The Khasis, the Jaintias and the Garos, the tribes of Meghalaya, had their complaints too. But a combination of factors had always made them less alienated or angry. One of these was their very cosmopolitan city of Shillong. The other, just better connection with the mainland. The tribes had their political elites too, probably because as the capital of undivided Assam, they had had a closer acquaintance with parliamentary politics. The Garos had their Sangmas (Captain Williamson and then Purno), the Khasis and Jaintias their B.B. Lyngdoh, P. Ripple Kyndiah (now cabinet minister).

The politics of the two regions was divided by geography and ethnicity. The Garos were predominantly pro-Congress and to get to their districts from Shillong, you still have to drive to Guwahati and then down the Brahmaputra valley, and hook back into the Garo Hills a good eight hours later. The Khasi-Jaintias preferred their own regional parties. One of the oldest among these is HSPDP (Hill States People’s Democratic Party) whose founder Hopingstone Lyngdoh is a key member in the present coalition cabinet, and the main opponent of the exploration of sizeable uranium resources in the Meghalaya Hills. And even Khasis and Jaintias, though similar, have many differences. There was a time somebody launched an ethnic unity movement of sorts called the Hynniewtrep (“seven huts”) movement, harking back to the old belief that both these tribes had been created from a common origin, namely the plumes from the tail of a very multi-coloured rooster — which still represents divinity in an intriguing sort of a way among these pre-dominantly Christian tribes. But it did not get very far.

... contd.