1

CHAPTER-1
TRIBAL CUSTOMARY LAW AND WOMEN'S STATUS :
AN INTRODUCTION
Among the changes that modernisation has introduced among the tribes is the legal system.
Studies indicate that it has had both positive and negative impacts on them. t has resulted in a new
identity search among most tribes of the Northeast because of a feeling that modern institutions
devalue their culture. This search is expressed, more than elsewhere, in the demand for the recognition
of their customary law. Home to various ethnic groups and tribes, this region has witnessed many
armed conflicts. Economic shortages are not their only reason. A major cause is what the people
perceive as an effort to impose another culture on them. Going back to their tradition is a way of
asserting their identity. Thus the tradition-modernity interface is a crucial component both in their
identity re-assertion and conflicts. t has implications both from a gender and a class perspective
and is the basis of this study.
1. THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The present study on the impact of the customary law on Women has emerged from our past
work on Modernisation and Changing Women's Status in the Northeast (Fernandes and Barbora
2002a) and Social Change in the Northeast (D'Souza and Kekrieseno 2002). They had indicated
that modernisation of the tribal societies without measures to counter its ill effects can result in class
formation and strengthen patriarchy. t does not mean that modernisation is negative in itself but
only that it has many negative effects that have to be countered. The present study will test this
hypothesis and suggest measures if necessary to counter the ill effects of modern inputs if some
of them go against gender equilty.
The Importance of the Theme
The theme is basic to the region in which many communities re-assert their identity through
their customary law. Most tribal traditions were community-based and assigned a relatively high
status to women without making them equal to men. On the other side, modern land laws are
individual-based and ownership is by and large by men. Our own studies indicate that its result is
class formation and a stronger patriarchal ethos (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 27-29). On one side,
most tribes consider their customary law intrinsic to their identity. On the other, while going back
to it many of them give it a fundamentalist interpretation, especially on the gender issue and re-
interpret it from a male perspective alone. Thus the tradition-modernity interface can go against
women and often it does.
2
That is the starting point of our study in which we try to find out the impact on women of the
tradition-modernity interface and of the trend to go back to the customary law. We shall do it through
a study of five tribes that are at different stages of this interface. The Dimasa and Garo come under
the Sixth Schedule that recognises community ownership (CPRs) but have to interact with the
individual based formal laws. The Aka who are close to their tradition are governed by their customary
law but the Sixth Schedule does not apply to them. Article 371A of the Constitution recognises the
Angami customary law but there are indications that because of their interface with modernity men
interpret it in their own favour (Kikon 2002: 176). The Adibasi whose ancestors came from Jharkhand
and Chattisgarh as indentured labour to work in the tea gardens of Assam, have even lost their
customary law. The Mongoloid tribes have only now started feeling an identity crisis in their move
towards modernisation but the Adibasi have felt its worst effects for over a century because of land
alienation that forced them to migrate to Assam. Their identity continues to be under attack.
n the present study we make an effort to understand this variety, the changes that have
occurred among them and the evolution of their customary law in response to them. We shall situate
their evolution in the context of their demographic, educational and occupational status, all of which
have a gender dimension. For example, the sex ratio is an indicator of women's status, so is their
educational and occupational pattern. n order to understand their role in their family and society,
we shall pay special attention to children's upbringing, health care, discipline and education. A look
at women's role in agricultural and handicrafts production can give us an insight into the decision-
making processes and women's role in the family economy. n all the components we shall look at
both the present and the past.
The gender component will be analysed also within the understanding that all the tribal as well
as non-tribal societies, including matrilineal, are patriarchal. Most of them limit property inheritance
to men and deny it to women. So we shall try to see how inheritance has changed in the tribal
societies of the region. While dowry is prevalent in most caste societies, some North Eastern tribes
practise bride price and others have neither bride price nor dowry. Divorce too is not uncommon
among them. While there are ethical questions linked to it, divorce as well as the absence of dowry
indicate a higher status of women. However, also the nature of inheritance and marital relations
seems to have changed. A boon of modernisation is education. ts facilities are available in most
of the Northeast but in many of their societies they are not as accessible to women as to men
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 88). Education is crucial for upward social mobility and for livelihood
alternatives since the school imparts to a person skills required for work away from the village. We
shall, therefore, try to see whether women are given equal opportunities to work in the formal
employment sector.
All these components have to be situated in the context of the customary laws that the tribes
of the region consider intrinsic to their identity and part and parcel of their culture and tradition.
Their societies did not have written laws but were bound by numerous unwritten usages that
3
prescribe rules of conduct to individuals and regulate human behaviour and day-to-day life. Vitso
(2003: 2) holds that their origin lies in habits that grew into customs. When a whole community
adopts a habit it becomes a custom. mitation plays an important role in the transition from habits
to laws that also symbolise the values of a society. ts members respect and adhere to them if they
become integral to their heritage. By maintaining social order they became a stabilising force in their
societies. Customary Law can thus be defined as a set of rules that attain the force of law in a
society because they are observed continuously and uniformly for a long time. t is the totality of
the customs of a tribe handed over from one generation to the next. Since they provide rules,
enforcement procedures and punishment for violation, they are guardians of its values (Singh 1993:
17) and are intrinsic to their identity. We shall go deeper into the contents of some customary laws
in chapter 2.
Questions around the Gender Issue
One has to analyse modernisation in the context of the relatively high status that most tribal
women enjoyed in their tradition without being equal to men. The woman was in charge of the family
but the man controlled society. Her status was based on the community ownership of their CPRs.
As long as their land, forest and water sources were CPRs women, being in charge of the family
economy had some say in their management (Menon 1995: 101). Modernisation should have built
on it and taken them towards gender equity but the opposite seems to have resulted from their
interface with the formal system. For example, the intervention of individual ownership based laws
that turn land without an individual title into State property was the first step in transferring power
from the community to a few men from their elite who took control of all decision-making and
interpreted the customary law to their own benefit.. t had a negatice impact on the status that
women had enjoyed till then. Class formation and stronger patriarchy are its results (Fernandes and
Barbora 2002a: 103-105).
Also the individual orientation of the administration and financial institutions can catalyse a
transition to class formation and stronger patriarchy, for example by giving loans and subsidies for
commercisal cropas only to individual landowning family heads interpreted as men. So CPR dependent
tribes are forced to change over to pattas. For example, among the matrilineal Garo of Meghalaya,
the State encouraged rubber plantation and gave subsidies and loans to individual owners, thus
forcing them to get pattas. The administration treated men as family heads and consulted them
alone in decisions concerning land use and transfer. Today women continue to inherit land but men
wield more political and social power than in the past (Marak 1997: 60-69). Their tradition was for
men to represent the family in their society. Modern inputs maintained this tradition and granted
them a role in the family.
Our 2001 Angami sample gave us another instance of the State's role in the process. Women
were two thirds of the graduate and post-graduate degree holders among the family members but
were only 22.16% of those holding salaried jobs (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 109). The male
elite reinforced this process by interpreting in their own favour the customs such as the husband
4
being better educated than the wife. t has forced many educated Naga women to remain unmarried.
Both the tribal customs that favour women and those that discriminate against them are based on
the central pivot of women as homemakers and men as providers and protectors. Their myths and
beliefs legitimise these practices and taboos (Vitso 2003: 58). Modern inputs such as electoral
politics and Government salaried jobs can reinforce this myth and reduce the little power women
had in their tradition.
Such discrimination is seen also in ownership and the legally enforceable right to benefit from,
control or alienate property. nheritance and ownership are not merely issues of power and legitimacy
but are primarily rules allocating resources and life chances (Mann 1987: 307). nheritance or the
right to own, use and control property is basic to it but it does not stop there. Tribal tradition is one
of male control over community and society. As a result, those who have won their right to follow
their customary law have not reformed them in favour of gender equity. State support to individual
land and to men's role as family heads compounds it since through it the State and the market
forces transform their social structure in such a manner that patriarchal rules get strengthened and
women's status deteriorates.
One cannot conclude from it that the customary laws should be accepted or rejected in their
totality. One can only say that they should not remain intact because they are equitable but have
elements of inequity that need to be changed. One of them is the exclusion of women from the
village decision-making bodies. Many women's associations demand gender equity in these self-
governing councils as well as in the State Assembly and the Central Parliament but not all sections
of society accept this change. For example, the Naga Students' Federation is reported to have
rejected the demand that women be given an opportunity to be represented in the political bodies
on the plea that their customary laws deny them this role.
t is in this context that much discussion and debate have to take place and an answer found
from within their societies to the issue of women's equal participation in their political and social
arena. Some tribes are trying to undo a few historical wrongs against women. For instance the Paite
tradition did not allow parental property to be passed to the daughter even in the absence of a son.
The Paite Tribal Council in a 2004 amendment to this law introduced provisions in favour of daughters,
widows, illegitimate or adopted and other disinherited sons. They allow the father to appoint one of
his daughters to inherit property if he does not have a son. Her in-laws cannot force a widow to go
back to her parents if she wants to stay unmarried in her late husband's house to look after her
young children. A debate is also taking place among them on whether women should enter their
decision-making bodies (Kamkhenthang 2005). They have a long way to go to attain equality but
this is the first step.
Women and the Protective Measures
At the level of the formal law reservation of seats for women in the panchayats is a step
towards gender equity. n 1993 ndia achieved a major goal with the passage of the 73
rd
Amendment
5
to the Constitutiont providing for 33% reservations for women in panchayati raj institutions. Today
most States have passed Panchayati Raj Acts but women's representation in the central and State
Legislatures is dismal. n the Lok Sabha the number of women rose from 4% in 1952 to 8.9% in
1999 (Kumar 2002). The strong gender bias and lack of political will in favour of women's equality
it indicates is symbolised by the failure of successive Central Governments to pass the Women's
Reservation Bill in spite of promises made.
Some efforts are being made in the Northeast to improve women's lot. Most States have set
tup Commissions for Women. n Assam the Tarun Gogoi Government has formulated some policies
for their social and economic amelioration one of them being the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana aimed
at enhancing rural women's financial and social security. t has already covered over 15 lakh poor
and needy women. Balika Samriddhi Yojana is meant for the welfare of the girl child. The most
important step is the decision to treat the wife as a co-pattadar along with the husband. As such,
no man can dispose of land without his wife's consent since they enjoy equal rights over it. Based
on the 93
rd
and 94
th
amendments, Assam has reserved 30% seats for women in the Panchayat and
Municipal bodies (Nishat 2003).
However, one is not certain that the laws are effective. Some think that in States like Orissa
and Madhya Pradesh, most women Panchayat leaders are relatives of male politicians who keep
them under their control. A study showed that even their names are entered in the Panchayat
register only as the wife of so and so. Sometimes their husbands represent them at its meeting
(Fernandes 2000). Some women's organisations alleged that the members of the Meghalaya Cmmission
for Women were political appointees and also opposed its terms of reference. Such contradictions
are caused because the ndian State is by and large satisfied with the enactment of laws without
a social environment to support them. As a result, laws such as those banning dowry or child labour
have remained on paper and have had no effect.
2. THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHEAST
That brings us to the tribes of the Northeast whose customary law is the main theme of this
study. Of ndia's 80 million tribals, around 12% live in this region. They are unevenly distributed over
the region and there is a wide diversity among them. We shall study the issue in order to give the
context of the tribes chosen. There are commonalities, one of them being that the tribeas continue
to remain relatively isolated from Mainland ndia (Verma 1995: 63).
The Background of the North Eastern Tribes
A majority of the inhabitants of the Hill States are from the tribal communities. Their proportion
is as high as 94.5% in Mizoram, 89.1% in Nagaland 85.9% in Meghalaya, 64.2% in Arunachal
Pradesh, is medium in Manipur (34.2%), Tripura (31.1%) and Sikkim (20.6%) and low in Assam
(12.4%). Thus their distribution is uneven in the seven States. They are concentraded in the hilly
areas but the degree of their concentration and clustering is more apparent in the districts and
6
blocks and much more so at the village level. Some think that their tendency to cluster in small
villages characterised by low agricultural potential, explains the lack of adequate interaction between
the tribal and non-tribal populations (Nayak 1998: 165). We question this statement because it
seems to be based on assimilationalist thinking.
TabIe 1.1 : TribaI PopuIation in the Northeast
States PopuIation
TotaI TribaI TribaI %
ArunachaI 1097968 705158 64.2
Assam 26655528 3308570 12.4
Manipur 2166788 741141 34.2
MeghaIaya 2318822 1992862 85.9
Mizoram 888573 839310 94.5
NagaIand 1999036 1774026 89.1
Sikkim 540851 111405 20.6
Tripura 3199203 993426 31.1
Source: Census of ndia 2001 CDs
The difference seen in the region continues within each State. For example, the Bodo-Kachari,
a third of the tribals in the Northeast are only 3.7% of Assam's population. The Adi are 26.9% and
the Nishi 21.74% of the Arunachal tribals while the Aka are 0.63%. The Garo are 50% and the Kasi
47% of the Meghalaya population. The Mizo are 87.3% of the tribals in Mizoram (Fernandes 1999).
The tribal proportion has declined in Tripura from more than 56% in 1951 (Sen 1993: 13) to 31%
today. t has caused conflicts because the tribes feel dominated by the outsiders (Table 1.1). There
are some commonalities between the more than 200 ethnic groups of the region but each one also
has a distinct cultural, linguistic, religious and historical identity. The big number of languages is an
indication of the complexity of the ethnic situation in the region (D'Souza and Kekrieseno 2002)
which has witnessed social unrest in the form of nationalist movements and political upheavals as
a result of real or perceived threats to their culture, land and livelihood (Sanyu 1996). That makes
ethnic diversity more complex than in Middle ndia.
Diversity and Unity among the Tribes
Religious differences add to their diversity. Tribal religions are on the decline but most tribes
combine the macro-religious practices with their traditional customs and beliefs. Buddhism, Christianity
and Hinduism, the religions to which they have been converted in recent decades, have been
influenced by tribal beliefs and have, in their turn, influenced them (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a:
186-189). For example, a majority of the hill tribes were converted to Christianity at a time of a crisis
in their society caused by the intervention of the colonial regime and its ndian collaborators. Amid
7
such disruption, change of religion gave them a new identity (Ruivah 2002: 167). Thus, acceptance
of Christianity by the Hill tribes and of Brahmo Samaj by the Boro in the Assam Plains was a way
of modernising themselves by finding a new identity without losing their past completely. K. S. Singh
(1985: 17) says that Christianity provided to them a sense of identity and of history and helped them
to join the modern world with hope of a better future. That conversion was a social process is as
true of the reformist Hindu sects such as Brahmo Samaj and Buddhism to which some converted.
An area in which they have retained their identity intact is egalitarianism. Even those who
have been Hinduised do not have caste-based stratification and social cleavages. For example,
many Kachari, Miri, Dimasa and Jaintia of Assam have assimilated Hinduism from the plains inhabitants
and have adopted some Hindu customs and beliefs but have retained their traditional characteristics
such as a casteless society. However, they are attributed a low status in the Assam plains (Horam
1990: 69). n the Hills where they are the overwhelming majority, they retain their egalitarian society
and also feel economically secure. They did face threats to their identity in the 20
th
century but not
the attacks on their identity and economy that the Middle ndia tribes have faced for a century. Their
social institutions are relatively intact and they are in possession of their land. However, new
processes of land alienation are visible, many of them through internal class formation. Thus
modernisation can be a threat to their economic security and social identity (Fernandes and Pereira
2005: 115-118).
Because of their relative isolation from "Mainland ndia political and cultural systems, the
tribal movements of the region have been essentially political in nature, seeking goals ranging from
autonomy to independence and relying on constitutional agitation as well as armed struggles. The
effort to resist their alienation was made possible because during the 20
th
century several tribes had
combined to form new ethnic-territorial identities by coming together as new conglomerations. The
new identity has also led to ethnic conflicts. For example, from the early 20
th
century, the educated
leaders of different tribes came together to form the Naga Club that came into being in 1918. Soon
it assumed political dimensions and became the centre of their search for autonomy. During the
decisive moment of the Japanese invasion in the 1940s, A. Z. Phizo, a traditional Angami leader
succeeded in bringing 27 tribes together under the Naga umbrella (Sanyu 1996: 115-126). Such
processes laid the foundation of later nationalist struggles of the Naga, Mizo and others in the sense
that they united them and gave them self-respect which, they felt, they would have lost if they were
assimilitated into the "mainstream. Thus autonomy is also preservation of their identity.
The reaction of the Central Government was to treat these movements initially as a law and
order issue and suppress them. The second step was to create new States in an effort to accommodate
tribal aspirations of autonomy or extend the Sixth Schedule to a few tribes. t went beyond these
steps when such steps did not work and granted more autonomy to Nagaland and Mizoram than
to other states. Under Article 371A and 371G respectively in these States no law of the Parliament
can apply unless it is approved by the State Assembly. The reverse of the process is the uncertainty
8
some tribes face mainly because of what they consider growing erosion of their rights over land and
the rest of their livelihood. They enjoy these rights because the Constitution has promised to
safeguard theit customary law. However, many tribes feel that the State considers them welfare
measures, not their rights. Militarisation has resulted in laws such as the Armed Forces Special
Powers Act that have become inseparable ingredients of maintaining the welfare enclave (mchen
1998: 199).
3. THE TRIBES CHOSEN FOR THE STUDY
From this diversity we chose five representative tribes. The Aka are close to their tradition
while the Adibasi have all but lost their identity. The Dimasa who were Hinduised are now trying
to return to their ancestral tradition as a step towards a better future. The Angami being in the
forefront of the Naga nationalist movement and well educated are an example of the positive impact
of modernisation on their economy and political processes. The Garo are between the Dimasa and
the Angami.
The Aka
The Aka, a hill tribe is concentrated mainly in the Thrizino circle of West Kameng district of
Arunachal Pradesh. Aka means "Painted but they call themselves Hrusso. As a result of a combination
of geographical and strategic isolation, they are not much known to development workers. Colonial
ethnographers first mentioned them as a hill tribe living alongside the Nishi in the mountain ranges
north of the Brahmaputra. After independence we are aware of a book written in the 1960s (Sinha
1962), a recent booklet by an Aka Ph. D scholar (Nimachow ND) and a language text book (D'Souza
et al. 2005). The only other written material available till now is in the form of administrative notes
of the North East Frontier Agency and of the Arunachal administration. Like the rest of Arunachal
Pradesh their area too is sparsely populated. The communications, health and education infrastructure
in their region is not well developed. They are only now beginning to encounter modernity.
Their inclusion is important because their closeness to their tradition and the transition they
have begun in recent years away from their isolation turns them into a good point of comparison
or control group. The studies mentioned above as well as our field experience and notes got during
our studies among them (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a; Fernandes and Bharali 2002; Fernandes
and Pereira 2005) show that their traditional economy is jhum based and their property ownership
is community centred. Very few of them have a concept of land ownership. Most know only usufruct
rights. A family cultivates as much land as it needs in the jhum season and returns it to the
community after it. However, change has begun in land ownership with a few individuals monopolising
and taking over the best, especially wet land on the river bank. Traditionally they practised Animism
but a few have recently adopted Hinduism or Christianity. Thus change is not only economic but
also cultural and religious.
During our fieldwork we saw the impact of another modern system. During the State Assembly
elections of October 2004 most Aka villages were divided between the contesting political parties,
9
thus turning clan division into party cleavages. After the elections, the members of the clan supporting
the losing candidate allegedly attacked the other that is said to have voted for the winning candidate
and burnt down their houses. n Palizi one of the clans had to move out to a hill to start a new
village. Another village has been abandoned completely. t can be called modernisation building on
past cleavages to divide them further.
The Adibasi
The Adibasi, the only non-Mongoloid tribe among the five studied, are the most marginalised
community in the region and have experienced the worst form of modernisation and are without an
identity anchored in the socio-political milieu of Assam. Their customary law does not belong to the
region but we include them because they symbolise modernisation in its most negative form. A
comparison with the Mongoloid tribes that are experiencing modernisation on less unfavourable
terms can help us to better understand its implications and add a new dimension to the debate on
modernisation and the customary law.
As a generic term Adibasi means aborigines or original settlers but the heterogeneous group
of Oraon, Munda, Ho, Santhal, Kharia and others who are called Assam Adibasi are tribes of
Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh origin. They were among the first to feel the ill effects of the
Permanent Settlement 1793 and the Zamindari system that alienated their land and impoverished
them (De Sa 1975: 75). Some like the Santhals revolted against their alienation and others surrendered
to their fate and migrated as indentured labour to the tea gardens. Among the Assam plantation
labourers, the Adibasi are the earliest and the most numerous, being 50 to 60% of some 60 lakh
present and past workers (Bhadra 1999: 84-86).
At the conclusion of their contracts, the management encouraged some of them to cut down
forests adjacent to the gardens and settle down in the bastis thus created. But the original inhabitants
of the area like the Boro view these forests as their livelihood and question their right to cultivate
them. That is a major cause of several conflicts in particular the Bodo-Santhal tension (Kar 1999:
26-27). The second issue is their isolation caused not by being close to their tradition as is the case
with the Aka but because the tea garden management has kept them isolated in the "lines or labour
colonies, through their regimented work structure. Because of it they have lost much of their Jharkhand
culture with nothing to replace it (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 2-4). Because of their
migration and isolation they have even lost their tribal identity to some extent (Nag 1990: 54-55).
The Adibasi are known for their hard work. Many basti families live by cultivating small plots
of land they own or lease in and the rest depend on the gardens. A majority of them are illiterate,
impoverished and economically backward. They get lower wages than in industry. After the Plantation
Labour Act 1951 was passed by the Government of ndia and relevant rules by the State Government
their economic condition should have improved but it has not been effective mainly because of the
failure of the management to implement it. For example, the Act expects the Companies to facilitate
10
their education and health care but in reality the quality of the facilities is poor. Because of their
illiteracy and isolation they have no alternative to work in the tea gardens. Most of them remain
outside the Assamese mainstream and are not conversant with the world around them (Kandulna
1999: 157-162).
A major obstacle to their development is illiteracy. t makes their exploitation easier. Population
growth and failure to augment employment opportunities with the rise in the acreage, has added to
their problems such as unemployment (Bora 1990: 178-179). Besides, because of their isolation
they are unable to avail of the opportunities outside the gardens and join the "mainstream. The
crisis in the tea industry caused by recent economic changes has added to their problems (Fernandes
2005b). They are thus the most marginalised community of Assam without an identity anchored in
its socio-political milieu in the place of what their ancestors brought with them from Jharkhand.
Though they have built the tea garden economy their contribution is rarely recognised. They are
only now waking up to the need to develop an Assamese tribal identity and to define a role for
themselves in the social, cultural, political and economic life of the Northeast in general and of
Assam in particular but they do not receive the support they need in this search. On one side the
garden management has not provided them facilities like schools that are their due according to the
Plantation Labour Act 1951. On the other, by excluding them from the Schedule the State has
intensified their identity crisis and has denied them free education and the possibility of moving
away from the gardens (Chakravorty 1997: 49-52). Women are its worst victims as their lower
literacy status, wages and other opportunities show (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 55).
They thus represent the other end of the spectrum of the interface with modernity. That is why
we include them in the study though their law is of Jharkhand origin. They face the worst impact
of imposing modernisation on the land laws of a tribe. They have even lost their customary laws
and only have a few practices most of which belong to the States where their ancestors came from.
Even today many in Assam continue to deny them an indigenous status. For example, during the
General Elections of May 2004 a candidate allegedly called them outsiders and declared himself
"real Assamese since his opponent was from the plantation labour community (The Telegraph May
5, 2004). t caused much resentment among them. Their leaders came together to discuss the
issue, threatened action against those who allegedly made these remarks (The Sentinel, May 11,
2004) and stated that they have been in Assam for over a century, have built its tea industry, the
backbone of its economy and are real Assamese. The All Assam Students' Union joined them in
demanding that political parties desist from raising communal issues "for their narrow political
objectives (The Assam Tribune, June 13, 2004). t is an indication of their identity crisis and is
reason enough to study the impact of total dispossession on the customary law of a tribe.
The Angami
The Angami, a major tribe of Nagaland, living mainly in its Kohima district, numbered 97,433
in 1991. Like most other tribes of the State, they too have their own language that is popularly called
11
Tenyidie. Written in Roman script, it has a rich literature belonging mainly to Christian religious
themes. They are famous for their terrace cultivation of rice. Agriculture was their main economic
activity but in recent years many are taking up salaried jobs. They were among the first to experience
the onslaught of colonial intrusion in the first half of the 19th century and were at the centre of Naga
resistance to the British regime (Hutton 1921). After occupying Kohima in 1870, the British regime
introduced protective measures in the form of the nner Line Permit apparently to protect them from
outsiders (Singh 1994: 72-73) but in practice to protect the plainspeople from them (Sen 1987: 15).
After ndependence they led the Naga militant nationalist movement and played an important
role in the ethnic movement and conflict under the leadership of Z. A. Phizo. n the process they
underwent rapid social change and gained access to modern education and political systems and
also changed many of their traditions and customs. Today they are more circumspect in their
participation in the struggle both due to the level of militarisation and the efforts of development
agencies. Through the Village Development Board, most Angami villages have been covered by the
ntegrated Rural Development Programme. t is the only institution to have women representatives.
They are also experiencing the impact of globalisation. Christianity is the main religion among them
though there is a substantial presence of families practising the original Animism. After their
Christianisation they have not given up all their practices. Many of them participate in the genna,
which is a day of rest for the Animists in the village. No outsider may enter the village on that day.
Thus tradition and modernity live side by side (D'Souza, Kekrieseno and Nokhwenu 2002: 26-27).
The Dimasa
The Dimasa tribe numbering around 50,000 inhabits the North Cachar Hills district (N. C.
Hills) of Assam. They are one of the earliest inhabitants of Assam with a glorious past (Thaosen
2005). Ethnically they belong to the Kachari race of the Boro who ruled over western Assam till the
end of the 16
th
century. They themselves ruled over their present region till the Ahom overpowered
them in the 13
th
century. Because of their history they had longer contact with other societies than
most other tribes did. With the British rulers came the Bengali administrators and railway employees
who Hinduised them to various degrees but they have retained their internal autonomy, culture and
traditions and are now trying to return to their primordial identity not in order to remain there but
in order to build a new future on the foundations of their past. Religion is a contentious issue in the
Dimasa identity search. Though the census presents them as Hindus, they do not fit easily into its
caste hierarchy and lifestyle. Most of them consider themselves Animists (Sen 1999: 128-130).
According to Thaosen (2005) initially the Dimasa did not have clans but later they created
them following the Hindu Gotras. This theory should probably be discounted because the most
outstanding feature of their society is the existence of both male and female descent clans. Such
a system is not easily found in other tribes and can hardly be attributed to the dominant religions
all of which are patriarchal. 42 of their 82 clans have female descent in which the children belong
to their mother's clan. n the patriclans the son belongs to the father's clan and the daughter to the
12
mother's but they are not a partially matrilineal tribe. n either case property is inherited through the
son. Thus female clans symbolise relatively high women's status but they remain patriarchal. The
Dimasa accept Hindu temples and practices at the macro-level but retain their tradition in their daily
life. They are thus an example of a tribe accepting another religion but combining it with their
ancestral culture. n most such cases the religion coming from outside is practised at the macro-
level and their daily life is guided by their tradition, as one seem among the Bastar tribes that accept
the king's religion in celebrations such as Dusserah but otherwise live by their tradition (Sundar
1997: 88-92).
Development of education has been poor among them. What exists is in Bengali. Economically
they are poor but self-reliant because they depend on jhum which is based on community control
over land which, as stated above, confers a higher status on women than individual ownership does
(Menon 1995: 101). ndividual ownership is not unknown among them as one can see from the fact
that, they have a system of revenue collection from plots held by an individual (Nunisa 2004: 18)
but it is not the norm. n recent years they have started a more systematic transition from community
to individual ownership and that is bound to have implications for their land ownership pattern and
women's status. Besides, N. C. Hills district comes under the Sixth Schedule and has a DAC
(Bordoloi 1984) which too influences their customary law and land ownership. t has been encouraging
cash crops such as coffee, tea and fruit trees which require individual ownership and has kept to
itself the decisions on land pattas. t affects their social relations as well as land ownership pattern.
The Garo
Most of the matrilineal Garo spread over the Garo Hills of Meghalaya and parts of Assam and
Bangladesh are jhum or settled subsistence farmers. They use the name Garo only in conversation
with outsiders and call themselves A'Chik (hill man) (Playfair 1998: 7). Before the British annexed
the Garo Hills, they governed themselves through their customary laws and traditions. All cases and
disputes were settled by their own agencies such as the village council. At present the village court
is supervised directly by the DAC. With lineage, habitat and property passing along the female line,
the traditional higher status of women than in patrilineal societies went beyond inheritance to
include a say in community decisions. Thus their tradition is of a matrilineal but patriarchal society
(Marak 2002: 22).
However, some modern economic and social inputs such as the introduction of rubber plantations
and individual ownership have affected women's status. Though they continue to inherit land, today
men wield effective political and social power. The nokma continues to be the chief heiress but her
husband exercises effective control over land. The administration strengthens his role by recognising
him as the head, referring to him as the nokma and consulting him alone in decisions concerning
land transfer and use (Marak 1997: 60-69). Thus they are facing a transition in which men are
gaining more strength than in the past. n fact, some men want to change the law of inheritance in
their own favour and state that to achieve it they have to get out of the clutches of the customary
13
law. At times some parents distribute a part of the family property among their sons. This change
is not yet common. nheritance continues to be matrilineal but change has been visible for long (Kar
1982: 254).
Thus the tribes chosen are representative of the region. The Aka are the control group. The
Adibasi represent the worst form of modernisation. The Angami have felt some positive impact of
this interface but women have not always benefited from it. The Dimasa who were Hinduised in the
19
th
century are searching for an identity based on their past. The Garo, a matrilineal tribe, is
experiencing stronger patriarchy. We needed such a representative sample because while it is
generally accepted that recent changes in the tribal customary laws have an adverse impact on
women very little reliable information exists on them.
4. OBJECTIVES, HYPOTHESIS AND METHDOLOGY
Such a sample is needed also because studies have been made on tribal traditions and
changes in their legal system, but very little has been written on their evolution in response to
modernity especially on their impact on women, in the Sixth Schedule areas in particular. One
needs deeper insights in order to better understand the laws and their interface with modernity from
a gender perspective. We hope that the present study will fill this knowledge gap on the effectiveness
of the official and other inputs and suggest remedial measures if necessary. Keeping this objective
as the backdrop we posed ourselves questions and developed a hypothesis and methodology that
could shed some light on them. North Eastern tribal women seem to be enjoying a higher social
status than their counterparts in the rest of ndia because their societies are egalitarian. Haimendorf
(2004), Zehol (1998) and others hold that, this status was founded on the role they played in
decision-making in the family while men represented the family in their society. Thus, they were not
equal to men.
The Objectives and Hypothesis
f women enjoyed a higher status, in which spheres did they have a say? Was their voice
restricted to the domestic sphere or did they play a role in the public domain and the economy?
Who organised the family economy and monetary transactions? These questions are important
because the thinking behind tribal development is to bring about a qualitative improvement in their
lives. How much of it has been realised? What impact does modernity have on women? Has
modernisation of the administration and development improved their lot? f not, what elements could
have contributed to the decline in their power? s there a way out of it? What positive measures are
needed to safeguard their rights and improve their social status? Having these questions in mind
we articulate the following objectives:
1. To make an in depth study of areas under the special provisions of the Constitution such as
the Sixth Schedule in the Autonomous District of North Cachar Hills in Assam and the Garo
Hills, Article 371A in Nagaland. These areas need to be compared with others like the Aka of
Arunachal who live by their customary law but do not have such provisions.
14
2. To identify the main features of their customary laws and administrative systems in their
original form and the changes that have occurred. Even while looking at the material changes
our focus will be mostly on the social and historical processes leading to them.
3. To understand how these changes have affected the tribe as a whole and women in particular,
to see whether the interface of their tradition with modern legislation affects women adversely.
f yes, we need to suggest remedial measures.
Based on our past studies we begin with the hypothesis that left to itself, the changeover from
tradition to modernity results in the deterioration of women's status. Recent changes in their customary
laws through encouragement given to individual pattas and male ownership have resulted in class
formation and stronger patriarchal ethos. So mechanisms have to be established to ensure that they
can make a smooth transition to modernity. The effort in this study is to examine this hypothesis
and identify possible counter-mechanisms.
The study was done in two parts. Phase was secondary data and Phase fieldwork and
report writing. Phase was a survey of literature both published and unpublished in order to get a
picture of the culture, economy and customary law of the tribes studied and of others. Based on it
we summarised the evolution of the customary law from a gender perspective by State and tribe
and got an idea of the history, demography, economic and political background, cultural aspirations
and identity demands of individual tribes and the region as a whole. We then tried to understand
changes in their customary law, the economic, legal, social and cultural forces at work in their
societies and their implications for women.
Choice of ViIIages
The methodology was geared to these objectives. n order to achieve them we selected five
tribes keeping in mind the interface of their tradition with modernity. We have described them above
and have given reasons for their choice. After choosing the tribes we developed the tools and chose
five villages per tribe. Since a criterion for the choice was the extent of their adherence to their
customary law, we chose some remote villages and a few others close to the highway in order to
evaluate the impact of modernisation on each of them. n order to maintain continuity, we went back
to some of the villages of our past studies and also ventured into a few new villages to get fresh
insights (Table 1.2 and 1.3).
Of the five Aka villages, Bhalukpong, Palizi and Thrizino have easier access to roads than
Baliphoo and Sakrin. They also have schools and other modern facilities as well as a sizeable
number of non-tribals. The other two lack such facilities as well as immigrants. That helped us to
check whether the external influences have enriched their lives or not. Because of the tension after
the State legislature elections, we could not go to some isolated villages.
The five Adibasi villages chosen are from Tinsukia district, Assam. Two of them Pengri and
Khatangpani, are in bhagans (tea gardens), Kanapathar and Kathalguri are bastis or villages outside
15
the gardens and Phuphulajan is a mixture of basti and bhagan. Some of its families own small plots
of land on which they cultivate tea. Others work in the tea estates. People in the bhagans are full
time garden workers, living in colonies often isolated from their surroundings, especially the ethnic
Assamese, many of whom treat them as outsiders. The basti dwellers are ex tea garden workers
who were encouraged to settle down on land close to the estates when they became excess labour.
Many of them are daily wage earners in the gardens. They and the mixed basti are more exposed
to the local culture and language.
TabIe 1.2 : PopuIation of the ViIIages according to the Census 2001
Tribe ViIIage HousehoIds PopuIation Sex
Persons MaIes FemaIes Ratio
BaIiphoo 17 98 45 53 1178
BhaIukpong 491 2,015 1,184 831 702
Aka PaIizi 132 652 367 285 777
Sakrin 44 242 130 112 862
Thrizino H.Q. 177 815 386 429 1111
ArunachaI Pradesh 215,574 1,097,968 579,941 518,027 893
Kana Pathar 552 3,074 1,569 1,505 959
KathaI Guri 136 777 398 379 952
Adibasi PhuphuIajan 106 549 303 246 812
Pengeri Garh T.E. 1,285 5,935 3,089 2,846 921
Khatangpani Gaon 560 2,814 1,475 1,339 908
Assam State 4,914,823 26,655,528 13,777,037 12,878,491 935
Jakhama 1071 3,051 1,492 1,559 1,045
Jotsoma 794 3,701 1,940 1,761 908
Angami Khonoma 589 2,917 1,446 1,471 1,017
Phesama 586 2,466 1,237 1,229 994
Viswema 1,150 5,833 2,911 2,922 1,004
NagaIand 328,057 1,990,036 1,047,141 942,895 900
Baojen (Banjare) 17 84 37 47 1,270
Choto Wapu 70 340 176 164 932
Dimasa Gidingpur 52 306 146 160 1,096
Jembru 19 105 51 54 1,059
There 26 162 85 77 906
Assam State 4,914,823 26,655,528 13,777,037 12,878,491 935
16
Tribe ViIIage HousehoIds PopuIation Sex
Persons MaIes FemaIes Ratio
Jampara 66 364 178 186 1,045
DiIma ApaI NA NA NA NA NA
Garo DagaI NA NA NA NA NA
Dadengiri 415 2,224 1,137 1,087 956
JingjaI NA NA NA NA NA
MeghaIaya 418,850 2,318,822 1,176,087 1,142,735 972
Souce: 2001 Census CDs for these States.
The Angami habitat in the Kohima district of Nagaland is geographically divided into Southern,
Western and Northern but we could choose villages only from the western and southern regions
since we had to restrict the number to five. The southern Angami villages of Phesama, Jhakama
and Viswema are situated along the Kohima-mphal National Highway 39. Quite a few educational
institutions have mushroomed around the villages and the people have gained immensely from
them. Khonoma in the Western Region was involved in a struggle in the 1950s and 1960s against
the ndian army. Jotsoma is a big village of 794 households. Thus, the Southern Angami Region is
more exposed to the modern forces than Western Angami. A comparison between the villages of
these two regions can be useful.
