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Khesias : Khāsias, like the Gurkhās & Bhutiyās are people with strong Mongolian features (beardless, yellow skinned, snub-nosed, with flat faces & prominent cheek-bones) who live on the hills of Himalayan ranges & Assam. Along with the Jaintias who possess the same tribal characteristics & speak the same language, they inhabit the Khāsi & Jaintia Hills district of the state of Meghalaya. They are a matriarchal community, i.e., properties are passed on through the matriarch. British official David Scott (1786-1831) in whose memory the Govt. at Calcutta erected a monument & declared him “Indeed a second Cleveland” for he had “accomplished the entire subjection of the lawless & savage inhabitants of the jungle-territory, who had long infested the neighbouring lands by their predatory incursions, attached them to the British Govt. by a conquest over their minds, the most permanent as the most rational mode of dominations.” Scott inaugurated this signal service to the welfare of natives at Gorakhpur as judge & magistrate at Purnea 1812-3 & of Rangpur: Commissioner of Rangpur in 1823: then A.G.G. (Agent of Gov.-General) on the N.E. frontier of Bengal & Commissioner of Revenue & Circuit in the districts of Assam, N.E. Rangpur, Shirpur & Sylhet: he settled in the Provinces of Upper & Lower Assam: encouraged the Missionaries to convert the locals in his domain: carried out a survey: terrorised the Garos, converted them & opened a school (two-pronged “conquest over their minds, the most permanent as the most rational mode of dominations”: coerced the Khāsias into signing a treaty benefiting the British at their expense. When, in April 1831, the Khāsias retaliated &, in spite of suffering heavy losses due to their inferior weapons, killed two of his officers, Scott escaped & returned to “win over their minds” with his bayonets & the Book. A similar fate was accorded in 1835 to the Jaintia king Rajendra & his community when they fought & killed four of Scott’s officers. [Based on S. Bhattacharya & Buckland]