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.