TabIe 1.3 : The ViIIages and the SampIe of the Study
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M Fe M F M F
ArunachaI Pradesh Wes1 Kameng OIs1rIc1 (Aka )
Palizi 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Baliphoo 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Thrizino 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Sakrin 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 20
Bhalukpung 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 20
Assam TInsuRIa OIs1rIc1 (Adibasi)
Konapathar 0 0 8 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 12 20
Khatalguri 0 0 7 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 13 20
Khatangpani 0 0 5 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 15 20
Pengree 0 0 7 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 13 20
Phuphulajan 0 0 7 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 13 20
17
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M Fe M F M F
NagaIand KonIma OIs1rIc1 (Angami)
Phesama 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 0 0 10 10 20
Jakhama 0 0 0 0 11 9 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Viswema 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 0 0 10 10 20
Khonoma 0 0 0 0 11 9 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Jotsoma 0 0 0 0 11 9 0 0 0 0 11 9 20
Assam N.C. HIIIs OIs1rIc1 (Dimasa)
Thereh 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 10 10 20
Choto Waphu 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 8 0 0 12 8 20
Baojen 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 8 0 0 12 8 20
Gidingpur 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 10 10 20
Jembru 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 10 10 20
MeghaIaya Garo HIIIs OIs1rIc1 (Garo)
Jampara 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 20
Dilma A.Pal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 20
Dagal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 20
Dadenggre 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 20
Jengjal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 10 10 10 20
TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
N.C. Hills where the Dimasa tribe lives has four sub-districts and we chose villages from all
four of them. Choto Wapu and Jembru are from Haflong sub-district. From Maibong sub-district we
chose Gidingpur, in Mahur sub-district we studied Baojen and in Umrangso sub-district we included
Thereh in our study. Three of the villages are remote and are close to their tradition. Maibong has
great historical significance and it remains their cultural centre even today. So the choice of a village
from this sub-district was deliberate.
n the Garo area we chose Dilma Apal, Jampara and Dagal from East Garo Hills District and
Dadengri and Jingjal from West Garo Hills District. Both the districts had to be represented because
East Garo Hills is closer to Assam and is exposed to other tribal and non-tribal communities while
West Garo Hills is away from outside influences thus close to Garo traditions and customs. Besides,
the introduction of commercial crops in the East Garo Hills District through rubber cultivation has
been a factor in class formation. The commercial crops are yet to make a dent in West Garo Hills.
As a result, a comparison between them from the point of cultural influences and introduction of
commercial crops can give us fresh insights.
18
Investigators and FieId Work
Since the study is on the gender implications of the tribal customary law, we chose only
female investigators. We had decided to appoint exclusively women from the tribes studied. We
succeeded in it in four tribes but could not find an educated Aka woman. So we chose a non-tribal
who knew Assamese and Hindi since they speak at least one of these languages. Female investigators
are accepted in the family and can interview both men and women while women may not speak
easily to men. As a result, in some past studies we could not interview an adequate number of
women if the investigators were men. We instructed them to choose 100 families, not individuals,
per tribe as the sample because in the ndian situation one cannot interview one respondent alone
without his/her peer group or family members intervening (Fernandes 2004: 213). However, we
chose one main respondent from each family. We wrote down that person's views as responses to
our questions. The views of the rest were taken down separately and are given among our field
notes. Participant observation supplemented individual interviews. That too is reflected in the field
notes.
We asked the investigators to choose an equal number of men and women among the main
respondents. Because of it 256 respondents are women and 244 are men. That gave us two
different perspectives on the gender issue in their tribal law. The investigators were to choose a
majority of the respondents from the 30-50 cohorts. That is why as many as 368 (73.6%) of the 500
respondents are from these age groups. We focused on them because they decide the fate of the
customary law and take the major decisions on vital issues affecting it. While giving priority to this
cohort the investigators were also to make space for other age groups. The voice of senior persons
is crucial in a study of this nature, because they know the ancestral customs well and can give the
history of recent developments. That explains why 42 respondents are 60+. We chose 30 persons
below 30, including 4 below 20 because we wanted to know the future trends in their evolution. The
customary law is their future life.
Primary Data CoIIection
The understanding we had gained in Phase and our earlier contact with these tribes conditioned
our approach to Phase . ts first step was the preparation of three schedules, the first for the
individual respondents that looked at the changes that have occurred in recent years through
modern inputs such as legal recognition of their customary law. The second was for leaders like
village council members and office-bearers of men's and women's associations. Their views matter
since they are the decision-makers. The third was for group discussion (appendices 1-3). Our
experience tells us that group discussion sometimes leads to heated debates but also sheds much
light on the village structure, helps the investigator to establish rapport with the village, understand
its structure and choose a representative sample.
19
TabIe 1.4 : Tribe, Age Group and Gender of the Respondents
Age Group 15-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ TotaI
Aka
Male 2 7 17 15 8 4 53
Female 0 18 8 16 3 2 47
Total 2 25 25 31 11 6 100
Adibasi
Male 0 1 7 13 1 2 34
Female 0 16 36 12 2 0 66
Total 0 27 43 25 3 2 100
Angami
Male 0 1 16 14 11 11 53
Female 1 1 18 11 7 9 47
Total 1 2 34 25 18 20 100
Dimasa
Male 0 9 13 15 8 9 54
Female 1 9 15 11 7 3 46
Total 1 18 28 26 15 12 100
Garo
Male 0 0 6 31 11 2 50
Female 0 4 16 24 6 0 50
Total 0 4 22 55 17 2 100
Grand TotaI 4 76 152 162 64 42 500
n our effort to collect representative data we laid emphasis on the individual schedule. t gave
importance to women's property rights but also included other issues having a bearing on their
status. ts first part focused on the demographic, educational and occupational status of the respondent
family. t gave us an understanding of their sex-ratio, literacy and options in occupations that are
good indicators of their social status and the economic contribution that men and women make. We
then went straight to the customary laws and dwelt on the role of women in children's upbringing
and decision-making in the family. After it we questioned the respondents on women's role in the
family economy, agriculture in particular, handicraft production and sale and control over money.
Then came the interface with their society, beginning with the monetary economy and the market,
marriage and divorce proceedings and related matters. Finally we went to the role of men and
20
women in the social sphere, especially the village council and the modern electoral systems. t
ended with the views of the respondents on the future of the customary law in their tribe.
The investigators were trained in the last week of December 2004. Fieldwork was done in
January and February 2005 simultaneously in all five areas. Group discussion that preceded individual
interviews helped us both to establish rapport with the community and to understand the village
social set up. The project director and research associates visited the field regularly to supervise
the work and cross check the data that were computerised and tabulated. We then went back to
new villages among four of the five tribes and for group discussion in order to supplement and verify
the data we had got through the schedules. The discussion with the leaders and other tribals of
these villages made the findings broad based.
Division of Chapters
The present report is based on the data collected during the two phases of the study that
began in November 2004. Chapter 1 defines and contextualises its concepts and terms. t is
followed by the objectives, hypothesis and methodology of the study. Since its focus is on the tribal
customary laws, it also gives a brief profile of the five tribes studied. Their customary laws from the
gender perspective will follow in Chapter 2. n Chapter 3 we give the demographic, educational and
occupational status of the sample families. The sex ratio is an indicator of women's status so is their
educational and occupational pattern. Education considered a boon of modernisation, imparts to a
person the skills required for employment.. Our past studies indicate a gender bias in it. Chapter
3 will tell us whether it continues in our study areas or whether women have equal opportunities
in education and occupations.
The two chapters that follow will evaluate the role and status of women in their families and
societies. Status in the family is linked closely to children's upbringing, especially their health,
discipline and education. Special attention paid to the woman's role in agricultural operations and
the production of handicrafts will give us some insights into her role in the family economy. Also the
extent of her participation in the decision-making bodies and institutions is crucial to assess her
social status. n all the components we try to understand the transition of the tribe from the past to
the present.
While dowry is prevalent in the caste societies of the rest of ndia, the bride price that the
North Eastern tribes practise indicates a higher status of women among them. Also divorce is not
uncommon in some tribes. While there may be ethical questions linked to it, it also indicates a
higher status of women. t will be studied in Chapter 6. Since most tribal as well as non-tribal
societies are patriarchal, men are considered legitimate heirs and women are denied inheritance
rights. So in Chapter 7 we shall study their inheritance to see where some change has entered their
societies. We shall then try to understand the impact on modern inputs on women. The final chapter
will pool together the findings of the study and make an attempt to resolve the issues that have
arisen in the course of the study.
21
ConcIusion
n this chapter we have discussed the nature of the customary laws and their interface with
modernity. ts starting point is our past findings and secondary data that indicate that the interface
of the tribal communities with modernity has not been beneficial to most women. n order to understand
this issue we tried to understand the history and evolution of different tribes studied and of others
in the Northeast and highlighted briefly the salient features of the tribal communities chosen for the
study. We then described the methodology of the study. That takes us to the background of the
customary laws which we shall study in chapter 2. We shall also take a look at the alternatives of
documentation and codification and see whether time is ripe for the latter or the present option
should be documentation with recognition.
23
CHAPTER-2
TRIBAL CUSTOMARY LAWS IN NORTH EASTERN INDIA
We have said in chapter 1 that customary laws are integral to tribal identity and have given
some basic concepts and issues around them in order to understand the dynamics of their interface
with modernity and its impact on women. n this chapter we shall delineate the customary laws of
the Northeast from a gender perspective. The Constitution has recognised some of them through
the Sixth Schedule or constitutional amendments such as Article 371A in Nagaland and 371G in
Mizoram. These measures are an interface of their customary laws belonging to the informal system
with the formal law. n order to understand their gender dimension, we shall define customary laws,
take a look at the role tradition and the constitution assign to them and study the reality in each
State but not of each and every tribe. We shall include a big and diverse enough number to make
it representative of the region. t will lay the foundation of a good understanding of women's rights
in the customary laws.
1. MEANING AND ROLE OF CUSTOMARY LAWS
Customary laws have a gender dimension in the sense that they define the roles of men and
women. n this chapter we shall not include all its aspects but limit ourselves to a few issues that
have implications for the woman and condition her ownership and inheritance.
TribaI Customary Law in India
The ndian Constitution guarantees protection to the Scheduled tribes in order to let them
develop according to their own genius. n jurisprudence, an immemorial custom is not merely an
adjunct of ordinary law but is also its constituent part. n this thinking, the unwritten tribal customary
laws recognised as binding by their communities interact with the larger corpus of the law enacted
and enforced by the formal State. This interaction often overlooks their role in the maintenance of
tribal solidarity and identity. That is why the present study on tribal customary laws focuses on the
role they play not merely as traditional and normative rules of regulating their societies but also of
keeping the tribe together. Specific to most tribal customary laws is their community dimension. This
aspect evolved out of area-specific management of the natural resources or the environment that
was their livelihood. Most such practices helped their communities to be self-reliant and were
centred round agriculture, especially jhum that was their main subsistence. The forest was one
more component. Specific to such sustenance was their community ownership pattern (Gangwar
and Ramakrishnan 1992: 106). Because of the importance of land and forests in their life, they
organised their beliefs, customs and practices around them.
24
With British rule and introduction of the formal law, customary regulations gradually receded
to the background. n the colonial era, ndian courts attempted to formulate a "rational legal framework
into which to integrate the customary rights. n the absence of guidance from any legislative body,
it was left to the courts to develop customary laws as a new branch of civil law. However, most
decisions related to hereditary offices or religious ceremonies. Though areas like the Commons,
community conservation and the traditional resource rights came under the purview of customary
rights, they were seldom brought before the courts because the community sorted out the disputes
arund them in their own panchayats and did not recognise the jurisdiction of any outside institution
over them (Krishnan 2004).
n the Northeast many tribes continue to regulate themselves according to their own customary
laws while most laws of the Middle ndia tribes fell by the wayside because of the onslaught of the
pan-ndian laws. Among many hill tribes of this region the village chief regulates the use of land and
water and has administrative and judicial power. His power of allotting jhum land to each family has
got somewhat weak with individual ownership. The tribes combine kinship based political organisation
with well-defined laws and procedures for punishment of offenders through traditional courts. Thus,
most of them accept the authority of the customary laws that are well synchronised with their
religious beliefs. Though many of them have converted to religions like Christianity and Hinduism
much of their value system remains nearly intact. Many values have changed but not the customary
laws around resource sharing, maintenance of ethnic identity or regulation of marriage (Singh 1993:
25-28).
Meaning of Customary Laws
Most tribes of the region consider their customary law intrinsic to their identity and part and
parcel of their culture and tradition. Their origin lies in habits that grew into customs through
imitation and acquiescence in the values they symbolise. A norm becomes a law when the community
members respect and adhere to it as integral to their heritage. t is true particularly of traditional
societies that only had unwritten laws and usages regulating the human behaviour of individuals.
Such laws maintain social order and are a stabilising factor in that society. Customary Law can thus
be defined as a set of rules that attain the force of law because a society observes them continuously
and uniformly for a long time. This totality of a tribe's customs handed over from one generation
to the next provides rules, enforcement procedures and punishment for violations (Singh 1993: 17)
and are intrinsic to their identity.
Thus, a customary law is the habitual course of conduct of a society and contains dos and
don'ts based on its norms, practices and usages, mechanisms such as taboos, sanctions, social
rituals, culture, public opinion and ethics of each individual and thus restrains their pattern of
behaviour (Vitso 2003: 5). These norms and rules of conduct for individuals and families regulate
the social, cultural and religious aspects of life. They are mandatory and enforceable. Most tribes
accord them the force of law and consider them as old as the tribe itself but the State has accorded
25
recognition to only a few of them. They have survived also because the will of the community and
public opinion acknowledge and approve them.
They are social control mechanisms legitimised through a belief in a supernatural being. The
fore-parents of a society passed such divine tenets to each generation and thus maintained harmony
based on a clearly established pattern in their lives, sustained by age-old customs, rituals, beliefs,
ceremonies and symbols. Most members of a community follow them out of respect or fear of a
supernatural being from whom the law originated and who can punish its violation. Since the
prescriptions embodied spiritual significance, some of its violations were tolerated with no sanction
of the individual concerned indicating that the spirit will take care of that person (Bhattarcharjee
1990: 105). However, the formal law considers them only customs till a formal legal or administrative
body recognises it.
Interface of Customary Laws with Modern Inputs
The community on its part needs no recognition to live according to its tradition. ts members
follow the law out of respect or fear of the divine or because the community leaders use them as
a social control mechanism (Zehol 1998). That creates the first contradiction between the formal
and informal systems. To the tribes living by them they are a help to maintain a balance between
their communities and nature and that requires no recognition (Goswami 1985: 13) by the formal
system to which it is an external regulatory mechanism.
Precisely because they are a response to their daily life, customary laws undergo changes in
their content, interpretation and enforcement in response to the situations that a society has lived
with. Some changes are progressive and others are retrogressive. f a society stagnates and is
unable to deal with changes, it gives its law a rigid interpretation especially if the customs continue
when its social base disappears. t then justifies its continuance or avoidance by attributing it to its
ancestors. For example, in some tribes in which women have made progress in education and other
spheres, men resist their access to equality by citing tradition and even new inputs such as the new
religion they adopt (Marak 2002: 163-164).
They change also when they are codified or are recognised by the written document based
formal system. n the Northeast the change began with colonialism. After bringing the tribes of
Assam under its control the British regime recognised their customary laws through the Scheduled
District Act of 1874. The Assam General Clauses Act 1915 protected tribal customs and practices
by restricting the application of the Provincial Laws in the Hill areas. The Montague-Chelmsford
Reforms 1919 made similar provisions. The 1930 ndian Statutory (Simon) Commission recommended
the protection of tribal customary rights. The Government of India Act 1935 accepted it and divided
the hill areas into Excluded and Partially Excluded and stipulated that no Act of the Central or
Provincial Legislature apply to them unless the Governor in his discretion so decided in view of
peace and good governance (Ganguli 1998: 64). These provisions later became the Sixth Schedule
26
that brought under it the Naga, Khasi, and Garo Hills "excluded by the British from their administration.
Today it applies to Meghalaya and to the N. C. Hills and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam that also
have District Autonomous Councils (DAC). Amendments to the Constitution recognise the customary
law of Nagaland (Art. 371A) and Mizoram (Art. 371G) (Barooah 2002).
EvoIution of the Protective Laws
The Constituent Assembly formed an Advisory Committee headed by the Assam Congress
leader Gopinath Bordoloi. After consultations with the tribal leaders it suggested the Sixth Schedule
built on the above provisions and provided for the formation of the DAC in the six hill districts of
Assam (Roy 1995: 35-37). These provisions had originated in the colonial need for peaceful trading
relations in the Hill areas that were allowed to govern themselves without a direct daily role for the
foreigner. Despite such isolation colonial intervention did destabilise tribal lifestyle, so most tribes
resisted it. Very few of their revolts have been recorded in the official histories of the freedom
movement but one hears of resistance from the Aka, Miri, Mishmi, Naga and others (Mackenzie
1995). The laws that evolved from this need formed the basis of the Sixth Schedule and Articles
371A and 371G.
Repression was the first official reaction to their efforts to protect their livelihood by resisting
the colonial policies. The next step was to isolate them from their neighbours but exploitation
continued. Then came compromises, at first in the form of isolating them further with the nner Line
Permit (LP). Though presented as protection from the plainspeople, its real purpose was to protect
the planters from their raids. Besides, the British rulers considered the Northeast a buffer zone
against China and Burma (Doley 1998: 15-16). When resistance continued even after these measures,
the colonialist introduced more changes some of which continued after independence. For example,
in Assam the Sixth Schedule was introduced in Karbi Anglong and NC Hills as a compromise when
their tribes demanded a State of their own or showed a desire to join Meghalaya formed in 1970
(Phukan 1990: 8-9).
Thus, through their resistance the tribal leaders led the region towards protective measures.
After 1947 they were the State's reaction to the nationalist struggles and subsequent negotiations
(Fernandes 2005a: 97-98). To limit ourselves to Nagaland to which the Angami belong the measures
began in the colonial age with the LP but the Nagas continued their resistance. During 1849-50 the
British regime sent ten expeditions to subdue them but the raids continued, particularly by the
Angami who killed 232 persons, including some British officials between 1954 and 1865. n order
to pacify them the colonial regime carved out the Naga Hills district in 1866, introduced the LP in
1873, occupied Kohima in 1879-80 (Aosenba 2001: 12-20), conquered and controlled Nagaland but
did not annexe it.
Also their Christianisation changed the history of the tribes. The American Baptist missionaries
who worked in Nagaland, the Welsh Presbyterians and others who evangelised Mizoram and Meghalaya
27
experienced constant tension with the British since they differed from them by nationality as well
as religious denomination. Most colonialists were English Anglicans or Presbyterians while most
missionaries were Welsh and Scottish if they were British and Americans and others if they were
non-British (Sanyu 1996: 110-112). Besides, colonialism was a commercial enterprise that required
the collaboration of the traditional chiefs who did not respond to the missionary but new leaders
emerged from their educational institutions. The chiefs opposed the missionary both because of the
morality he preached and because the new leaders were a threat to their power. Though eventually
they too converted, the differences persisted. Besides, the missionary introduced community worship
and brought children of many tribes together in the school. The new leaders used the former to
strengthen their sense of community. The schools began the process bringing the warring tribes
together and it was a threat to the British who depended on division among them (Sen 1992: 37-
40).
During the freedom movement, most traditional chiefs supported the British while the new
leaders joined the freedom fighters because they viewed the State as a modern institution. But the
two were united in their effort to protect their resources and identity though their understanding of
their use and the extent of autonomy differed. The new leaders wanted autonomy within ndependent
ndia while the traditional chiefs veered towards sovereignty. But even the new leaders who supported
the freedom struggle were wary of the homogenising tendency of the nationalist leaders. n 1946,
the Naga leader Phizo is reported to have met Mahatma Gandhi who was sympathetic to the cause
of autonomy with which they would have been satisfied. However, most national leaders failed to
understand the Northeast (Sanyu 1996: 115-126). Their failure gave a fillip to the sovereignty
movement.
The subsequent conflict and negotiations resulted in the compromise of a Naga State in which
the civil administration is run according to their customary law under Article 371A (Aosenba 2001:
63-70). n Mizoram a traditional chief Laldenga led the Mizo National Front (MNF). The people who
were till then with the Mizo Union that demanded autonomy within Assam, shifted their loyalty to
the MNF that wanted sovereignty when they felt that the State was trying to impose Assamese on
them and did not respect their language and culture. The breaking point was the bamboo famine
of 1959 during which they felt neglected by Assam and the ndian Government (Sen 1992: 37-43).
The negotiations resulted in Article 371G. Thus the ndian State accepted autonomy as a counterweight
to the sovereignty demands. According to these Articles no Act of the Parliament can have legal
force unless a majority in the State Assembly decides to the contrary in 1. Religious or social
practices; 2. Customary laws and procedures; 3. Administration of civil and criminal justice involving
decisions according to the customary law; 4. Ownership and transfer of land and its resources.
The RoIe of the Sixth ScheduIe
Specific to the Sixth Schedule is recognition of community ownership of land and forests. The
norm in ndia is the colonial principle of the eminent domain that recognises only individual property.
28
Land without an individual title belongs to the State (Ramanathan 1999: 20). However, only recognition
by law does not ensure protection of their livelihood. Because of its overall culture, even in the Sixth
Schedule areas, the administration remains individual oriented and recognises the gaonburah as
the landowner. He can be influenced to give pattas to individuals as one sees him doing in the N.C.
Hills and Garo Hills (Barbora 2002). n Karbi Anglong where the law does not allow ownership by
outsiders, immigrants have pattas in the neighbouring Lanka but own land there (Fernandes and
Barbora 2002b: 65-66). Despite these shortcomings, many tribes in the region want their CPRs
recognised because their non-recognition has negative implications for them. For example by the
late 1960s the indigenous tribes of Tripura had lost over 60% of their land to Hindu Bengali migrants
from Bangladesh who encroached on their CPRs that the law did not recognise as theirs. Amid the
conflict with the settlers in the mid-1970s, the State announced the Gumti or Dumbur dam that
submerged 46.34 sq. km. They opposed it but were forced out of their land. By official count it
displaced 2,558 families with pattas. Another 5,500 to 6,500 CPR dependent families were not
counted or even compensated (Bhaumik 2003: 84-85).
TabIe 2.1 : Land Ownership Pattern among Some Tribes in the Northeast (acres)
Tribe LandIess Jhum BeIow I 1.01-2.5 2.51-5.0 5.01-10.0 10+ TotaI
Adibasi 128 0 23 12 6 0 0 169
Aka 3 38 0 0 2 0 0 43
Angami 13 1 64 21 18 24 29 170
Boro 32 0 3 14 6 3 0 58
Chiru 0 0 8 13 6 0 3 30
Chotei 1 0 8 9 6 0 3 27
Dimasa 1 79 0 21 4 1 0 106
Garo 84 0 57 41 28 8 5 223
Rongmei 4 0 54 31 19 1 1 110
Total 266 118 217 162 95 37 41 936
% 28.42 12.61 23.18 17.31 10.15 03.95 04.38 100.00
Source: Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 116, Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 23
That gets other tribes to demand recognition of their law or to prepare for it. Arunachal
Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura that were not parts of Assam, do not have the Sixth Schedule and
do not recognise the customary laws. They only have some administrative rules in their favour
(Barooah 2002). However, on 16
th
February 2004 the Arunachal Assembly passed a resolution
demanding extension of the Sixth Schedule to it (The Hindustan Times, February 17, 2004, p. 3).
We were told during our fieldwork that the Aka are about to complete the documentation of their
29
customary laws. The Thangkul Nagas are planning to do it and the Bodo have started the codification
of their law (Our Correspondent 2005).
Much land gets alienated because of the contradiction between the formal and informal systems.
As Table 2.1 shows, landlessness is high among the Adibasi and Boro of Assam and Rongmei of
Manipur. Against 28.42% in the sample it is 75.74% among the Adibasi. 20.71% are small or
marginal farmers. Thus, 96.35% do not have enough land to live on. 55.17% of the Boro are
landless and 29.32% marginal or small farmers. 77.27% of the 110 Rongmei are small or marginal
farmers. Common to these tribes is their exclusion from the Sixth Schedule. f they lose their land
to conflicts, encroachment or acquisition for development projects they are unable to lay claim to
it. Landlessness is low among the Aka living in isolation under their customary law without formal
recognition. Encroachment or alienation are low among them. Persons with salaried jobs call themselves
landless.
2. CUSTOMARY LAW AND WOMEN'S PROPERTY RIGHTS AMONG DIFFERENT TRIBES
n defining the tribal customary laws of the Northeast, our objective is to understand women's
rights in them particularly over property. Amid their diversity they have some commonalities, the
most important being patriarchy. n this section we shall go beyond their tradition to the evolution
of their law because of its interface with the formal system. n this section we shall exclude the
tribes being studied since we will be dealing with them later.
Customary Laws, the Gender Issue and Property Rights
We have discussed the trend towards individual pattas not because we consider the CPRs
absolute but because as long as the community controls them, the woman has some control over
her livelihood. The customary laws of the region are not uniform. Ethnic and cultural diversity
ensure differentiation in tribal social, cultural and economic practices. While some customs favour
women others discriminate against them. Amid such diversity, their commonality is patriarchy based
on the central pivot of women as homemakers and men as providers and protectors. Their myths
and beliefs legitimise its assumption that harmony and co-existence depend on women. That put
an additional onus on them (Vitso 2003: 58).
TabIe 2.2 : Inheritance by Custom in Some TribaI Societies of the Northeast
Item Adibasi Aka Angami Boro Dimasa Garo TotaI
Sample 169 45 170 58 106 203 751
Jewellery 80 28 88 14 53 50 313
Utensils 1 3 13 3 31 102 466
Clothes 1 4 67 0 93 105 270
Baskets 0 0 84 0 0 0 84
30
Item Adibasi Aka Angami Boro Dimasa Garo TotaI
Looms 0 0 3 0 8 0 11
Livestock 1 0 5 0 14 9 29
Land 1 0 8 1 1 175 186
House 1 0 0 1 0 173 175
Others 79 0 8 11 2 78 170
Source: Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 146
Also their ownership and inheritance laws reflect patriarchy. The main form of cultivation
among most tribes of the region is jhum. Women share with men domestic tasks as well as work
such as clearing jungles, food and firewood collection from the forest, washing clothes, cleaning
utensils etc. Women cook, fetch water, take care of children, weave, knit, stitch clothes and brew
rice beer for the family but are not allowed in the village court or partake in the community worship.
Besides, just as cultures do, also social and inheritance laws evolve according to the environment
in which the people live. The tribes have different agricultural practices i.e. jhum or settled. Some
are patrilineal and matrilineal. Common to most is the role of the community (Barooah 2002: 100-
101).
Amid the differences, all experience discrimination against women in ownership and inheritance
i.e. in the legally enforceable right to benefit from, control or alienate one's assets. Thus the gender
issues in their customary law are not merely those of legitimacy but are principally rules affecting
the allocation of resources and life chances (Mann 1987: 307). nheritance or the right to own, use
and control immovable and movable property is basic to it. mmovable property includes land, water
sources, house sites while movable items are agricultural implements, weapons, personal objects
such as clothes, ornaments, weaving materials, food grains, livestock, baskets, utensils and other
assets considered valuable.
Table 2.2 refers to women who have inherited or can inherit an item during their lifetime. Most
tribes of the Northeast keep a clear division between clan and acquired property. Men control and
inherit the former. What a man or a woman acquires can be gifted either to sons or daughters. As
a result, most women own no immovable property unless they acquire it or their parents or brothers
gift it to them. They inherit only jewellery, utensils, clothes, baskets and other tools of work. Some
like the Angami and Dimasa inherit them from their mothers by right while others get them only as
gifts. Most do not inherit livestock since it is a major source of income and plays ritual and cultural
roles in their society. Thus the informal-formal interface may impact women negatively as we have
seen in the Garo and other cases. Also religious change can affect women adversely. For example,
the village council which was patriarchal provided some security to women. Some (Ghosh and
Ghosh 1997: 83) think that with their Christianisation or Hinduisation the importance of the council
has declined and that goes against women. We shall study whether it is true or not.
31
ArunachaI Pradesh
All the Arunachal tribes are patrilineal. Property ownership and inheritance are by a son and
in his absence, the nearest male relative. No woman can inherit immovable property (Barooah
2002: 107). However, most of them are CPR dependent jhum cultivators. So though inheritance is
on the male line, the woman has some control over her sustenance because she being in charge
of the family economy looks after its production. However, polygamy that many tribes especially
village leaders practise, creates a new hierarchy among women with the senior wife having more
rights but a younger wife being favoured by the man.
Among the Gallong the girl enjoys some rights in her parental home till she becomes a mother
but only sons inherit land. Daughters get some gifts depending on the amount of bride price
received (Norbu 1997: 113-114). Among the Minyong sons inherit land. The man chooses the jhum
plot and after it the woman takes charge of it. Movable property such as beads, utensils, implements,
silver ornaments and at times livestock are women's personal belongings. Generally her daughters
and daughters-in-law inherit them (Mitkong 1997a: 136-139). Also the Wancho of Tirap district
restrict inheritance to men through primogeniture. A couple without a son can, with the consent of
the head of the clan, choose a young man to live with them, marry their daughter and inherit their
property (Roy and Rizvi 1990: 117). The Hill Miri women cannot inherit land or immovable property
but their tradition allows a girl some rights over private property or money or to become temporary
owner of their property till marriage. A widow not separated from her in-laws has a right over her
deceased husband's property. f the husband asks for divorce, the woman can get an equal share
of the property that the couple has acquired during its conjugal life (Mitkong 1997b: 259). Apatani
women cannot inherit immovable property though they contribute much to the household. They
inherit a share of the tasang-tavine (beads and gem string) from their mother. Also among the
Chakma only sons inherit land though women are active cultivators (Singh 1995: 152). The Nishi
customary law too excludes women from ownership and inheritance.
The Bangi branch of the Nishi permits the first wife to have a say in inheritance but excludes
daughters from owning or inheriting clan property. However, they have full ownership of ornaments,
utensils and other gifts given at their marriage. Among the Sherdukpen, the wife does not have any
claim over immovable property but can rear poultry or keep cattle independently, sell it and retain
the proceeds for her personal use. That gives her some economic status and freedom (Chowdhury
1990: 126-127). The patrilineal Monpa do not allow women to inherit landed property but permit it
when the parents have only daughters. Thus their tradition can be called partly gender sensitive.
They have traditionally nurtured and brought up boys and girls with no discrimination but today one
notices among many of them a marked preference for boys (Norbu 1997: 301 & 304).
Besides, bride price that was considered compensation for depriving the family of a worker
has today almost come to mean the husband paying and getting exclusive rights over her person.
32
Her kinsmen have no redress against harsh treatment meted out to her. She cannot leave her
husband unless her kinsmen compensate him for the loss. Thus the customary laws of most
Arunachal tribes are biased against women but also have provisions to ensure her security. That
aspect tends to get weak or disappear if the interface with modernity imposes individual pattas.
Some changes beginning among them favour women and others go against them. For example a
village council in the Tawang area went beyond the custom of the oldest living daughter inheriting
property and passed a judgement in favour of an adopted daughter (Barooah 2002: 106). These
aspects need to be documented in order to encourage equality.
The Tribes of Assam
Assam has a relatively small tribal population. Most of its tribes are patrilineal. Some like the
Rabha are partly matrilineal but are slowly becoming patrilineal. n their tradition, the youngest
daughter inherited a lion's share of her mother's property and other daughters shared the remainder
equally but the managerial control over land was in the hands of men. As a result of closer contact
and intercommunity linkages with the neighbouring population and influence of the dominant culture,
they have made changes in favour of men.
Among the Deori, sons inherit their father's property. f a man has no sons, his property goes
to the nearest agnatic male relative. The Lalung are a matrilineal tribe with men as family heads
and the daughter as its building block. She inherits the house, land and family heirloom but her
husband is its manager. Each daughter establishes a new household with the eldest inheriting the
house and the others getting some agricultural land and a site for their own house. f the Lalung
woman marries outside her tribe, she loses her right to inheritance. Till his death a man may keep
a share of his property for his own use. After his death it goes to the son who looks after him.
Among the Mishing if a man has no sons, his daughters may share his property and bear his funeral
expenses (Gohain 1994: 80-81).
The Bodo have male preference as sons inherit property but women are "accorded their due
status and respect (Roy 1995: 17). All the family members enjoy equal status, thus male preference
seems to be recent, result of their interaction with other cultures or their Christianisation or Hinduisation.
Their tradition is joint family but a son can leave it during his father's lifetime to live separately. The
eldest son gets a bigger share of property in view of his responsibilities. He assumes charge of the
house after his father's death and fulfils his duties in consultation with his mother. Unmarried sons
living in the family get double the share of what the married sons get who stay separately (Sen
1999: 126). The Karbi are patrilineal and staunchly patriarchal. Daughters get no share in their
father's property. n the absence of a son, the nearest male relative inherits it (ibid: 141). f the man
does not have brothers, his widow can retain his property by marrying into his clan (Lyall 1997: 21).
f she remarries outside his clan, she loses her right over it. n some cases the village council has
insisted on it even when the administration thought otherwise (Barooah 2002: 105).
33
The Manipur Tribes
Manipur has four main groups, the non-tribal Meitei, the Naga, the Kuki and others. Among
the Kuki, if a man is issueless, his nearest relative inherits his immovable property. Among the
Kabui Naga, the youngest son inherits his father's property. The Tangkhul Naga follow patrilineal
primogeniture but often divide immovable property among all the sons, with the eldest getting a
bigger share (Das 1989: 130-133). The Mao too are patrilineal but at times the eastern Mao give
a terrace rice field to the daughter to help her to begin her married life. When she is able to stand
on her own, it reverts to her parents (Shimray 2001: 127). However, "at Jessami the youngest son
gets the house and the best of the movable property while the other brothers take equal shares.
At Laiyi, by contrast, the eldest gets half and the others divide the half share. f there are only girls
to inherit, the clan (sagei) takes a share. At Liyai the sons share the property equally and the girls
get a share of the domestic items. n the absence of a male issue to divide the property, the girls
share it, but the house is reserved for the eldest surviving paternal uncle of the deceased (Hodson
1996: 103). Single daughters get a share, so does a widow if she remains unmarried. At times gifts
are made when a man is alive. The village council recognises it but often it leads to quarrels within
the family.
The MatriIineaI Tribes of MeghaIaya
While enjoying a better status than in patrilineal societies, women in matrilineal tribes are not
equal to men. Despite inheritance being through the mother, the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia vest much
decision-making power and control with men. Among the Khasi, the youngest daughter is the
heiress. The girl child is associated with agricultural work and is seen as a helper in the family. Their
tradition treats her as Ka Blei Ing (goddess of the house) and ka Likhimai (guardian spirit of the
house). These titles suggest not only moral attributes of virtue, purity and goodness usually ascribed
to women, but also her role in maintaining the continuity and growth of her family, sub-clan (kpoh)
or clan (kur). The other sisters leave the house after marriage. Her husband is the head of the
family. Men were warriors, protectors, tillers, administrators and priests and represent the family in
their society. Women run the family. Men's role is symbolised by placing an arrow on a white cloth
at a boy's naming. Women's role as homemakers, betel nut and fruit growers and helpers in the
fields is seen in the ka khoh (sling basket) and u star (rope to carry it).
As Khadduh the youngest daughter shoulders responsibilities as guardian of the family property
and custodian of its religion. She meets the expenses of family ceremonies such as weddings and
naming and religious rites such as bone interment of dead relatives. She looks after family members
who suffer misfortunes like disability, husband's or wife's death, divorce and so on. She gathers
family members at the ing-seng (foundation house) for family rituals, prepares for the religious rites
and assists her maternal uncles in their performance (War 1992: 12-16). n practice her maternal
uncles (ki kni) and brothers control her property. "She is not the heiress in the strict sense of the
word. She does not have any control or rights to sell property without the consent and counsel of
34
her maternal uncles and other siblings. The family property is more a joint family trust (Syiem 1992:
24)
Also matrilineal Jaintia women look after the family, rear, train and educate children and are
in overall control of household affairs. Men figure only in making decisions on crucial matters like
buying and selling of movable and immovable property, cultivation, trade and business and are
expected not to interfere with what they decide (Passah 1992: 47-48). Sometimes also the youngest
son inherits property. Thus despite inheritance and descent being on the mother's side, the woman
does not have as much power as it indicates. Because they are matrilineal, heavy responsibilities
are laid on the mother to ensure the welfare of the family but both Khasi and Jaintia women are
only custodians of its property. They manage the entire wealth and look after the old parents but
men control it (Gassah 1992: 42-43).
The Mizos
The Mizo are more than 90% of the tribals of Mizoram. Because of the progress they have
made in education, Mizo women work almost as equals of men at home, in the office, the market,
the secretariat and elsewhere. So some think that they are in fact equal. However, their "society
being an extremely patriarchal one, women had no place in it... women were formerly called 'white
animals' and there are many old sayings to the same effect, like:
(a) Crab's meat is not a meat, a woman's word is not a word
(b) Women and crabs have no religion
(c) The wisdom of women does not cross the village spring
(d) Uncleared jhum-side and unthreatened women keep pushing
(e) Bad wife and bad fence can be replaced (Malsawma 2002: 72)
Such gender bias is seen in their inheritance and ownership laws. They are probably the only
major tribe of the Northeast to have codified their customary law as early as 1957 in a booklet Mizo
Hnam Dan. t laid down the major principles of inheritance under two of their inheritance systems
viz. Lushai and Lakher (Barooah 2002). t stated that, the nearest male relative of the deceased is
his legal heir. The order of preference is the following:
i) A son, the youngest if the deceased has many sons;
ii) n the case of a man with no male issue, his brother inherits;
iii) n the absence of a brother the nearest male relative inherits.
n the absence of male relatives, a woman inherits to the exclusion of distant kinsmen [Rule
109 (2)]. "n the case of more than one daughter the youngest daughter will be given first preference
35
as in the case of sons [Rule 109 (10)] (Das 1990a: 167-170). When a man dies, if his wife and
children can maintain themselves, none should disturb them. The widow is to take care of his
property and children. f she is willing to remain in the house occupying the main bed and discharging
the duties and functions of the mother, nobody should disturb her, especially if she has unmarried
or divorced daughters or grand daughters of the deceased living with her [Rule 109 (3)]. n some
cases, a woman for whom the husband's family has paid a bride price inherits property in her own
right. f a man has no male issue his daughter and failing that, his widow inherit his property. f the
widow remarries someone other than his brother, his property and the children's care vest in his
brother (Malsawma 2002: 103).
