This paper seek to analyse the Khasi traditional institutions of local governance: the Dorbar Shnong (village council) and the Rangbah Shnong (village headman). Drawing on field study report, official legislation, and academic studies, we examine how these bodies function in practice, their legal context, and their roles in modern governance. In Umniuh, the Dorbar Shnong is an all-adult council that meets to make consensus decisions on local matters, while the Rangbah Shnong is the elected leader who implements council resolutions. The study found that villagers (adult men) actively participate in Dorbar meetings and respect these customs for law, land, and development decisions. The interplay between customary practice and statutory law emerges as a theme: for example, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Act (2014) recognizes Dorbar Shnong s and defines their functions, yet in practice their authority comes from local norms (the “sanad” of traditional rulers) more than modern law. Methodologically, data were gathered through interviews with the Rangbah Shnong and Dorbar members, observation of Dorbar meetings, focus groups, and document review, and analysed by thematic coding and simple descriptive statistics. In conclusion, we discuss how Umniuh’s Dorbar Shnong and Rangbah Shnong exemplify Khasi “folk democracy”, highlighting both the strengths of participatory customary governance and its challenges.
Mawlong et al. (Tue,) studied this question.