Dkhar#Beh Dkhar

The 'Khasi-English Dictionary' published in 1906, lists Dkhar meaning non-Khasi.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Singh|first=U Nissor|editor-last1=Gurdon|editor-first1=P.R.T.|editor-last2=Ropmay|editor-first2=U Dohori|editor-last3=Singh|editor-first3=U Hajom Kissor|encyclopedia=Khasi-English Dictionary|title=Dkhar|url=https://archive.org/stream/khasienglishdict00singrich#page/64/mode/2up/search/dkhar|access-date=10 June 2018|year=1906|publisher=Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam|location=Shillong|language=en|page=65}} The entry for its abbreviation 'khar, elaborates the non-Khasi aspect. Dkhar or 'khar could either refer to an inhabitant of the plains or a person from the Khasi clan having the same name.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Singh|first=U Nissor|editor-last1=Gurdon|editor-first1=P.R.T.|editor-last2=Ropmay|editor-first2=U Dohori|editor-last3=Singh|editor-first3=U Hajom Kissor|encyclopedia=Khasi-English Dictionary|title='khar|url=https://archive.org/stream/khasienglishdict00singrich#page/26/mode/2up/search/dkhar|access-date=10 June 2018|year=1906|publisher=Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam|location=Shillong|language=en|page=27}} Dkhar was originally meant to designate a clan among the Khasis to assimilate people of having partial Khasi ancestry, but differentiated from the indigenous Khasi clans.{{cite journal|last=Matta|first=Mara|year=2015|title=The Khasi New Wave: Addressing Indigenous Issues from a Literary and Cinematic Perspective|journal=Anglistica AION|publisher=Università degli studi di Napoli "L’Orientale"|location=Napoli|volume=19|issue=1|pages=51–67|issn=2035-8504|doi=10.19231/angl-aion.201515|url=https://www.anglistica-aion-unior.org/copia-di-18-2-1}} However, in gradual usage the term came to represent non-Khasi people from the plains area surrounding the Khasi territory. During the British period, Bengalis of all religions, mainly Hindu from Kolkata, Dhaka and Sylhet settled in Shillong by acquiring government jobs and engaged in other white collar professions. They initially settled in Laban, then a small farming village and from then Laban became synonymous with dkhar.{{cite news|url=http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2013/09/12/sorry-plight-of-the-oldest-town-in-shillong/|title=Sorry Plight Of The Oldest Town In Shillong|last=Wahlang|first=R|date=12 September 2013|work=The Shillong Times|access-date=19 October 2018|location=Shillong}}{{cite news|url=http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2017/10/18/to-laban-with-love/|title=To Laban With Love|last=Hujon|first=Janet Moore|date=18 October 2017|work=The Shillong Times|access-date=19 October 2018|location=Shillong}} The Bengali Hindu settlers were perceived as outsiders, foreigners to the Khasi Hills and were negatively referred to as Dkhars. The Bengali Hindu festival of Durga Puja is called Pomblang U Dkhar in the Khasi language, literally meaning the festival of the Dkhars.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Singh|first=U Nissor|editor-last1=Gurdon|editor-first1=P.R.T.|editor-last2=Ropmay|editor-first2=U Dohori|editor-last3=Singh|editor-first3=U Hajom Kissor|encyclopedia=Khasi-English Dictionary|title=Dkhar|url=https://archive.org/stream/khasienglishdict00singrich#page/162/mode/2up/search/dkhar|access-date=10 June 2018|year=1906|publisher=Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam|location=Shillong|language=en|page=162}} After the Partition, many Bengali Hindus from East Bengal and Sylhet District, which was awarded to Pakistan, moved to Shillong. The Assam government settled the Bengali Hindu refugees in Them Rynjah (R.R Colony) and other neighbourhoods of Shillong. During this period Nepalis, Biharis, Marwaris and Punjabis from various parts of Nepal and India settled in the present day territory of Meghalaya. The indigenous Khasi tribals began to consider the Dkhars responsible for their unemployment, poverty and the loss of 'tribal lands'. The growing resentment was usually directed on the Bengalis.

File:Bengali Hindus in a refugee camp, Shillong - 1979.jpg

In 1979, as the anti-foreigner movement gained momentum in Assam, the ethnocentric Khasi organizations like the Khasi Students Union and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council{{cite web|url=http://www.motherlandmagazine.com/insideoutsiders/|title=Inside/Outsiders|last=Pariat|first=Janice|date=8 November 2013|work=Motherland|publisher=Wieden+Kennedy|access-date=10 June 2018|location=New Delhi}} raised the slogan of Beh Dkhar, literally meaning 'chase the Dkhars away',{{cite thesis |last=Lyngdoh |first=Margaret |date=28 March 2016 |title=Transformation, Tradition, and Lived Realities: Vernacular Belief Worlds of the Khasis of Northeastern India |type=PhD |publisher=University of Tartu |oclc=614785252 |url=https://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/51059 |access-date=10 June 2018}} directed against the non tribals migrants of the state. Martin Narayan Majaw, the mercurial leader of another ethnocentric Khasi group called Demands Implementation Committee stated clearly, "We don't like outsiders to stay here. We tell them, come here, appreciate the blue sky and the green hills, and then go away."

• Bongal
• Mayang
• Malaun

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{{ethnic slurs}}

Category:Persecution of Bengali Hindus

Category:Meghalaya

Category:Pejorative terms for strangers and foreigners

Category:Racism in India

Category:Shillong