Under the Lushai system, if a man left behind only minor sons and a widow, a close male
relative took over his property and looked after the family till a son attained adulthood. nheritance
by women was generally precluded but if there was no other heir, the daughter or widow could
inherit, the former taking precedence over the latter. Also under Lashker, the eldest son inherited
his father's property but generally shared it with his youngest brother. The sons in the middle,
daughters or the widow got no share. n the absence of sons, the property went to the eldest and
youngest brother of the deceased (Ray 1990: 98-99).
The NagaIand Tribes
About Naga women Haimendorf (2004: 101) said "Many women in more civilized parts of ndia
may well envy the women of the Naga Hills their high status and happy life and if you measure the
cultural level of the people by social position and personal freedom of its women, you will think twice
before looking on the Nagas as 'savages'. Many take it to mean equality though it only indicates
a relatively high status. One of its signs is their freedom to choose life partners. The consent of both
the boy and girl is needed. Women mingle, sing and dance freely with men. n that sense their
status is better than that of women in the Hindi heartland but they are not equal to men. However,
at times girls and children born out of wedlock are forced to marry against their will. n their tradition
some men are applauded for their extra-marital affairs but women get no such concession (Kelhou
1998: 56). At times, discrimination is formalised through customs such as unwed mothers being
segregated.
At divorce an Ao husband can take the ornaments and also claim a penalty of a head of cattle
and repayment of the bride price from his wife's father or his heir and a fine from her paramour.
A woman was allowed to leave her husband against his wish but without getting the ornaments
(Hutton 1968: 186-87). f she left him without a good reason, her husband notified her parents. f
she failed to return within the stipulated time, he could marry again. But if the woman married, her
husband could report her to the village council. f the case went against her, the new husband paid
a fine. And yet Ao women have traditionally played a major role in the jhum economy and have
contributed to the wealth of the family.
36
The lower status that these customs indicate is reflected in their inheritance laws. Women
cannot inherit immovable property, though the father can gift it to them. f he gives it to her as a
gift during his lifetime, it remains hers till her death, after which it reverts to his heirs (Aier 1998:
94). A widow remains in her husband's family as guardian of the members but cannot inherit his
property (Goswami 1981: 107). A man with only a daughter may give give his property her. His first
option is to treat it as transferred after his death and then as a gift that reverts to her father's family
after her death. The second, while inheriting it, she makes a nominal payment to her father for it
and retains it as her property and uses it as she wants. Her daughters may inherit it (Bareh 2001:
178). "f the transfer of the property is not done during her lifetime, at the event of her death, the
property would go back to her father's heirs. f a woman is wealthy enough, she can even buy and
own lands (Aier 1998: 94).
Lotha women had no right over land that was classified as village, clan or family. Sons inherit
family land. f a man has no heirs, it goes to his nearest male relative. f there is no such member,
it reverts to the clan. Women inherit personal belongings like clothes, ornaments and weaving
looms. Unmarried sons and daughters can get land as gift at their marriage or when the parents
make their will. Among the Chang Naga, women do not inherit paternal property but her male
siblings support a divorced woman fully. Her children living with her remain members of her family
and enjoy some economic power (Bareh 2001).
Konyak men are polygamous but women marry only once. Divorce is common but heavy fines
are imposed if it is not on reasonable grounds. A divorced woman can remarry. The husband has
to compensate her but if a woman divorces him he pays no compensation. n their traditional
division of labour, forests are male reserves. Women collect firewood and carry it home but the man
alone can cut firewood or timber or burn trees for jhum. nheritance is according to the wishes of
the eldest son. f a man dies issueless his property goes to the nearest male relative. Sometimes
daughters may get a share of land as a gift in the presence of the seniors as witnesses in order
to avoid any dispute. At her marriage, the daughter inherits her mother's looms, personal clothes
and ornaments. On her husband's death, a widow inherits the house and property required to look
after her children but if the eldest son is an adult, he has to look after the family in consultation with
her. She can maintain the family land, fields and house as long as she remains single even if she
resides separately but the husband's family decides whether she should get maintenance or not.
f she remarries, she forfeits all rights over her husband's property. A woman divorced on grounds
of immorality or defamation of her husband or his family is not entitled to maintenance or property.
f after divorce her husband fails to look after the children she takes care of them. To take them back
the man has to pay her the expenses incurred on their maintenance (Merhotra 1992: 161-162).
A Sema widow is entitled to a third of her husband's movable property. f one or more widows
remain unmarried in the late husband's house they get whatever free labour was due to the deceased
husband for a period not exceeding three years. After it they may be given some free labour as a
37
matter of courtesy, not as a right. f a widow marries one of her husband's heirs, the latter enjoys
the property, without dividing it in her lifetime. n some cases widows are allowed to receive payment
in cash on what was due to their late husband. She may own immovable property but not possess
the absolute right to bequeath it. The sons or the other heirs may claim it in virtue of her inability
to possess it (Hutton 1968: 185-186).
Son preference is obvious among the Zeliangrong. Women are denied all say in social affairs
but are fully in charge of the family, can sell or buy handicrafts, shawls and domestic animals except
cattle without even consulting their husbands. Husbands cannot use domestic animals without their
wives' consent. t indicates considerable control she has in the house. She enjoys the fruits of her
labour but her work is for the entire family including men. However, in their tradition women did not
enjoy inheritance rights even in the absence of a son. The nearest male relative inherited the
property and looked after unmarried women. A widow gets a share in her husband's property so
long as she looks after the children and stays in his house. Unmarried women may enjoy their
maiden possessions (rilie leh) got by rearing domestic animals, selling shawls etc and use them as
they wish (Newmai 1998: 42-45).
Rengma women too inherit only personal belongings. n the northern group a woman and her
husband can cultivate her parents' land for a limited number of years but cannot inherit it. n the
southern group, a father can gift a field to his daughter but without the right of inheritance. Sons
inherit men's possessions such as weapons. Women inherit ornaments. f a woman dies issueless
her ornaments go to her husband and those of unmarried women to the father (Kath 1998: 83).
Each western Rengma son built a house at his marriage. On her husband's death, the widow
retained the house till her death or re-marriage and could use all rice, cash and movable property
in it but not sell it. f the male heirs considered her wasteful they restrained her. On her death her
youngest son inherited the house and all its contents. Only the pounding-table went to the eldest
son. Among the Eastern Rengma when the eldest son brought his wife to his father's house, his
parents and remaining children moved to a new house after the next harvest. t was repeated at
each son's marriage. On a man's death, his widow has a life-interest in his movable property but
on her death all her possessions go to the eldest son. A man may gift land to his daughter during
his lifetime, especially if he has no sons but she cannot sell it. After her death it goes to her father's
nearest male heir. Eastern Rengma women ordinarily bring with them dowry of land. Even after his
wife's death a man can use it but on his death it reverts to her father's heirs (Mills 1937: 143-44).
Also Pochury tribal girls inherit no land but a father can gift it to his daughter at marriage. t
reverts to his kin if she dies childless. A widow is entitled to maintenance from her husband's
property till her remarriage or death. Each son gets his share at his marriage, but the eldest gets
a larger share because he is expected to perform his father's death rituals. Cattle are valuable
property and only boys inherit them. An adopted son has the same inheritance rights as natural
sons (Bareh 2001: 206).
38
The Tripura TribaIs
All the Tripura tribes follow male inheritance. Even the widow can only enjoy the fruits of what
her husband owned, till her remarriage or death. f a man dies childless, the nearest male kinsman
inherits his land. Girls cannot inherit paternal property but he usually gifts some of it to his daughter
in his lifetime (Das 1990b: 63). Among the Reang, sons alone inherit immovable property but the
personal belongings of the mother go to her daughters. What a son or his wife acquire goes to the
family common pool (Roy and Rizvi 1990: 100).
Among the Jamatia, sons inherit property but the eldest often gets a preferential share. Daughters
only of a man without sons inherit equal shares. The widow enjoys the fruits of her husband's
property but does not inherit it. Many consider the Halam a branch of the Kuki, as their customs
are similar. Sons inherit their father's property but the eldest gets more. f the father is without a
male issue, his property goes to the nearest male relative but this practice is changing. n order to
bypass the rule, often the father makes a gift of his property to his daughter during his lifetime,
leaving a small portion to the relative (Das 1990b: 64-66). f the couple is childless, the patrilineal
Khakloo, Tipra, Noatia, Jamatia, Uching, Riang and Halam tribes sometimes adopt a boy from
among their near relatives (Gan-Chaudhuri 1990: 30). The Chakmas too divide parental property
equally among sons. f a man divorces his wife for no fault of hers, he has to return her ornaments,
dresses and wedding gifts. Small children go with her. She has a right to maintenance till she
remarries (Debbarma and George 1993: 27).
3. THE CUSTOMARY LAWS OF THE TRIBES STUDIED
That brings us to the five tribes studied. Some of them have laws that are more or less intact
while others like the Adibasi have lost most of them. However, in some form or the other, they too
continue to be influenced by their customary laws and tradition.
The Aka
The basic unit of Aka social organisation is the village as a whole acting through the village
council known as Mele. They have undergone numerous social, economic and political changes
after the introduction of the Panchayati Raj in 1969. Both the village council functions almost as it
as it did in the past and exists together with the Panchayati Raj (Choudhury1996: 223-224). The
mele consists of the headman known as Nugo and elders. No woman is selected as its member.
t is empowered to act as a court of justice and to exercise judicial powers in intra-village disputes
and inter-village conflicts both civil and criminal. Since the introduction of the panchayati system,
all village disputes are decided by the gaon bura in consultation with the panchayat members and
the mele (Singh 1995: 138-139).
The Aka are patriarchal and women have no share in inheritance of ancestral property. However,
in their tradition they have enjoyed limited inheritance rights. All immoveable property is inherited
39
by men while the woman is given ancestral ornaments such as items rings, lockets, beads, necklaces,
valuable brass plates, wristlets and in some special cases domestic animals when they leave home
after marriage (Koley 1997: 348). A widow has right over her husband's property as long as she is
alive and is willing to stay with his family. She acts as the guardian of the property and hands it
over to her sons. f she does not have a son it is taken over by the husband's brothers or by his
nearest relatives (Dhar and Coomar 2004: 112-113). ndividual ownership is all but unknown among
them. They practise their traditional religion to which their customary law is closely linked. t gives
her some power over the CPRs as being in charge of jhum (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 6-7).
Thus, their customary law assigns a somewhat low status to women and restricts them by and
large to the family, while men participate in societal and village meetings. Women keep the money
for the maintenance of the family. They had bride price and permitted child marriage, marriage by
elopement and capture, surrogate and levirate marriages. Bride price is paid in kind. Mithuns are
preferred as prestigious gifts. Marriage gifts that the bride's parents give usually consist of ornaments
and utensils for domestic use and are commensurate with the bride price received from the boy's
parents (Choudhury 1996: 97-99). Sexual offences such as extra-marital relations, whether in the
community or outside, are strictly punishable. The very idea of incest is repugnant to them because
marital fidelity is expected from partners. n case of violations, a heavy fine is imposed on the
offender in order to ward off such possibilities (Dutta and Duarah 1990: 176-177). However, polygamy
is not unknown.
The Aka have a distinct belief system with sacred practices, festivals and rituals for social well
being. They have a number of gods, deities and spirits who reign over them. Rituals play an
important role in their life cycle but interaction with external forces and the new outlook of the
younger generation have brought about some changes in their belief system so have Hinduism,
Buddhism and Christianity. The village priests are not revered as much as they used to be since
the youth is not interested in traditional practices, beliefs and rituals (Mibang and Behera 2004: 220-
225). Most of the Aka are jhum cultivators. Women do most of its work in the fields while men go
for hunting and fishing. The nugo allots land to each family according to its need. The family has
only usufruct rights over it. A few persons have adopted terrace and wet rice cultivation. n their
tradition the wet fields belong to their cultivator as long as he cultivates them but has no inheritance
rights over them (Singh 1995: 142). The Aka are educationally neglected. The primary schools and
small health centres in their locality are of recent origin. They believe in herbal medicines but have
started using modern medicine. Electricity and metalled roads are available only in some areas.
The Adibasi
The Adibasi have lost their identity partially both because of their working conditions and
because they are denied the Scheduled Tribe status. They have thus been deprived of their constitutional
educational, economic and political rights but continue to preserve some of their customs and
distinctive lifestyle. Being heterogeneous, they differ greatly in their tradition, economy, social organisation,
40
customs and institutions but as Adibasi they have some commonalities such as esteem for the
community (Kerketta 1999: 13-16). They are patriarchal and patrilineal. The family is the most
important part of their society. Men hold authority in it and hand down its traditions and mores to
the children in informal and formal instructions. nheritance is through the sons. Some parents
without sons adopt a boy usually their near kin to reside with them and inherit their property
(Kaniampady 2003: 71-74).
An Adibasi marriage revolves round a middleman who undertakes negotiations. He can be a
member of their society or an outsider. He finds a match for the boy or girl and after both the
parents agree, the first step of visiting each other's family begins (Ghosh 2003: 132). Though
polygamy is permitted especially if the first wife is barren, monogamy is the general practice. n their
tradition inter-ethnic alliances were considered a serious offence and the offenders were subjected
to public humiliation, heavy fines and even ex-communication. Today most of them maintain group
endogamy but inter-tribe marriages are not uncommon. After marriage, the girl goes to her husband's
house (Kaniampady 2003: 103).
Their traditional beliefs were centred round supernatural beings independent of the material
or astral world, as custodians of their traditions, expecting compliance with moral, social and religious
obligations (Barjo 1999: 50-51). The family propitiated them regularly. Today, community and family
festivals have been reduced in number and pomp. The rituals linked to hunting and agriculture are
not observed but they celebrate their major festivals with enthusiasm. After their conversion to
Hinduism or Christianity many of them had given up their traditional beliefs but have started reviving
some of them as part of their search for an identity. Thus they have retained some ethnic identity
(Sharma and Kar 1993: 132-134).
The Angami
There exists in the Angami society, dual organisation or the moiety system consisting of clans
and lineages that are localised and maintain their distinct identities in their structure and functions.
ndividuals are tied through kinship related obligations because property management is associated
with lineage. Each clan has its own labour pool for rendering help to individuals, particularly during
house construction. The village is an alliance of several clans (Singh 1994: 6). Peer group or peli
is another source of help to individual families in the agricultural season. Every Angami village has
its own myths of origin and traditional village council, which exists side by side with the modern
statutory council. n the past women were not admitted to it. Today some of them have admitted
women as members but they cannot hold any important position in it. Capi, the traditional council
court of the Angami villages, continues to be influential in the maintenance of social, political and
juridical order. Each clan has representatives in it.
An Angami woman plays a significant role within and outside the family. She works in the
fields, collects fuel and fodder from the jungle, carries water and looks after the children and
41
domestic animals and weaves shawls and other clothes for sale and use. Most of them keep the
money used for family maintenance and children's education. Land and forests as their major
economic resources have made them traditionally prosperous and economically self-reliant. Every
individual in the community has his/her own property, thus they are basically a landowning tribe in
which landlessness is not found (Singh 1994: 69). Every plot of land has an owner. Angami men
are skilled in wood carving and bamboo work. Weaving is a must for Angami women. At her
marriage the wife is expected to take to her husband's house a shawl woven with her own hands.
Most of their families are nuclear and the father is the head. n theory the wife enjoys an equal
status in it but in reality she considers her husband superior, respects him and assists him in most
work (Goswami 1986: 4-12).
Thus the Angami are patrilineal. Sons inherit immovable property which they divide into individual
and common. n their tradition they viewed ownership and inheritance as a sign of security and
protection. A lineage, village or clan owns common property. Sons inherit immovable property
including forests, water channels and arable land. The house goes to the youngest son and the best
plot of land to the eldest son. The rest of the land is divided equally among the sons. Daughters
inherit only acquired property. f a man is issueless, his property goes to his nearest male relative
who performs his funeral rites. A daughter can inherit it after paying a symbolic price of tools like
a spear or dao to the male relative. Men or women inherit movable property like looms, ornaments,
food grains, agricultural implements, livestock and clothes, depending on who uses them. An unmarried
woman has all rights over her personal belongings. At her marriage she is given gifts like clothes,
ornaments, a basket, paddy, cattle and even agricultural land mainly by her mother but this practice
is not binding.
f a woman wishes to remain single, she has a right to build her own house and cultivate a
part of her ancestral field to maintain herself. She may be gifted a terrace field for use during her
lifetime or with absolute ownership right. Once this gift is made, no brother or clan member can
claim it. At her death, she disposes of it according to her wish. Usually her brothers, their children
or those who look after her become the heirs (Das 1993: 71). A wife has a right to live in her
husband's house, manage his property, cultivate land, gather and store grains, sell the surplus,
decide what animals to rear and how they are to be used. A widow continues to enjoy these rights
as long as she stays in her husband's house but not if she is childless. She may return to her
parental home for better care because at times her husband's family covets her property but she
and her children own it (Kekrieseno 2002a)
As the clan organisation is exogamous, no person can marry a member of families on the
father's side. Monogamy is the accepted pattern for women but men can be polygamous but the
Christian churches do not accept this practice. With the introduction of Christianity, marriages have
been formalised. Adultery is not popular among them but if it happens there is no punishment for
it as they believe that, God will punish him/her with a crippled child. They do not have bride price
42
or dowry. Traditionally they believed in benevolent and malevolent spirits. The Kemevo is the chief
religious specialist in an Angami village. Sikrenyi is their main festival of cleansing and purification.
t belongs to the agricultural calendar and the time of its celebration varies from village to village.
Even Christians follow this calendar, announced by the traditional religious leaders. Some of its
rituals are performed by women (Singh 1994: 71). n the church women are allowed to perform
some functions in the religious ministry. Many women show more zeal and concern than men do
in its growth and welfare but church leadership is male. Traditionally women were not encouraged
to go to school for fear that they would go astray but with their Christianisation education became
accessible to them. Today they fare as well as men do in their academic and professional pursuits.
n fact more women than men go for higher studies (Zehol 1998: 60). Thus their customs have
changed with their Christianisation but they retain their patriarchal ethos.
The Dimasa
The traditional Dimasa organisation is hierarchical with the Khunang, the village headman at
the top assisted by other village officials. The Khunang formed the village council or the Kharaorao.
He has both executive and judicial powers but his main task is development of the village and
maintenance of order in it. After the formation of the N. C. Hills DAC the powers and functions of
the village council have increased (Barpujari 1997: 129-132). Women are not allowed to hold office
in it though among the tribes studied they alone have both male and female clans (Goswami 1986:
-V). The 42 female clans are known as Jadi and the 40 male clans as Sengpong. n the latter the
son belongs to the father's clan and the daughter to the mother's. The members of the patriclans
are concentrated in certain locales but the matriclans are dispersed. Descent in a patriclan is
through the male line and in a matriclan ordinarily it is through the mother (Danda 1978: 47). These
two systems existing together indicate a relatively high status of women among them.
The nuclear family is the most functional unit of their society. t consists of the father, mother
and unmarried children. n their patriarchal tribe, the father, as the head exercises authority in all
family matters but consults his wife in important decisions. So women play an active role in the
family and are jointly responsible for its economy (Nunisa 2004: 6). Their marriages are strictly
exogamous and the clan regulates it. A man cannot marry a girl of his father's patriclan and
mother's matriclan. Marriage in the clan leads to ex-communication. After marriage, the woman
leaves her parental home to live with her husband but they have a system called Minhaba whereby
the couple lives at her father's house for about a year. Some women settle down in their own village
after it and are given a residential site and land to cultivate. But it does not seem to be popular now.
Today such irregularly extended families are few and far between. The woman attends to all domestic
chores. As a daughter-in-law, she shows high respect to her father-in-law and elder brothers-in-law.
Divorce is rare but when they receive the information the Khunang and the elders arrange for the
dissolution of the marriage. f the wife is guilty, the bride price is returned but if the husband is at
fault, he gets nothing back from her (Barpujari 1997:125-126). After the divorce, the father takes the
43
sons and the mother the daughters along with them. Both can remarry after performing some rituals.
Widow remarriage too is allowed (Thaosen 2005).
Agriculture, mainly jhum, is their subsistence and the foundation of their economy but the
crops from it barely meet their needs. n respect of land tenure the DAC is guided by the Assam
Code according to which its permanent ownership is not possible. The DAC demarcates the boundaries
of the village and its agricultural fields but the family head selects land for jhum according to the
family needs (Danda 1978: 80). Livestock plays an important role in their economy. The returns they
get from it supplement the income from jhum and other crops. Women collect vegetables and catch
fish for daily use while hunting is a masculine job. Collection of honey is one more of their major
economic activities. Weaving as a major cottage industry and plays a significant role in their society.
Every woman is expected to learn weaving and even prepare the dyes for colouring the yarn.
Bamboo and cane baskets, mats etc are their main cottage industries (Barpujari 1997:133-137).
Because of their dual system Dimasa women's status was relatively high but inheritance in
both types of clans is through the male line. They have three types of property, paternal, maternal
and communal. Male property consists of the house, weapons, money, cattle, men's clothes and
other such valuables of the house. Maternal property consists of jewellery, looms, ornaments,
utensils etc. The common property consists of money, paddy, common clothes and domestic animals
like goats, fowls, pigs etc. According to their customary law sons inherit the paternal property
including land but the youngest son gets a larger share. f the parents do not have a son the
property goes to the man's nearest male relative after his death. The female property is shared
among the daughters with the youngest getting the largest share. n the absence of a daughter it
goes to the mother's nearest female relative. Sons and daughters inherit the common property
equally (Goswami 1986: 37-39).
Thus, their society remains patriarchal with modifications such as sons and daughters sharing
common property. However, a daughter could not inherit paternal property. A widow could be the
guardian of younger family members but could not claim her deceased husband's property (Goswami
1986: 36-38). By the 19
th
century, the abundant land that could make the dual system possible
began to be acquired by the British rulers and ndian settlers. The Bengali administrators who
accompanied the British Hinduised them. These measures have slowly strengthened the patriarchal
culture among them. Today there are very few cases of women claiming their right over ancestral
land. Though in theory the dual system remains, in practice the woman plays a weak role today
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 96-97).
The Dimasa call themselves Hindus but have only a faint idea of Hinduism. Their Hinduisation
has not altered their traditional faith and beliefs. Ceremonies around birth, death, marriage etc are
built around the natural phenomena. Nature functions as their guardian. Their customary law demands
that when they clear the jungle or cut a big tree they offer worship to their spirits. They perform
pujas to get rid of diseases (Danda 1978: 125-126). Also contacts with outsiders have influenced
44
their outlook. For example, though agriculture is the mainstay of their economy in recent years the
educated Dimasa have got government jobs. The schools started by the DAC are important agencies
through which new ideas filter into the villages. For example, the Dimasa are not Christians but they
join in the Christian festivals observed by the neighbouring villages. Possibly because of that
influence they sometimes refer to the Busu festival as baradin which locally means Christmas. Thus
contact with outsiders and the DAC have brought about considerable change in their life.
The Garo
Both Christian and Animist Garo observe their customs as the law of the land. Their centre
is the village council which consists only of men including the Nokma and the Soldal (one who leads
the village). Today its main functions are to issue pattas to the villagers, settle disputes on extra and
pre-marital relations and impose penalties. Except the Nokma, its remaining members are elected
by the people. Women are denied its membership because they are considered weak and powerless
and cannot think like men. The State recognises his post and the people assign responsibility to the
Soldal that is subsidiary to that of the Nokma. Before the annexation of the Garo Hills by the British,
they lived according to this tradition in which the Nokma administered justice according to social
customs. He and other indigenous agencies settled all civil and criminal cases. The people accepted
the judgments he and other elders passed but the customs varied from one locality to another
(Marak 2000: 19-20).
They have many clans or exogamous septs with sub-clans called Machong. Their social
organisation is based on the Machong whose members belong to the same motherhood (Playfair
1998: 65). All the blood relations belonging to a Machong are usually designated by the same name
but a small group of closely related persons within it called Mahari carries out its responsibilities
(Kar 1982: 22). The Garo have two identities called Chra-Pante and Paa-Gachi. The former consists
of male members like maternal uncles, nephews and brothers from the same Machong and the
latter of the husbands of the grand mother, mother, sisters, daughters and nieces of that Machong.
The chra are the most respected persons in whom their tribe vests authority. The Mahari has
absolute power over the family property of the motherhood and is responsible for the welfare of the
families. t elects the Nokma to be its custodian and to uphold its interests (Marak 2000: 22). Any
dispute between a husband and wife or with children is referred to the mahari. All decisions are
taken in consultation with it.
nheritance is through the mother. A selected daughter and after her, one of her daughters
inherits the property. No man can own clan land unless he has acquired it himself. The Garo are
thus a matrilineal tribe but the managerial and custodial authority of the family has always vested
in men. The woman is the heiress and legal owner of the family property. A man as the paternal
authority is given full responsibility for the family affairs. His machong assumes a right to control
what his wife inherits. He has full use of her property during his lifetime but cannot will it away.
45
Women respect and honour the male line. The role of the mahari is important also in marriage and
divorce (ibid: 140-147).
n their tradition the woman's role went beyond inheritance to include some say in community
decision-making but she was "not the head of the family. Her husband ruled supreme in the house.
Her will was subject to that of her husband, seni sason, as the saying goes. Any property acquired
by her husband is registered (or understood to be) in her name but the husband has the power to
override her decision and wishes (Marak 2002: 161). A man had to maintain his wife, minor
children, unmarried daughters, widowed Nokkrom and widowed Nokna daughter, till the clan provided
a substitute. After his death the responsibility shifted to his wife and in case of her remarriage, to
the stepfather. f she remarried outside the clan, she lost her right to her ancestral home and one
of her daughters succeeded her and maintained the minor members of the family jointly with her
nokkrom (Playfair 1998). Though a son normally cannot inherit land, some take advantage of the
law to acquire some. f a plot fit for settled use is allowed as a'tot (assigned for jhum) to an
unmarried son, he enjoys its fruits even after his marriage (Kar 1982: 253). Men and women share
agricultural work. Outside it, men do heavy work and women work on bamboo, wood and weaving.
Thus the Garo are a matrilineal but patriarchal tribe. A woman is the vehicle by which property
passes from one generation to another but the man's role is crucial in its use. Besides, today some
men want to change its ownership and inheritance and have individual male-based pattas. These
changes are the result of some inputs of the individual-oriented administration that has been facilitating,
even encouraging pattas that result in class formation and reduction of women's power. Women
continue to inherit but men wield more political and social power than in the past. The nokma
continues to be the chief heiress but today her husband exercises effective control over land. The
administration treats him as the head and consults him alone on matters of land transfer (Marak
1997: 60-69). Thus the institution that gave men a share in the wealth producing powers of women
has become one through which the administration governs the community through men and sidelines
women.
Marriage in the Garo society is strictly exogamous. Because of inheritance, their customary
law expects the youngest daughter to marry her father's nephew or someone else from her father's
mahari. A man is allowed to marry more than once but with the consent of his first wife. He may
marry two sisters but has to marry the elder one first (Gassah 1984: 138-139). Anyone who marries
within the same clan is punished for committing a social sin. Some of the marriage rules are
violated today (Playfair 1998: 66-67) but the custom strictly observed is that of the selected daughter
inheriting her parents' property. Nokpante, the house and dormitory of adolescent young men, a
distinctive Garo feature is almost defunct today. According to their custom girls ate together with
their lovers but entered the Nokpante by the side door. While visiting the Nokpante for the purpose
of finding a husband the girl has to pay the boy some cash and stay in the house of his parents
46
for a month or more before fixing the date of the marriage. Formerly, the Nokpante also served as
a centre of arts and culture.
The traditional Garo religion is Animist based on the belief in a number of malevolent Supreme
Beings. n that sense they are similar to all other animistic religions. They believe that the Supreme
beings control the growth of the agricultural crops. Today most Garo have been Christianised and
it has influenced their customary laws of marriage and divorce. Though they continue to have
negotiations for marriage through traditional means, Christians among them no longer follow marriage
by capture. Despite the many changes brought about by Christianity, most of their other traditions
and customs are very much alive even today.
4. SOME ISSUES AROUND CUSTOMARY LAWS
This bird's eye view of tribal customary laws shows that most Northesat tribal women enjoy
a higher status than what their counterparts do elsewhere in ndia or even in the plains of the
region. Most customary laws confer significant economic rights and impose burdens on them. Some
think that the burdens outweigh the rights while others hold that the rights make them equal to men
(Qureshi 2003: 77). The truth lies in the middle. Their societies are egalitarian in the sense that they
are less stratified than "advanced communities. So tribal women enjoy more rights than what those
in other societies do but they are not equal to men. Besides, their situation has changed with the
intervention of the "mainstream. t causes a contradiction between their law and social reality. We
shall now discuss some issues it raises.
Property and Gender Equity
The first is the greater say women have in their societies than most other women do. The
combination of rights and restrictions makes their status better than that of women elsewhere. A
sign of it is the division of labour and other family matters that are controlled by women. They
decide what to grow and how to use the produce. This apparent social emancipation does not make
them equal to men. This close link between their hold over the family livelihood and their role in
agriculture makes land basic to their status. However, today agriculture and forests do not cater to
the needs of many of them. Land is today bought and sold as a commodity and is not treated as
livelihood. At times outsiders take control of it. That affects women's control over their livelihood.
Both women's relatively high status and tribal identity are linked to land. Change in its use through
alienation, deforestation and commercialisation thus affects them negatively since by and large men
control the new technology and marketing systems. With it women run the risk of losing their
traditional control over their livelihood, strengthening the patriarchal ethos, weakening their equity-
based culture and becoming only housewives (Barbora and Fernandes 2002: 123-125).
Many educated women find alternatives in non-agricultural occupations that give them some
freedom. Some husbands holding salaried jobs reinterpret the culture of the woman being in charge
of the family by handing their salary over to her but that custom is changing for a variety of reasons
47
such as education and an individual and male-oriented administrative system. We have seen it in
the transition of the Garo men taking decisions concerning land and Angami getting most non-
agricultural jobs despite women's high level of education. Such transition to stronger patriarchy that
began in the colonial age is being continued by pst-colonial governments (Kekrieseno 2002b: 244).
When that happens, the tribal tradition tends to adapt itself to patriarchy. For example, the
male-dominated village councils interpret the customary law from men's perspective, as seen in the
codification of the Mizo customary law or in the trend among educated men in the Garo society, to
"take their wives home or the fact of class formation among the Dimasa through individual pattas
weakening women's role or the refusal of most Naga village councils to change their stand on
ownership (Barbora 2002) and the feminisation of poverty among the Adibasi. Poverty forces many
of their girls in the 10-19 cohort to go out as domestic helps (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 78-
82). n Tripura the weakening of their subsistence economy and the changing occupational pattern
marginalise women particularly in the urban and industrial sector. So men are becoming the only
earners and women their dependants (Chowdhury 1990: 114). Thus while women's gift of managing
the family economy can help them in the transition to a commercial economy (Noksang 1997: 111)
experience shows that without steps to support the change, the result can go against them.
Customary Laws and Modernisation
That raises questions about the impact of modernity on women. Haimendorf (2004) is of the
view that their relatively high status emanated from the important role they played in their family
economy. But many tribal women themselves accept that they are not equal and oppose a return
to the customary law because though they have played an important role in shaping their history
by and large they have remained invisible in the crucial domain of public life. They did not and do
not participate in the village council. n the family too the woman cannot take the final decision
without consulting her husband (Gupta 2002). They do not have inheritance rights over clan land.
With no presence in the public domain, they practise the customs that men legislate and play a
subordinate though at times proactive role in their societies. For instance, during wars some tribes
like the Tangkhul, Mao and Konyak called on some outstanding women of the village to act as
reconcilers and mediators (Demi) (Lotsro 2004: 100) but it was a subordinate role. They took
peace initiatives bue were excluded from decisions concerning the war. Besides, the history of the
role they played in shaping their societies remains hidden in the absence of written sources of
information.
That takes us to the question of whether modernisation of the customary law benefits the
whole tribe especially women equally. Some hold that far from involving women in the village and
societal decision-making bodies, it has restricted them further to the family and has strengthened
patriarchy. For example, the tribal tradition that bars women's participation in the social sphere
seems to have spilled over to the modern parliamentary system. Men consider electoral politics
their sole prerogative and view women's demand for active participation in it as a threat to their
48
power. Women feel that the level of progress they have achieved in all fields of human endeavour
entitles them to a share in it.
Codification or Recognition of Customary Laws?
An issue being discussed today is the codification of tribal customary laws. A strong opinion
emerged at a recent seminar that though some present codification as the panacea for all ills, it
raises more questions than answers. Many felt that a better option may be for each tribe to document
its customary law and get the State to recognise it but not codify it because it makes the laws rigid
and change becomes difficult. These issues are of great importance in the Northeast, because
many tribes want to go back to their customary law in their search for a new identity amid what they
feel are attacks on their culture and economy. Some also want to codify their customary law
because of its close link with their identity.
This demand has led to conflicts such as the Naga and Mizo Nationalist Struggles and the
State response in amending the Constitution to introduce Articles 371A and 371G. Also the Sixth
Schedule was a response to the demand for the recognition of their customary laws. Today many
more tribes want their customary law to be recognised because they run their civil affairs, especially
land ownership according to it but the State does not recognise it. That puts them in a disadvantageous
position. For example, most Arunachal tribals who are threatened with displacement by the major
dams may not be counted among the displaced because they live on the CPRs. The very concept
of individual ownership is alien to some of them but the land laws are individual based and do not
recognise community ownership. So non-recognition of their law is destructive of their livelihood
(Fernandes 2003: 247-248).
That brings us to the alternatives such as documention, recognition and codification. Documentation
is a comprehensive collection of their centuries old customs and practices either by the tribe itself
or by an external agency. For example, the Law Research nstitute, Guwahati is documenting the
customary laws of many tribes while the Mizo documented their own customary law in the 1950s
though they call it codification (Barooah 2002). Recognition refers to the State accepting the customary
law as the legal mode of running the civil affairs as it did in Nagaland and Mizoram. Codification
is the final step of the customary laws being given a legal form within the formal system and treated
as the only law.
Each approach has its merits and demerits. Experience shows that documentation without
recognition is a futile exercise. Many conflicts in the Northeast originate from this contradiction. For
example, the Rongmei of Manipur who lost much of their land in a conflict or to the Loktak project
could not reclaim it, be considered displaced or be compensated for it because the law does not
recognise their CPR based pattern (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 54-55). n Tripura the Gumti dam
displaced 40,000 tribals in the 1970s but counted only a third of them with individual pattas among
the displaced (Bhaumick 2003: 84). The Hmar and Paitei of Manipur who may be displaced by the
49
Tipaimukh dam may document their laws but if the State does not recognise them, their fate will
be that of the Rongmei and Tripura tribes. Of the 105,000 persons threatened with displacement by
the Pagladia dam in the Nalbari district of Assam only 18,473 are counted. The rest are CPR based
tribals whose law is not recognised (Bharali 2004). Recognition is thus integral to the peace process
because it is a sign of acceptance of their identity. Documentation is a flexible process that keeps
their law open to ongoing interpretation according to the changing socio-political situation.
So whether documented or not, the first step in stopping conflicts is to recognise their customary
law for civil administration. Can codification be the answer? The Hindu, Muslim and Christian
Personal laws that are codification of their practices seem to have become obstacles to progress.
The Christian Marriage Act and the Muslim laws belong to the 19
th
century. Since the Hindu law is
of 1956 it has some elements of gender equity but not adequate. The Parliament amended it in
2005 to give equal succession rights to women. All the Christian denominations came together in
1990 to draft new marriage, adoption and succession acts for their communities. All their supreme
decision-making bodies approved and presented them to the Central Government in 1992. They are
gathering dust there. After a long dialogue, only the clause on divorce was amended in 2001 (Agnes
2002).
These and other experiences indicate that codification of tribal laws can result in the same
type of stagnation and go against pluralism that may exist even within a tribe. For example, there
are substantial differences in the customary law of the Kuki living in Manipur and in Assam because
a law evolves from one's life experience. Also commitment to the tradition changes according to the
degree to which it applies to one. Such flexibility can die if a single interpretation is imposed through
codification, worse still if the customary laws of several tribes are brought together into a single
code. Such a levelling of differences can cut at the very root of diversity and become an attack on
their identity. nstead, efforts should be made to evolve a system of recognition that provides for
diversity and remains flexible.
Flexibility is essential for the customary laws to evolve further. That requires their recognition,
not possible stagnation through codification. One such change required is gender equity. Despite
their relatively high status in most tribes, all their customary laws keep women subordinate and
deny them the right to participate in their decision-making bodies and inheritance. So while according
recognition to the customary law, the State has to create a situation in favour of gender and class
equality. Otherwise in the name of identity tribal men may continue to deny women their rights and
also discriminate against persons from other tribes who inhabit their area and thus intensify ethnic
conflicts. We believe that the ideal is for each tribe to document its laws and for women leaders to
initiate a debate on gender and class issues and introduce clauses that take them towards equality.
This ongoing process can protect their identity without stagnation or injustice to any section of their
society. This process of recognition with adequate leverage to interpret their laws according to the
changing context is possible because indigenous cultures are organic, not static.
50
ConcIusion
We have studied in this chapter the customary laws of some North Eastern tribes in which
women were the backbone of the economy. Some of it remains today, at times under a new garb
but even in matrilineal societies, most recent changes tend to strengthen patriarchy rather than
introduce gender equity. t is true that the role of the customary law is more pronounced in tribal
societies than in others. Social control depends on it but its observance does not depend entirely
on the codified laws. Most of them live at least partly according to their own tradition. As a result,
in all the tribes studied customary laws continue to play an important role. However, they are in a
process of change because of social and economic factors as well as the new political situation
created mostly by local needs and pressures. We shall study some of their implications in the
chapters that follow.
