Khasi society
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Matrilineal society: men try to change it
The Syngkhong Rympei Thymai (SRT) campaign/ 2011
Where women of India rule the roost and men demand gender equality
The Khasi people of north-eastern India are a matrilineal society and some men aren't happy
Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 18 January 2011
The Khasi, who number about 1 million in India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya, carry on the matrilineal tradition. The youngest daughter inherits, children take their mother's surname, and once married, men live in their mother-in-law's home.
Kaith Pariat is sick of housekeeping and even more so of being bossed around by his mother-in-law. He has put up with this situation since he was married. "Can you imagine the shock of leaving your family home and suddenly becoming a dogsbody in your mother-in-law's house?" he asks. "She gives the orders and you become a good-for-nothing servant."
"Only mothers or mother-in-laws look after the children. Men are not even entitled to take part in family gatherings. The husband is up against a whole clan of people: his wife, his mother-in-law and his children. So all he can do is play the guitar, sing, take to drink and die young," Pariat concludes gloomily.
Men are the weak sex in Meghalaya, but Pariat hopes the Syngkhong Rympei Thymai (SRT) campaign [roughly "a wedge to shore up a shaky table"] will promote reform of family structures. Indeed he wants to achieve more than mere equality. "Men are endowed with natural leadership. They should protect women, who in return should support them," he says.
According to Valentina Pakyntein, an anthropologist at Shillong University, the matrilineal system goes back to a time when Khasis had several partners and it was hard to determine the paternity of children. But SRT members have another explanation, claiming that their ancestors were away from home for too long fighting wars to be able to look after their families.
As members of an official ethnic minority, Khasis have many privileges: the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council protects their laws, taxation is lower than elsewhere in India, land is set aside for their use in tribal zones, and a quota system operates for higher education and civil service jobs.
"Men from the plains, unscrupulous foreigners, marry Khasi women to take advantage of all these privileges," Pariat says scornfully. He claims such advantages jeopardise the future of the tribe. "But anyway it is the women who inherit and children take their name," says Patricia Mukhim, the editor of the Shillong Times. "I tend to think Khasi men feel diminished in their manhood compared with outsiders," she says. "It's a pity, because that's what distinguishes us from the others."
In the state capital Shillong, women wear skirts to church, put on lipstick and drive their cars with their windows open, listening to music. Many are happy to stay single. In a country where the pressure to get married is everywhere, they are an exception.
"Why bother with a husband? I already have a family and I want to concentrate on my career," says Rosanna Lyngdoh, 38, who lives with her extended family in a house with 21 bedrooms.
In India, where more than a third of women suffer domestic violence, the position of their Khasi sisters seems enviable. "Because we belong to a matrilineal society people think we're privileged, but it's not true," says Hasinah Kharbih, the head of the Impulse Network, adding that decisions by a woman must be endorsed by her maternal uncle.
The matrilineal system should not be confused with matriarchy. Khasi women have never held power. The former rulers of the tribe left their throne to the son of their youngest sister. All the chief government ministers are men and few women even sit on village councils.
But Pariat has no intention of giving up the struggle. He claims that the SRT has 1,000 members, many of whom are influential figures. They prefer to remain anonymous for fear of being ostracised by the community and their in-laws. The organisation even has some women members, mostly mothers from the neighbouring state of West Bengal. Pariat explains: "They are afraid their sons may be tempted by a Khasi woman and submit to their control."
This article originally appeared in Le Monde
The ‘Khasi Inheritance of Property Bill, 2021
Tora Agarwala, Nov 2, 2021: The Indian Express
A district autonomous council in Meghalaya announced that it would introduce the ‘Khasi Inheritance of Property Bill, 2021, aimed at “equitable distribution” of parental property among siblings in the Khasi community. If implemented, the proposed Bill would modify an age-old customary practice of inheritance of the matrilineal Khasi tribe. While commentators say it is unlikely it would be made into a legislation, the Bill has brought into focus the practice of matriliny in Meghalaya.
What does matriliny in Meghalaya entail?
