Meghalaya is a state built on criminal activity. It's would not be a stretch to say that nearly the entire population either is involved in criminal activities or atleast benefitting from it.
Meghalaya was formed in 1971, after Indira Gandhi was attempting to become the Indian Prime Minister, sought to bypass leadership of the Congress Party and decided to make deals with different tribal political parties to provide them with new states in exchange for their support in her political aspirations. The result was explosively violent. Within 10 years, ethnic violence exploded across the region. In the the new state of Meghalaya, upto 40,000 people of the Bengali, Bihari and Nepali communities were forced to flee from the state as the tribal population began to consolidate power. Civil society and the government could not legally force out the non-tribal population thus "militancy" emerged that targeted them with the implicit support of the tribal population. However as the tribals gained supremacy of the state this left a number of heavily armed and trained militants with no enemy. Naturally existing outside of civil society these people drifted slowly into criminality. Smuggling, extortion and kidnapping of fellow tribals became rampant and the very people that had previously supported them now became their victims. Some political opportunists even went so far as use them to settle political scores and eliminate rivals. This is Meghalaya as today.
However corruption long preceded the rise of militancy. To understand why Meghalaya is so lawless, one must understand that there are 5 authorities in the state -
1. The State Government - the biggest authority but not the strongest. The State Police is one of the expressions of this authority. State taxes are collected by them.
2. The Central government - the strongest authority but very limited as it has little or no interest in the state. The Army, the CRPF (Paramilitary Police), the judiciary and the central bureaucracy are it's extension. Central taxes are collected by them.
3. The Autonomous District Councils - they are supposedly supposed to protect the interests of the different tribal communities. There are three ADC's in the state. The Garo, Khasi and Jaintia district councils. They are supposed to be incharge in the administration of tribal lands and have a limited law making ability. They also register who are tribals and who can lease, buy or rent land and issue licenses. Taxes are to be paid to them for the extraction of minerals and use of natural resources or registration of land.
4. The local tribal kings and chieftains - they are the original rulers of the land and technically they own large tracts of land and people have to pay taxes to them. Local markets are held on their land and they collect money from the sellers. Parking tickets, road access and even royalties are included too.
5. Then there are local self government organisations organised at a community or village or locality level who have the ability to fine activities or add fees. In Shillong there is a municipal board but no councillors due to a objections by the local self government organisations called
Dorbar Shnongs, thus making them more or less useless.
These authorities are extensively corrupt and incompetent. There is no clear and proper separation of powers and this means that economic activities through the state are doubled or triple taxed or even quadrupled taxed. No one is incharge basically. The general failure of the Indian judiciary and an outdated system of law- enforcement means that people can get away with anything.
The lack of central authority in the state enables criminals and criminal opportunists to take advantage of the unsuspecting. Here a distinction must be made between criminal gangs and criminal opportunists. A criminal is one whose career is in criminal activities like extortion, murder, rape, drug dealing and smuggling. A criminal opportunists however is someone who is normally an honest and law abiding citizen but due to the lack of consequences and lack of central authority engages in some form of criminal activity. The most common of type is the extortion of land buyers by local "sordars", (village or locality leaders) in the Khasi districts. These men demand a percentage of the price of land being sold with the implied threat of violence or vandalism on the new owners. In essence, a form of protection racket. This is usually done by whole villages or communities who get a percentage of the cut. The buyer has no recourse as the police are ineffective or at times actually a part of the racket.
Non-Governmental Organisations are another group that thrive in this environment of lawlessness. Criminals tend to group together and form NGO's to actually tax other criminal groups. An example of this is when the National Green Tribunal of the Central Government banned coal mining in the state due to the severe environmental impact. However coal smuggling became widespread and many had to use back roads. Certain NGO's and local village leaders actually began setting up checkpoints in these back roads to extort money from truck drivers smuggling coal. An interview by the author with a low level member of a checkpoint revealed that he was earning ₹2000 per night every day. One can only imagine what the higher level members were making.
The police suffer from rampant corruption in the state. Extortion of truck drivers driving legal and illegal wares are a huge money maker. The traditional collection of "hafta" rampant. Hafta is the illegal collection of a "fee" from local businesses by the corrupt members of the police across India. This practice is well established in the state. The lack of accountability also means the police are able to act with impunity. Police brutality, rape, torture and even murder is common.
To understand why such a high level of corruption exists, we must understand what kind of society Meghalaya is and what kind of society India is as a whole. India at its core is a feudal society. Meghalaya is no different. It's is a society built on patronage and vassalage. Everyone has to pay homage to those above them. Only a small portion of the country has risen above its feudal nature. The rest remain in the dark age. An "elite" runs India, derived from the upper castes. The situation is similar in Megahlaya but instead of caste, certain clans and families are the elites. Usually these were the members of the descendants and friends of the ancient aristocracy whose old money enabled them to well placed in society. However with the advent of democracy these families could no longer rely on old ways of maintenance of power instead. They had to adopt new means. The old form of authority was derived from divine rights but now they had to gain an election mandate to maintain power. Thus they used their old money to purchase votes. However this will never be enough as their old money is limited. Thus they need more money to purchase votes. This money comes from the government in the form of tax payer money. Thus when these people get into office they need to get as much money as possible to remain in power. Without this money they will not be able to purchase votes and thus not get elected again. Therefore there is perverse system that encourages corruption. A politician who becomes a minister of a government department is more or less reassured of enough funds for the next election. A politician who is elected but does not become a minister however, has to depend on other activities either from lobbying by business interest groups or from criminal activities. An honest politician would not survive. Normally the other branches of government like the judiciary would act as a check to this but the judiciary itself has failed under the weight of the sheer number of cases and other internal reasons.
The system of vassalage comes in here. A politician will have a retinue of followers and supporters. These men and women offer their services to him in the hopes that he wins and gives them something in return. This can be in the form of jobs or money or favours or even seats in colleges or schools. This is very similar to how a mediaeval Indian society used to work. Lords would give grants of land or money to loyal knights and knights would give share to whoever was following them. Such a system is still followed even today. Without these knights and retainers, politicians are unlikely to win elections. In other societies this happens as well but this tends to be subtle and quieter and less obvious. However in Megahlaya, there is no money. Economic activities are dominated by a few families and mired in red tape and everything else is worthless, thus government jobs are the biggest and best reward a political follower can hope for. Checking through the state bureaucracy, one can find that large numbers of positions are filled by such people or by the children or relatives of such people.
Another lucrative avenue is contracts for government projects. The winning politician rewards his followers and benefactors with contracts for construction, supply, services, etc. Most often these people have no qualifications or ability to deliver and thus you get your horrible government services or they just corrupt the money for the projects for themselves.
Thus despite its claims of being tourist hub or progressive vision, Meghalaya has not really progressed beyond its feudal roots. Crime is rampant and any crime statistics by the government are not to be trusted. Definitely not a safe place to visit without being alert and taking precautions.
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