51
CHAPTER-3
DEMOGRAPHIC, EDUCATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL STATUS
n the last two chapters we have looked at the general characteristics of the tribal communities
of the Northeast and have situated their customary law and women's status in that context. We shall
now attempt to go deeper into these issues by looking at the family size, sex and literacy ratio and
occupational pattern of our sample. That can give us indicators regarding women's status in their
societies. We shall at first draw their demographic profile by looking at the size of the family and
sex ratio of each tribe and then study the status of their education and occupational pattern from
a gender perspective.
1. DEMOGRAPHIC DATA
One does not have to labour the point that the demographic data provide an easy grasp of
the profile of a population and give significant information on the role women play in a society. Sex
ratio shows the importance a society accords to them. n order to make the data comprehensive,
when possible we shall compare our sample with the 2001 Census data. As stated above an
analysis of a family from the point of view of its size and composition gives valuable indicators of
women's standing in a society. The role they play in it and their responsibilities and functions differ
according to the nature and structure of a family.
Graph 3.1 : FamiIy Size in the Census & S
Family Size of the Study Villages
According to Census 2001
4.44
4.98
4.88
5.42
5.5
Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo
Family Size according to the Sample
5.78
5.22
5.58
5.08
8.33
Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo
52
FamiIy Size of the SeIected ViIIages : Census 2001 and the SampIe
The 500 families have 2,999 members at an average of 6 which is close to our 2004 average
of 5.97 (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 55) but bigger than the census average of 5.02 (Graph 3.1).
Tables 3.1 and 3.2 give the number of households, population, sex ratio and family size in these
villages and in the State according to Census 2001 and our sample. The census had no data on
3 Garo villages probably because they are parts of bigger revenue villages. The family size is bigger
in our sample than in the census because we deal only with the tribals while the Census includes
non-tribals most of whom are single male migrants. The Garo have an average of 8.33 in the
sample and 5.5 in the census. Other tribes too have a higher average except the Dimasa whose
average is lower. The Aka average is 5.78, Adibasi 5.22, Angami 5.58 and Dimasa 5.08. Both the
high Garo average and the low Dimasa family size have to be explained. The latter is lower even
that that in our 2004 (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 55) and 2001 samples (Fernandes and Barbora
2002a: 71).
TabIe 3.1 : HousehoIds, TotaI PopuIation, Sex Ratio & FamiIy Size in Census 2001
Tribe ViIIage House PopuIation FamiIy Sex
hoIds Persons MaIe FemaIe Size Ratio
Baliphoo 17 98 45 53 5.76 1178
Bhalukpong 491 2015 1184 831 4.10 702
A Palizi 132 652 367 285 4.94 777
K Sakrin 44 242 130 112 5.50 862
A Thrizino 177 815 386 429 4.60 1111
Aka TotaI 861 3822 2112 1710 4.44 810
ArunachaI Pradesh 215,574 1097968 579941 518027 5.09 893
A Kanapathar 552 3074 1569 1505 5.57 959
D Kathalguri 136 777 398 379 5.71 952
I Phuphulajan 106 549 303 246 5.18 812
B Pengeri T.E. 1285 5935 3089 2846 4.62 921
A Khatangpani 560 2814 1475 1339 5.03 908
S Adibasi TotaI 2639 13149 6834 6315 4.98 924
I Assam State 4,914,823 26655528 13777037 12878491 42 935
A Jakhama 562 3051 1492 1559 5.43 1045
N Jotsoma 794 3701 1940 1761 4.66 908
G Khonoma 589 2917 1446 1471 4.95 1017
A Phesama 586 2466 1237 1229 4.21 994
M Viswema 1150 5833 2911 2922 5.07 1004
I Angami TotaI 3681 17968 9026 8942 4.88 991
NagaIand 328,057 1990036 1047141 942895 6.07 900
53
Tribe ViIIage House PopuIation FamiIy Sex
hoIds Persons MaIe FemaIe Size Ratio
D Baojen (Banjare) 17 84 37 47 4.94 1270
I Choto Wapu 70 340 176 164 4.86 932
M Gidingpur 52 306 146 160 5.88 1096
A Jembru 19 105 51 54 5.53 1059
S There 26 162 85 77 6.23 906
A Dimasa TotaI 184 997 495 502 5.42 1014
Assam State 4,914,823 26655528 13777037 12878491 5.42 935
Jampara 66 364 178 186 5.52 1045
G Dilma Apal NA NA NA NA NA NA
A Dagal NA NA NA NA NA NA
R Dadengiri 415 2224 1137 1087 5.36 956
O Jingjal NA NA NA NA NA NA
Garo TotaI 481 2588 1315 1273 5.38 968
MeghaIaya 418,850 2318822 1176087 1142735 5.54 972
TabIe 3.2 : TotaI PopuIation, Sex Ratio and FamiIy Size of the SampIe
ViIIage House PopuIation FamiIy Sex
hoIds Persons MaIes FemaIes Size Ratio
ArunachaI Pradesh: West Kameng District, ARa
PaIizi 20 114 46 68 5.70 1478
BaIiphoo 20 130 70 60 6.50 857
Thrizino 20 115 58 57 5.75 983
Sakrin 20 116 69 47 5.80 681
BhaIukpong 20 103 58 45 5.15 776
TotaI 100 578 301 277 5.78 920
Assam: Tinsukia District, AoIbasI
Konapathar 20 109 53 56 5.45 1057
KathaIguri 20 89 45 44 4.45 978
Khatangpani 20 100 49 51 5.00 1041
Pengree 20 122 61 61 6.10 1000
PopIajan 20 102 46 56 5.10 1217
TotaI 100 522 254 268 5.22 1055
54
ViIIage House PopuIation FamiIy Sex
hoIds Persons MaIes FemaIes Size Ratio
NagaIand: Kohima District, AngamI
Phesama 20 111 51 60 5.55 1176
Jakhama 20 115 57 58 5.75 1018
Viswema 20 121 60 61 6.05 1017
Khonoma 20 117 54 63 5.85 1167
Jotsoma 20 94 47 47 4.70 1000
TotaI 100 558 269 289 5.58 1074
Assam: N. C. HiIIs, OImasa
Thereh 20 113 60 53 5.65 883
Boajen 20 93 46 47 4.65 1022
Choto Wapu 20 100 44 56 5.00 1273
Gidingpur 20 105 52 53 5.25 1019
Jembru 20 97 44 53 4.85 1205
TotaI 100 508 246 262 5.08 1065
MeghaIaya: East and West Garo HiIIs, Garo
Jampara 20 144 69 75 7.20 1087
DiIma A.PaI 20 176 75 101 8.80 1347
DagaI 20 165 78 87 8.25 1115
Dadengiri 20 154 74 80 7.70 1081
JingjaI 20 194 94 100 9.70 1064
MeghaIaya 100 833 390 443 8.33 1136
Grand TotaI 500 2999 1460 1539 6.00 1054
A close look at the age group of the Dimasa respondents explains their low average. n 2004
the 0-4 cohort had 83 members but there are only 39 in that cohort in the present sample because
we interviewed many widows who live alone since we wanted to understand their status according
to their customary law. Being senior, they could also enlighten us on the changes in their customs
and traditions during the last few decades. One of its results is that they brought down the number
of children and the average size of the family.
One way of explaining the big Garo average is their social system. The daughters who do not
inherit the house and land live in the ancestral home till they build one of their own. That can raise
the number but not to this extent because they remain in the ancestral home only for a few years.
55
Those few families where they lived together, the families we studied were households and we
counted all their members while the census focuses on the family. mpoverishment is another
cause. The income they get from the fields is inadequate to feed the family. The outsiders who
control the market buy their agricultural produce at a low price and sell them at a high price. One
way of confronting the impoverishment it aggravates is to have a large family and turn children into
a source of income. Child labour is not uncommon among them because of high landlessness
especially among the refugees who have not been rehabilitated properly. A child labourer is not a
mouth to feed but two hands to work with (Weiner 1992: 82). Also poverty turns their families into
households. Since not all can afford to have their own house they live under the same roof. That
can be a cause but cannot exlain such a big number in all five villages having an average of over
7, the highest being at Jingjal with a whopping 9.70. The second highest is in Dilma A.Pal with an
average of 8.80. Then come Dagal with 8.25, Jampara with 7.20 and Dadengiri with 7.70. Since the
above two causes are among the causes but cannot explain this size. That is when we realised that
we did the study in the season after the harvest, when all the members of the joint family come to
visit their relatives. All the sisters of the home owners were present in the housee and we counted
all of them. These three causes combined to give us an average of 8.33 per family.
Sex Ratio and Women's Status
The family size does not say much about women's status but the sex ratio is a pointer to it.
A positive ratio indicates a relatively high status and an adverse ratio says the opposite, as does
the low ratio in the 0-10 cohort in some prosperous States. Because of male child preference and
high dowry, in Haryana it in the 0-6 cohort declined from 879 in 1991 to 820 in 2001 and in Punjab
from 875 to 793 (Registrar General and Census Commissioner 2001: 92). Even technological
advances go against girls. Pre-natal sex determination, though banned by law, is not uncommon
and leads to "sex-specific abortions (Bose 2001: 45-46). Our studies indicate that the tribes of the
Northeast are not affected by this trend and that the sex ratio is high among most of them. ts main
reason is their dependence on the community property resource (CPR) based economy in which
women play a vital role in decisions regarding the family economy and cultivation. This system is
in disarray in some tribes due to their transition to modernity with the introduction of the educational,
administrative and legal systems (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 73-75). While viewing their sex
ratio as a sign of a high status one can ask whether these inputs have a beneficial or adverse
impact on women.
A comparison of the Census data with our past studies can shed some light on the issue and
give a wider picture of the demographic scenario of the tribes studied (Table 3.3). The sex ratio in
this study is higher than in Census 2001 and our past studies except among the Aka who have a
ratio of 920 against 810 in census 2001, 1,097 in 2001(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 73) and
1,180 in 2004 (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 51). The Angami sex ratio is 991 in the Census, 1,074
in our sample and 956 in our 2001 study. The Dimasa too have a positive sex ratio of 1,014 in the
census and 1,065 in the sample. The Garo show the biggest difference from 971 in the Census to
56
1,136 in our sample. Graph 3.2 shows a higher sex ratio in the sample than in Census 2001 which
deals with the aggregate population.
Graph 3.2 : Sex Ratio According to the Census and the Study SampIe
That the immigrants are the main reason of the low sex ratio in the Census is seen among
others, in Nagaland where the ratio in the 2001 census is 909 against 890 in 1991 and 943 for the
Tribes and 1,074 in our Angami sample. n AP the aggregate ratio was 901 in 2001 against 861 in
1991 (Registrar General and Census Commissioner 1991: 174-175) but in our Aka sample it is 920.
Another indication is the fall in the tribal proportion. n Tripura it declined from around 58% in 1951
(Sen 1993: 13) to 31% in 2001 and in AP from 90% (D'Souza 1999: 14) to 64% (2001 Census CDs).
That it is because of immigrants is seen in the fact that during 1951-1970, they occupied 60% of
Tripura tribal land (Bhaumik 2003: 84). Also the Adibasi have a sex ratio of 1,055 in our sample
against 924 in the Census and a low ratio in our past studies. The 2001 sample was from Sonitpur
and in 2004 mainly bastis in Lakhimpur and Kokrajhar but our present sample is from the tea
gardens and their neighbourhood in Tinsukia where they are not as poor as in our past samples.
The past respondents were mainly from the bastis and did not have a regular job. Many teenaged
girls from their families went to towns as domestic helps. The Census refers to all the Adibasi.
TabIe 3.3 : Sex Ratio of the Tribes According to Census 2001 and Three Studies
Tribes 2001 Census 2001 Study 2004 Study 2005 Study
Aka 810 1097 1180 920
Adibasi 924 880 965 1055
Angami 991 956 NAP 1074
Dimasa 1014 924 880 1065
Garo 971 1026 1040 1136
Sex Ratio According to Census 2001
810
924
991
1014
971
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
A
k
a
A
d
i
b
a
s
i
A
n
g
a
m
i
D
i
m
a
s
a
G
a
r
o
Sex Ratio According to the Sample
920
1055
1074 1065
1136
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
A
k
a
A
d
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D
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a
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a
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a
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o
57
Sex Ratio by Age Group
A look at the age group and village may explain the factors contributing to a positive sex ratio.
Graph 3.3 shows that in the Aka area Palizi has a high sex ratio but it is low in Sakrin (681),
Balukphong (776) and Baliphoo (857). The Balukphong ratio is explained by the presence of immigrants
but it is not an issue in Sakrin and Baliphoo.
TabIe 3.4 : FamiIy members according to ViIIages, Age Group and Gender
ViIIage 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
ArunachaI Pradesh, West Khameng Distrct: ARa
Palizi 6 15 9 8 5 10 3 9 5 9 18 17 46 68 114
Baliphoo 10 14 9 3 15 5 4 10 10 9 22 19 70 60 130
Thrizino 6 10 14 10 4 10 8 4 7 8 19 15 58 57 115
Sakrin 12 6 6 5 7 7 15 8 10 6 19 15 69 47 116
Bhalukpung 5 4 4 9 14 4 6 1 4 8 25 19 58 45 103
TotaI 39 49 42 35 45 36 36 32 36 40 103 85 301 277 578
Assam, Tinsukia District: AoIbasI
Konapathar 5 5 11 7 4 7 4 7 11 10 18 20 53 56 109
Kathalguri 3 4 7 10 4 2 7 1 6 11 18 16 45 44 89
Khatangpani 2 3 5 8 10 9 7 9 9 8 16 14 49 51 100
Pengeree 5 1 9 10 12 12 7 8 7 8 21 22 61 61 122
Poplajan 0 2 2 6 9 14 13 9 6 7 16 18 46 56 102
TotaI 15 15 34 41 39 44 38 34 39 44 89 90 254 268 522
NagaIand, Kohima District: AngamI
Phesama 4 2 4 8 5 2 4 8 14 18 20 22 51 60 111
Jakhama 0 2 3 4 6 4 8 8 11 17 29 23 57 58 115
Viswema 2 2 2 5 5 6 9 8 15 20 27 20 60 61 121
Khonoma 1 3 7 9 6 8 8 10 9 8 23 25 54 63 117
Jotsoma 5 2 2 5 3 4 7 5 7 11 23 20 47 47 94
TotaI 12 11 18 31 25 24 36 39 56 74 122 110 269 289 558
Assam, North Cachar District: OImasa
Thereh 6 3 6 10 8 2 7 10 15 12 18 16 60 53 113
Boajen 6 3 5 9 5 4 5 4 6 14 19 13 46 47 93
Choto Waphu 1 3 6 9 7 11 5 9 8 6 17 18 44 56 100
Gidingpur 1 9 11 8 4 5 5 5 10 8 21 18 52 53 105
Jembru 2 5 5 9 7 7 4 8 9 8 17 16 44 53 97
TotaI 16 23 33 45 31 29 26 36 48 48 92 81 246 262 508
58
ViIIage 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
MeghaIaya, East Garo HiIIs District: Garo
Jampara 0 3 7 6 13 17 15 15 11 10 23 24 69 75 144
Dilma A.Pal 4 1 7 4 6 22 12 25 14 15 32 34 75 101 176
Dagal 0 0 0 2 17 19 18 18 16 21 27 27 78 87 165
MeghaIaya, West Garo HiIIs District: Garo
Dadengiri 0 1 1 3 13 9 18 23 17 19 25 25 74 80 154
Jingjal 0 1 1 3 19 20 21 23 25 26 28 27 94 100 194
TotaI 4 6 16 18 68 87 84 104 83 91 135 137 390 443 833
Baliphoo has 24 boys and 8 girls in the 5-14 cohorts and Sakrin has 44 men and 29 women.
t brings down the ratio of the sample. One possible cause of the 'missing girls' is poor health care.
n case of sickness, there is a tendency to take care of boys and neglect girls. n chapter 2 we have
mentioned early marriage. Some girls also go to hostels for education but also boys do the same.
So the real causes are neglect and early marrriage. We have said already that the high Adibasi sex
ratio is because very few girls in the 12-25 age group go out as domestic helps. n the past this
category accounted from the 'missing girls' in this cohort.
Graph 3.3 : Gender Difference Among the Aka in the SampIe and 0-4 Cohort
The Angami have a positive sex ratio of 1,074 because of 56 men and 74 women in the 20-
29 cohort. More men than women cohort go out for college studies and jobs and it causes an
imbalance. Our past samples had a low sex ratio in it because most girls were better educated than
Total number of Male-Female Members
in Aka Villages
70
58
69
58
68
57
45
46
60
47
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
P
a
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S
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B
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g
Male Female
Male-Females in 0-4 Cohort in Aka
Viilages
6 6
12
5
15
14
10
6
4
10
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
P
a
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Male Female
59
boys but salaried jobs went by and large to men. So many educated women went out in search of
jobs (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 78-80). n the present sample, most women in the 20-29 age
group continue to live in the area and men have gone elsewhere. We shall check whether it
indicates a change in the attitude of boys towards education. At 1,136 the 833 Garo have the
highest sex ratio. n our 2001 and 2004 samples the 0-9 cohort brought the ratio down while in the
present sample from another set of villages this age group has 49 boys and 68 girls. The 10-19
cohort has 152 boys and 191 girls. Together they account for the high positive sex ratio. t cannot
because some boys were away at school hostels. We did the study during school holidays when
they were at home. The real reason seems to be poverty which high among boys and many of them
go out of the area in search of work.
2. EDUCATIONAL STATUS AND WOMEN
After their demographic composition, education can help us to understand the communities.
The members of a family are given an opportunity to develop themselves to the extent they are
provided with educational facilities. When these opportunities are evenly distributed the community
as a whole blossoms. n case of a class and gender bias in access to them, some sections grow
at the cost of the others. We shall bear these aspects in mind while analysing the educational status
of the whole sample at first and then that of each tribe.
EducationaI Status of the SampIe
From the 2,999 family members, in Tables 3.5 and 3.6 we exclude the 215 members below
6 and deal only with the remaining 2,784. 105 out of 541 men (19.4%) and 203 out of 502 women
(40.4%) above 30 are illiterate. n the 20-29 cohort, 25 out of 262 men (9.5%) and 47 of 297 women
(15.8%) are illiterate. As we move to the lower cohorts the illiteracy rate declines to 5% (11 out of
220) for boys and 10.2% (25 out of 245) for girls in the 15-19 cohort and to 2.2% for boys and 1.3%
for girls in the 6-9 cohort. This high literacy level shows the impact of the educational facilities that
have been built in the study areas during the last three decades. Besides, the relatively low illiteracy
rate even in the 30+ cohorts shows that this process had started more than three decades ago
among some tribes.
TabIe 3.5 : Gender-wise Literacy and IIIiteracy Rates of the Tribes
Age Groups 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Education/Sex M F M F M F M F M F M F
Literacy Rate 97.8 98.7 97.1 96.1 95 89.8 91.5 84.2 80.6 59.6 89.02 79.89 84.38
lliteracy Rate 2.2 1.3 2.9 3.9 5 10.2 9.5 15.8 19.4 40.4 10.98 20.11 15.62
Table 3.5 gives the overall literacy rate of the whole sample. A comparison by tribe and gender
can make our analysis comprehensive because already Table 3.5 shows disparity in access to
schools in the higher cohorts. Male illiteracy is 19.4% against the female rate of 40.4% in the 30+
60
cohort. n the 20-29 cohort, it is 9.5% for men and 15.8% for women. Disparity declines in the lower
cohorts. Literacy is 91.5% and 84.2% respectively in the 20-29 cohort. t is an indication of greater
access to educational institutions in recent years. This transition seems to have started 20-30 years
ago. We shall see later whether it is true of all the tribes and whether it has affected their customary
law in favour of gender equity or against it.
Education by Tribe, Age Group and Gender
While the overall picture shows progress during the last two or three decades, one is not
certain that access to education is uniform among all the tribes. Some groups gain greater access
than others do, depending on the availability schools and their socio-economic status. Our 2004
study confirmed the absence of educational institutions in the Aka area (Fernandes and Pereira
2005: 72) and that Adibasi have less access to education than the others do (Toppo 1999: 136).
Even when schools are available they are not always accessible to all particularly to girls because
of their neglect (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 55).
TabIe 3.6 : EducationaI Status of the Members of the SampIe FamiIies
Age Groups 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Education/Sex M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 3 2 6 8 11 25 25 47 105 203 150 285 435
Literate 0 0 0 3 10 10 16 31 65 64 91 108 199
Primary 1 1 3 6 30 25 25 24 73 46 132 102 234
MiddIe 0 1 6 3 15 18 38 36 80 46 139 104 243
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 3 5 13 33 13 49 43 87 72 159
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 4 5 34 40 51 33 89 78 167
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 9 15 6 25 15 40
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 1 25 36 24 19 49 56 105
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 11 6 10 14 21 35
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 14 73 33 82 47 129
At SchooI 132 148 193 197 99 75 2 0 0 0 426 420 846
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 45 73 38 36 0 0 83 109 192
TotaI 136 152 208 220 220 245 262 297 541 503 1367 1417 2784
Tne ARa
Out of 578 Aka family members, 105 are below 6. Of the remaining 473 (254 male, 219
female), 80 males (31.49%) and 95 females (43.37%) are illiterate. n our 2001 sample the illiteracy
rate was 49% for men and 61.3% for women (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 86). We would not
dare begin by saying that their higher literacy is the result of the schools that have opened their
doors in their area in recent years. Besides, some villages studied are new, so we cannot compare
61
them with the old ones. However, the improvement is mainly in the 6-9 cohort. Our 2001 study
showed an illiteracy rate of 52% among them and it is 6.7% in our present sample. Literacy is high
both among boys and girls. That may show the impact of the schools. Equally important is the high
female illiteracy of 74.2% in the 30+ cohorts against 47.6% for men. n the 15-19 cohort it is 75%
for boys and 65.2% for girls but gender disparity is negligible in the groups below it. Boys and girls
are at par in the 6-9 cohort.
The impact of the absence of schools is seen also in the fact that not a single Aka family
member has reached the graduate or post-graduate stage. One of its reasons is that except in the
circle (sub-district) headquarters of Thrizino, we did not come across a single high school in the
remaining villages. Children had to walk a long distance to avail of these facilities and most of them
could not afford it. Even those who could afford it would not let girls live in a hostel away from their
families. As a result, only 3 men in our 2001 sample families had completed their college and had
jobs in the administration (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 86). During the fieldwork for the present
study we met a young man from Palizi doing his doctoral thesis and that is a first for the Aka. All
of them studied outside the Aka area and girls would not have been allowed to do it. Thus, making
schools available in their area was the first step in making them accessible. Without it, education
can become one more case of modern inputs building on and strengthening traditional inequalities.
The question is whether this access will remain at the primary school level or will continue later.
TabIe 3.7 : EducationaI Status of Members in Aka FamiIies
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30+ TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 2 2 3 2 9 11 17 17 49 63 80 95 175
Literate 0 0 0 2 6 5 7 7 13 9 26 23 49
Primary 0 0 0 1 5 4 3 6 15 8 23 19 42
MiddIe 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 10 19 5 26 16 42
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 6 0 6
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 3
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
At SchooI 32 24 42 31 16 11 0 0 0 0 90 66 156
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TotaI 34 26 45 36 36 32 36 40 103 85 254 219 473
62
Tne AoIbasI
n our 2001 study Adibasi illiteracy rate was 34.9% and 39.8% respectively for men and
women (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 86). That sample came from different districts. The present
one is from Tinsukia. Most families have some financial security and have been provided some
opportunities. A male bias continues in their literacy rate too at 77.5% for men and 53.9% for
women in the 100 families but there is difference by cohort. lliteracy rate is 46.07% (41 out of 89)
for men and 81.11% (73 out of 90) for women in the 30+ cohorts. This trend continues in the lower
cohorts. n the 20-29 cohort 6 out of 39 men (15.4%) and 24 out of 44 women (54.6%) are illiterate.
lliteracy declines only in the 6-9 age group. t was true of the Adibasi also in our past samples. The
garden management has not provided the educational facilities that are their due under the Plantation
Labour Act 1951. ndustry preference for women and girls to pick leaves with their nimble fingers
motivates parents to pull girls out of school at a tender age (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003:
58-59).
Some change seems to have started a decade ago as the 15-19 cohort shows. Before it a few
had gained access to colleges more as an exception than the rule. n the present sample 2 men
have done their college and a boy and a girl are at college. Boys had greater access even to
primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools. 44 of 236 men and 21 of 247 women studied
till the primary school. Thus, one cannot ignore the fact that, even in their marginal state, men had
more opportunities than women did. t can continue when the children at school at present reach
the college going age (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 88).
The Adibasi have suffered much due to historical reasons and they continue to be exploited.
mprovement in education especially of girls is minimal. Our 2002 study done in 45 gardens in 9
districts showed that 42.9% of the Adibasi children below 14 were out of school. Their proportion
was 35% among boys and 60% among girls. Most of those who went beyond middle school were
assisted by the churches and other NGOs. Even with such assistance, a majority of those who
passed out of college were males. Besides, most girls and women chose "female disciplines such
as nursing while boys went for courses that could get them government jobs (Fernandes, Barbora
and Bharali 2003: 57).
TabIe 3.8 : EducationaI Status of Members in AoIbasI FamiIies
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 1 0 3 6 2 11 6 24 41 73 53 114 167
Literate 0 0 0 0 2 3 4 5 24 6 30 14 44
Primary 0 0 1 2 18 10 12 5 13 4 44 21 65
MiddIe 0 0 1 0 4 2 11 7 9 6 25 15 40
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 1 4
63
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 2 3
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
At SchooI 30 35 34 36 11 8 2 0 0 0 77 79 156
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 2
TotaI 31 35 39 44 38 34 39 44 89 90 236 247 483
The situation is somewhat different in the present sample from an area where the people have
some job security and a private school was opened three years ago. Among its family members 18
out of 38 boys and 10 out of 34 girls below 20 have dropped out of school. That explains the lower
gender bias in this sample below 15. Other studies show that, even when boys and girls are given
equal opportunities upto the college level, girls are often asked to choose "feminine subjects and
boys do professional studies (Karlekar 1986: 194). We have noticed this bias in our 2002 study and
it can continue in the present sample.
Tne AngamI
The Angami enjoy educational facilities that are far superior to those that the others can boast
of. As a result, illiteracy is a low 5.4% among them. Only two girls below 30 are illiterate. Male and
female literacy is 97.7% and 91.7% respectively. Most Angami family members below 30 have gone
to school and many have availed of higher education. They have 50 graduates (31 men and 19
women), 31 post graduates (14 men and 17 women) and 124 professionals (81 men and 43
women). 33 boys and 36 girls are at college. Thus, the gender divide in education is almost non-
existent but there may be a gap at the professional level. The inverse gender gap visible in our past
studies continues but at a reduced level. n our 2001 study, 41 out of 68 graduates (60.3%) were
women (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 87). n the present sample, there is equality in the number
of children at college and to a great extent among those who have completed graduate and postgraduate
studies.
TabIe 3.9 : EducationaI Status of Members in Angami FamiIies
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 6 21 6 23 29
Literate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 22 10 25 35
Primary 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 1 0 4 4 8
64
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
MiddIe 0 1 1 0 2 1 7 2 2 6 12 10 22
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 1 2 2 2 1 7 7 11 11 22
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 4 3 6 10 16
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 4 0 10 3 13
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 16 10 14 19 31 50
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 10 6 7 14 17 31
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 13 72 30 81 43 124
At SchooI 16 29 24 23 10 13 0 0 0 0 50 65 115
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 20 21 13 15 0 0 33 36 69
TotaI 17 31 25 24 36 39 56 74 122 110 256 278 534
The 2001 study showed that the Churches did facilitate their education but the political process
of their Nationalist struggle made it effective. During it many young men went into hiding, leaving
women in charge of the family and society. That is when many schools came to the region (ibid:
90-92). Today, the Angami are somewhat circumspect about the struggle. That might have changed
the political climate too. The male dropout rate seems to have declined. Many boys reaching the
college level have closed the inverse gender gap.
Tne OImasa
TabIe 3.10 : EducationaI Status of Members in Dimasa FamiIies
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 6 42 6 45 51
Literate 0 0 0 1 2 2 5 16 14 21 21 40 61
Primary 0 0 1 0 2 3 9 10 30 12 42 25 67
MiddIe 0 0 2 2 3 8 9 12 26 4 40 26 66
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 2 2 8 20 5 9 2 31 17 48
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 3 5 0 10 3 13
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 2
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
At SchooI 36 41 28 24 16 13 0 0 0 0 80 78 158
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 2
TotaI 36 41 31 29 26 36 48 48 92 81 233 235 468
65
n contrast is the low illiteracy of the Dimasa. t was 25.7% in the 2001 study and has come
down to 10.9% in the present sample thus showing signs of schools reaching many villages of the
district. lliteracy is 2.6% among men and 19.1% among women. Thus it is lower than among the
Aka but 61 including 40 women are literate without having gone to school. The gender bias narrows
down as one comes down the age groups. Literacy is 100% till 14 but 3 females are illiterate in the
15-19 and 20-29 cohorts. Literacy declines in the 30+ groups but even among them only 6 out of
92 men are illiterate against 42 out of 81 women.
This aspect has to be borne in mind if the experience of limiting women's access to high
school and to "feminine disciplines is not to be repeated. Till now no Dimasa member of our sample
has gone beyond higher secondary school. Those who have reached the college have moved out
to towns and are not included in our study. Today a boy and a girl are at college but gender
discrimination grows as one goes up the ladder. Women are only 27 out of 67 who have studied
up to primary school, 26 out of 66 who have completed middle school, 17 out of 48 who have
reached high school, 3 out of 13 who have done higher secondary but 40 out of 61 who are literate
without any formal education. Today most girls go to school but this trend can continue if steps to
grant them adequate access at the higher level are not taken.
Tne Garo
380 out of 826 Garo members above 6 are at school or college. Of the remaining 446
members 13 (including 8 women) are illiterate, one of them in the 15-19 cohort and the rest in the
30+ age groups. 10 others are literate without going to school and 52 including 33 women have
dropped out after primary school. Thus, 75 persons, including 47 women have had no access to
formal education or very little of it. After it the gender gap is minimal. Besides, there is a huge
discrepancy between the literacy rate of our sample population and Census 2001 which shows a
literacy rate of 50.7% in the West Garo Hills District and 60.6% in East Garo. Our 2004 study
showed that 167 of the 622 Garo family members above 6 were illiterate, 108 of them in the 30+
and 31 in the 20-29 age groups (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 79). n the 2001 sample 309 of the
1,197 members were illiterate, 161 of them above 30 (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 87). So the
trend keeps changing within the same district.
One possible explanation of the discrepancy between the census and our sample is the the
fact that most of our study villages are close to towns. Jampara, Dilma A.Pal and Dagal are near
Mendipathar that has a number of schools. Dadenggirri, a sub-district of West Garo has a couple
of schools. Jingjal is in the vicinity of Dadenggirri. We chose the villages and our sample according
to our need to understand the evolution of the customary law and not primarily for their literacy rate.
Our past studies were meant to understand the impact of modernisation on women and the extent
of land alienation. So we chose mostly remote vilalges. Closeness to towns is not the only reason
for the high literacy in our present sample. They are small towns that were villages till the 1980s.
Schools too are of recent origin. The real reason is their Christianisation. The Baptist Church in
66
particular made its followers literate in order to read the Bible and the hymn book and take an active
part in the liturgy. The schools built for this purpose slowly grew into high schools and colleges that
were not unknown even to the 30+ cohorts. As many as 112 (41.18%) members have reached
higher secondary school or college. That too has improved today as the literacy rate of the younger
cohorts shows but studies show that the progress is more in cities and towns than in villages.
Also women above 30 have had access to education but not equal to that of men. They are
at par with men till high school but not later. Out of 71 members in the 30+ cohorts who have
studied up to higher secondary school, 41 are men, so are 14 out of 19 graduates but 6 out of 7
post-graduates and professionals are women. Parity restoration begins in the 20-29 cohort and the
number at college indicates that it will be maintained also in higher education. But one cannot
exclude the possibility of discrimination in the choice of subjects. Even while remaining patriarchal
and keeping the separation between the family and the social sphere, matriliny seems to have had
some positive impact on their educational status.
TabIe 3.11 : EducationaI Status of Members in Garo FamiIies
Age Group 6-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30 + TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
IIIiterate 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 4 5 8 13
Literate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 4 6 10
Primary 0 0 1 3 4 8 0 0 14 22 19 33 52
MiddIe 0 0 2 1 6 6 4 5 24 25 36 37 73
H.S.L.C. 0 0 0 0 1 3 10 7 25 33 36 43 79
H.S.Passed 0 0 0 0 3 5 25 28 41 30 69 63 132
TechnicaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 9 6 13 12 25
Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 20 14 5 28 25 53
Post Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 4 4
ProfessionaI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 1 4 5
At SchooI 18 19 65 83 46 30 0 0 0 0 129 132 261
At CoIIege 0 0 0 0 24 51 24 20 0 0 48 71 119
TotaI 18 19 68 87 84 104 83 91 135 137 388 438 826
The above analysis of the five tribes studied shows that by and large the situation of education
is moving towards gender equality at the primary and perhaps even high school level. While in the
past most of the tribes studied deprived women of education, the situation has started changing in
recent times. However, in most tribes access of girls to education seems to stop at 15. Only among
the Garo and Angami, many girls go beyond high school. A gender bias is visible in the cohorts
above 30 even among them but it has come down in the groups below 30. t can reappear at the
higher education level if precautions are not taken. This fear arises because girls have had opportunities
67
of higher education mainly among the Angami and Garo. We shall crosscheck whether discrimination
continues today.
3. OCCUPATION AND WOMEN
The demographic scene and educational background help us to understand the impact of
tribal tradition on women. These insights are incomplete without a view of women's role in their
economy. A look at their occupation is a step towards it since the type and nature of work they are
involved in indicate their status. Besides, we cannot ignore globalisation with which new occupational
patterns are emerging in the region. We shall see whether women benefit or are in danger of seeing
their status deteriorate further as the low sex ratio of girl children in prosperous States shows.
Commercial crops too have an impact on them.
Occupation Trends in the SampIe
We exclude from the purview of Table 3.12 children below 10 because they are not expected
to be full time workers though child labour exists in the region. Of the remaining 2,496 members,
771 are at school or college. The 342 cultivators come after them. Their big number is not surprising
because the region's economy is primarily agro-based. One would expect their number to be bigger
than that given in Table 3.12 and in reality their number is bigger. Most of those who call themselves
housewives are cultivators. Very few tribal women restrict themselves to their home though that
trend exists in some urban areas where a few men with high salaries keep women away from work
in the fields or even in the formal sector. Since our study was in the rural areas we can safely
conclude that the housewives are cultivators in the agricultural season. Hence it is prudent to add
most of them to this catagory.
Of the 299 housewives, 106 are Aka, 86 Dimasa and 61 Garo. t is unheard of for them to
confine themselves to housework without going to the jhum fields. Our field notes as well past
studies confirm that they are the backbone of shifting cultivation. They were housewives in the
season after the harvest when we did our fieldwork but they did not identify themselves as such in
our 2004 study which we did in the agricultural season. We shall, therefore, add the 299 housewives
to the 342 cultivators, thus raising their total to 641. A few of those who have called themselves
housewives are older persons who do not work much in the fields and some others are young
mothers or pregnant women who cannot work. Neither category can be considered housewives.
The former have retired after an active life in agriculture and the latter are taking a temporary break
because they are full time mothers. By excluding them from this category we would deny them
recognition of their active work.
68
TabIe 3.12 : Occupation Pattern of the FamiIy Members above 10 by Age Group and Sex
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Gender M F M F M F M F M F
Cultivators 1 3 11 5 46 11 201 64 259 83 342
Home Based Workers 0 0 1 1 0 8 2 4 3 13 16
Daily Wage Earners 2 5 24 17 23 19 28 41 77 82 159
Domestic Workers 1 4 12 27 5 10 3 8 21 49 70
Business 0 0 0 0 17 4 86 22 103 26 129
Housewife 0 0 0 5 0 72 0 220 0 297 297
Salaried Government 0 0 0 0 38 42 157 70 195 112 307
Salaried Private 0 0 2 4 21 39 16 30 39 73 112
Students 193 197 143 147 46 40 2 3 384 387 771
Unemployed 6 5 14 18 52 31 9 8 81 62 143
Others 4 5 11 20 7 12 6 8 28 45 73
Plantation Labourers 1 1 2 2 7 9 31 25 41 37 78
TotaI 208 220 220 245 262 297 541 503 1231 1265 2496
f we exclude the 771 students and 143 unemployed persons from the total of 2,496 we are
left with 1,583 active workers, 641 of them (40.5%) cultivators. This big number points to their heavy
dependence on this sector but their proportion is lower than their share in the regopm where 70-
75% of the workforce depend on the primary sector against a national average of 66.5% (D'Souza
1999: 10). We shall know the reason for this difference when we analyse the occupations by tribe.
We assume already at this stage that one of its reasons is the big number of the Adibasi tea garden
workers and a relatively large number of Angami with salaried jobs. Our past studies show that
many Adibasi and Garo are landless or are small and marginal farmers and cannot be cultivators
(Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 113).
The next occupation is salaried jobs in which 419 (26.47%) are involved, 307 of them in the
administration and 112 in the private sector. Because of the level of education in the region and low
investment in industries, dependence is high on the primary and tertiary sectors. Scarcity of jobs
also forces persons with good educational qualifications to remain unemployed. A few take up
alternatives like small business or revert to agriculture. That shows the need for an employment
generation policy in the industrial sector that has to be integral to a long-term economic policy which
takes their ethos into account. t has to combine productivity with employment generation. One can
also see that the relatively high number of persons in the formal sector is a reason for the relatively
small number of cultivators. This number tallies with Table 3.6 that shows the high level of their
education.
