Shillong, April 29: A German geographer has cautioned that rigid legal boundaries are increasingly incompatible with the lived territories of tribal communities, arguing that contemporary legal systems have yet to adequately address this growing disconnect.
Delivering a lecture at the National Law University of Meghalaya on April 27, Hermann Kreutzmann, a professor of human geography at Freie Universität Berlin, explored the evolving relationship between geography, law and indigenous communities. The session drew participation from students and faculty representing five academic institutions across Shillong.
Speaking on comparative mountain research, Kreutzmann traced the foundations of Himalayan studies to the 19th-century expeditions of the Schlagintweit brothers, who mapped the region in collaboration with local surveyors such as Nain Singh. He highlighted this early model of combining external scientific approaches with indigenous knowledge as a framework that remains relevant in contemporary research.
The lecture examined mountain societies through the dual perspectives of marginality and fragility. Kreutzmann noted that highland regions are frequently viewed as peripheral by policymakers and researchers, despite exhibiting highly complex systems of human adaptation to challenging environments.
Illustrating his arguments, he presented historical visuals, including rare imagery from the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, linking broader Himalayan discourse to the northeastern Indian context.
The lecture formed part of the university’s academic engagement with themes of comparative development and migration, areas where questions of geography, governance and community rights are increasingly intertwined.
