MEGHALAYA

constituent state of India, lying in the northeast corner of the country. Occupying a mountainous plateau of great scenic beauty, it is bounded on the south and west by Bangladesh and on the north and east by the Indian state of Assam. The capital is Shillong. The tribal hill people of Meghalaya trace their origins to pre-Aryan times in India. Over the centuriesdespite being driven from the plains by Aryan invadersthey have managed to maintain their identity largely intact and in seclusion. They accepted nominal British rule in the 19th century, but the British never really conquered them and left the tribes alone. Included in the state of Assam (along with other tribal areas), the area received special protection under the Indian constitution. With the introduction of Assamese as the official language in 1960, agitation for autonomy began, and the area was made a state in 1972. From west to east in Meghalaya, the Garo Hills rise abruptly from the Brahmaputra River valley to about 1,000 feet (300 m), merging with the Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills. Eastward-trending ridges reach heights of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet (1,220 to 1,830 m). A central plateau is a watershed for the many rivers and streams traversing the state. The most important of these rivers is Umiam-Barapani. The state's climate is generally mild. Most of the inhabitants of Meghalaya are of Tibeto-Burman (Garos) or Mon-Khmer (Khasis) origin, and their languages and dialects belong to these groups. The predominately rural population is mostly Hindu and Christian, with some Muslims and a few Buddhists. Farming is the Meghalayan way of life, occupying more than 70 percent of the population. Crops include rice, millet, corn (maize), pepper, potatoes, chilies, cotton, ginger, jute, betel nuts, oranges, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, and numerous varieties of vegetables. Traditional farming practices, however, have eroded the soil and left the people very poor. The state possesses abundant mineral resources, mostly untapped. It has coal, limestone, kaolin, feldspar, quartz, mica, gypsum, and bauxite. Almost 100 percent of India's sillimanite (a source of high-grade ceramic clay) is produced in Meghalaya. Despite these resources, Meghalaya has few industries, andexcept for Shillong, Jowai, Nongthymmai, and Turafew urban centres. There is little communication between the hill districts of Meghalaya, and even within the districts the valleys remain isolated. The state has a little more than 3,100 miles (5,000 km) of roads, divided among surfaced, graveled, and earth. Meghalaya has only one daily newspaper and some weeklies. The North-Eastern Hill University is at Shillong. Area 8,660 square miles (22,429 square km). Pop. (1991 prelim.) 1,760,626. state of India. It is located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bounded on the south and southwest by Bangladesh and on all other sides by the state of Assam. The area is 8,660 square miles (22,429 square kilometres). The capital is the hill town of Shillong. Meghalayaliterally Abode (alaya) of the Clouds (megha)occupies a mountainous plateau of great scenic beauty. It became a state in 1972. Additional reading Overviews are provided by I.M. Simon, Meghalaya (1980); and P.R. Kyndiah, Meghalaya: Yesterday and Today (1990), a popular descriptive account of the region. The state's physical and human geography are covered in D.T. Zimba, Geography of Meghalaya, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1978), and Geographical Identity of Meghalaya (1983); D.D. Mali, An Introduction to the Economy of Meghalaya (1978); and B.S. Rana, The People of Meghalaya (1989). Kamaleshwar Sinha, Meghalaya (1970), contains much history and other information on the state. History Apart from accounts of the more important Khasi kingdoms in the chronicles of the neighbouring Ahoms and Kacharis, little is known of Meghalaya prior to the British period. In the early 19th century, however, the British desire to build a road through the region in order to link Bengal and Assam led to a treaty (1827) with the ruler (syiem) of the Khasi principality of Nonkhlaw. Opponents of the treaty persuaded the syiem to repudiate it in 1829, and a subsequent attack on the British led inevitably to British military operations against the Khasis. By the mid-1830s, most of the local rulers had submitted to the British. For the next century, the British exercised political control over the area, then known as the Garrows and Cossiya (Khasi) States, but the tribes, left to themselves, were able to preserve their traditional way of life in seclusion. In 1947 the rulers of the region acceded to the newly independent country of India. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, evolved a policy to preserve and protect the way of life of the tribal peoples. Along with other tribal areas, the region was given special protection in the Indian constitution, and, though included within the state of Assam, it retained a great deal of autonomy. Even this did not prove enough, however, and when Assamese became the state's official language in 1960, agitation for autonomy and self-rule gathered strength. Unlike in many other hill regions in northeastern India, this movement was largely peaceful and constitutional. Meghalaya was created as an autonomous state within Assam in 1970 and achieved full statehood on Jan. 21, 1972. Chakravarthi Raghavan Deryck O. Lodrick