Hopingstone Lyngdoh | |
Birth Date: | 15 March 1929 |
Birth Place: | Nonglait Village, Mawthadraishan Tehsil, West Khasi Hills district |
Death Place: | NEIGRIHMS, Shillong |
Occupation: | Politician |
Nationality: | Indian |
Party: | HSPDP |
Office: | Member of Legislative Assembly, Meghalaya |
Constituency1: | Nongstoin |
Term Start1: | 1972 |
Term End1: | 2015 |
Hopingstone Lyngdoh (15 March 1929 – 26 September 2015) was an Indian politician who was the president of the Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP), one of three official political parties of the state of Meghalaya in India.[1]
On 15 March 1929, Hopingstone was born on Hajur Shon at Nonglait village in present-day West Khasi Hills district. He studied at St. Anthony's College, Shillong. As a child, he grew up in a poor household and suffered from visual impairment. He lost his father when he was five. His grandfather cured him of his blindness. Thereafter, he worked as a cow herder in his village.[2]
He was the oldest serving representative member in Meghalaya and has never been defeated in a legislative assembly election. For a brief period he also was a Member of Parliament, 1977. He was actively associated with educational organisations and their programmes, also fought single-handedly against uranium mining in the State.
Beside the political arena, he was an agriculturist, school teacher and social worker; he was the president of the Hill State People's Democratic Party, previously associated with the Eastern India Tribal Union since 1957, it was renamed All-Party Hill Leaders Conference in 1960. He was also a member of United Khasi Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council, 1957 to 1972, also member of the Assam Legislative Assembly (1962—68) and the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (1972—2015).
The 86-year-old veteran and most decorated politician of his time, Mr. Lyngdoh, who represented Nongstoin constituency of West Khasi Hills district in the Assembly, died on September 26, 2015, at the Northeast Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Medical and Health Sciences (Neighrims) in Shillong. He died of pneumonia, sepsis and multiple organ failure. He was buried at Mawkyllei village in West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.