FAIR AND FESTIVALS IN MEGHALAYA OF NORTH EAST INDIA

Abstract

            North Eastern India is a veritable tribal museum of more than 200 tribes with variations culturally, linguistically and even socio-politically, comprising eight states almost all of whom constitute greater Assam under the common ethnicity called Indo-Mongoloids. Meghalaya is the homeland of three tribes- The Garos, the Khasis and the Jainties. This is the only state where the main inhabitants follow matrilineal system of inheritance. Through it inheritance to property and succession to tribe office, both run through the female line, passing from the mother to the youngest daughter. This is all the more striking because the three groups belong to different ethnic backgrounds. The people of the Meghalaya do not belong to the same ethnic origin. The Garos are Mongoloid in origin, while the Khasi and Jainties belong to the Austro-Asiatic. On linguistic evidence the Garos belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family, while Khasi and Jainties belong to the Mon-Khmer family. Like all tribal societies the Garos, the Khasis and the Jainties have certain social institution to form, guide and control the cohesive structure of family kinship and social relations among the clan within their respective traditional jurisdictions.