69
There is a gender bias also in jobs in the formal sector. Out of the 307 persons with jobs in
the public sector 195 are men (63.5%). Most of those working in the private sector are teachers,
considered a "feminine profession. 39 of them are men and 73 women. 127 are involved in small
businesses such as tamul and provision shops but even in it 101 (79.5%) are men. Of the 159 daily
wage earners 82 are women. Thus there is gender equity in low status jobs. While studying occupations
by tribe and age group we shall see whether what looks like a gender bias in jobs in the formal
sector and non-agricultural occupations is common to all. Given the weak financial position of most
families, they cannot afford to remain unemployed. That explains why around 10% of the members
are daily wage earners and 5% are domestic helps. f our past experience is a guide, a look at them
by tribe and gender will probably show that most daily wage wage earners, tea workers and
domestic helps are Adibasi.
Not surprisingly, 13 out of 16 home based workers are women, so are 45 out of 73 (61.64%)
involved in "other occupations that include illegal liquor sale, prostitution, stealing and occasional
work that brings in high returns. A sign of hope is the number of children and adolescents at school
or college. No gender bias exists among them. f it does, it would be more in the subjects chosen
in the college than in access to schools and colleges. A study in Nagaon district showed that all
the Ethnic Assamese boys and girls reach higher classes but most girls go to colleges near home
and boys go to hostels far away where courses that can give them good jobs are available. After
their college most girls try to get jobs near home while boys get better jobs outside (Fernandes and
Barbora 2002b: 37-38). The data indicate a similar situation among the tribes studied. With this
general picture we can study differences by tribe and see whether they are as significant as the
level of their interface with modernity.
The Aka
With 199 (63.58) of the 313 family members (minus the 100 students), engaged in cultivation
Aka economic life is centred round agriculture. Since we include housewives among them, 113
cultivators (56.78%) are women and 86 (43.22%) men. Jhum cultivation which is the basis of the
Aka economy depends heavily on women and and that explains their high proportion in it. t also
substantiates the stand of those who state that CPR dependent shifting cultivation communities
accord a higher status to women than those in settled agriculture based on individual ownership
(Menon 1995: 101).
TabIe 3.13 : Occupation of the Aka FamiIy Members by Age Group and Gender
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
CuItivator 0 2 11 0 21 0 54 5 86 7 93
Home Based Workers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DaiIy Wage Workers 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 3
70
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
Domestic Workers 0 0 0 6 0 3 0 3 0 12 12
Business 0 0 0 0 5 1 23 4 28 5 33
Housewife 0 0 0 5 0 33 0 68 0 106 106
SaIaried Government 0 0 0 0 3 1 19 1 22 2 24
SaIaried Private 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 2
Student 42 31 16 11 0 0 0 0 58 42 100
UnempIoyed 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 4 0 4
Others 3 3 8 10 2 2 3 5 16 20 36
PIantation Labourers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TotaI 45 36 36 32 36 40 101 87 218 195 413
There is a change from our 2001 sample that showed a microscopic minority of 2 out of 173
Akas engaged in business. The present sample has 28 men and 5 women in it but that too shows
a gender bias. During our 2001 study we were told that the Aka had a tradition of having one or
two women in each village designated to sell or barter goods in the plains (Fernandes and Barbora
2002a: 128-129). Middlemen have started taking control of their marketing. Today more Aka persons
than in the past are involved in business but most of them are men who are better equipped to deal
with the middlemen. Women are excluded.
Despite their low access to education, 24 of them are government servants and 2 work in the
private sector. On one side it is a case of education resulting in class formation, on the other it is
progress. Only 2 of the 24 government employees are women so are both in the private sector,
involved in teaching or in related fields. This gender bias is not surprising a traditional society
adheres to customs and conventions which tie women down to the family and the farm. This
tradition is being modernised in the field of employment in the formal sector. One may at first be
surprised to see 12 girls working as domestic helps. This is not new. The Aka do not work as
domestic servants but they employ others to work in their houses. One finds quite a few such Nepali
and Adibasi in Baliphoo, Palizi and Thrizino.
The Adibasi
Our 2001 study on the changing role of women had identified daily wage work and plantation
labour as the two main occupations of the Adibasi. t continues to be the case in the current sample
too. A third of them (33.3% or 141 out of 417) depend on daily wages, 63 of them men and 78
women, most of them basti dwellers. They account for 141 (88.68%) of the 159 daily wage earners
in the whole sample. Many women work in the gardens on daily wages. While regular tea garden
workers have a permanent job, the daily wage earners are employed when work is available. Most
of those who live in such uncertainty are women. Because of the change in the garden policies,
there is a rise in the proportion of female daily wage earners. The 2001 study had 128 persons in
71
this category, 43 of them women (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 132-133). Women get some
income out of it but it also increases their burden of running the family economy without adding to
their social status.
Among the factors leading to this development are the rising level of poverty and scarcity of
permanent jobs in the gardens because of mechanisation in some tea gardens and closure of
others. So some are unemployed and others go in search of daily work outside the tea estates. That
is also the reason why fewer women than in the 2001 sample are plantation labourers. The 2001
study (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 109) showed 92 out of 291 (31.62%) women and 75 out of
359 men (20.89%) in this category. Their number has come down to 37 out of 212 women (17.45%)
and 41 out of 205 (20%) men. On the reverse, most daily wage workers in the gardens are women.
This new gender bias can be called feminisation of poverty which is repeated in the 11 women out
14 domestic workers and 10 out of 16 unemployed persons. Four of the unemployed (2 boys and
2 girls) are below 15.
That too is an indication of their impoverishment and a reason why unemployment is low
among them and why 8 out of 16 home based workers in the whole sample are Adibasi. They have
to do any work available for sheer survival. Only 5 women are "housewives. While among the Aka
and other communities women who were involved in cultivation in the agricultural season call
themselves "housewives in the lean season, Adibasi women cannot even afford this "luxury. 2 out
of 5 of them are in their 30s and 3 in their 20s. Obviously they are pregnant women or mothers of
small children who cannot afford to go out to work.
TabIe 3.14 : Occupation of the AoIbasI FamiIy Members by Age Group and Gender
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
CuItivator 0 0 0 0 6 5 29 14 35 19 54
Home Based Workers 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 3 3 5 8
DaiIy Wage Workers 2 5 21 16 19 19 21 38 63 78 141
Domestic Workers 0 0 2 4 1 5 0 2 3 11 14
Business 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Housewife 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 5 5
SaIaried Government 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 2
SaIaried Private 0 0 0 0 2 1 4 1 6 2 8
Student 34 36 11 8 2 0 0 0 47 44 91
UnempIoyed 2 2 1 3 1 1 2 4 6 10 16
Others 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PIantation Labourers 1 1 2 2 7 9 31 25 41 37 78
TotaI 39 44 38 34 39 44 89 90 205 212 417
72
54 persons (35 men and 19 women) are cultivators, most of them basti dwellers. They cultivate
mainly rice and vegetables which is their staple food. Only two persons have government jobs and
8 persons work in the private sector. t tallies with their low level of education (Table 3.9). 14
persons all but 2 of them aged 15-30, mostly from the bastis are domestic helps. t is an additional
indication of feminisation of poverty. Moreover, this number refers to girls who live with their parents
and work as domestic helps in the neighbourhood and excludes those who have gone out to work
in the urban areas. The high sex ratio indicates that very few from the present sample go out unlike
those of the past studies in which the sex ratio in the 12-20 cohort was low (Fernandes and Pereira
2005: 64).
Table 3.14 also confirms our 2001 findings that many Adibasi men emigrate in search of daily
wage and other work. That adds to the number of women and raises the sex ratio in the 20-39
cohorts (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 107-108). Thus the Adibasi occupations confirm their
impoverished state which also leads to child labour. 2 children below 15 are garden workers, 2 boys
and 5 girls are daily wage earners and 2 boys and girls each are unemployed. Thus, because of
work in the garden poverty is less in the present sample than in our past studies, especially our
Kokrajhar sample of 2004 but it is not absent. n fact, it seems to be rising because of mechanisation
and the crisis in the industry.
The Angami
Among the 486 Angami family members, next to the 149 students come the 137 Government
employees, 97 of them men and 40 women. t shows a clear gender bias. Of the 24 private sector
employees, 17 are women. They have many educationally qualified women, by and large better
qualified than men. There are 31 female and 19 male graduates among the family members. 17
women are post graduates against 14 men and most of them are in the 30+ age group. Though they
are well qualified the Angami seem to treat men alone as bread winners. Our 2001 sample too had
41 female graduates against 27 males but out of 169 persons having salaried jobs, 131 were men
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 87 & 110).
The number of cultivators is somewhat small, because of their high level of education which
does not prepare the student to go back to the land to till it. The present sample has only 52
cultivators in a total of 486 (10.70%). f we exclude the 149 students and 43 unemployed, their
proportion rises to 17.69%. 36 of them are women, including one below 15 and 1 below 20. t
confirms our earlier findings that terrace cultivation, their primary form of agriculture and shifting
cultivation the second source of Angami sustenance can be called women's economy (D'Souza
2001: 27-29). n the 2001 sample, 200 out of 870 (22.9%) members were cultivators. Their proportion
has come down to 10.7% (52 out 486) in the current study because more villages closer to the
capital Kohima were included in it.
That shows a shift away from their agro-based economic tradition that allotted a prominent
place to the woman as the person in charge of the family economy. With the shift in their economy
73
their position of is threatened. The tertiary sector which has come to replace agriculture has given
preference to men. t can force women to limit themselves to household work. t can be seen also
in the big number of women who call themselves housewives. The 2002 study had only 13 of them
in a total of 870. n the present sample they are 41 out of 486. Many of them may also be
cultivators. That only confirms the shift in their economy. With their addition the number of women
cultivators rises to 77 against 14 men.
TabIe 3.15 : Occupation of the Angami FamiIy Members by Age Group and Gender
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
CuItivator 0 1 0 1 0 2 16 32 16 36 52
Home Based Workers 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 5 5
DaiIy Wage Workers 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 5
Domestic Workers 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 2 4
Business 0 0 0 0 4 2 11 5 15 7 22
Housewife 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 34 0 41 41
SaIaried Government 0 0 0 0 14 9 83 31 97 40 137
SaIaried Private 0 0 0 0 1 12 6 5 7 17 24
Student 24 23 30 34 17 20 1 0 72 77 149
UnempIoyed 1 0 2 1 18 17 2 2 23 20 43
Others 0 0 1 1 0 1 3 0 4 2 6
PIantation Labourers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TotaI 25 24 36 39 56 74 122 110 239 247 486
Only 22 Angami family members are involved in business, 15 of them men. Our 2001 sample
had 38 persons in business in a total of 870, only 7 of them women. t is difficult to draw any
conclusion from the marginal rise in the number of women involved in business because of their
small number. t also shows that the Naga tribes are yet to get into risky areas such as business.
The small number of workers and unemployed below 15 also shows that there are some school
dropouts among them but that, most children are at school.
The Dimasa
That the Dimasa livelihood is agriculture-based is clear from the of 114 out of 391 (29.2%)
being cultivators. With the addition of the 86 "housewives and without the 85 students and 28
unemployed, their proportion rises to 71.94%. That the "housewives are cultivators is seen from our
2004 study done in the agricultural season. No woman declared herself a housewife (Fernandes
and Pereira 2005: 94). Even after adding the housewives to the number of cultivators, the proportion
of women among them remains lower than that of men and than in our 2001 sample that had 112
74
women among 178 cultivators (62.92%) without adding the 16 housewives to their number (Fernandes
and Barbora 2002a: 110). n 2004 women were 129 of 246 cultivators (52.44%) (Fernandes and
Pereira 2005: 94). n the present study we included a village close to Haflong the district headquarters
in order to understand the impact of the interface of modernity on their customary law and see the
change taking place among them. As a result 13 men and 12 women have government jobs. n spite
of it the proportion of cultivators is higher than the average of 40.52% in the sample.
The number of men and women having a salaried job is almost equal, 15 and 14 respectively
but the number is too small for a definite conclusion but can be an indication of a fairly high status
of women among them possibly because of the combination of jhum and the matriclans. Women
are not equal to men but have a relatively high status. That can disappear if there is a complete
changeover to individual and male ownership of land. We shall discuss these issues and their
implications in a later chapter.
TabIe 3.16 : Occupation of the Dimasa FamiIy Members by Age Group and Gender
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
CuItivator 1 0 0 4 17 4 84 4 102 12 114
Home Based Workers 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 3
DaiIy Wage Workers 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 5 0 5
Domestic Workers 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 2
Business 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 5 6 5 11
Housewife 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 61 0 86 86
SaIaried Government 0 0 0 0 9 5 4 7 13 12 25
SaIaried Private 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 2 2 4
Student 28 24 16 13 3 0 0 1 47 38 85
UnempIoyed 1 3 8 9 5 1 1 0 15 13 28
Others 1 2 2 9 3 8 0 3 6 22 28
PIantation Labourers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TotaI 31 29 26 36 48 48 92 81 197 194 391
Unemployment is higher than in our past samples. 28 are unemployed, most of them below
30 and 22 of them women. Most have completed high or higher secondary school and are hunting
for jobs. The rate of unemployment will increase unless non-land alternatives are found. Besides,
only 11 Dimasa have plunged into small-scale business, 5 of them women who sell the agricultural
produce or handicrafts in the weekly market or elsewhere. 2 domestic workers whom the middle
class with salaried jobs has employed are not Dimasa.
75
The Garo
Finally the number of Garo cultivators is lower than that in our past samples. n 2001 they
were 184 out of 1,084 (17%) (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 111). n the current sample they are
90 out of 789 (11.4%) after adding the housewives to their number. When we exclude the 346
students and 52 unemployed persons, their proportion rises to 23.02%. Landlessness is one of its
reasons as one can see from the fact that 17.74% are unemployed. Another reason is a shift of
many persons away from agriculture to salaried jobs because of the proximity of the villages to
small towns and since many teachers' jobs are available. 193 persons including 109 women have
salaried jobs (43.57%). This big numbers seems to show the impact of matriliny but the number
women in government jobs is slightly lower than that of men. The trend of moving away from
agriculture to salaried jobs is similar to that of the Angami but the matrilineal system seems to give
Garo women an advantage over the former. On the other side, class formation is stronger among
the Garo than among the Angami.
61 of them including 52 men are in business. Of the 38 domestic workers 23 are women. Thus
there are contradictory trends among the Garo. On one side many women have taken to salaried
jobs. On the other, very few women have a say in the sale of their produce. While middle class
educated women seem to assert themselves, poor women tend to get marginalised. Thus class
formation builds on the foundation of a patriarchal society.
TabIe 3.17 : Occupation of the Garo FamiIy Members by Age Group and Gender
Age Group 10-14 15-19 20-29 Above 30 TotaI TotaI
Tribe / Categories M F M F M F M F M F
CuItivator 0 0 0 0 2 0 18 9 20 9 29
Home Based Workers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DaiIy Wage Workers 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 4 2 6
Domestic Workers 1 4 10 14 2 2 2 3 15 23 38
Business 0 0 0 0 3 1 49 8 52 9 61
Housewife 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 57 0 61 61
SaIaried Government 0 0 0 0 11 27 51 30 62 57 119
SaIaried Private 0 0 2 4 14 24 6 24 22 52 74
Student 65 83 70 81 24 20 1 2 160 186 346
UnempIoyed 2 0 2 5 25 12 4 2 33 19 52
Others 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 3
PIantation Labourers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TotaI 68 87 84 104 83 91 135 137 370 419 789
76
ConcIusion
n this chapter we have studied the demographic, educational and occupational pattern of the
family members of the sample. Population growth seems to be somewhat high, with the average
family size being 6. The sex ratio is better than in the country as a whole and even many districts
in the non-tribal areas of the Northeast. The educational status by age groups shows that the
schools opened in their regions in recent years have made an impact. However, one sees the
danger of girls being denied access to higher education. Also the employment pattern among most
tribes except the Garo shows a male bias even when women are better educated than men. Among
three of the five tribes studied there is a move away from agriculture to other jobs. Education can
sustain this search for alternatives. We shall study the implications of these changes in successive
chapters.
77
CHAPTER-4
STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE FAMILY
The demographic status is indicative of women's status in some cases and influences it in
others. Also other components like their role in children's upbringing in the spheres of discipline,
health and education affect their status. That role has to be understood before dealing with their
involvement in economic production and consumption and their access to resources. n order to
arrive at a reasonably good understanding of women's status, we shall now look at their role in the
family, agricultural production and the control and use of money.
1. WOMEN AND UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN
Every society assigns to women the task of children's upbringing. Most tribes give them also
the decision-making role in the family and turn men into its interface with society. As a result, for
women their family and work are tied into one. n combining these roles, tribal tradition also assigns
them a relatively high social status. Most of our respondents feel that men should help women in
children's upbringing but many men and a small section of en have internalised the patriarchal
ethos and want men to be the only decision-makers even in children's upbringing and do not want
women to play a major role in it. Besides, in some societies men remain breadwinners and women
are treated only as housewives. Thus their role differs according to the tribe. That is the context of
the section on children's upbringing.
DiscipIine of ChiIdren
Table 4.1 gives information on women's role in decisions regarding children's discipline in the
family. The discussion during the interviews went beyond finding out who takes the decisions today,
to asking who used to play the main role in children's discipline and who should play it. Out of 500
respondent families in 177 (35.4%) only women take these decisions, in 290 (58%) men and women
decide together and men alone decide in 33 (6.6%). Thus though women are considered the
decision-makers at home, also men take charge of the family in some cases and share women's
burden in others.
The situation is not the same in all the tribes. n 67 Aka families women are in charge, in 32
others both are responsible for it and in 1 the man decides. n 96 Adibasi families women are in
charge and in 4 both have an equal voice. Thus, Aka and Adibasi women have some power in the
family but for different reasons. The Adibasi woman earns an income but continues to be subordinate
78
and rarely gets involved in activities outside the family because many men, being daily wage
earners or garden workers, are away for much of the day and leave children under the mother's
care. n the Aka tradition men went out hunting and fishing and left the family to the woman's care.
They continue the system in a new form. Thus the Aka and Adibasi have in different forms combined
women's role and power with the division of work that assigns to them a decision-making role in
the family. The Aka attribute their role in disciplining children to their customary law while the
Adibasi are guided primarily by their economic needs. t is one more case of their alienation from
their culture affecting their law.
The situation is different among the Angami, Dimasa and Garo. n 89 Angami families the
husband and wife are jointly responsible for children's discipline, in 8 women along decide and in
3 only men decide. When asked why both should decide, most said that children fear men more
than women. Thus if the matter goes beyond women's control, men handle it. Some consider it a
man's way of assisting the woman while others think that he intervenes because he is in charge
of the family, as such has the final say in it.
TabIe 4.1 : Who is in Charge of DiscipIine?
Tribe Aka Angami
Who DiscipIines Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 30 37 67 4 4 8
Father/Husband 1 0 1 2 1 3
Both 22 10 32 47 42 89
TotaI 53 47 100 53 47 100
Tribe Adibasi Dimasa
Who DiscipIines Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 34 62 96 1 3 4
Father/Husband 0 0 0 17 7 24
Both 0 4 4 36 36 72
TotaI 34 66 100 54 46 100
Tribe Garo Grand TotaI
Who DiscipIines Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 0 2 2 69 108 177
Father/Husband 1 4 5 21 12 33
Both 49 44 93 154 136 290
TotaI 50 50 100 244 256 500
79
72 Dimasa respondents said that, their customary law gives men and women equal power in
decisions regarding children's discipline. Out of 24 who said that men decide 17 are men. They
added that it is because the man is the head of the family. Only one man said that women alone
decide and should continue to do so. On the other side in 93 Garo families both play an equal role
in this task against 5 in which men have all power and 2 in which women are responsible. Thus,
even in their matrilineal society the man has a role in family decisions.
We also asked our respondents whether the system should change. Most Aka and Adibasi
thought that women should continue to play the major role in children's discipline. t can mean a
higher status but can also restrict women to the family. Change is visible among the Angami, Garo
and Dimasa. Men have started taking some responsibility in the family and would like it to continue
but some Angami men want to take it to the other extreme and say that their children belong to
them. Being a matrilineal society, Garo women have much say regarding child care but most men
want to share this responsibility and some think of it as power. Thus, some Angami and Garo men
view a share in the responsibility as a way of re-asserting their patriarchal role and justify it in the
name of their customary law.
Women and ChiIdren's HeaIth Care
While accepting women's role in children's health care, a majority of the respondents said that
men too should share their burden (Table 4.2). n 143 of the 500 families (28.6%) women alone take
these decisions, in 19 (3.8%) families men do it and in the remaining 338 (67.6%) they share the
responsibility. 91 Aka families belong to the last category, in 8 others women alone are in charge
and in 1 the man takes decisions alone. Thus, the Aka responses are somewhat different from those
on discipline that is left to women. A probable reason is that money is involved in health care and
it is a male prerogative. Most respondents said that, in case of illness they perform puja but also
go for medical treatment which was the woman's responsibility in their tradition but with money
intervening, men tend to take it over.
TabIe 4.2 : Decisions Regarding ChiIdren's HeaIth in the FamiIy
Tribe/In Charge Aka Angami
HeaIth Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 3 5 8 18 12 30
Father/Husband 1 0 1 0 0 0
Both 49 42 91 35 35 70
TotaI 53 47 100 53 47 100
80
Tribe/In Charge Adibasi Dimasa
HeaIth Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 32 63 95 1 3 4
Father/Husband 1 1 2 8 7 15
Both 1 2 3 45 36 81
TotaI 34 66 100 54 46 100
Tribe/In Charge Garo Grand TotaI
HeaIth Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 3 3 6 57 86 143
Father/Husband 1 0 1 11 8 19
Both 46 47 93 176 162 338
TotaI 50 50 100 244 256 500
n 3 out of 100 Adibasi families both take care of children's health, in 2 others only men do
it and in the remaining 95 it is the woman's role. Women themselves think that children's health care
is their task. Given their impoverishment, they depend mainly on herbs and local medicines. Not
much money is involved in it and men do not play as active a role in children's health care as Aka
men do. Besides, as Table 3.14 shows, even when they earn money men leave the family sphere
fully to women. t continues in children's health care too.
One does not see a total change among the Angami. n 70 of their families both take care of
children's health against 30 in which only women do it. Though not said explicitly, in the Angami
customary law, it was the woman's responsibility and continues to be so with men assisting them
in some cases. Though they too have taken to allopathic care, the difference with the Aka is that
Angami women have had greater access to education and exposure to the external world including
the monetary economy. They are thus, able to play their traditional role in a new form by dealing
with money within the family.
n 81 out of 100 Dimasa respondent families both take care of their children's health, in 4
others women alone perform this task and in the remaining 15 men are responsible. Though it can
be interpreted to mean that women's status is low among them we have also modified this statement
by referring to the patriclans and matriclans. Men have a say in family matters including in children's
health care when money is involved but they take these decisions in consultation with women.
Besides, they have not abandoned their traditional practices fully. n case of illness, they perform
the puja first and then go to the doctor. The man seems to intervene when the decision involves
money.
n 93 out of 100 Garo families studied, men and women decide together, in 6 families women
are the only decision-makers and in 1 the man alone takes decisions in this matter. That too seems
81
to be the result of health care involving money. We have seen in Table 3.17 that only 9 out of 62
Garo family members involved in petty business are women. Even in their matrilineal society, the
division between the family and social spheres seems to have remained intact. Business and
financial dealings as the interface of the family with society belong to the man. This division is
visible also in children's health care which involves money and shows that even their matrilineal
society continues to remain patriarchal.
Thus, Table 4.2 shows some subtle changes in children's health care. The Aka combine
herbal medicines and religious rites with allopathy. Since it requires money men intervene in the
field that was women's reserve but they still have some power. Health care remains the woman's
reserve among the Adibasi because not much money is involved in it since their poverty prevents
them from resorting to allopathic care. Besides, we know from Table 3.14 that men who earn money
hand it over to the woman. The Angami too have taken to allopathic medicine but women have had
access to education and exposure to the monetary economy. Thus, though the patriarchal ethos is
getting somewhat strong in their tribe, women are able to reinterpret their traditional role in health
care. The impact of double descent is visible among the Dimasa while Garo men are slowly
beginning to assert themselves.
Money is the common factor in the changes the tribes have experienced in health care but this
interface of their customary law with modernity takes different forms among them. Aka men have
strengthened their power. Very little financial power is involved among the Adibasi and women have
retained their traditional role. On the other side, Angami women have been able to deal with the
change by re-interpreting their role in the monetary economy. Some such possibility is visible also
among the Dimasa while Garo men are trying to assert their authority. However, the woman has not
lost her power completely in any tribe.
Women and Decisions on ChiIdren's Education
Education, being a social reproduction system, belongs more to the social sphere than health
care which is a family-society interface in as much as modern medicine requires money. Education
reproduces the value system of a society unless conscious measures are taken in favour of change
(Morrison and Mcntyre 1971: 20-22). For example, it reproduces hierarchical values through class-
based access to schools (Naik 1975: 30-32) and teaching methods geared to the needs of a few,
especially of men from the better off classes (Heredero 1989: 114-116). t can thus strengthen
patriarchy by letting more control over society pass over to men if measures are not taken in favour
of women (Ramachandran 2004: 75-77).
Table 4.3 shows this change among the Aka whose responses do not differ much from those
of the Garo in the sense that most of them said that in their communities men and women share
responsibility for their children's education. n 94 out of 100 Aka families men and women decide
together, in 1 family the man alone decides and in 5 others women alone take the decision.
82
However, the responses changed when we spoke of the power of decision. Men and women take
joint decisions in 94 families but all 47 female respondents felt that men should share more power
with women than they do now. On the other side, 50 men said that men alone should take decisions
in this sphere. Thus the transition has resulted in the type of thinking among women that can be
liberative but most men think only in terms of strengthening their own role in the family, not merely
in the social domain.
n 73 Adibasi families women take most decisions on their children's education, in 22 others
men and women decide together and in the remaining 5 men alone take the decision. Thus most
Adibasi think that it is the woman's domain and that it should continue to be so. n the plantation
tradition in which the management neglected their children's education (Fernandes, Barbora and
Bharali 2003: 54-57), the school became a minor component of the family cycle because it was
taken for granted that the children would eventually become tea garden workers. As such they did
not need to study. n general women have more concern for children's education if it remains a part
of the family domain (Periodi 2004: 270-271).
n practice, in most Adibasi families the school is a transition from childhood to child labour.
As such, neglect of education is integral to social reproduction. Table 3.8 shows that, the situation
is changing in their region. Today many children go to a private school which charges fees. t does
not take the decision away from the woman because money had remained in her hands as long as
it was part of the family economy. Paying school fees involves earning more income by growing
commercial crops or through other means. That can begin a transition of control over the family
finances away from the woman to the man.
TabIe 4.3 : Decision Regarding ChiIdren's Education
Tribe/In Charge Aka Angami
Education Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 1 4 5 0 0 0
Father/Husband 1 0 1 3 2 5
Both 51 43 94 50 45 95
TotaI 53 47 100 53 47 100
Tribe/In Charge Adibasi Dimasa
Education Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 22 51 73 1 3 4
Father/Husband 2 3 5 13 7 20
Both 10 12 22 40 36 76
TotaI 34 66 100 54 46 100
83
Tribe/In Charge Garo Grand TotaI
Education Men Women TotaI Men Women TotaI
Mother/Wife 0 2 2 24 60 84
Father/Husband 0 1 1 19 13 32
Both 50 47 97 201 183 384
TotaI 50 50 100 244 256 500
Table 4.3 shows that in 95 out of 100 Angami families, husband and wife take a joint decision
about children's education. t can be interpreted as gender equality but our field notes also show
that Angami women do not have power to take all decisions on it. Besides, in 5 families men alone
take the decision but none said that women alone decide. n their tradition children's education was
in the woman's domain. The man began to play a role when money was required for school fees
and other needs and they started growing commercial crops to earn it (D'Souza 2001: 50). But
women have not lost their role completely. They cannot take decisions all by themselves but they
share responsibility with men. Many of them are educated and that gives them some decision-
making power together with men. t is a compromise between total patriarchy and complete equality.
n only 4 Dimasa families women are the main decision-makers against 20 in which men alone
take decisions on their children's education. n the remaining 76 families it is a joint decision. One
cannot conclude from it that women have equal power in decisions on their children's education but
only that they are not ignored in them. n their tradition education was part of the family and the
woman took most decisions about it. Today it has shifted to the social domain and money has to
be spent on it. That is where the man comes into the picture and joins his wife in these decisions.
Like the Angami the Dimasa too have found a compromise between total shift to the man and
retaining the woman's role in it.
Joint decision is the case with 97 Garo families, in 2 others women alone decide and in one
the man is the decision-maker. During our fieldwork we were told that most Garo men think that they
should be the main decision-makers. We have noticed this trend also in our past studies, especially
in decisions around land transfer and use. The demand that men be the main or only decision-
makers is intrinsic to the effort to change over to a patrilineal system (Marak 2002: 163). That is
where a compromise of a joint decision has been made.
This section brings into focus the transition of the five tribes to modernity. Each of them has
dealt with it in its own way. A compromise of shared responsibility is the main feature of decisions
on education. Often it extends also to children's discipline and health care. These three components
are incremental. Discipline belongs primarily to the family and most power in it continues to be in
women's hands. Health care that was a domestic matter has become an interface of the family with
society because of the shift away from herbal medicine and religious rites to allopathy that requires
84
money and the man intervenes in it. Education was traditionally within the family but men were
involved in training boys into adulthood. Today it is a fully social institution that prepares the child
for employment and men seem to have a greater voice in it than in the past. Ongoing education
was traditionally within the family, as such the woman played a major role in it. Today, 4 of the 5
tribes have adapted it to the changing situation and have reached a compromise of joint decisions
concerning it. However, the trend is to strengthen the man's hand in this domain. The compromise
itself is stronger among the educated Angami women than some other tribes.
The Adibasi continue to treat education as a family matter because that is what their role as
tea garden labourers has turned it into. t is more an economic decision than one based on their
tradition because this community has lost its customary law especially on this issue since the
management neglected their children's education. However, if the children go to a private school
and have to pay school fees, the man gets more power in decisions concerning it. They were left
with a few customs and practices that were born more out of the economic necessity of adaptation
to the tea garden culture than because of their customary law. As such, the woman has a weaker
tradition to fall back upon than the remaining tribes have. However, because of their impoverishment
that forces men to be away from home, she retains her decision-making role even in education and
it remains strong in health care because impoverishment makes it difficult for her to spend money
on medicines. So she depends on herbal medicines and other systems which continue to remain
her domain.
2. WOMEN AND AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS
Employment of women in non-traditional gainful activities is considered a critical beginning of
their growth in a society. Access to different salaried jobs is, by and large, not equal for men and
women. A result as well as a cause of such unequal access is women's low status. Besides, even
when they work outside, women are also responsible for household work. Thus a job in the formal
sector, while looking liberative, can add to their burden. However, in their tradition their role is
defined largely by their capacity to participate in and control the production process. While it is
difficult for women to participate in the formal production process because industrialisation has been
lopsided across the region, they have played a major role in the primary process of agriculture and
the secondary process of handicrafts. Thus, they continue this tradition but many have often given
it a new form today.
Women and the FamiIy Economy
n order to better analyse women's status we shall attempt to understand the nature and
content of their economic activities and position in their family and society in general. n this
analysis we shall go beyond their nature to the power they have to take decisions about them. The
economic data on the handicrafts, agricultural production and control over money will give us a fair
85
idea of their role in the family economy. We shall try to understand their decision-making power in
the commercialisation of agricultural produce and handicrafts and see to what extent the market has
transformed their subsistence economy and their role in it.
Most tribes of the Northeast live on jhum or terrace cultivation. The ownership and management
system of their livelihood of land, forests and water bodies differs from tribe to tribe. Some give
priority to ownership by the descent and lineage group and others have the clan or the whole village
as the centre (Chakrabarti and Changsan 1993: 126-127). There has also been a decrease in the
number of families depending on agriculture in tribes that are trying to move towards salaried jobs.
The shift is greater among men. Many women continue to make a major contribution to agriculture
(D'Souza, Kekrieseno and Nokhwenu 2002: 54-55). As seen in the occupational pattern in Chapter
3, more women than men are cultivators. Traditionally women limited themselves to the tasks of
rearing children and maintaining the family. As cultivators their customary law gave them more
power than non-tribal women had, particularly in jhum. n order to look at their decision-making
process in agriculture we shall study the roles men and women played in it and analyse their power
relationship.
Decision on Crops to Grow
Table 4.4 gives information on the freedom of women to decide what type of crops to grow
since it can indicate the nature of their status as seen in their contribution to agriculture. t varies
from tribe to tribe. 26 Aka men and 21 women say that men decide what crops to grow and also
select the site for shifting cultivation. The tradition of most shifting cultivation tribes has been for the
man to select the plot and after it for the woman to take charge of it. t made the division of work
in jhum more gender friendly than in settled cultivation. That is why some call it integral to women's
economy (Menon 1993: 151-152). Men continue to select the plot, presumably according to the crop
they want to grow. However, only 3 Aka women decide what to grow. They decide the division of
work but do not choose the crop. However, 50 respondents considered this question non-applicable
because in jhum they grow the same crop every year and the question of a decision does not arise.
Those who grow new crops to get money for their children's school fees take a decision and men
do it.
Relatively few Adibasi families have agriculture as their main livelihood. The economy of a
large number of them depends on their wages from the tea gardens and none is involved in shifting
cultivation. The number of persons owning land is small but 13 men and 25 women said that men
are the main decision-makers on the type of crops to grow. n 3 families women take the decision
and in only 2 men and women take a joint decision. Thus, the Adibasi who are involved in agriculture
accept men as the main decision-makers.
86
TabIe 4.4 : Decision on Crops to Grow
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Aka
MaIe 26 1 0 26 53
FemaIe 21 2 0 24 47
TotaI 47 3 0 50 100
Adibasi
MaIe 13 1 2 18 34
FemaIe 25 2 0 39 66
TotaI 38 3 2 57 100
Angami
MaIe 0 29 14 10 53
FemaIe 0 30 10 7 47
TotaI 0 59 24 17 100
Dimasa
MaIe 1 0 3 50 54
FemaIe 3 0 1 42 46
TotaI 4 0 4 92 100
Garo
MaIe 50 0 0 0 50
FemaIe 50 0 0 0 50
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Grand TotaI
MaIe 90 31 19 104 244
FemaIe 99 34 11 112 256
Grand TotaI 189 65 30 216 500
The Angami practise terrace cultivation in which women play a decisive role, as such take
decisions on it. 59 respondents said that women are the main decision makers. n 24 families men
and women decide together. The remaining 27 families are not involved in cultivation. Most Dimasa
depend on shifting cultivation, though they also grow crops such as mustard and paddy in the low-
lying areas that can be called settled agriculture. Since their main cultivation is jhum in which the
crops to grow are more or less decided in advance, the question of who takes the decision does
not arise. Thus, it was not applicable to 92 families. Of the remaining 8 that grow commercial crops,
men take decisions in 4 families and in the remaining 4 it is a joint decision by men and women.
87
The picture changes among the Garo. Men have become the decision-makers in 90 families
because of the shift to commercial crops and consequently to individual ownership usually in the
name of men. Our respondents told us that in their tradition men and women worked together but
control over production was in the hands of women. She was in charge as long it was subsistence
agriculture. Men are more familiar with commercial crops and the administration treats them as
family heads and landowners (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 176-177). That has slowly transferred
the decision-making power to men.
Preparation of the FieId
Preparation of jhum fields begins with the cutting of trees, clearing of the plot and burning of
the field. The ground is prepared after it. Table 4.5 gives information on who prepares the field. n
53 Aka respondent families men and women prepare the jhum fields together. While mostly men
fell trees, women chop the bushes, branches and saplings. When men do the fencing around the
plot chosen for jhum, women soften the soil and prepare the field. Once they complete fencing
some men go for fishing and hunting. The Adibasi are settled agriculturists who prepare the fields
just before ploughing. 16 men and 27 women said that men prepare the field. During this season
women work in the tea gardens.
The Angami practise terrace cultivation, so they prepare the fields for the next crop immediately
after the harvest when they are dry enough for it. Women and men work together but women do
most of the preparation. f the husband has a salaried job, his wife does all the work in the fields.
n 11 families women alone prepare the field and in 71 others men and women do it as a joint
venture. The question is not applicable to 17 families not involved in cultivation. Some of them work
in the quarries and others have salaried jobs.
TabIe 4.5 : Who Prepares the FieId?
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Aka
MaIe 1 1 29 22 53
FemaIe 0 3 24 20 47
TotaI 1 4 53 42 100
Adibasi
MaIe 16 0 0 18 34
FemaIe 27 0 0 39 66
TotaI 43 0 0 57 100
88
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Angami
MaIe 1 6 36 10 53
FemaIe 0 5 35 7 47
TotaI 1 11 71 17 100
Dimasa
MaIe 51 0 0 3 54
FemaIe 43 0 0 3 46
TotaI 94 0 0 6 100
Garo
MaIe 50 0 0 0 50
FemaIe 50 0 0 0 50
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Grand TotaI
MaIe 119 7 65 53 244
FemaIe 110 8 59 69 256
Grand TotaI 239 15 124 122 500
Jhum fields require proportionately more work and a bigger cooperative effort than settled
agriculture does. n spite of it very few Dimasa and Garo women are involved in the preparation of
fields since they are far from the village. 94 Dimasa and all the Garo respondents said that men
prepare them and none said that women do it. n this season women work in the wetlands where
very little physical labour is required. The question is not applicable to six Dimasa respondents.
Who PIoughs, TiIIs or Hoes the FieIds?
Table 4.9 shows that the Aka do not plough since they are predominantly jhumias. n recent
years, some relatively well to do Aka members have started settled or wet cultivation and only men
plough those fields. Jhum depended mostly on hoeing and that was done by both but predominantly
by men.
