constituent assembly of india debates (proceedings)- volume vii

that there is an understandable feeling among the people of the States that there should be a federation
between the States and the British portions so that all the Khasi people are brought under a common
administration. The position is that in the British areas, though there is now the franchise and a member
is sent to the provincial legislature, there is no statutory local body for local self-government. The States,
on the other hand, enjoy certain rights as stated above, and the problem is to bridge the gap.
The Khasi and Jaintia Hills have the advantage of the provincial head quarters Shilling, being situated
among them. Literacy among the Khasi amounts to about 11 per cent with a male literacy of 19 per cent.
The district is already enfranchised and the special features which it is desirable to bear in mind is the
matriarchal system prevalent there, the democratic village systems and other special customs and
traditions. Cultivation in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills maybe regarded as comparatively advanced. There is
a good deal of wet cultivation and the culture of oranges and potatoes is common. The Khasi have also
taken to non-agricultural professions much more than other hill people.
8. THE GARO HILLS -
Which is the butt-end of the range of hills which constitute the water shed for the Brahmaputra and
the Surma Valleys. The Garo who inhabit these hills are people of Tibeto-Burman origin and are similar
to the Cachari. The area of the district is 3,152 square miles and it is inhabited by a population of
233,569 of which 198,474 or nearly 85 per cent, are tribals, mainly Garo. The Garo inhabit not only the
district which bears their name but there are villages inhabited by them in Kamrup and Goalpara also
and portions of the Mymensingh district of Bengal joining the Garo Hills is inhabited by thousands of
Garo.
The Garo are a people with a matriarchal system like the Khasi. The tribal system of the Garo is
highly democratic and the whole village with the Nokma as the head or chairman takes part in the
council if any matter is in dispute. The district as a whole is pretty backward with only about five literates
in a hundred and lacking in communications. Christian missions have been active and there has been a
certain amount of conversion but on the whole the Garo even while being able to produce a fair number
of intelligent and literate people have yet to come up to the degree of the Khasi or the Lushai. Franchise
at present is restricted to the Nokma but is unlikely that there will be any great difficulty in working a
franchise system based on adult franchise than in most other areas.
In the Garo Hills also the sole occupation is agriculture and though garden crops are grown round the
huts sometimes, the method is largely that of jhuming. The people weave their own clothes but there is
no important cottage industry. The area is however much more in contact with the plains on either side
of it than areas like the Lushai Hills or the Naga Hills.
The Garo are keenly desirous of uniting all the villages inhabited by Garo whether in the plains of
Assam or in the Mymensingh district of Bengal under a common administration. The Bengal district of
Mymensingh seems to be the home of about 48,000 Garo most of whom are on the fringe of the Garo
Hills, and the question of rectification of the boundary to include this area in the Garo Hills district of
Assam definitely deserves consideration. A similar examination is necessary in respect of other Garo
villages in the Kamrup and GoalPara districts of Assam.
9. THE MIKIR HILLS -
The partially excluded area of the Mikir Hills with an area of about 4,400 square miles and a
population of about 150,000 persons is split up between two districts namely Nowgong and Sibsagar.
The Mikir Hills form an area rather irregular in shape into which there projects an enclave of the Assam
Valley. The western extremity of the partially excluded area actually reaches a point in the Khasi Hills
and eastwards, it extends to a point not far from Dimapur while to the north it approaches Golaghat. It is