SHILLONG, APR 14: In a significant move to scientifically document the origins and heritage of indigenous communities, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday announced the formation of two dedicated committees to carry out an extensive study involving DNA mapping, linguistic analysis and cultural research into the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo tribes, marking one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to establish an evidence-based narrative of tribal history in the State.
The Chief Minister said the government will be formally launching this particular research program in the month of May, but did the preliminary study.
“As you are aware that we have put up two committees, one committee specifically to look into the Khasi Jaintia and one committee to look into the roots of the Garo tribe and do a detailed research including DNA mapping, including different linguistic linkages, cultural linkages and connect with different researchers to document different aspects of both the Khasi Jaintia tribes, the background and also for the Garo community. We are doing this because we would like to see more documentation, more research and more facts are available. So that all these documentations which had not been past can be done,” Sangma said.
The CM further added, “So, this was again discussed today and we will be formally launching this particular research program in the month of May, but we did the preliminary study. In fact, the team started working from February itself and we will further take this research, which would in fact have a detail discussions with different institutes at National level even at the International level and going to the in-depth analysis of the roots of our are different tribes in the state.”
On the timeline, he said, “It will be anything between 18 months to 24 months because it’s a very details study but obviously as we go along, the reports will keep coming out.”
