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It is believed that most early societies were organised around matriarchal systems. In fact, the ancient culture along the Indus River in Northwest India was based on a matriarchal system. Historically, while the matriarchal systems in the North-East region of India are like those in East Asia, the North-West regions of India note the influence of matriarchies from Western Asia which in turn influenced South India.
Many confuse the idea of an egalitarian society or matrilineal system with matriarchy. Although there is a shift of power, matrilineal societies do not mean that women hold more power than men.
Colonialism and the post-colonial modernisation of India altered systems in a lot of communities and tribes yet many tribes continue to organise themselves in matrilineal social formations, if not matriarchal systems, even today.
The Khasi And Garo Tribe From Meghalaya And Assam
The Khasi people are an ethnic group of Meghalaya in North-Eastern India with a significant part of the population settled around the bordering state of Assam and parts of Bangladesh. Arranged in a Matrilineal system, the eldest woman of the family functions as the head of the family, with the property being passed onto the youngest daughter of the family. If a daughter is not born into a family, the family either adopts a daughter or passes on the property to the daughter of the eldest woman’s sister.
The heiress, Ka Khadduh, continues to stay with her parents even after marriage and the man married to her must move into his mother-in-law’s house. In the case of marriage to a non-heiress, the post-marital residence of the couple is neolocal. Traditionally, if a man is married to a Khadduh and they both have no children, a Khasi man returns to his maternal home upon the death of his spouse. These practices in accordance with the clan, Khasi Kur, are the rules that govern inheritance and property ownership.
It is the eldest woman’s brother, without whose consultation or agreement no decision is made. The women of the tribe lack representation in the political arena of the state, it is only affairs domestic and economic affairs that are controlled by the women of the house.
Following a similar matrilineal social formation, the Garo tribe, the sister tribe and neighbours to the Khasi tribe also descend from the eldest woman of the family. The daughter of the family carries the clan name, taken from the eldest woman of the family, throughout her life and her husband takes up her clan name post-marriage. In case a couple desires to separate, for reasons ranging from incompatibility to lack of offspring, the couple can get separated without any social stigma.
The Nair and Ezhavas Communities From Kerala
The matriarchal communities diminished as the communities adjusted to patriarchal controls with colonialism and the state banning the matrilineal and matrilocal family structures through the Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975, post-colonialism.
The Nairs are a group of castes and sub-castes who traditionally lived under an older female member in a matrilineal household called a tharavad, a joint family. The tharavad housed many descendants who shared the same ancestor.
The husbands stayed in usually stayed in separate rooms or different houses, visiting the tharavad at night and leaving the following morning. Legally, they held almost little to no responsibility towards their children. The responsibility of the children of the household along with taking the shared property and other decisions, fell upon the eldest male member of the household, recognised as the karnavan. Even though ancestral lineage followed the eldest female member of the family, the karnavan was the superior authority.
Divorce rates were believed to be high in the community as both the men and women of the community had equal rights to terminate the marriage. Another matrilineal community from Kerala, the Ezhavas, settled in northern Travancore and followed a matrilocal system of property distribution. Alike the Nairs, the karnavan was still the superior authority.
The Bunt And Billava Communities From Karnataka
The Bunt And Billava communities from the Tuluva ethnic group followed a matrilineal descent known as Aliyasantana, based on the legend of a demon demanding the sacrifice of sons from a king to lift the drought that plagued the king’s kingdom. Upon the king’s refusal, the king’s sister offered her son as a sacrifice. This made the demon pardon them and resulted in the king’s nephew inheriting everything from the king.
This resulted in the communities arranging themselves in a matrilineal system, with the inheritance being passed on through the sister, who was the eldest female member of the family. Still, the sister’s brother is the primary decision-maker of the family; once again following a patriarchal living pattern in other respects.
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