The few Adibasi who are cultivators are settled agriculturists and follow the principle of men
doing heavy work and women being involved in back breaking work that men consider light. 43
Adibasi respondents say that only men plough the fields because their customary law debars
women from it in Jharkhand. Those who did it were punished. That custom continues till today
among the Assam Adibasi. When asked why, they could not give reasons for keeping the women
away from ploughing the land. However, studies indicate that it was a mode of reducing women's
workload but it was presented as a sign of men's strength which legitimised their domination (Sarkar
89
1993: 98-99). The question is not applicable to 57 respondent families since they do not own any
land or are tea garden workers.
TabIe 4.6 : Who PIoughs/TiIIs/Hoes?
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Aka
MaIe 0 0 1 52 53
FemaIe 0 0 1 46 47
TotaI 0 0 2 98 100
Adibasi
MaIe 16 0 0 18 34
FemaIe 27 0 0 39 66
TotaI 43 0 0 57 100
Angami
MaIe 0 4 39 10 53
FemaIe 0 2 38 7 47
TotaI 0 6 78 16 100
Dimasa
MaIe 43 0 11 0 54
FemaIe 38 0 5 3 46
TotaI 81 0 16 3 100
Garo
MaIe 50 0 0 0 50
FemaIe 50 0 0 0 50
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Grand TotaI 224 6 96 174 500
Angami women decide the type of work of each family member. Men plough the fields in 77
families but some men holding salaried jobs said that women should do it instead of leaving them
barren. The question does not apply to 17. t is difficult to say whether the insistence of men holding
a salaried job on women doing all the work including ploughing is improvement of their status. One
is inclined to believe that it is a sign of greater dependence because the man's salary becomes the
main sustenance of the family. That gives him additional power based on which he insists on
women taking over responsibilities such as ploughing the field that belonged to men in their tradition.
90
Ploughing or hoeing is done by men in 87 Dimasa families and by both together in 16 others.
n the wet fields that have to be ploughed, men do most of it and women only help them. All the
Garo respondents said that men prepare the field and that women do not even help if ploughing
is involved. n that sense women have very little voice in decision-making as well as ploughing for
commercial crops. When men prepare the field women engage themselves in household chores.
Thus, in their case the division of work symbolises not merely more work for men but also greater
power in decision-making power.
Sowing, TranspIanting and Weeding
After ploughing or hoeing begins sowing in jhum and transplanting in settled agriculture. Table
4.7 shows the contribution of men and women to these activities. 52 Aka respondents said that men
and women sow together while 5 said that women alone do it and 1 said that men do it. Thus in
its strict sense women do much of the sowing and men help. Jhuming does not involve transplantation,
so that part of the question is non-applicable to most of them. Seeds are sown, weeded and then
harvested. 29 male and 22 female respondents said that men and women work together in the
weeding season. n settled agriculture it is considered women's activity because it involves long
hours of bending in wet fields, as such back breaking (Gangwar and Ramakrishnan 1992: 101-102).
The two most important occupations of the Adibasi are daily wages and tea garden work. Out
of the 43 cultivators, 42 said that men do the sowing alone and only 1 man said that women do
it. However transplantation that is a back breaking job is done mainly by women in 41 of these
families and by both in the remaining two. Weeding continues to be the domain of Adibasi women.
Men do work such as ploughing and preparing the fields that is considered heavy. This division is
typical of settled agriculture that is male controlled.
TabIe 4.7 : Sowing, TranspIanting and Weeding
Sowing TranspIanting Weeding
Tribe MaIe FemaIe Both Men Women Both Men Women Both
Aka
MaIe 1 2 28 1 0 0 1 1 29
FemaIe 0 3 24 0 0 0 0 3 22
TotaI 1 5 52 1 0 0 1 4 51
Adibasi
MaIe 15 1 0 0 14 2 0 9 0
FemaIe 27 0 0 0 27 0 0 17 0
TotaI 42 1 0 0 41 2 0 27 0
91
Sowing TranspIanting Weeding
Tribe MaIe FemaIe Both Men Women Both Men Women Both
Angami
MaIe 0 32 11 0 6 36 0 36 7
FemaIe 0 32 8 0 3 38 0 33 8
TotaI 0 64 19 0 9 74 0 69 15
Dimasa
MaIe 3 42 9 1 1 27 4 1 49
FemaIe 1 29 11 3 0 20 3 0 39
TotaI 4 71 20 4 1 47 7 1 88
Garo
MaIe 50 0 0 0 50 0 0 50 0
FemaIe 50 0 0 0 50 0 0 50 0
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100 0 0 100 0
Grand TotaI 147 141 91 5 151 123 8 200 154
Sowing, transplanting and weeding are usually women's work among the Angami. Some men
help them but most of them go for fishing or keep themselves busy with the handicrafts when
women do this work. However, there is some difference according to the activity. 64 respondents
said that women alone did the sowing and men joined them in 19 others. Transplanting is back
breaking work and women alone did it in 74 families and men in 9 others. Weeding is done by
women alone in 69 families and men join them in 9 others. When women are busy weeding, most
men work in the jhum fields or cut firewood.
71 Dimasa respondents said that women sow. n 20 families it is done jointly by men and
women. Men alone do it in the remaining 4. However, in 47 families they transplant and weed
together. n 4 others men alone do it and in 1 it is the woman. 88 said that men and women do
the weeding together. There seems to be a strict division of work among Garo men and women.
Table 4.7 shows that men sow alone and women transplant and weed alone without the help of
men.
Harvesting, Carrying to the Godown and Threshing
Then comes the task of harvesting after which the crop is threshed and carried to the house
and stored in a granary. Table 4.8 gives information on these tasks. Harvesting, carrying and
threshing is done together by Aka men and women but our field notes show that women do more
work quantitatively and spend more time on it than men do. Women do most of the harvesting and
men go hunting in that season. Women do most of the carrying and threshing. Thus one can say
92
that men help women rather than that they work together. There is a clear division of work among
the Adibasi. Harvesting is women's domain with some men helping them but no woman carries the
crop to the granary or threshes alone without men's help. n 6 families women help men to carry
it to the godown and 18 help in threshing.
TabIe 4.8 : Harvesting, Carrying to the Godown and Threshing
Harvesting Carrying to godown Threshing
Tribe Men Women Both Men Women Both Men Women Both
Aka
MaIe 1 1 29 1 1 29 1 2 28
FemaIe 0 3 22 0 3 22 0 3 22
TotaI 1 4 51 1 4 51 1 5 50
Adibasi
MaIe 1 14 1 12 0 3 7 0 8
FemaIe 0 24 2 23 0 3 17 0 10
TotaI 1 38 3 35 0 6 24 0 18
Angami
MaIe 0 8 35 1 1 41 1 12 30
FemaIe 0 7 34 3 3 35 2 4 35
TotaI 0 15 69 4 4 76 3 16 65
Dimasa
MaIe 1 0 51 27 1 22 1 1 52
FemaIe 3 1 37 16 1 25 3 0 39
TotaI 4 1 88 43 2 48 4 1 91
Garo
MaIe 0 50 0 50 0 0 50 0 0
FemaIe 0 50 0 50 0 0 50 0 0
TotaI 0 100 0 100 0 0 100 0 0
FemaIe 3 73 116 91 3 95 60 15 125
TotaI 3 85 95 92 7 86 72 7 99
Grand TotaI 6 158 211 183 10 181 132 22 224
Among the Angami women take the initiative in harvesting, threshing and carrying but men
help them and carry more than women do. Only 3 men carry thresh the harvest and 4 carry it to
the godown all alone. n most families all, including students and salaried persons join in harvesting.
93
Among the Dimasa harvesting and threshing are done jointly by men and women but men
carry the harvest to the godown. n 4 families men harvest alone. Women do it alone in one family.
2 women carry the harvest to the godown alone and 4 men and 1 woman thresh it alone. n all other
families men and women harvest together. Garo women harvest alone, men carry and thresh alone.
t is further evidence of a clear division of work but both contribute to the family economy.
Storing the Harvest
Though storing was the work of women in the olden days among the Aka, today men help in
49 families but in 6 others women continue to do it without men's help and in one case the man
does it by himself. After harvesting Adibasi women leave the rest of the work for men to do but they
help in storage in 3 families. Since they have very little land they also have very little to store. Our
past studies show that they sell most of what they grow because of their poverty (Fernandes and
Pereira 2005: 88). The fact that two of them are left with nothing to store shows that poverty exists
in the present study area, but to a lesser extent.
Though 52 out of 100 Angami respondents said that men and women join in the storage work,
in reality women do more work than men do. 28 said that men help but women do most work. Only
4 said that men do this work all by themselves. Thus Angami agriculture continues to remain under
women's initiative. Men are responsible for storage work among the Dimasa but women too contribute
to it. n 47 Garo families men do it and women help. n 27 others it is men's domain. After the
harvest the rest of the work is left for men to do.
TabIe 4.9 : Who Stores?
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Aka
Male 1 2 28 22 53
Female 0 4 21 22 47
TotaI 1 6 49 44 100
Adibasi
Male 15 0 0 19 34
Female 23 0 3 40 66
TotaI 38 0 3 59 100
Angami
Male 2 16 25 10 53
Female 2 12 27 6 47
TotaI 4 28 52 16 100
94
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Dimasa
Male 28 0 12 14 54
Female 19 0 15 12 46
TotaI 47 0 27 26 100
Garo
Male 50 0 0 0 50
Female 50 0 0 0 50
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Grand TotaI 190 34 131 145 500
We have seen in this section, the role men and women play in agriculture which is the main
livelihood of four of the five tribes studied. Their degree of dependence on it varies but it remains
the main sustenance even of those who have had greater access to education than the others.
Dependence is almost total among the Aka and Dimasa while it is partial among the Adibasi. The
Angami combine terrace cultivation with jhum. The Garo whose tradition is jhum seem to be switching
over to settled agriculture without abandoning jhum. That has implications for women.
Thus the tribal economy continues to revolve round agriculture mostly jhum, though some
practise wet rice cultivation with or without jhum. However, except among the Angami, men take
most decisions but men and women do most work together. The division of work is almost total
among the Garo and partial among the rest. Women in jhum are said to have a higher status but
Angami women have an equally good status in terrace cultivation. Hence that too is called women's
economy (D'Souza 2001: 42-43). But women's dominant role in the family economy is changing fast
because of commercial crops.
From the gender perspective studies indicate a clear difference in the division of work in
settled agriculture, shifting and terrace cultivation. Settled agriculture is by and large male dominated.
The man owns the land, decides what crops to grow and what work men and women are to do.
They allot to men work that is called heavy but leave to women back breaking work such as bending
or standing in wet fields for long hours. Jhum is practised by mostly tribal CPR based communities
who keep a clear division between the family and social spheres. The woman is in charge of the
family decision-making and economy and her role is symbolised by shifting cultivation in which the
division is more woman-friendly than in settled agriculture (Fernandes and Menon 1987: 77-79).
Terrace cultivation seems to combine the culture of the two. The woman has some say in its
decision-making and in the division or work but the man has a slightly bigger role than in jhum
(D'Souza 2001: 42-43).
95
3. WOMEN'S ROLE IN HANDICRAFTS
Though shifting cultivation is the main component of tribal economy, some other activities go
hand in hand with it, the most important among them being handicrafts. f a tribe has lost this
tradition, it is a sign that it has moved away from its identity. The Adibasi, for example, have made
revival of the handicrafts of Jharkhand origin an integral part of their search for a new identity. Tribal
customary law too assigns a role to the man and the woman in their production. Their sale is a
recent phenomenon and it has introduced some changes in their customs. n studying the customary
law on this issue we shall limit ourselves to their production and marketing. They are integral to their
socio-cultural life but they can also earn money through them and thus gain some control over their
life. Most of the tribes studied produce some such goods in their leisure especially in the non-
agricultural season. Most men work on bamboo and wood while women are mostly engaged in
weaving and stitching. Thus they enjoy a degree of self-sufficiency within their field. We shall try
to understand the implications of such division of work to women's status.
TabIe 4.10 : Decision on Handicrafts
Tribe Both Men Women NP NA TotaI
Aka
Male 21 3 7 10 12 53
Female 22 4 9 5 7 47
TotaI 43 7 16 15 19 100
Adibasi
Male 1 0 0 33 0 34
Female 2 0 1 62 1 66
TotaI 3 0 1 95 1 100
Angami
Male 15 27 0 1 10 53
Female 10 3 25 1 8 47
TotaI 25 30 25 2 18 100
Dimasa
Male 10 0 0 0 44 54
Female 10 0 0 0 36 46
TotaI 20 0 0 0 80 100
96
Tribe Both Men Women NP NA TotaI
Garo
Male 1 0 0 0 49 50
Female 0 0 0 0 50 50
TotaI 1 0 0 0 99 100
Male 48 30 7 44 115 254
Female 44 7 35 68 102 246
Grand TotaI 92 37 42 112 217 500
Decision on the Production of Handicrafts
One way of understanding the woman's status in the family economy is to see the extent of
her decision-making power in the production of handicrafts. The first impression one gets from Table
4.10 is that their production is not common among the tribes studied. nformation is not available
(NA) from 217 out of 500 respondents i.e. 19, Aka, 95 Adibasi, 18 Angami, 80 Dimasa and 99 Garo.
112 of them do not produce any for use outside the family or for sale. However, a deeper study of
NA can give one the context not of decline in handicrafts production but of changing attitudes
towards decision-making in the family.
As stated above, some Garo men demand control over family decision-making and inheritance
in this matrilineal society. Though they are a minority, the issue has become sensitive in their tribe
and that is the reason for lack of information. At this time of transition, none wants to speak of it.
Some others have not given information because as 10 Aka male and 5 female respondents said,
speaking on a decision on the type of handicrafts does not make sense. When the need arises he
or she takes the initiative and produces them in their leisure. Very few Adibasi produce handicrafts,
so 95 of them say that the question of a decision on handicrafts does not arise. n other words, NA
is significant information with implications for decision-making by women and their social status. NP
in the case of the Adibasi is one more sign that they have lost their customary law and the tradition
of handicrafts.
The rest of the data confirms it. 43 Akas said that both men and women decide depending
on the need but 7 of them want men to decide and 16 said that women should do it because they
look after the family. Men fish and hunt but women know what handicrafts are required and are able
to take decisions about them. However, one is not certain that it adds to their status. Women who
take decisions about their production or say that they should play this role are in practice re-
affirming their customary law which assigns the family sphere to them and excludes them from the
social sphere. Thus, what looks like high status may in reality be re-affirmation of their relatively
high but subordinate status.
Table 4.10 shows that decision-making on handicraft production is not applicable to 95 Adibasi
respondents. Some of them do not produce any and others are in a situation similar to that of the
97
Aka. They know who is to produce what when the need arises. Of the remaining 5 information is
not available on 1 and 3 think that both men and women decide together but a female respondent
said that women are the main decision-makers. None said that men alone decide. One needs to
go deeper into the dynamics of the tribe that has for all purposes lost its tribal customary law and
identity and is trying to revive it. Revival of handicrafts is integral to their search for a new tribal
identity and culture. n trying to return to the tenets of their customary law in their search for an
identity they seem to forget that they restirct the woman to the family. We have said more than once
that though women too earn an income, they do not have a decision-making role in their society.
Returning to the handicrafts can give them a sense of tribal identity but not improve the woman's
status. f combined with a gender perspective, it can help them to move towards equality. Otherwise,
it can continue the process noticed in our past studies, of Adibasi women making a contribution to
the family economy but remaining subordinate (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 122-123).
Decisions on what handicrafts to produce lie in the hands of Angami men though there is
difference of opinion on this issue. 27 male and 3 female respondents state that men decide and
15 male and 10 female respondents say that men and women have equal power in this decision.
25 women said that women decide but no male respondent gave this response. Though women are
heard or listened to, they rarely have the power to decide. n most cases it is the duty of both
husband and wife to decide on the handicrafts the family needs and produce them accordingly. To
that extent, the situation is similar to that of the Aka. As many of them said, the question of who
decides does not arise. Both of them decide according to need and produce handicrafts that the
family needs. Their customary law decides who produces what but the decision of which of them
to produce depends on the situation.
The question on what handicrafts to produce is irrelevant to most Dimasa respondents. Like
the Aka they too produce them according to need and whether the man or woman decides depends
on their type. As stated above most Garo respondents did not reply to this question because of its
sensitive nature. Those who gave a reply to the question said that both men and women decide
together and that it should continue to be so.
Table 4.10 thus shows that in all the tribes women have a share in decision-making in the
family. That is the setting in which one can study women's status. From that point of view, the fact
of women getting involved in the production of handicrafts matters a great deal for their status and
ultimately can help them with self-reliance too. On one side it can confirm them in their subordinate
status since handicraft production is an integral part of the family economy and is her contribution
to it. On the other side, it does not give her control over wealth but can help her to retain some
degree of control over the family economy and autonomy. One can build on the process of adapting
their culture in the transition from customary to modern needs. n so doing it is important not to limit
women to their traditional role in the family which is what their customary law has done in the past.
98
Decision-making about the handicrafts has to take them beyond the domestic to the socio-economic
spheres.
Types of Handicrafts Produced by Men and Women
After decisions, Table 4.11 tells us who produces what. t shows that women make a positive
contribution to the family economy. 119 men and 86 women do not produce any handicrafts. t is
an improvement over Table 4.10 in which no information was got from 217 respondents and it was
not applicable to 112. Table 4.11 confirms our hypothesis at that stage that lack of information
because it is a routine exercise or indicated it sensitive nature. Table 4.11 shows that despite a
break in their tradition it is possible for Adibasi women to use well their little leisure to produce
handicrafts. Revival of this tradition is integral to their new identity but in this economic activity in
which women are involved has cultural implications but very little thought is given to gender equality.
Dimasa, Garo and Aka women are involved in jhum as well as in handicraft production. Angami
custom demands that at her marriage the woman takes to her husband's house, a shawl woven with
her own hands. Handicrafts are thus integral to tribal customary law, identity and women's status.
HanoIcra11s Proouceo by Men
Table 4.11 gives the most important handicrafts produced by men and women, as reported by
the 100 respondents of each tribe. Of the 66 Aka families in which men produce handicrafts, in 27
they prepare bamboo and cane furniture, carpets, winnowing plates, bows and arrows, baskets and
decorative pieces. However, our field notes show that many of them also have a secondary item.
For example 39 men produce bamboo items and metal tools for domestic and agricultural use.Only
11 Adibasi men produce bamboo items, 1 makes metal tools and 1 is involved in woodwork. We
know from Table 4.10 that handicraft production is not common among them. Our field notes show
that lack of time is only one of its causes. A more important reason is loss of tribal culture and
customary law to which handicrafts are linked. Revival of their production is integral to their effort
to revive their identity.
Table 4.11 also shows that Angami men are good at wood carving for house doors, clan gates
and village plates. Men in 48 families are involved in it, in 15 they produce bamboo items such as
decorative pieces and weaving looms. 18 produce metal tools like spades, daos and spears, 14
make decorative pieces and 1 makes clay pots. Dimasa men are good at basket weaving during
their leisure for use at home or for sale. Today they have gone beyond it to cane furniture. n 91
Dimasa families men are engaged in bamboo work and 1 produces metal tools and 1 makes
wooden items. The Garo seem to be equally good at wood carving and bamboo work used as
decorative pieces. They produce bamboo fans, baskets and mats as well as wooden furniture and
are good in the decorative arts. Most Garo houses are decorated with items made out of bamboo
and woodcarvings, produced by and large by men.
99
TabIe 4.11 : Main Handicrafts Produced by men and Women
Handicrafts Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI
Tribe M F M F M F M F M F M F
ShawIs 0 74 0 1 0 78 0 99 0 1 0 253
ShawIs/Embroid 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 29 0 44
Stitching 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 27 0 29
Embroidery 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 5 0 8
Embroid/Stitch 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 37 0 37
Bamboo 27 0 11 29 15 2 91 0 5 0 149 31
Woodwork 0 0 1 0 48 0 1 0 64 0 114 0
MetaI work 0 0 1 0 18 0 1 0 1 0 21 0
Decorative Work 0 0 0 0 14 0 0 0 29 0 43 0
Bamboo/MetaI 39 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 41 0
CIay Pots 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
NP 30 16 87 69 2 1 0 0 0 0 119 86
NA 4 10 0 0 0 0 7 1 1 1 12 12
TotaI 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 500 500
HanoIcra11s Proouceo by Women
This question was not sensitive like the previous one because we only tried to find out who
produced what item. Very few claimed that they did not produce any. Table 4.11 shows that 119 men
and 86 women produce no handicrafts themselves but other family members do. t also shows that
more women than men contribute to the family income because they sell some of their products.
t can be a setting to study women's status in the family.
Out of the 86 women to whom the question did not apply 69 are Adibasi who have lost the
tradition of handicrafts because of the modernisation that they experienced through land alienation,
snapping the link with their past, migration to Assam and their isolation in the tea gardens. Thus,
Table 4.11 confirms our findings that Adibasi women are only now beginning to produce handicrafts
as a mode of reviving their tribal identity. Since they are at an early stage of their revival, out of
100 Adibasi families, women in only 31 produce some handicrafts. However, unlike other tribal
women, 29 of them produce bamboo items like mats, baskets and decorative pieces, 1 woman
weaves shawls and another does embroidery work. Thus though this production is low among them
it is beginning once again.
All the Aka women weave shawls for both men and women and mekhelas for women. These
are their traditional or ethnic clothes worn during festivals and special occasions. t is their traditional
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occupation but women in 16 families either do not know how to produce handicrafts or are busy with
other work. Teenaged Dimasa women learn to weave. 99 out of the 100 respondents said that
women weaving shawls is integral to their customary law. Most men said that women are expected
to know weaving and that is intrinsic to their status. During our fieldwork we saw many girls weaving
after school hours.
Angami tradition demands that women know weaving and 78 of them weave shawls or mekhela
or other traditional dress. Also embroidery and decoration of the house have become a tradition
among them as well as the Garo but not every woman knows it. Two Angami women stitch and 2
others do embroidery work. 15 Angami and 29 Garo women know the art of weaving decorative
pieces as well as embroidery. Stitching of clothes and other materials is not as common among the
Angami as among the Garo. 2 Angami women produce bamboo items used as decorative pieces
in the house. Only one Garo woman knows weaving but 27 others are good at tailoring and 37 do
embroidery work and stitch pillow covers and picture frames. They continue to produce many
traditional handicrafts but have added modern items such as paper cuttings. They have thus built
on their traditional skills. n their houses one can see decorative pieces such as paper flowers and
bamboo items.
SaIe of Handicrafts
With this background we shall now examine the pattern of selling the handicrafts. Today it has
gone beyond their traditional barter form of exchange in which some tribes gave a say to women.
t began to change with the entry of the market economy as one can see among the Aka who sell
their surplus to middlemen. n order to understand these changes and their impact on women, we
shall study the methods of selling handicrafts and look at the changes in the economy of the tribes
and if possible, the process that has led to it.
TabIe 4.12 : Method of SeIIing Handicrafts
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI
PIace Order 0 0 17 0 0 17
Customers come 11 2 43 0 0 56
LocaI Market 0 0 31 51 62 144
House to House 0 2 3 8 37 50
Don't SeII 88 96 6 40 0 230
NA 1 0 0 1 1 3
TotaI 100 100 100 100 100 500
Table 4.12 shows that tribes like the Angami, Dimasa and Garo sell their products more than
the Adibasi and the Aka do. The shawls that Aka women weave and the bamboo, wooden and metal
tools that men make are used mostly at home and do not bring them much monetary income.
101
Though men in 66 of their families and women in 74 produce them, only 11 sell them to customers
who come to their homes because most of their villages are far from the market. Most of them sell
and buy goods in the neighbouring villages because not many local markets exist. The barter
economy is on the decline with the rise of industrial products but a viable alternative has not taken
its place. Their tradition of some women taking the goods to the plains for sale has all but disappeared
with the market economy reaching their region. Men from outside the region have taken it over but
women have not found an alternative to it.
Though men in 11 Adibasi families and women in 31 produce some handicrafts such as
bamboo items only 4 sell them. They are mainly for domestic use and are more a sign of cultural
revival than of economic improvement. All the Dimasa produce bamboo items and shawls but 40
of them do not sell any. Those who sell their products do it in the local market and in the neighbouring
towns. 51 sell them in the Haflong weekly market and get fairly good returns. 8 go for house-to-
house sale mainly among their relatives in the town at a low price.
On the other extreme are the Angami and Garo who produce many handicrafts for sale. 17
Angami families produce them after customers place an order and some of them do not produce
any for the family. 31 others sell their products in the local markets in the neighbouring villages and
towns or keep them in someone else's shop in the town. 43 others keep their products ready for
sale to the customers who come home to buy them. Sale at home is mostly by women. Only 2 do
not produce any handicrafts and 2 others do not sell any. Thus, the market economy of handicrafts
is fairly strong among the Angami.
As many as 62 Garo respondent families sell their products in the weekly market and 37 go
from house to house. However, non-local middlemen take advantage of their need for money and
buy their products at a low price which is one of the reasons why their economic status continues
to be bad. Handicrafts supplement the income those who own land get from the crops but very few
of them are self-sufficient. Both men and women sell the products.
ControI and Use of Money from Handicrafts
TabIe 4.13 : Handicrafts: ControI of Money
Tribe Both Men Women Producer NP NA TotaI
Aka
MaIe 0 1 0 0 49 3 53
FemaIe 1 3 0 0 41 2 47
TotaI 1 4 0 0 90 5 100
102
Tribe Both Men Women Producer NP NA TotaI
Adibasi
MaIe 0 0 0 0 33 1 34
FemaIe 2 0 0 0 64 0 66
TotaI 2 0 0 0 97 1 100
Angami
MaIe 33 8 1 3 7 1 53
FemaIe 30 6 6 0 5 0 47
TotaI 63 14 7 3 12 1 100
Dimasa
MaIe 0 0 0 0 23 31 54
FemaIe 0 0 0 0 17 29 46
TotaI 0 0 0 0 40 60 100
Garo
MaIe 41 2 0 5 1 1 50
FemaIe 50 0 0 0 0 0 50
TotaI 91 2 0 5 1 1 100
Grand TotaI 157 20 7 8 240 68 500
Another way of studying women's status is to know who controls money got from their sale.
We know from Table 4.12 that all except the Adibasi produce handicrafts both for domestic use and
for sale. Even among the Adibasi 4 sell them but only 2 said that both men and women control
money. We have no information on one. Most others do not produce handicrafts for sale. As a
result, the handicrafts based economy is not strong among them. They treat them as cultural, not
economic items.
The question "who controls the money? is not relevant to the Aka since only 10 families sell
some handicrafts. Among them, men control money in 4, 1 said that men and women control it
jointly but none said that women alone control it. That revives the fear expressed earlier about
women producing handicrafts for sale and men controlling their sale and income in the name of the
customary law. That can confirm women in their subordinate status and strengthen men.
The situation of the Dimasa is somewhat confusing. Though 59 out of 100 of them sell
handicrafts, the idea of control of money is not applicable to them or information on it is not
available. ts reason seems to be that the barter system continues to be strong among them. n
general they said that the husband and wife have equal control over money used for the maintenance
of the family but that does not include what they get out of the handicrafts.
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63 out of 100 Angami respondents said that men and women have equal control over money.
t is a sign that women among them are beginning to gain some power through partial control over
the income got through the sale of handicrafts. However, in 14 families men retain its control and
only 7 said that women have control over money. Thus the Angami patriarchal base remains strong
because most men think that they are the bread winners. n reality even unmarried men or women
can control money that they earn from the handicrafts. Most parents use it for their children's
education, maintenance of the family and health care.
Though Garo women inherit property, they do not necessarily have control over money they
get from the sale of handicrafts. 91 respondents said that men and women have equal control over
it. 2 men added that they alone should have control over it because their earnings are higher than
those of women. None said that women alone should control it though it belongs to the family
economy. Our field notes show that in reality the money got from the sale of handicrafts is kept by
women for family maintenance and children's education but they use it either with the consent of
or in consultation with men. Today some men want to go beyond it and have exclusive control over
it. Their practice seems to be for the one who produces handicrafts to have control over money got
from it. Even the 5 children producing handicrafts have control over the money they get from their
sale.
A possible conclusion from Tables 4.12 and 4.13 is that it is not enough for the tribal communities
to become aware of the possibilities of commercialisation of their products. They should also develop
awareness of the need for men and women to have equal control over their income. Without it
women tend to lose the little power they have over the family economy. This transition is visible
among the Aka whose tradition had allotted to some women the task of dealing with the market.
With the entry of the commercial forces, men from outside the region have come to control the
market and men at home have got more rights over the family income than they had till now. As
a result, the equilibrium that their customary law had maintained in gender relations is getting weak.
t is important to rebuild this equilibrium and ensure that as a first step some power is kept
in women's hands with the ultimate aim of gender equality. n practice very few men and even
women are ready for it. n some tribes like the Garo, women keep the money and consult men on
how and when to spend it. Even this limited power is under stress and there is a tendency for men
to take complete control over it. Angami men demand more power but women among them are
beginning to reinterpret the customary law to have some control over money. Thus, education and
political awareness among them is beginning another process. t may not reach the desired end of
equality but they are trying to re-establish an equilibrium.
ConcIusion
We have studied in this chapter, three aspects of gender relations in the family. While discussing
children's care we found some processes that can strengthen men's role and reduce that of women.
104
Men are beginning to take control of areas such as education and even health care where money
is involved. n their tradition health care belonged to the woman's domain and education became
the man's sphere only at a few stages. With modernisation, most tribes reinterpret their customary
law in a new manner to strengthen men's power. Money belongs to social relations, so health care
becomes men's responsibility if they have to pay for it. Education is today a tool of upward social
mobility and preparation for jobs outside the village. Money is required for it and more men than
in the past take control of it.
Among most tribes studied, jhum continues to be the woman's domain. The question of who
takes the decision about it does not arise among most of them because by and large the crops are
fixed so is the procedure. The man chooses the plot and the woman takes charge of it and
organises the work. Her relatively high status is linked mainly to the control she exercises over jhum
cultivation and the rest of the family economy. n other words, as long ownership is communal, the
woman has some control over the resources (Menon 1995: 101).
Thus the role she plays in the primary activity of agriculture makes the tribal woman an
economic asset and confers a relatively high status on her but does not make her equal to men.
To it we add her active participation in the secondary process of handicrafts production in which she
is assigned tasks such as stitching and weaving that are considered "feminine and to the man are
reserved "male tasks of wood and bamboo work. The difference with other societies is that the
tribal woman has some say in the decisions concerning both their production and marketing. n
most non-tribal societies such decisions are reserved to men.
On the other side, the changes noticed among the tribes studied, give indications of men
demanding more power at the cost of women. A case in point is the silence of most Garo respondents
on the issue of decision-making because gender relations in the family especially inheritance have
become a sensitive issue among them. Our earlier studies indicated that, despite the high educational
status of Angami women, patriarchy is getting stronger among them and that men interpret the
customary law in their own favour and at times against women (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a:
173). The demand of some men that all decision-making concerning handicrafts and money be left
to them substantiates that trend.
The Adibasi belong to the other extreme. They have for all practical purposes lost their tribal
identity and are searching for a new one. n this search they would like to begin with their Jharkhand
ancestry as the starting point but need to make an effort to know it because very few of them have
memories of their customary law. The revival of handicrafts that they are trying to introduce from
Jharkhand involves a double effort on their part. The first is to revive their cultural past. The second
is to link it to a customary law which they have lost to a great extent because of their isolation in
the regimented work structure of the tea gardens. They only have some customs that they situate
within the concept of a customary law. This lack of a tradition makes it difficult for women among
105
them to understand their role in the family economy, especially since their isolation in the "Lines
has reduced them to being housewives alone even while earning an income. Thus, the type of
modernisation they have experienced on extremely exploitative terms makes it difficult for them to
speak of their customary law as a positive tool that can bring about class and gender equity.
To understand the differences among the tribes studied, we looked at their economy and
livelihood. Most women are cultivators and have some decision-making power in it. Thus ambiguity
exists on the issue of gender equity. The steps being taken can go either way. They can go against
women or favour them. n order to understand these trends, one needs to take this analysis beyond
the family to their social relations. We shall do it in the following chapters by looking at their
economy, marriage and other customs.
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CHAPTER-5
WOMEN'S ROLE IN SOCIETY
n Chapter 4 we have studied women's role in the family with tribal women as pillars of the
edifice. Apart from the vital role they play in children's upbringing and socialisation the study of the
agricultural operations showed that they are also crucial for the management of the family economy.
Devoid of their contribution, tribal agriculture, jhum in particular, would cease to be a successful
bread-winning venture. We have also noted that the division of work in jhum is more gender
sensitive than in settled agriculture. We shall now turn our gaze to the tribal woman's role in her
society. Her social status is determined by the fact of her being an economic asset in the family but
we try to find out whether it goes beyond it to her participation in the decision-making bodies and
institutions in the village anad society.
We begin with the monetary economy which is the interface between the family and society.
Men and women play different roles in its control. n some societies men have complete control over
decisions about spending it and in buying and selling agricultural produce and other products. n
others there is a division of work between men and women. Besides, monetary exchange is recent
in their barter based societies. As noticed in chapter 4, it has implications for women because of
its tendency to transfer power to men.
We shall look at these changes in the context of the customary laws. Most tribes denied
women a role in the public arena, gave her very little space in the political sphere and many of them
did not even allow them membership of their traditional councils, leave alone head them. Some
even prohibited their physical presence near the meeting place. They justified their exclusion from
these fora in the name of their customary laws. Some have modernised this tradition by denying
women opportunities to participate in modern democratic institutions (Changkija 2004). Though the
ndian Constitution allows their participation in the State Assemblies and recent amendments demand
it in the local bodies, most tribal women play a negligible role in them. By and large the attitude
even of women towards their participation in such institutions is not very positive.
n this chapter we shall study the past, see whether and how it has changed, try to understand
the processes leading to it and identify the change agents. n this analysis we shall take into
account both the traditional and modern economy and political and social institutions. Some tribes
do not have traditional councils any more. A comparison between those who do not have them and
those who have them can enrich our understanding of the tradition-modern interface. n this comparison
108
we shall also see whether the affirmative action of modern political institutions in reserving some
seats for women has made a positive difference to them and whether this success has reached
tribal women.
1. DECISIONS CONCERNING MONEY
Shifting cultivation is the tradition of most tribes and monetary economy is somewhat recent
in their barter based societies. Bearing this in mind, we looked at women's role in the monetary
economy. Chapter 4 shows that their tradition gives women greater say in children's upbringing and
agriculture than over money. When money is needed, for example in education and health care, the
man plays a more important role than in the past. We shall, therefore, begin with their role in their
economy with decisions on and control over money.
Keeping Money
An indication of women's status is control over money. Some societies allow them to keep it
because it is assumed that they know better than men how to look after the family. But they do not
necessarily spend it, as such keeping money does not add to their status. Table 5.1 gives information
on this count concerning the tribes studied. n most respondent families women keep money. n
others men control it or both keep it. 12 Aka respondents said that men keep money and thus have
control over the family finances but 33 men and 32 women said that women keep it and in 23 others
men and women share the responsibility.
TabIe 5.1 : Keeping Money in the FamiIy
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Aka
Male 8 33 12 0 53
Female 4 32 11 0 47
TotaI 12 65 23 0 100
Adibasi
Male 2 28 4 0 34
Female 3 59 4 0 66
TotaI 5 87 8 0 100
Angami
Male 3 22 28 0 53
Female 2 27 17 1 47
TotaI 5 49 45 1 100
109
Tribe Men Women Both NP TotaI
Dimasa
Male 1 0 51 2 54
Female 0 0 45 1 46
TotaI 1 0 96 3 100
Garo
Male 0 0 50 0 50
Female 0 0 50 0 50
TotaI 0 0 100 0 100
Grand TotaI
Male 14 83 145 2 244
Female 9 118 127 2 256
Grand TotaI 23 201 272 4 500
Most Adibasi tea garden workers and daily wage earners hand their income over to women
but in 5 families men keep it and in 8 others both men and women keep it. The 87 persons in whose
family women keep it say that it should continue because they know the needs and it is safe in their
hands.
t is not uncommon for an Angami man to hand over his entire income to his wife to spend
it on the family but one sees change coming. n 49 respondent families women keep money, in 45
others men and women hold it jointly and in 5 families men keep it. A growing number of women
have salaried jobs and keep their own earnings but do not always have control over it. Dimasa men
and women keep money jointly. Only in 1 family the man alone keeps it against 96 in which they
keep it jointly. The reason they gave is that they are jointly responsible for the family and should
together take care of its income. Thus whether one or both earn it both are responsible for it. Joint
responsibility is seen also among the Garo. n all 100 families it is kept jointly by men and women.
One way of looking at it is that women's control is declining and power is being transferred to men.
One can also argue that joint control is a step towards equality but because of growing patriarchy
there is a danger of it becoming a step towards male domination.
Decision on Spending Money
From the fact that in most tribes women keep money, one cannot conclude that their status
is high. A look at the decision-making power to spend it gives the opposite message. They are its
custodians and cannot take a decision without their husband's consent. The thinking that men
should control money is often internalised even by women. For example, they are 30 of the 66 Aka
respondents who say that though they keep money men should decide how to spend it but 31 of
110
them said that women too should have power to decide along with men and 3 said that women
alone should decide. By and large Aka men who earn money want to control it because they
consider themselves family heads. Women keep with them the money needed for the family's
needs. ts interface with the market is in the hands of men.