The three tribes of Meghalaya — Khasis, Jaintias, and Garos — practise a matrilineal system of inheritance. In this system, lineage and descent are traced through the mother’s clan. In other words, children take the mother’s surname, the husband moves into his wife’s house, and the youngest daughter (khatduh) of the family is bequeathed the full share of the ancestral — or the clan’s — property.
The khatduh becomes the “custodian” of the land, and assumes all responsibility associated with the land, including taking care of aged parents, unmarried or destitute siblings. Custom also dictates that the khatduh cannot sell the property, without permission of her mother’s brother (maternal uncle) — since he technically belongs to the mother’s clan, through which descent is traced.
This inheritance tradition applies only to ancestral or clan/community property, which has been with the family for years. On the other hand, self-acquired property can be distributed equally among siblings.
In this traditional set-up, if a couple does not have any daughters, then the property goes to the wife’s elder sister, and her daughters. If the wife does not have sisters, then the clan usually takes over the property.
Does it really empower women?
Women activists have often pointed out that the matrilineal system in Meghalaya rarely empowers women. For one, custodianship is often misconstrued as ownership vested in just one person, that is the youngest daughter, said Shillong-based activist Angela Rangad. “This custodianship comes with the responsibility to care for aged parents, unmarried or destitute siblings and other clan members,” she said.
Moreover, the custodian cannot buy or sell the land, without taking permission from her maternal uncle. “The property is in the hands of the family or the clan, and the woman cannot make a decision on the property without consulting her maternal uncles,” said Joy Grace Syiem, who heads the Meghalaya chapter of the North East Network, a women’s rights organisation. She said that studies suggest only about 35 to 38 per cent of women own property in the state. “”This is because most of the property is clan property or community property,” she said.
Syiem added that people often confuse matrilineal with matriarchal, where women function as heads. “Of course, while women may have freedom of mobility and easier access to education, they are not decision makers in Meghalaya. “There are barely any women in positions of power, in politics, or heading institutions. The Dorbar Shnong (traditional Khasi village governing bodies) debar women from contesting elections. These are questions we need to introspect and ask,” she said.
What does the Bill aim to change?
The Bill is yet to be introduced in the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), and its provisions have not been made public.
However, the main objective, according to Titosstarwell Chyne, who is the chief of the KHADC of the Bill, is “equitable distribution” of parental property among siblings – both male and female. Another provision would let parents decide who they want to will their property to. The third provision would prevent a sibling from getting parental property if they marry a non-Khasi and accept the spouse’s customs and culture.
Chyne reasoned that property should be distributed equally. “Many times, boys are not able to take loans because there is no collateral to show. Sometimes, when a couple has no children, and there is no genuine heir, the clan takes over the property, as per custom. It leads to a number of litigations by children against their parents.” Over the years, a few groups have protested the system of property inheritance, saying it “disinherits” men, and pressed for equitable property distribution between all children in the family.
Commentators in Meghalaya say that it is too early to say whether such a Bill will actually be made into a legislation as the process is long-drawn and may draw opposition. Since KHADC is a body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, it does not have the power to legislate. Paragraph 12 A of the Sixth Schedule gives the final right of passing a law to the state legislature.
How is it being received?
While some groups have been campaigning for such a legislation, they do not quite agree with the manner the KHADC has introduced the BIll.
Michael Syiem, founder of a group called Maitshaphrang, which is rooting for a legislation that aims at “economic empowerment based on the principle of equitable distribution of property”, said they had been campaigning for such a law for thirty years. “Before the KHADC brings such a Bill, they should at least consult all stakeholders in the society, talk to community members,” he said. Rangad said that “any move to further equality and justice was always welcome” but she was yet to read the Bill’s fine print. “Hopefully bestowing property rights equally on all children will also further and make caring for the aged and destitute in our society a shared responsibility. Even as I say this though I believe that the defining organising principles of Khasi matrilineal society, namely lineage and inheritance needs to be protected,” she said.
She also pointed out that there was growing landlessness among the Khasi community. “That 70 per cent of Khasi families are property-less needs to be acknowledged when we are discussing property rights and this Bill,” she said.
