Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Justice in the Khasi Pnar Tribal Context

The Khasis- Pnar is one of the many tribal groups of the North Eastern Part of India and majority of the tribe live in the state of Meghalaya which is adjacent to Assam. Like any tribe; the Khasi-Pnar has a unique culture, tradition and language. The Khasi way of life is still govern to some extend by a Tribal way of life.

The Khasi word for Justice is “Ka Hok.” Ka hok also means Truth and Righteousness. So when the Khasi use the word Ka Hok it means Justice, Truth and Righteousness. The Khasi Justice system is based on truth and nothing but the truth and it also means delivering Justice Righteously. Even before any battle or a duel, the Khasi people will always swear by Ka Hok. Ka Hok in the Khasi-Pnar context is a sacred word; it is something that one will keep in a high esteem. Ka Hok governs the day to day life of the Khasi people and they try to live by it. One of the cardinal rules of the Khasi Pnar is known as “Kamai ia ka hok”, which literarily means to earn righteousness, so a Khasi Pnar is expects to try live righteously throughout one’s life.

The Unitarian Union North East India or the Khasi Unitarian as it is commonly known, is a church which has it roots in the Khasi-Pnar thoughts and culture and also being a liberal a religion it spread it wings to absorb truth and meaning from the wider world.


(Rev. H.H. Mohrmen is a minister in the Unitarian Union North East India; he is currently the General Secretary of the Unitarian Union. He was trained at the Unitarian college Manchester and he is also currently studying through distance education mode MA in Christian Studies from Madras University. Mohrmen also has his own Blog at hhmohrmen.blogspot.com his email ID is hh_mohrmen@yahoo.com. )

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