Where the Clouds End

Synopsis

“My late great grandfather was a Bengali who came to Shillong in the early 1900s – long before the present political border divided the lands.”
After the creation of borders between India and her neighbours in 1947, the movement of foreigners into Shillong began to arouse unrest. A people who had previously moved freely in the Khasi Hills began to be seen as an unwelcome influx, threatening the land and purity of the Khasi race.
Where the Clouds End documents the Khasis’ struggle to claim an authentic ethnicity, racial purity and right to land. It challenges stereotypical notions portrayed by the media of the unwanted ‘outsider’ who threatens traditions, social structures and moral values. Explored over three chapters, whose titles are the pillars of the Khasi traditional faith, Where the Clouds End examines tribal identity as a fluid concept which defies man-made imaginations, historical ideals, political definitions and geographic boundaries.