TabIe 5.2 : Decision on Spending Money in the FamiIy
Tribe Men Women Both NA TotaI
Aka
Male 36 1 16 0 53
Female 30 2 15 0 47
TotaI 66 3 31 0 100
Adibasi
Male 3 6 25 0 34
Female 2 15 49 0 66
TotaI 5 21 74 0 100
Angami
Male 9 0 44 0 53
Female 2 2 42 1 47
TotaI 11 2 86 1 100
Dimasa
Male 2 0 49 3 54
Female 0 0 45 1 46
TotaI 2 0 94 4 100
Garo
Male 0 0 50 0 50
Female 0 0 50 0 50
TotaI 0 0 100 0 100
Grand TotaI
Male 50 7 184 3 244
Female 34 19 301 2 256
TotaI 84 26 385 5 500
Among the Adibasi the woman is in charge of the day-to-day family affairs, as such looks after
its finances. Also the financial status often influences her role. For example, in the Sonitpur district
where we did our study in 2001, many Adibasi respondents from the bastis did not have a regular
111
income. So men had to go out in search of work, leaving women in complete control of the family,
the cultivation of the little land they owned and the sale of its produce (Fernandes and Barbora
2002a: 115-116). Many respondents in the present sample are tea garden workers who earn a small
but regular salary. The woman who continues to be in charge of the family, keeps money and 21
of them decide how to use it. Only in 5 families the man alone decides and in 74 others he takes
the decision together with the woman. Most of the 21 families where women take decisions are
female headed or the man does not take much interest in the family mostly because of addiction
to alcohol.
Among the Angami both men and women decide on the use of money but 11 men want
exclusive control over it against 2 women who want to be the only decision-makers. t indicates the
growing trend of patriarchy noticed in our past studies too (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 205).
However, in 86 families men and women have equal power. Many Angami women have taken up
non-agricultural occupations like retail trade and weaving and have economic autonomy and that
seems to be reflected in the joint responsibility in decisions on money.
The dual Dimasa clan descent is visible also in the responsibility for their family finances. n
94 respondent families women and men control money jointly, including what is spent on children's
education that has come to their area recently. They think that since men and women put in almost
equal amount of work, they should also share the power of decision on how to spend it. Only in 2
families men alone are in charge of the monetary dealings and in none of them women alone have
this power. All of them want joint control to continue. Also most Garo respondents work on these
lines. n all their families men and women take joint decisions about money and want this tradition
to continue but the family-social spheres division intervenes also in its use. Both among the Dimasa
and Garo, women seem to control money that belongs to the family while men sell the commercial
crops. This division is strengthened when the families of salaried men depend on their single
income.
Buying Domestic Goods
TabIe 5.3 : Decision on Buying Domestic Goods
Tribe Men Women Both NA TotaI
Aka
Male 35 0 19 0 54
Female 31 2 12 1 46
TotaI 65 2 31 1 100
Adibasi
Male 4 1 28 1 34
Female 7 14 45 0 66
TotaI 11 15 73 1 100
112
Tribe Men Women Both NA TotaI
Angami
Male 1 41 11 0 53
Female 0 41 5 1 47
TotaI 1 82 16 1 100
Dimasa
Male 2 0 49 3 54
Female 1 0 44 1 46
TotaI 3 0 93 4 100
Garo
Male 0 8 42 0 50
Female 0 7 43 0 50
TotaI 0 15 85 0 100
Grand TotaI
Male 42 50 149 5 244
Female 39 64 149 3 256
Grand TotaI 81 114 298 87 500
Education and salaried jobs add to this trend and that can be instrumental in changing attitudes.
n fact, the analysis till now shows that most tribal societies of the Northeast are going beyond the
family-society dichotomy and divide decision-making between women and men. There is a beginning
of attitudinal change among them on the role of men and women in the family. Table 5.3 on
decisions on buying domestic goods shows that by and large this decision remains the woman's
domain since it is integral to her role in the family.
However, one cannot make an absolute statement about all the tribes. The woman's status
can be affected even in the family. For example, among the Aka market dealings are no more
through the barter of agricultural produce that was done by women. Their role in the market is
declining because money is under men's control particularly if the family depends less on jhum than
on men's salary. Only 2 women continue to buy domestic goods in the market. n 65 families men
either want or are already exercising greater control over their purchase but in 31 others men and
women do this work together.
The tea-garden Adibasi depend on the rations. The others do not have much to sell, so
women control their market dealings and buy most goods. Some men help them. Thus within their
subsistence economy they have some control over this interface but 11 said that only men should
buy domestic goods and 15 want women alone to do it. Most others felt that men should help
women to buy them since the family is their joint responsibility.
113
We have seen in the occupation of the Angami that several men are engaged in business but
in 82 families women buy domestic goods since they are linked to the family. Only 1 man buys them
and wants it to continue since it involves use of money which belongs to his sphere. n 16 families
both husband and wife buy them. We also asked them whether this situation should continue. A few
of them would like to limit her role to the family and another small number wants to insert her into
the social sphere fully but most want the present status to continue. Thus there seems to be some
new thinking on women's role.
The opposite is the case of Dimasa women. They do not buy domestic goods alone since they
are inadequately exposed to the middlemen-controlled market. So in 93 families women and men
buy the goods together and they want this practice to continue. Only in 3 families men alone buy
these and other goods. Like the Aka and the Adibasi, most of the Garo too live in a subsistence
economy. Despite 100% literacy, many of them are unemployed and do not have much to sell. They
buy goods mainly for daily use. While in the past women used to look after all domestic needs, buy
and sell goods, today in 85 families men buy them and women buy them in 15 others. Most daily
wage earners buy the goods every evening from the day's earnings. Thus poverty makes the family
depend on him.
TabIe 5.4 : Decision on SeIIing of AgricuIturaI Produce
Tribe Men Women Both NP NA TotaI
Aka
Male 0 0 1 52 0 53
Female 0 0 1 46 0 47
TotaI 0 0 2 98 0 100
Adibasi
Male 1 0 0 32 1 34
Female 1 2 2 61 0 66
TotaI 2 2 2 93 1 100
Angami
Male 0 14 9 10 20 53
Female 0 14 4 10 19 47
TotaI 0 28 13 20 39 100
Dimasa
Male 2 0 48 4 0 54
Female 2 0 43 1 0 46
TotaI 4 0 91 5 0 100
114
Tribe Men Women Both NP NA TotaI
Garo
MaIe 7 0 43 0 0 50
FemaIe 11 0 39 0 0 50
TotaI 18 0 82 0 0 100
Grand TotaI 24 30 190 216 40 500
Also Table 5.4 on women's role in the sale of agricultural surplus shows that, changes in the
market have implications for their status. Selling is important because it implies income and hence
control over money. Very few Aka and Adibasi sell any agricultural produce. The Aka depend on the
subsistence jhum economy and the produce they get barely suffices for their consumption. Only 2
respondents said that both men and women sell their agricultural produce. Very few Adibasi families
have goods to sell. n case of surplus or distress sale, both men and women take part in it. That
gives the woman some control over it.
Many Angami respondents too do not sell them but their situation is different from that of the
Aka and Adibasi. By and large they favour women selling goods in the market since it is considered
a part of the domestic sphere which belongs to her. They do it in 28 families. n 13 others men have
taken it up because sale of rice is against their tradition. They sell mainly commercial crops in order
to earn money for their children's education and that belongs to the man's domain (D'Souza 2001:
55-57). 1 man buys even household goods.
n 91 Dimasa families men and women sell the produce together and in 4 men alone do it
depending on the type of market. Women sell in the weekly haat and men sell commercial crops
in markets controlled by middlemen. Most respondents want both men and women to take part in
selling the produce but none wants women alone to sell them. ts main reason is their lack of
exposure to the market economy. Very few know a language other than their own. Besides often
their agricultural produce cannot compete with commercial goods. That is why even among the
Garo in 18 families men alone sell the goods against 82 in which men and women do it jointly. Thus,
only the Angami have a substantial number of women selling the produce. Among others, by and
large men sell commercial crops and women sell other produce. Thus commercialisation seems to
have an adverse impact on women.
Economic and SociaI Interaction
The analysis of the family monetary economy given above shows that in all five societies
studied, women have power in the family and some of them even sell and buy household goods
but men control the market economy. But it changes according to the extent of their exposure to
the market economy. n the Aka tradition the village used to appoint a few women to take the
agricultural surplus or handicrafts to the plains for sale or exchange. Now they are unable to deal
115
with the middlemen who control the market. So the transactions have been transferred to men
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 122-123). Dimasa women who used to take goods to the haat are
unable to deal with the middlemen. Men have taken it over.
Besides, the families in which men have salaried jobs depend more on their earnings than on
jhum in which the woman plays a decisive role. They may cultivate land but not as their main
sustenance. For example, the Aka who live in a CPR-based economy have been cultivating as
much land as the family needs in the jhum season and returning it to the community after it.
Because of it they did not even have the concept of individual ownership but it is slowly entering
their society. Besides, some men with a salaried job have stopped jhum cultivation and consider
themselves landless (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 20-22). As a result, the woman loses her status
attached to jhum. That combined with the control that middlemen exercise over the market tilts the
balance in favour of men.
Angami and Adibasi women have better possibilities but for opposite reasons. The Angami
have had access to education and the political process of a nationalist struggle that have prepared
them to deal with the changes in the market but one is not certain that their tribe is ready to grant
them this additional space. Some women among them said that despite some financial autonomy
many constraints come from their customary law that goes against their decision-making role. Many
men concurred with them. On the other extreme Adibasi women from the bastis have autonomy
because of poverty. Men go out for daily wage work and women deal with the family and the market.
t is not the case with the women in the tea gardens. They have a little more economic security but
less social power than basti women have. To some extent it is true also of the Garo. Because of
poverty men depending on daily wages use their earnings to buy provisions for the family at the end
of the day. t weakens women's economic role but the major problem in it is impoverishment, not
gender relations.
Thus the economic changes seem to reinforce the gender-based traditional division of labour
among the five tribes and take them towards stronger patriarchy. Traditionally women used to be
consulted but men took most decisions. Women accepted them. This patriarchal structure and the
ethos that supported it continue to operate in the interface with the market forces. The decision and
control of the family economy show that by and large men control money though at times women
too have power to use their own income. The market has become more or less a male domain. As
a result, women's role is declining in areas where they had some power. This change has started
even among the matrilineal Garo. Modernisation has introduced it among the Angami. The loss of
traditional Dimasa tribal values and the role of men among the Aka point to a stronger patriarchal
ethos. Education can make a difference in favour of women in some tribes but most of them lack
a strong enough social base to accept changes in favour of gender equity. They thus continue to
treat women as homemakers alone and legitimise it in the name of the customary law.
116
2. WOMEN IN THE TRADITIONAL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
The next aspect to be studied is women's role in the tribal political institutions. n allotting to
men what was considered heavy work to men and light work to women, it implies that women are
weaker than men though they play an important role in building the family, nurturing the children
and shaping the family economy (Banu 2001: 44). This perception was expressed in their lower
social status and legitimised by keeping them subordinate to men in society. Their subordination is
expressed also in the social institutions. So we asked them about women's membership in the
village councils and other bodies. We shall discuss this issue beginning with the composition of
these bodies and see whether women were allowed to be their members and to head them, whether
it has changed today. Are they allowed to become its members, to head them or hold any important
position in them? The Constitution has made it possible for women to play these roles in local level
institutions but this step has not always been successful. What have been the reactions of various
tribes to these developments? We shall focus on these questions while dealing with women's
political role.
Membership of the Institutions
Most Aka respondents said that they did not have a traditional council but during group
discussion and interviews with their leaders we realised that they did have one but that it has
disappeared. t began to get weak in the British age and has now been co-opted and weakened
because of the village panchayats. That explains why most respondents said that they do not have
a traditional council. Unlike in Nagaland where the British allowed their customary law to continue,
in Arunachal Pradesh they evolved only a set of administrative rules (Barooah 2002: 106). As a
result, their institutions got weak and very little material is available on the Aka tribe in general and
their traditional political institutions in particular.
The information we collected during the study shows that in their tradition the Nugo or village
chief was the centre of its administration. n this basic political unit he was the pivot around which
all decision-making revolved. The British regime created the post of the Gaonbura (village chief) to
oversee the functioning of the village on their behalf. This colonial institution continues to exist but
the voice of the Nugo has greater moral weight than his. The Nugo is the guardian of their traditional
wisdom and customary laws. He settles disputes relating to property, marriage, law and order and
imposes penalty on the guilty. All the adult males of the village could take part in the council but
women were excluded from it and were not allowed to attend its meetings. Today they attend
ordinary meetings called to settle property, marriage, divorce and other disputes. When asked about
women's absence from the political institutions, we were told that their customary law forbids their
membership or presence at their meetings and makes men superior to women. The man has to go
to other villages to represent his village and women will find this trip difficult. Secondly women may
not be as intelligent as men. Thirdly, physically men are stronger. Consequently, the customary law
bestowed superiority on men and conferred a higher political status on them.
117
t was difficult to get information about the traditional Adibasi political institutions. After their
migration to Assam during the 19
th
century they have lost their cultural moorings in the process of
settling down in totally new surroundings. Besides, the tradition is not uniform in this conglomeration
of tribes. Older persons among them recall vaguely a few details about their traditional decision-
making bodies but Table 5.1 shows that now they have been uprooted from these customs and
practices and the panchayat has taken their place. n the bhagans and bastis where we conducted
our study mostly Adibasi belonging to the Munda tribe worked in the tea plantations. n Jharkhand
this ancestral tribe of theirs governed their villages according to their customary law. According to
oral tradition at first the Munda tribe was nomadic and matriarchal. When they settled down and
family institutions took roots with individual marriages as their base, they switched over to the
patriarchal system. A relic of the matriarchal system is the role played by the maternal uncles of
the bride and bridegroom in their marriage ceremonies (Roy 2004: 219). As long as the matriarchal
system existed their lineage was traced through the mother who played an important role in the
family and society. Once they switched over to the patriarchal system, her role decreased in all
spheres and it resulted in the deterioration of their status.
Their social and political organisation was centred round the kili or clan. Many families constituted
a kili and many clans comprised a village. The clan elders i.e. adult males settled most petty
disputes. A village council, which was a body of elders from all its clans resolved inter-clan conflicts.
The village headman was the Munda. At a higher level, they had a Parha, consisting of a dozen
villages. ts executive and judicial authority was vested in a body known as panchayat. From its
name one can see the influence of their neighbouring kingdoms. The panchayats were called to
settle disputes and oversee law and order. Their major duty was to maintain harmonious relationship
between villages (bid: 228). Women had absolutely no role to play either in the village councils or
in Parha panchayat
Some changes are taking place in the Angami society. Their village political unit is a federation
of two or more khels that are composed of two or more clans. n the past, each khel was an
independent political unit in a village and to some extent they continue to be so even now. Due to
security reasons, the village came into existence as a federation of khels (D'Souza, Kekrieseno and
Nokhwenu 2002: 78). n case of inter-khel conflicts, the village council entered the scene as a
reconciling agency. Their political system is marked by a democratic spirit. During the meeting of
the village council each member has a right to express his opinion freely. The decisions were
usually arrived at through consensus. However, women were excluded from them. Only adult males
could attend the clan or village level meetings. Their customary law confined women to the domestic
sphere. This effectively forbade them from taking active part in the decision-making processes of
the village. To the question why did the customary laws did not allow women to be politically active,
we did not get any satisfactory answers except that women primarily had to look after the family.
Table 5.5 indicates some changes occurring among them. 90 respondents said that some
women join the village council today. t is a new trend in their composition. Women have made an
118
entry into them but their contribution is extremely limited. n this recent development the Village
Women's Association President becomes its ex-officio member. A leader in Jotsoma said that
women are as capable as men of taking an active part in the political arena. Education has brought
about this change in their favour but they are not allowed full participation and men justify it in the
name of the customary law.
TabIe 5.5 : Women Members in the TraditionaI CounciI
Tribe OnIy Men Men & I do Not No TraditionaI TotaI
Some Women Know CounciI
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 1 33 34
Female 0 0 6 60 66
TotaI 0 0 7 93 100
Angami
Male 6 47 0 0 53
Female 4 43 0 0 47
TotaI 10 90 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 54 0 0 0 54
Female 46 0 0 0 46
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Garo
Male 36 14 0 0 50
Female 41 9 0 0 50
TotaI 77 23 0 0 100
Grand TotaI 187 113 7 193 500
The Dimasa village system was known as Nablai or "a cluster of houses. The village was
administered by a council called Salis which literally means a social court. The Salis was headed
by the Khunang, the traditional village headman. All the adult males of a village were members of
the Salis. Khunang wielded considerable power in the village affairs. Apart from him the Salis had
seven officials known as Dilek, Daulathu, Habaisagao, Pharai, Mantri, Hangsebukhu and Jalairao.
119
Dilek was the assistant headman of the village and he assisted the Khunang in the discharge of his
duties. Their tradition excluded women from the village council and did not allow them to participate
in its discussion. Only when a woman was involved in a dispute she would be called for the
meeting. Another elderly woman was called to offer solutions (Bordoloi 1984: 41). Some said that
from time immemorial women have been excluded from the village council. Most added that it
should not change and that women should not become members of political bodies. Thus the
situation remains unchanged. Women continue to be excluded from the village councils.
The Garo village administration is centred round the nokma or the chief heiress of an A'khing
whose land includes satellite villages under her authority. The Garo Hills were owned by a large
number of A'khing nokmas who governed the villages jurisdiction through a council of elders in
accordance with their customary law (Kar 1982: 46-57). n practice today this position is held by the
nokma's husband. He is the most powerful man in his territory and is the chief of the A'khing land
belonging to his wife's mahari. n this political organisation women have no role to play. Some
respondents called the body of clan elders who helped the nokma, the village court and others
called it a village council. Table 5.5 shows that some changes are occurring and that a few women
are taking part in them.
Leadership of the TraditionaI Institutions
f it was anathema for women to become members of traditional bodies, one can imagine how
much more difficult it was for them to become their heads. Most respondents said that it was
unthinkable for them to hold these offices. Though we knew this stand we posed this question
deliberately in order to find out what kept them out of these offices and to see whether the community
was ready to change today.
TabIe 5.6 : Heading the TraditionaI Institutions
Tribe OnIy Men UsuaIIy Depends Don't know No CounciI TotaI
Men, Some on
women members
Aka
Male 0 0 0 1 52 53
Female 0 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 1 99 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 0 5 29 34
Female 3 1 0 8 54 66
TotaI 3 1 0 13 83 100
120
Tribe OnIy Men UsuaIIy Depends Don't know No CounciI TotaI
Men, Some on
women members
Angami
Male 49 3 1 0 0 53
Female 43 4 0 0 0 47
TotaI 92 7 1 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 53 0 0 1 0 54
Female 46 0 0 0 0 46
TotaI 99 0 0 1 0 100
Garo
Male 50 0 0 0 0 50
Female 41 6 0 1 2 50
TotaI 91 6 0 1 2 100
Grand TotaI 285 14 1 16 184 500
The Aka village council had the Nugo and two officials to assist him in its administration. The
first one, the Baga was responsible for calling the meetings in consultation with the Nugo. The
second official, Gabba collected revenue and taxes from the villagers on behalf of the Nugo. No
woman could hold any of these offices, least of all that of the Nugo. n fact not any man can be
Nugo. He should be the richest person in the village. Sundarji, the Nugo of Thrizino and a Zilla
Parishad Member of Thrizino Sector added that, he should be a man of sound judgment and
intelligence and that their customary law does not allow women to become office bearers in the
power hierarchy of the village administrative set up. 99 out of 100 Aka respondents said that women
should not aspire to these offices. Most men added that traditionally men have held this post and
that should not change because he has to represent the village in inter-village meetings it is proper
that it is a man.
Since the traditional council did not exist among the Adibasi this question did not apply to
them. Those who could remember something of the past said that only men could be village
leaders. We have already said that though their political organisation was founded on democratic
principles, women were kept out of it. They could not become members of their traditional councils
and by implication could not head them. n the past their exclusion from their political processes
was total but modernisation has made a dent in their tradition.
Women are now represented in the Angami village council. Perhaps because of it as Table
5.6 shows some women say that they too can become their heads but it is far from the reality at
121
present. t does not mean that women will forever be denied leadership roles. We know from the
educational and occupational status of the sample that they have made big strides in higher education
and hold some administrative posts. However, men are not yet ready to share power with them
despite the progress they have made. One is left with the impression that they are moving towards
equality but not in the immediate future.
Like the Angami, the Dimasa tribe too is patriarchal. Table 5.6 drives home the point that the
Kunang, their village chief, was always a man. All 100 respondents said that only men can be
leaders of the village council. During the group discussion we heard answers such as "it is unthinkable
for women to head the council. When we asked whether women will continue to be excluded, the
answers varied. Younger men and women felt that if they have leadership qualities they should be
allowed to become leaders. With education they too have become capable and have proved that
they can outgrow their domestic chores. Older persons thought that it would be against Dimasa
tradition for to bcome council members or to lead it.
n the Garo tradition the Nokma was a woman but in reality men controlled this post. The
Nokrom or her husband automatically took control of this office and she played second fiddle to him.
He became the clan chief, looked after the distribution of property and land, settled disputes within
the A'khing land and took part in settling the inter-A'khing disputes. However, he adorned this post
by virtue of being the Nokma's husband, the chosen heiress of a mahari. n spite of this reality Table
5.6 shows that 91 respondents say that men alone can become the Nokma. Only 6, all of them
women, say that women too can hold this post. During our fieldwork we noticed the trend of women
asserting their right to this office and men accusing them of interfering in their territory. The matrilineal
Garo women enjoy a fairly high social status and inherit property but some men have started
demanding change in this system. t explains the men's reaction to women's demands as an effort
to usurp their powers.
t is clear from the above discussion that women were completely kept out of this important
realm of their societies. An oft-mentioned reason is that their customary law does not allow women
to enter this field. We have also noted that some change has started taking place. A few women
have become members of traditional bodies. t is a welcome small step from the point of view
gender equity and they have a long way to go. The Dimasa and Aka are yet to make even this
beginning but the Angami and Garo women have started entering the territory that was forbidden
to them in the past. The Adibasi are far from their traditions and cannot think of going back to them
since very few of their customs exist today. However, their village council is one body that has kept
them united amid their marginalisation.
3. MODERN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND WOMEN
Since 1947 various modern democratic institutions have been introduced in the Northeast as
in the rest of ndia. Adult franchise and elected councils are some of them. The communities that
122
had till then run their internal affairs according to their customary law had to send their elected
representatives to the State legislature and the Union Parliament. That brought about radical changes
in their society. Adult franchise for example made it possible for women to cast their votes, a right
that their customary law had denied them. This step combined with access to education could
revolutionise their society if women could gradually enter the political arena. n theory they gained
the right to contest elections.
n this section we shall try to understand the impact of the changes on tribal women in order
to see whether modernisation has helped them to gain power in their society. Reservation of a third
of the seats has led to women taking part in political institutions and has in its turn given a boost
to the morale of some of them who have taken courage to make their voice heard but many men
resist the idea of women playing a proactive role in public affairs. The Panchayati Raj system has
made it possible for women to become members of the Anchal Samiti or the inter-village council.
We shall see whether it is effective.
DeaIing with the Modern Institutions
As mentioned above, of special significance is women's right to vote and to contest elections.
Apart from the original constitutional provisions of universal suffrage, of special significance is the
73
rd
Constitution Amendment Act of 1992 that ushered in the Panchayati Raj system all over the
country. According to the Act, the Gram Sabha will comprise all the adult members registered as
voters in its area. One third of the elected seats in the elected Panchayats are reserved for women,
so are a third of the posts of panchayat chairpersons (Ray 1998: 13). By reserving a third of the
seats for women at all levels it ensured their participation in the decision-making bodies of their
society and ensured that they led the grass-roots level political institutions from the village to the
district level.
These provisions did not apply to the Scheduled Areas unless modified and amended by an
Act of the Parliament. But some states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh went
ahead with the extension of this Act to them. t was challenged in their High Courts and it led the
Government of ndia to appoint a Parliamentary Committee led by Dilip Singh Bhuria in 1994 to look
into its applicability to the Scheduled Areas. The Bhuria Committee in its report submitted in 1995
suggested that this Act should be implemented in the Scheduled Areas but care should be taken
not to wipe out their traditional institutions. Based on these recommendations the Parliament passed
the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) to extend the system to the
Scheduled Areas (Narwani 2004: 130). ts basic tenet was to strengthen participatory democracy
that existed already in their areas. ts addition was to extend it to women because of their meagre
representation in their traditional structures. f implemented it could make a big difference. However,
some have expressed doubts about their effectiveness from the perspective of women's status.
They feel that the law cannot by itself change the social system and that in many States their
participation is only symbolic but it can function as a beginning (Sivaji 1999: 150-152).
123
Besides, the PESA Act applies only to the Fifth Schedule areas. n the Northeast, Meghalaya
and two districts of Assam that come under the Sixth Schedule do not have the panchayati raj, nor
do Mizoram and Nagaland that are run according to their customary law. The rest of the region has
the panchayati raj according to the 73
rd
Amendment. However, Nagaland has Village Development
Boards (VDB) though playing a different role. t is run according to their customary law but the VDB
are modern institutions with seats reserved for women. The Dimasa and Garo Kunang and Nokma
remain but they do not have panchayats. We shall bear these issues in mind while analysing
women's status in the local bodies.
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have implemented the Panchayati Raj System. n Assam, it
was established by the Rural Panchayat Act, 1948 but major changes were brought into it in 1959,
1972 and 1994. At present system it is based largely on the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994 which too
has been amended a couple of times. t is based on the 73
rd
Amendment, as such reserves one
third of the seats for women. Among the tribes studied, the Dimasa and Adibasi reside in Assam
but the Dimasa do not come under the purview of this Act since the District Autonomous Council
under the Sixth Schedule recognises their village councils as its local bodies. The Adibasi have lost
their traditional systems completely. Very few of them even know of their existence. So they only
have the panchayati raj but cannot adapt them to their customary law. The Arunachal Pradesh Act
goes back to 1968. n May 1995 it had 12 Zilla Parishads, 78 Anchal Samities and 2,012 Gram
Panchayats (Pandey 1997: 254).
Participation and LocaI Bodies
TabIe 5.7 : Membership of VDB or Panchayat
Tribe OnIy Men & EquaI Some Don't NP TotaI
men some Chance women know
women because
of Law
Aka
Male 1 2 3 42 5 0 53
Female 1 2 3 34 6 1 47
TotaI 2 4 6 76 11 1 100
Adibasi
Male 4 12 1 0 17 0 34
Female 4 17 0 2 43 0 66
TotaI 8 29 1 2 60 0 100
124
Tribe OnIy Men & EquaI Some Don't NP TotaI
men some Chance women know
women because
of Law
Angami
Male 3 50 0 0 0 0 53
Female 0 45 2 0 0 0 47
TotaI 3 95 2 0 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 1 0 0 1 0 52 54
Female 0 0 0 1 0 45 46
TotaI 1 0 0 2 0 97 100
Garo
Male 0 0 0 0 0 50 50
Female 0 0 0 0 0 50 50
TotaI 0 0 0 0 0 100 100
Grand TotaI 14 128 9 80 71 198 500
n order to clarify these issues, we asked our respondents about women's participation in
modern local and village level political institutions. n some places they have taken the form of the
Panchayati Raj and in some others that of the VDB. Among tribes like the Aka, the traditional
institutions have been co-opted as village panchayats which seem to have taken roots among them.
n that sense, only two of the communities studied i.e. the Aka and the Adibasi, come under the 73
rd
Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 that reserves a third of the seats for women. Reservations exist
also in the Nagaland VDBs. Table 5.7 shows that 76 respondents think that Aka women would not
have been represented in these bodies without the 73
rd
Amendment. At Palizi, one of the villages
we studied, a woman has become the Chairperson of the Gram Panchayat, something that was
unthinkable in the past. However, one is not certain that it has resulted in an improvement of their
status. Despite the resentment especially of older men, some Aka women have courageously
embraced their new responsibilities but many others find it difficult to live up to them.
n Tinsukia district where we did our study among the Adibasi this system has taken shape
but remains ambiguous. Table 5.7 shows that 60 of the 100 Adibasi respondents are ignorant of it.
When we cross checked this information in group discussion many women said that a third of the
seats are reserved for women and that they become office bearers of the panchayat bodies but men
do not allow them to participate in its meetings and even discourage them from contesting the
elections. Many are not even aware of their right of representation. Many Adibasi women have to
125
over-work to make ends meet and have no time to think of their participation in these bodies. As
a result they have lost their traditional councils and the new ones that can give them legal representation
remain ineffective.
The Dimasa and the Garo come under the Sixth Schedule and most of our respondents are
aware that the Panchayati Raj system does not apply to them. Besides, among both of them the
traditional village bodies continue to exist and the DACs recognise the village chief's role in administering
justice. Thus the Dimasa Khunang and the Garo Nokma are given statutory positions and their
village councils have the status of gram panchayats. n N. C. Hills the village councils have been
discharging these duties with no interference from the DAC. Also in the Garo Hills, the district
authorities recognise the Nokma. However, all of them deny political rights to women and deprive
them of participation in their village structures. The Panchayat System attempts to right this historical
wrong done to women. One is bound to ask whether its gender friendly provisions should not be
extended to these areas.
Among the Angami, the VDB has replaced the Panchayat though its objective is somewhat
different. One third of its seats are reserved for women. However, we found a great amount of
resentment about it among many male respondents. Besides, as noted above, among the Angami
a woman representative is sent to the traditionall village political body. t shows some openness
towards women taking an active part in the political processes of the village. On the other side, we
also found much resistance to their greater participation.
Women Contesting EIections
Electoral democracy came to most of the Northeast after ndian independence. Though women
are enrolled as voters and do cast votes, very few of them have contested elections from these
communities. t is as true of the matrilineal Garo as of the Aka who are close to their tradition, the
Adibasi who are feeling the worst impact of modernisation and the Angami who have got many
benefits of modern inputs such as education. n fact, after 42 years of its existence the Nagaland
legislature has not had a single woman MLA. Meghalaya has an average of 3 members and the
situation is not much different in the remaining States.
We, therefore, tried to understand the attitude of menand women across diffeent age groups
of each community towards women contesting State and national elections. Group discussion was
of greater value in it than individual interviews. So we met separately members of men's and
women's associations and younger persons. t created an atmosphere conducive to free discussion
since it was easier for them to express their views among their peers than in mixed groups. By and
large, the younger generation was positive towards women's participation in these bodies. Many of
them wanted capable women to be allowed to contest elections and even hold party posts. The
older generation, especially men, did not favour their participation. Table 5.8 shows that the reaction
differs according to the tribe. 21 Aka and 38 Dimasa respondents considered it against their tradition.
126
Of the 38 Dimasa respondents who took this stand 35 were men thus echoing a male bias in the
public sphere among the tribes that are close to their tradition. No Adibasi and Garo respondent felt
that women's participation in State Assembly elections is against their tradition. Only 3 Angami
respondents posed tradition as a hurdle for women to enter electoral politics.
The introduction of the Panchayati Raj System in Arunachal Pradesh since 1968 has brought
about revolutionary changes in the State's local self-government. Elections to them are held periodically
and because of reservations under the 73
rd
Amendment women contest elections without any
inhibition. They have thus become members at all levels, from the local bodies to the district level.
Direct elections are a help for the Gram Panchayats. Elections to the Anchal Samiti and Zilla
Parshad are indirect but a third of their members continue to be women. As a result of the mandatory
nature of the legal provisions women's representation has reached a satisfactory level in local self-
government in Arunachal Pradesh.
TabIe 5.8 : ShouId Women Contest AssembIy EIections
Tribe Against Yes, women Leaders Yes, if Don't TotaI
tradition know don't Iike capabIe Know
probIems
weII
Aka
Male 12 19 5 7 10 53
Female 9 26 6 2 4 47
TotaI 21 45 11 9 14 100
Adibasi
Male 0 28 1 0 5 34
Female 0 49 1 2 14 66
TotaI 0 77 2 2 19 100
Angami
Male 2 23 0 25 3 53
Female 1 35 1 8 2 47
TotaI 3 58 1 33 5 100
Dimasa
Male 35 8 1 2 8 54
Female 3 43 0 0 0 46
TotaI 38 51 1 2 8 100
127
Tribe Against Yes, women Leaders Yes, if Don't TotaI
tradition know don't Iike capabIe Know
probIems
weII
Garo
Male 0 50 0 0 0 50
Female 0 50 0 0 0 50
TotaI 0 100 0 0 0 100
Grand TotaI 62 331 15 46 46 500
However, one is not certain that it is effective in women moving towards gender equity. We
say this because the positive scenario seen in the Panchayati Raj System is not reflected in the
State Assembly and in party politics. The small number of women in these bodies leaves one with
the impression that the AP tribes continue to look upon women as inferior and physically weak. That
is why we tried to find their attitude towards women's entry into politics. 21 of them opposed it in
the name of their tradition and 11 others said that they opposed it because their leaders are against
it. As many as 15 out of those who oppose their participation are themselves women but 45 others
including 26 women say that women know the problems better than men do and should be allowed
to join party politics. Similar was the trend in group discussion sessions. Most felt that if women are
intellingent and capable they should contest elections.
n the tea bhagans and Adibasi bastis we studied gram panchayats were functional. Because
of the law women too are represented in them and are elected to the bodies till the district level.
Table 5.8 shows that 77 respondents support their contesting elections because they understand
societal problems better than men do. However, in practice Adibasi women's plight is pathetic. Their
impoverishment and low wages force them to overwork for sheer survival. That makes it difficult for
them to pay attention to political activities. Besides, 60% of girl children are out of school and very
few of the rest go beyond class 4. Child labour is high and a large number of girls from the bastis
go out as domestic helps (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 55). That makes their participation
difficult in the legislature but it is fairly good in the trade unions (TU). During group discussion some
TU women who were present told us that they take an active part in their executive committees.
Their faithful presence is noticed when they march with flags and shout slogans at all TU demonstrations.
Their voice is heard to some extent but this area has received scant attention of the media.
Democratic rule based on electoral politics made its mark in Nagaland in its first successful
general elections held in 1963. Not a single woman has been elected to the State Legislative
Assembly after more than 40 years of its existence. One woman contested from Mokokchung in
2003 but suffered a humiliating defeat. n the 2004 parliamentary elections, a women's association
of Nagaland wanted to supoort a woman candidate for its lone Lok Sabha but it met with severe
resistance from the public. Except for Mrs. Rano Shaiza, an Angami, who was elected to the Rajya
128
Sabha in the 1970s no woman has entered either the State legislature or the Parliament. Their
tradition seems thus to have been modernised.
58 Angami respondents said that women understand the problems of their society better than
men do and that if they are capable, they should be allowed to contest the elections. This positive
attitude bodes well for Naga women but group discussion painted a different picture. A prominent
woman working in a government department of Nagaland said that since women are not accustomed
to dabbling in politics, it is not easy to visualise them becoming leaders of political parties and
members of legislatures. Other women too voiced a similar opinion and gave a pessimistic view of
the scenario. Most of them quoted the customary law as the stumbling block. As practised today
it promotes a patriarchal hierarchy.
Besides, one cannot bypass the active role that their State level bodies like the Naga Mother's
Association (NMA) have played. They are civil society organisations working for the socio-political
transformation of their society. These agencies, NMA in particular, have been the voice of women
in Nagaland for a long time, have struggled to bring about peace in the State and have fought
against social evils like drug trafficking and liquor driven violence. n fact it is due to the intervention
of NMA that liquor is banned in Nagaland. Like the Naga Hoho, the NMA too is actively involved
in the peace negotiations between the Government of ndia and Naga Nationalist Groups. Despite
the yeomen service they have rendered, their voice like that of remaining Naga women has been
subdued in electoral politics. One needs to delve deeper into this issue to find out the blocks to
women's entry into these bodies.
The N. C. HillsDistrict Autonomous Council formed in 1952 has, in keeping with the provisions
of the Sixth Schedule, allowed the traditional village institutions to continue village administration
but 50 years after its formation not a single woman has been elected or nominated to the DAC. For
the first time ten years ago a woman contested a seat of the DAC but was defeated. But for it one
has not heard of Dimasa women playing an active role in electoral politics. They enjoy a relatively
high status in their double descent society. Discussion especially in women's groups reflected this
aspect. Men too are not averse to women contesting elections. 51 respondents (Table 5.8) said that
they understand the problems better and should be given an opportunity in it. Since their tradition
is against it, it may take a long time but the atmosphere does not seem to be adverse to their
participation.
The matrilineal Garo restrict women's role to socio-cultural activities of their tribe and in
practice, though not in theory, debar them from electoral politics. However some of them have
contested elections in Meghalaya which was till 1972, part of Assam. We are not aware of Garo
women contesting Assembly elections though some Khasi and Jaintia women were elected to the
Assam State Legislature. Since 1972, there have been a few cases of Garo women contesting the
elections. Percylina Marak was the first to be elected to the State Legislature. The first Garo Hills
Autonomous Council in 1952 had 2 women members in a house of 24, one of them elected and
the other nominated (Lyngdoh 1998: 62-64). This tradition has continued till today. Table 5.8 shows
that Garo women feel that men do not deny them this opportunity though very few of them contest
129
elections. All the respondents say that women understand the problems better and should be
allowed to contest elections. t is in contrast with the other tribes but even among them very few
contest elections.
ConcIusion
n this chapter on the social role of tribal women we noted that while they are valued as
economic assets in the domestic sphere their voices are muted in their social political and economic
bodies. Though never stated openly, the tradition of most tribes is based on the assumption of their
intellectual inferiority. Men alone have the mental abilities required to administer and preside over
social matters. This logic leading to their exclusion from the economic and political fields continues
to hold sway. Many women too have internalised this ideology and consider politics beyond them
(Nongbri 1998: 236).
The above discussion also drove home the point that the 73
rd
Amendment does not apply to
many tribal area of the Northeast. Only two of the five tribes studied get its benefits. At least this
aspect of the Act should have been applied to the Sixth Schedule areas so as to ensure women's
participation in the local bodies. The Meghalaya and Assam Governments have not initiated discussion
on this issue in the Sixth Schedule areas (Lyngdoh 1998: 64). At the same time the fact that the
Aka and Adibasi women have gained representation in the panchayats and Angami women in the
VDB shows that these protective measures do make a difference. Their representation may be
symbolic. They may find it difficult to make their voice heard but it is a beginning and one has to
go a long way to make equity real.
