in the Garo Hills and thousands are still awaiting rehabilitation in a huge refugee camp at a place called Matia in the Goalpara District of Assam. The Garo Hills District has an area of three thousand square miles.
The Garos call themselves achik-mande (achik = hill; mande = man) just as the Lushais (another hill-tribe of Assam) call them selves Mizos (Mi = man, zo =hill). The original home of the Garos is not known. They themselves believe that their original homeland was in Tibet.
A legend to this effect has persisted amongst the Garos for generations. In his monograph on the Garos, Major Playfair points out certain linguistic resemblances between the Tibetan and the Garo tongues and also refers to the reverence which the Garos, like the Tibetans have for gongs and the value they attach to the Yak’s tail, although the animal never inhabited these hills. But such scrappy pieces of evidence are not sufficient for establishing a historical connection of the Garos with Tibet. It is more probable that like most of the plains tribals of Assam, the Garos moved into their present habitat through the north-eastern routes from China and Upper Burma. This movement was part of a great Mongolian influx into this part of India in prehistoric times. It is not merely possible, but very probable, that the movement started originally from Tibet and other parts of the Western China.