Thus women stand to gain if legal provisions are enacted in their favour but only a law is
inadequate. A social atmosphere has to be created in favour of change. Reservations are not a
panacea for equality but are only a step in undoing the historical injustice meted out to them. There
will be resistance not merely from men but also from women. One sees it in the dilly-dallying
techniques of politicians in introducing the Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament. f it is so at
a high political level how much more will it be at the lower rung of the machinery! t shows the need
for concerted efforts on the part of the government to implement the legal provisions to reserve
seats for women in all political structures.
Awakening of women to their legitimate political rights is another insight gained in this chapter.
Many respondents have said that with their access to education and exposure to electoral politics
women have started asking questions about their traditions and conventions enshrined in the customary
laws. The degree and extent of this awakening varies depending on their exposure to education and
legal provisions. From the analysis above it appears that the forces of modernisation such as
education, electoral politics and constitutional provisions have the capacity to transform tribal societies
in favour of gender equity. Many women who were confined to their homes till now have started
playing an active role in society and social transformation. However, they are small steps. A social
atmosphere has to be created in favour of gender equity. We shall see its possibility while studying
other social processes.
131
CHAPTER-6
WOMEN AND MATRIMONIAL LAWS
We have studied in chapter 5 the monetary economy as a family-society interface and have
looked at women's participation in their traditional and modern institutions. Marriage is a crucial
area impinging on their status. One cannot analyse it without understanding the matrimonial laws
and customs since in both traditional and modern societies it is a socially sanctioned institution that
establishes a social and economic relationship between two individuals and their families that
continues through generations. t is both an economic necessity and a bio-social prerequisite for
survival. Through it an individual acquires a whole new set of relatives and works out new forms
of interaction. Marriage is an important phase of life for women in particular since marital union
influences their role, position and other associated facts of life. After it they assume new roles and
their individual life changes according to the duties and norms of the customary law. Therefore
knowledge of the customs around marriage is necessary to understand social life, especially women's
status.
n tribal societies, marriages were celebrated in accordance with their customary laws that had
somewhat rigid regulations including some cultural modes and morals, permissions and taboos.
This area has changed more than many others, so has the potential to reinforce the traditions of
a tribe. n this chapter we shall discuss the marriage customs of the five tribes and recent changes
in them. We shall look at the rules such as the selection of partners, permission of marriage, change
of residence and clan, divorce and conflict resolution mechanisms. Since the marriage customs are
not uniform among all, we need to understand them according to the type of society they belong
to and their implications for women.
1. CUSTOMS AND PROCEDURES BEFORE MARRIAGE
The area that has changed more than any other is that of selection of partners. Among some
tribes marital union of the younger generation appears to have become a personal affair rather than
that of the family and society. The custom of the spouses selecting each other existed in their tribes.
Today the choice by mutual consent does not always follow the traditional norms. After they take
a decision they or their friends or relatives communicate it to their parents. Thus though the socially
recognised institution of marriage is very much in existence, nowadays it seems to be more in the
direction of establishing a nuclear family.
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SeIection of Partners
The mode of selection differs from tribe to tribe. n some societies after the boy and girl attain
the age of marriage, their parents choose the partners. n others two of them choose each other
and get their parents' permission. Table 6.1 shows how the partners are selected in each tribe. The
custom of negotiations between the parents seems to be the commonest.
Traditionally Aka women had neither a choice nor a voice with regard to marriage. Cross
cousin marriages were preferred, permissible and popular in their tribe (Dutta and Duarah 1997:
172-173). ntra-clan marriage is considered deviant but Table 6.1 shows that the "preferred marriage
is changing and love based arranged one has become the norm. We also found some inter-
community marriages among them that were not allowed in the past. The choice and women's
freedom are limited but they give them some rights and are weak steps towards equality. The main
reason for the changes seems to be contact with outsiders through the market and the emergence
of new religions i.e. Christianity and Hinduism both of which also strengthen patriarchy. Christian
Churches provide opportunities of education to boys and girls but its structures remain patriarchal.
Also the commercial forces strengthen the patriarchal ethos as we have seen in chapter 4. Practices
like bride price and other customs that indicate a relatively high status of women continue to exist
among them but the impact of these inputs on women's status remains ambiguous (Fernandes and
Barbora 2002a: 192-194).
TabIe 6.1 : SeIection of Partners by Tribe and Gender
Tribe Arranged Love Partners Love & TotaI
Marriage Fixed arranged
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 0 34 0 0 34
Female 1 65 0 0 66
TotaI 1 99 0 0 100
Angami
Male 30 3 0 20 53
Female 31 1 0 15 47
TotaI 61 4 0 35 100
133
Tribe Arranged Love Partners Love & TotaI
Marriage Fixed arranged
Dimasa
Male 11 43 0 0 54
Female 13 33 0 0 46
TotaI 24 76 0 0 100
Garo
Male 0 49 1 0 50
Female 0 49 1 0 50
TotaI 0 98 2 0 100
Grand TotaI 86 277 2 135 500
Adibasi marriage is arranged by the middleman who can be any member of their society. The
first step is for the parents to accept the match with exogamy as the norm which has now been
narrowed down to the sept. We find today among the Mundas and Oraons, endogamy in the tribe
and exogamy in the sept. t is seen in their flexible customs. One person's marriage was arranged
by her parents. The remaining 99 made their own choice. A major charge brought against the tea
garden workers is that they permit incestuous and mixed marriages (TDLA 1989: 128). n reality
they ban all union with a person descended in a direct line from the same parents. The prevalence
of love marriage among them shows that the man and the woman have some freedom in the choice
of their life partners. n this freedom, they also respect the reputation of the spouse's family but
more women than men give importance to marriage as a personal affair.
Whatever the type of marriage, it is always the man who takes the initiative to propose among
the Angami. The formal marriage was complicated in the past. Generally the female agnates who
reside in different clan localities helped in choosing and finalising the match for their male agnatic
kinsmen. The choice of partners was exogamous. The Angami usually like to marry someone from
their own village or at the most from a neighbouring village. n our sample 30 male and 31 female
respondents had their marriage arranged by parents. As Haimendorf (2004: 20) has pointed out "it
is the fear that the girl may die without love experience. However there are also instances of
Angami marrying non-Angami and non-Naga because of exposure to outsiders. Modernisation in
the form of education and religion, Christianity in particular has changed their outlook. The marriage
of 4 respondents was based on love without their parents' consent but 20 men and 15 women
selected their own partners and then got their parents' consent. Angami women today have the
freedom to choose their life partners because of their high educational qualifications but many of
them remain unmarried because they do not find men with similar educational qualifications.
Existence of the double descent clans makes the Dimasa marriage complicated. t is strictly
monogamous and was by negotiation but with the consent of the boy and the girl. Thus, their
134
parents do not act against their will. n selecting spouses physical beauty is not a major consideration,
particularly in case of boys. n our sample the marriage of 11 men and 13 women was arranged
by their parents with their consent and 76 had a love marriage with the consent of their parents.
Whether arranged or love marriage, the Dimasa follow the rule of exogamy. The violation of this rule
leads to excommunication from the tribe. Some such marriages have taken place in recent years
but parents continue to be strict in the choice of partners and oppose the match if a boy or a girl
intends to marry outside the community. On the other side, for most Dimasa marriage has become
more an individual than a family affair. Due to the broadening of outlook and dilution of conservatism,
inter-caste or inter-tribe marriages take place despite the strict procedure followed. Whatever the
type of marriage the custom of negotiations for marriage continues to be rigid and every Dimasa
has to follow it.
t is mandatory for the Nokhrom to marry her father's nephew. The Garo maidens usually took
the initiative in proposing marriage but the selection of partners is exogamous. This custom is not
fully adhered to today but a marriage within the same Machong is strictly prohibited. The marriage
proposal comes first from the woman's Machong. The chra and the parents of the girl take the
initiative in making the marriage proposal to the boy's chra and Mahari. When the bachelors'
dormitory was functional, the girls of marriageable age used to send through an emissary, a meal
they had prepared and it was the signal for the negotiations.
Our field notes show that some changes are taking place because of education and Christianisation.
Today most are free to choose their partners. n our sample 2 respondents chose them and the
remaining 98 combined love with arranged marriage. The traditional marriage by elopement is still
in existence among them. These changes weaken the role of the Mahari and the Chras. Besides,
today more and more Garo women are marrying non-Garo. Some like Marak, (2002) want to
discourage them or want a law to be enacted to get them to retain their surname and culture. While
the former suggestion may be against the right of the woman to choose her life partner, the latter
seems to be in consonance with gender equity. The name gives the Garo woman her identity on
which is based her right to inheritance. But most other communities are patrilineal and have male
inheritance. That creates a contradiction between her relatively high status and the others' patriliny.
Permission for Marriage
n most tribal societies, the mother is the first to be approached for the permission for marriage.
Table 6.2 shows that it continues to be true among the tribes studied, both in love and arranged
marriage. Among the Aka the boy who has known a girl for some time takes the initiative. Once he
makes up his mind to marry her, he gives an indication of his desire to his parents. They grant their
permission only after the village priest performs some rituals to examine the auspiciousness of the
proposal (Choudury 1996: 97). n the Aka tradition the man used to play the main role in granting
permission. n our sample 42 men and 36 women got the man's permission first and most of them
want it to continue. However, 10 men and 11 women got permission from both the parents and they
think that they should have equal power in this area. Only 1 person said that women should have
135
more power than men in it. n practice, women do not have a voice in giving permission for their
children's marriage. The lower status of women among the Aka who are close to their tradition
seems to be intrinsic to their customary law while among the others modern inputs have strengthened
patriarchy.
The tradition of women being the main decision-makers in domestic matters including marriage
is true of the Adibasi. We have seen in chapter 4 that they continue to be in charge in most Adibasi
families. n the past it was because of their customary law and today it is impoverishment that forces
men to go in search of unskilled jobs. They also continue to play an important role in giving
permission or deciding the marriage of their children. 98 of the 100 Adibasi respondents got their
mothers' permission but 1 woman said that she got her father's permission because he is the head
of the family in their patrilineal society.
TabIe 6.2 : Permission for Marriage by Tribe/Gender
Tribe Mother Father Both NA TotaI
Aka
Male 1 42 10 0 53
Female 0 36 11 0 47
TotaI 1 78 21 0 100
Adibasi
Male 33 0 0 1 34
Female 65 1 0 0 66
TotaI 98 1 0 1 100
Angami
Male 15 2 36 0 53
Female 10 1 36 0 47
TotaI 25 3 72 0 100
Dimasa
Male 3 0 51 0 54
Female 0 0 46 0 46
TotaI 3 0 97 0 100
Garo
Male 4 4 42 0 50
Female 6 1 43 0 50
TotaI 10 5 85 0 100
Grand TotaI 137 87 275 1 500
136
On this issue the Adibasi differ from the remaining tribes studied, among most of whom
modernisation has strengthened patriarchy. The Adibasi remain a patriarchal tribe despite the most
negative impact of modernisation. Unlike the Angami among whom women have gained access to
education, impoverishment forces many Adibasi girls to remain out of school or drop out of it to
become child labourers. However, they continue the tribal tradition of the woman being in charge
of the family. t is difficult to call it a step towards equity because it is forced by impoverishment and
is not of a choice made by the tribe according to their customary law. The woman's status has
deteriorated in all other aspects, as Chapter 3 on their educational and occupational status shows.
However, the mother continues to be the centre of the family and it can be turned into step in their
search for equality.
Angami men are today demanding more power than in the past in decisions on their children's
marriage. t is not customary for an individual to take the father's permission though they did get
his blessing as the patriarchal head of the family. Even today most of them approach the mother
first, whether the marriage is arranged or not. Some of them said that they approached her because
of fear of the father or intimacy with her but it was also their tradition which most young persons
have forgotten. The mother being in charge of the family had to be approached first for her consent.
That is what 15 men and 10 women did, 3 got their father's permission and the remaining 72 from
both. They think that it should be the norm. Besides, even when they get the permission of both,
they approach the father through the mother. Thus they keep their tradition intact. However, there
is no assurance that gender equity will grow out of it because the Angami society is in the process
of becoming more male dominated than in the past and men interpret their customary law in their
own favour. They are trying to take change of the marriage domain too because many Angami
women are marrying outsides. Men claim that they want to preserve the identity of the tribe and
prevent girls of their tribe from marrying non-Angami (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 161).
Dimasa men and women have an equal share in the decision or in granting permission for
their children's marriage. The existence of female and male clans may be a reason for what some
consider interference of men in what is a female domain in most tribes. 51 men and 46 women got
the permission of both the parents but as Table 6.1 shows, the marriage of 24 (11 men and 13
women) was arranged as such parents' permission does not arise but their consent was got before
finalisation. The remaining 3 got their mother's permission after selecting their partners. Thus, the
commonality between the Dimasa and the Angami is that they get permission from both but approach
the father through the mother. None approached the father alone for permission. Moreover, though
marriage is never initiated from the girl's side, she and her family have a major say in the decision
concerning it but it does not make women equal to men. Besides, over the years the Dimasa have
strengthened the man's role in the selection of partners. n their tradition, as in that of most other
tribes, the boy or the girl had to get their mother's consent for marriage. t seems to have shifted
to the father now.
137
Formerly the marriage proposal among the Garo was made by the parents and the chra of the
boy and the girl. Thus the partners were denied the right of making their own choice. Then developed
the custom of the girl selecting her partner. n whatever manner she did it, she informed her parents.
However, 42 men and 43 women got the permission of both the parents but approached the father
through the mother. Only 4 men and 6 women got permission only of the mother but 4 men and
1 woman got only that of the father. t is one more sign that the matrilineal Garo society is moving
slowly towards stronger patriarchy. Men are beginning to play the role of heads of families. The
customs remain unchanged from one point of view but on another the laws and practices such as
those relating to marriage and inheritance are changing slowly towards stronger patriarchy among
the educated Garo men.
We have seen that, in most tribal traditions permission for marriage is centred round the
woman, thus reinforcing her role as the person in charge of the family. t also conferred on her a
higher social status than in most other societies. After selecting the partner, the boy or girl approached
the mother for her consent which she granted after consulting her husband. After it the father took
the consent to the village council for its approval. Once it was given, the boy and girl could live as
man and wife. The formal marriage could come much later according to the convenience of the two
families (Sharma 1978: 8-12).
We have also seen the slow steps that can take the tribes either towards gender equality or
stronger patriarchy. The latter trend is visible among the Angami and to some extent the Garo. The
Dimasa show signs of it but not as clearly as the Angami and Garo do. Religious change to
Hinduism among the Dimasa and Christinity among the Angami and Garo seems to be a major
factor in it. Both the religions are male dominated and can influence the transition to patriarchy.
Stronger than religion are the commercial forces and administrative systems that impose individualism
and male domination on them. Education can counteract them but it also introduces individualism
that can go against their community.
RoIe of ViIIage EIders and CounciI in the Decision on Marriage
Except the Adibasi, the remaining four tribes have village self-government in conformity with
their customary laws though they are not necessarily recognised by the formal law of the country.
Their societies recognise the indigenous village council as the pivot of their administration, as
instruments of maintaining their identity, guardians of their practices, customs and laws. Though the
DAC and Panchayats make a difference in the functioning of the administration, the village council
continues to be the most acceptable body as far as the tribal communities are concerned. Among
saome of them it continues to play the role of the final consenting authority for marriages or
formalises them (Table 6.3).
138
TabIe 6.3 : RoIe of ViIIage EIders / CounciI in Decisions on Marriage by Tribe/Gender
Tribe/Gender/ Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
VC's RoIe M F M F M F M F M F M F
No roIe 0 0 0 6 51 46 53 44 47 46 151 142 293
MiddIe Man 46 38 9 18 1 1 0 1 0 0 56 58 114
Fix Bride Price 20 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 20 19 27
FormaIise/BIessing 2 3 23 41 1 0 0 2 3 3 29 49 78
NA/NP 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 1 4
TotaI 68 59 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 259 259 516*
* Some are multiple answers, hence the total comes to more than 500.
The village council plays a role only among the Aka who are close to their tradition and the
Adibasi who have for all practical purposes lost their identity. Most of them are not even aware of
their customary law but have preserved the village council. After the migration of their ancestors to
Assam when their whole life was disrupted, the village council helped them to maintain some
continuity with the past and functioned as a coping mechanism amid their marginalisation. Today
it continues to play the role of the middleman or formalises their marriage. Since they have been
converted to Hinduism or Christianity, their marriage is formalised according to these religious rites.
Thus, conversion may continue the process of weaking their identity that was started by the regimented
work structure of the tea gardens. However, the role of the village elders as middlemen gives them
some identity. As a result, despite change of religion, it formalised the marriage of 64 of them
through a blessing. Thus, after a religious rite in the temple or church it gave their marriage social
recognition.
The village council formalised the marriage of only 14 others, 5 Aka, 1 Angami, 6 Garo and
2 Dimasa. 293 respondents (58.6%) mainly Angami, Dimasa and Garo who have been Christianised
or Hinduised exclude the village council completely. t is a major change caused by change of
religion. All except 2 Dimasa have got their marriage formalised at the temple. The Angami and
Garo go to the church for it. Thus, formalisation by the council seems to be limited almost exclusively
to the Adibasi who have retained it as a sign of their identity. Even the Aka who are close to their
tradition do not involve it in its formalisation. Melle, their village council is a political organisation
maintaining law and order in the village. Marriage too comes under its jurisdiction. Other than land
disputes, thefts, elopement, adultery and divorce, the council also decides on marriage and its
follow up by being a mediator or matchmaker, fixing the bride price and sometimes formalising the
marriage. t has mediated the marriage of 57 respondents, disputes on the bride price of 27 and
in 11 cases had fixed its quantum in the presence of the partners' family elders. After it the boy's
family gives the bride price in the form of cattle, clothes and utensils. Mithuns are considered the
most prestigious. The bigger the number of mithuns, the more prestigious is his family. Often its
139
total is equivalent to the ornaments the bride brings to the bridegroom's house, rather the bride's
family chooses the ornaments according the quantum of the bride price.
n the Angami tradition, a family referred the marriage plan to the council which in its turn
formally proposed it to the girl's family. After it an elderly man blessed the couple and performed
some rituals. However, the modern statutory village council has nothing to do with marriage as
such. ts main function is to maintain peace and order in the village and dispense justice according
to the customary law. Every village also has a VDB whose main function is to look after the
development schemes. Therefore it does not involve itself at any stage of marriage. Since a majority
of them are Christians, they formalise their marriage in the church. Today church clearance is final
in decision-making. Thus change of religion has brought about radical change in its functioning but
their traditional social practices survive one way or the other. Only 1 respondent said that the elders
blessed the marriage and 2 said that they were middlemen. All three of them belong to their
traditional tribal religion.
Dimasa marriage remains an individual or family affair. The village council does not interfere
with their marriage because their tribe respects individual freedom. Before the marriage and during
the ceremony the Khunang takes the initiative in extending assistance to the family in the form of
manual labour. He works as much as the other villagers do and he too is punished by the village
if he commits some offence (Danda 1978: 107). The council played no role in the marriage of 97.
Some said that though Hindu rituals have taken the place of their tribal marriage, they feel that the
move away from tribal religion is a sign of their subjugation and that it has resulted in male
domination. They are today searching for a new identity based on their tradition which they want
to modernise but the search is led by a group of men. ts implications for gender equity need to be
studied.
n the Garo tradition the Nokma administered justice according to their customary law but
played no role in marriage that they consider a family affair. ts arrangement is subjected to the will
of the chra and the parents of the girl. t decides whom and when she is to marry. The decision of
the chra and the mahari is final. Table 6.3 shows that the Council played no role in the marriage
of 94 respondents but intervened in 6 cases. Traditionally it negotiated and even formalised the
marriage but the main decision even in that case was taken by the maharis. Apart from change of
religion, education too has made a difference. A section of the Garo no longer forces their sisters
and nieces to marry a widower. Thus, education and Christianity have changed the attitude of
unquestioning acceptance of the tradition but in the process might have also given up the customs
that conferred a higher status on women.
2. CUSTOMS BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE
The marriage customs change according to the tribe. The tradition of most of them allowed
the boy and girl to live as man and wife after the village council or the elders give their consent.
140
t continues to be the case among some tribes but is not common. Also the rituals differ according
to the type of society. n this section we shall analyse their customs before and during marriage and
the choice of the clan after marriage.
Customs before Marriage
Table 6.4 gives the customs of the five tribes before marriage. Bride price and marriage gifts
are common among the Aka before the marriage ceremony. All have given or received bride price.
The mugou or the village priest negotiates the marriage and fixes the bride price. The family settles
the marriage on his recommendation. Thus the religious leader plays a major role in fixing the bride
price which is based on economic considerations but has social implications. t is a sign that, a
daughter is an economic asset. The man, therefore, pays compensation to her parents for the loss
of a worker (Fernandes 1990: 128-129). Since the bride's family often gifts her ornaments of
equivalent value, the boy's family preserves them in her name. This looks like a fair tradition but
many women expressed resentment against bride price during our fieldwork. They felt that today
it is not a sign of her economic value. Her exchange for mithuns in practice turns her into a
commodity that the man purchases and some men treat her as that, so they want to change the
custom.
TabIe 6.4 : Customs before Marriage by Tribe and Gender
Tribe/Gender Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Customs M F M F M F M F M F M F
Bride Price Given 53 47 6 14 0 0 54 46 0 0 113 107 220
Live together after
Elder's Consent 0 0 7 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 21 28
Family Consent 0 0 0 0 42 39 0 0 0 1 42 40 82
Church Clearance 0 0 0 3 18 19 0 0 0 0 18 19 40
Until Marriage no
Living Together 0 0 25 37 7 5 0 0 50 48 82 90 172
Gifts to Peer Group 0 0 0 0 4 6 0 0 0 1 4 7 11
TotaI 53 47 38 75 71 69 54 46 50 50 266 284 553
* Multiple answers, hence the total is more than 500.
Among the Adibasi, after the two families give their consent for the match, the Lotha pani
ceremony provides the last opportunity for the girl to accept or reject it. An elderly member of the
village presents water in a leaf cup to the girl. f she agrees to the match she presents it to the future
father-in-law or some relative of the bridegroom. By accepting it they declare themselves witnesses
that the girl has given her consent (Lakra 1999: 102-103). Bride price that was the norm among
141
their Jharkhand ancestors has all but disappeared because of the influence of the commercial and
individual forces. t is difficult to say that their new religion is a factor in it because tribal Christians
in Jharkhand continue to practise it. t has not disappeared completely among the Assam Adibasis.
6 men and 14 women have given or accepted it. None said that they had switched over to dowry
but some hinted that they had done it but we could not confirm it. Other studies show that tribals
and Dalits who had assigned a higher status to women and were practising bride price had switched
over to dowry as a form of upward social mobility after urbanisation (Fernandes 1990: 152-154). A
similar process seems to be taking place among the Assam Adibasi.
25 male and 37 female respondents said that they got the parents' consent first and then of
the village elders. That was the custom in Jharkhand and Orissa. After choosing one another, the
boy and the girl would get their mother's consent which she gave in consultation with the father who
would then take the proposal to the village council for its approval. Once it was got, the boy and
the girl could live together as man and wife. The formal marriage could take place later according
to their convenience (Sarkar 1993: 100-101). Some of the older respondents had followed this
custom but today they are not allowed to co-habit before the formal marriage. t seems to be
because of their Christianisation or Hinduisation.
Religious change has introduced another new element in the formal consent. 3 female respondents
said that church clearance was final for their marriage but 25 male and 37 female respondents
added that by church clearance they meant the formal religious ceremony. t is equally true of
Hindus among them. Today the formal ceremony is performed in the temple or the church, not by
their traditional pahan or tribal priest. The ban on living together is intrinsic to religious change.
Through this major change the new religion has declared co-habitation befor the formal ceremony
pre-marital sex and immoral. However, all 28 persons who followed this custom are Adibasi. Thus
both their religious change and change of this custom were not a total break from the past but were
gradual. A study of the 1920s mentioned most tea garden Adibasi as animists or followers of the
tribal Sarna religion (Crawford 1989: 22-28). There were signs of Sarna among them even in the
1980s (Barjo 1999). Christianity and Hinduism took over gradually. Those who continue the practise
of the couple living together before marriage belong to this transition. One can thus expect it to
disappear among them in the near future as the new religions make their presence felt among them.
Angami girls used to wear their hair quite closely cropped as a sign that they are unmarried.
Since by and large boys are less educated than girls and their customary law demands that he be
at least as educated as her, many girls find it difficult to get a suitable match. So some of them find
the alternative of staying with a man in marriages that seldom last long and are usually dissolved
peacefully. After it she returns to her parent's house, stops growing her hair long and looks for a
more desirable husband. The Angami do not give either bride price or dowry but the bride's parents
give her gifts in the form of paddy or a plot of acquired land. After their Christianisation they have
142
changed many customs. Today very few follow the rule of not growing their hair long but 4 male
and 6 female respondents said that they coninue the custom of the bride and bridegroom giving gifts
to the peer group.
A custom that remains is that of parents' consent. Be it love or arranged marriage it is
essential. Most respondents think that it should continue but a change has come about also in it.
Formerly after the parents' consent the father took it to the village council for its formal acceptance.
Today the parents go to the church and fix the date of marriage. The custom of the couple living
together after the approval of the village council has disappeared. Table 6.4 shows that none of the
100 respondents practised it. We have said above that some boys and girls co-habit without getting
married but they do it without necessarily having the intention of getting married. Most of them
separate later. Thus, it is not pre-marital co-habitation.
Among the Dimasa, after the parents of both sides arrange the betrothal, the couple is not
permitted to mix freely or have physical relationship until the formal ceremony. Payment of Khalti
or bride price is an important feature of their marriage. The boy's father or guardian makes three
formal visits to the girl's house to negotiate the marriage. During the final session they fix the
amount of the bride price and finalise the wedding arrangements. The bride price ranges from Rs.50
to Rs.101, given in coins. ts amount depends on the economic capacity of the bridegroom and the
bride's "quality. n the final stages before the wedding it is customary for the groom's party to visit
the bride's family to inquire about the bride's health and other difficulties. t is called Gilim-Gasa
Naiba (Nunisa 2004: 9). The Dimasa believe that marriage should take place within a month after
the final negotiations. Today educated women disfavour khalti. Sometimes in order to avoid it, the
partners elope from the village temporarily and return after some time and live as husband and wife.
Among the Garo, after the solemn engagement between the two machongs, the boy and girl
are not allowed to go about freely or to live together before the formal marriage. As part of the
etiquette in concluding the pre-marital contract the Garo bring presents such as a cock or a bull as
symbols of co-operation between the two maharis. On receipt of the presents from the girl's parents,
the boy's parents arrange a feast for the village. After it the parents and the maharis of the girl fix
the day of the marriage, giving sufficient time for both the maharis to make the arrangements. The
parents then inform the relatives and friends of both the maharis. Thus, whether it is love or
arranged marriage the consent of the parents is essential. The Garo do not pay either dowry or
bride price but if after the engagement one of the parties refuses to marry, the defaulting party has
to pay a fine of Rs 60 (Marak 2000: 101). Many Garo customs and practices have changed after
their Christianisation but their core remains. With commercialisation, the celebrations before and
after marriage have become more expensive and that has serious economic implications for them.
Marriage is the key transition particularly in the life of women. t represents the link from
existing nuclear families to new ones or the perpetuation of extended families and acceptance of
143
their economic and social responsibilities. The customs before it show that all five tribes maintain
clan exogamy to a reasonable degree of rigidity. Despite religious change and commercialisation,
their marriage rites and customs reveal continuity in change rather than a total break from the past.
We shall later see whether it is favourable or not to women.
Residence after Marriage
n order to find out the implications of tribal traditions for women's status, we shall now look
at the change of residence and clan. Table 6.5 shows change of residence after marriage according
to the customary law of each tribe. The difference among them shows the changes in the woman's
status that have occurred in their society in recent decades. Among the five tribes studied there is
a mix of extended and nuclear families. The patrilineal tribes get the girl to leave her home and live
in her husband's house with or without his parents.
The Aka trace their descent through the male line and follow the custom of the boy remaining
a member of his family by birth and the girl becoming a residual member of her natal group and
being incorporated into her husband's family. Thus, there is psychological preference among them
for a male child that is considered the family's successor but they do not discriminate against girls.
The reason they give for boy preference is that daughters leave the parents after marriage but boys
look after them in their old age and add to the agricultural workforce (Koley 1997: 357). Many
respondents expressed the desire for a boy child and added that the girl has a duty to respect her
husband's parents and elders of his family.
Table 6.5 shows that all the Aka respondents follow the rule of patrilocal residence so do the
Adibasi. Though a patrilocal society is the actual practice among the Adibasi the formation of the
marital household is the responsibility of the lineal relatives. n that sense the extended family
comes into existence at the time of the marriage but the link gets weak after it. After marriage the
woman goes to her husband's house and acquires a set of new relatives. Even when they start a
nuclear family in all but 4 cases it is linked to the husband's residence. 16 couples reside in the
husband's parent's house with or without the parents and 38 others have started an independent
family in the bridegroom's residence. 46 others, mainly young couples, are linked to the bridegroom's
family but are away from the parents. t gives the woman her autonomy and helps the couple to
develop an individual identity of its own. On the negative side it can also result in individualism. The
sense of attachment and belonging to the agnates and the natal family can get weak and even
disappear. t has serious implications for the elderly especially women who remain widowed longer
than men do.
144
TabIe 6.5 : Residence after Marriage
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
Bridegroom's 53 47 3 13 13 7 32 19 0 2 101 88 189
Start an ndependent
Family in the
Bridegroom's House 0 0 15 23 19 21 0 0 0 0 34 44 78
ndependent Family
away from
Bridegroom's house 0 0 15 27 20 17 0 0 7 1 35 44 79
ndependent family in
bride's house 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 33 34 67
ndependent Family
away from bride's
house 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 7 11 8 15 23
ndependent family
away from both 0 0 0 1 1 0 22 27 33 34 65 66 131
TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
The Angami follow the patrilocal or neo-local rule. n either case the girl enters the boy's
house and is deprived of her property rights in her ancestral home. The couple thus enters the
husband's family, whether it lives with the parents or by itself. The couple may begin its life in the
parents' house but as early as possible it builds a house on the plot the boy's parents allot to him.
Thus it becomes independent of his parents immediately after marriage but retains the link with his
family. 20 out of 100 respondent couples live in the bridegroom's parents' house but independently.
The rest have built houses of their own. n that sense, even while being linked to the parents, a
nuclear family consisting of the couple and their unmarried children is the norm. However, change
of residence is only the last step in the Angami marriage procedure that encourages the girl to
occupy a lower position and sustain the patriarchal system. However, because of the political
processes and the access they have gained to education, Angami women also have high self-
esteem and confidence and do not think of change of residence as an obstacle to their status
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 86-88). The interviews left us with the impression that despite
some restrictions on their mobility after marriage they do not perceive themselves as inferior to
men.
Two Dimasa women belonging to the same clan are not allowed to stay in one house. t can
function as protection to the young woman who can be exploited by the mother-in-law or the rest
of the family. One more of its consequences is that, it makes the nuclear family the norm in practice
though not in theory. Hence most of them follow neo-local residence. Besides, according to the
145
minhaba system, the couple is allowed to remain in the girl's father's house till it builds a house of
its own. Traditionally it was also considered a period of service the man rendered to his wife's
parents. After this period the couple is free to choose the site for its residence but some do not
return to their natal village even after minhaba. For example, the headman of Ashrang village whom
we interviewed was living in his wife's house with his children and mother-in-law. Some other
couples used to build their house next to the wife's father's house (Danda 1978: 34). However, the
younger couples do not seem to be keen on minhaba. Table 6.5 shows that most of them do not
live with their parents or in-laws. 49 have built their houses away both from the husband's and wife's
parents. The remaining 51 live in the husband's house with or without the parents. Thus the Dimasa
family is nuclear but shows signs of the woman enjoying some autonomy though not equality.
n the matrilocal Garo tradition a man marries into his wife's family. The non-heiress daughters
may stay in their parental home for a year or two till they establish their independent households
and live separately from both the man's and woman's parents. Table 6.5 shows that 67 couples
have built their house away from the husband's or wife's parents, 5 are staying in the bride's house
but are independent, 18 couples are staying away from the parental home on the bride's house, 2
are living with the husbands' families and 8 said that they belong to the groom's family but live away
from his parents. n some cases the groom takes his wife to his house if the girl's parents do not
agree to the match. n other cases men with higher education and job "bring the bride home after
the marriage (Marak 2002: 163). However, negotiations on this count are done before the marriage.
This trend brings into question the children's family name and clan and focuses on the trend of
stronger patriarchy. The woman becoming the resident daughter-in-law reverses their tradition and
the children tend to take the father's family name. The trend continues also when a growing number
of Garo women marry non-Garo men belonging to patrilineal societies and change their name to
that of the husband. t brings into question the relatively high status they enjoy.
CIan after Marriage
Clan is the most outstanding feature of tribal societies. Retaining or losing it is an indication
of an individual's identity. n this context determined by customary law we looked at an individual's
clan after marriage (Table 6.6). The patriarchal trend of 3 of the 5 tribes is seen in the norm of the
wife joining the husband's clan. The rule of patrilocal residence makes the woman automatically
part of her husband's clan but that is not true of men.
When an Aka woman leaves her natal home and joins her husband's family she also changes
her clan but men retain theirs. All the respondents come under the norm of inserting the woman into
her husband's descent group (Rao 2003: 109). All of them expressed happiness at it and none
wants to change it. Most women said that they are happy to belong to the man's clan and want men
to lead in all spheres of life. Some added that it is because they are weak. Women thus seem to
link their own identity to the tradtion that favours men.
The Adibasi are patrilineal and belong to their father's clan. When the wife goes to her
husband's house she is admitted to his clan, though she continues to revere the totem of the sept
in which she was born. She is accepted as a member of her husband's family, is expected to treat
146
her in-laws as her parents, adjust herself to them and avoid any tension with them. Thus change
of residence and clan begin a new family relationship (TDLA 1989: 129).
Our sample confirms that at her marriage an Angami woman leaves her parental home and
clan to join those of her husband. n case of different religions the norm is for the wife to follow that
of her husband. A wife with a good economic status or educational qualifications is not to interfere
in her husband's authority. f she overrides her husband, her community looks down on her and
considers the man a hen pecked husband.
TabIe 6.6 : CIan after marriage
Husband's cIan Both beIong to Both retain it TotaI
mother's cIan
Aka
Male 53 0 0 53
Female 47 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 100
Adibasi
Male 34 0 0 34
Female 66 0 0 66
TotaI 100 0 0 100
Angami
Male 53 0 0 53
Female 47 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 5 49 0 54
Female 1 45 0 46
TotaI 6 94 0 100
Garo
Male 0 0 50 50
Female 0 0 50 50
TotaI 0 0 100 100
Grand TotaI
Male 145 49 50 244
Female 161 45 50 256
TotaI 306 94 100 500
147
The fact that most Dimasa respondents belong to their mother's clan is an indication that their
double descent is not a recent introduction but is integral to their customary law. Some think that
the son belongs to his father's clan and the daughter to her mother's (Barpujari 1997: 122) but Table
6.5 shows that it is more an exception than the rule. The norm is for both sons and daughters to
belong to the mother's clan in matriclans and to the father's in patriclans. After marriage a woman
retains her clan even when she uses her husband's family name. Thus 94 of out respondents retain
their mother's clan and 6 retain their father's clan. Some think that as a result, the Dimasa have
more relatives on their mother's than on their father's side (Danda 1978: 76).
After marriage a Garo man goes to his wife's house but retains his clan. Thus husband and
wife belong to different clans. Their prayer in their traditional religion was that they should be reborn
in the same motherhood. Their children follow the mother's line of descent. The man's and the
woman's interests are thus divided between two lineages. As a son or a chra member he is to
uphold the interests of his maternal clan but as a husband he is to identify his interests with those
of his wife's family and manage the property she inherits or what both earn jointly. Though a man
is married to his wife's house his loyalty to his own kin group does not wane. He exercises some
authority over his children but it is insignificant in comparison to that of his wife's brothers and chras
(Goswami 1982: 40-43).
Changes in the Marriage Customs
The analysis made till now of the tribal customs and traditions indicates that they are undergoing
change. The region as a whole has witnessed extensive social change in the recent past. New
religions and commercial interests have directly or indirectly influenced their heritage, beliefs, customary
laws and practices and have affected their social set up. As a result less stress than in the past is
laid on the observance of customs for the functioning of their society. n this transition, every aspect
of their culture is in a flux. Not all changes favour gender equity because some of them such as
dowry have resulted from commercial values and others from religious changes, both of them more
patriarchal than the tribal societies. We shall now analyse some changes in their marriage customs
(Table 6.7).
At first one may be left with the impression that little change has occurred in the Aka marriage
customs since their tribe continues to live close to its tradition. However, our interviews and field
notes left us with the impression that there are new trends and that the meaning of some customs
is changing. For example, traditionally bride price was understood as compensation paid to the girl's
family for taking a worker away. n that concept she is an economic asset. Today some interpret it
as the man getting a wife in return for the wealth he pays to her parents. n that concept she is a
commodity. On the other side is the statement of four persons that there is less bride price today.
They indicated that they themselves had not paid or received bride price but did not say whether
they had replaced it with dowry.
148
TabIe 6.7 : Changes in the Marriage Customs
Tribe/Gender Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Type of Change M F M F M F M F M F M F
No Change 2 2 0 1 3 2 9 1 3 3 17 9 26
Eloping Prevails 0 0 5 7 0 0 1 2 0 0 6 9 15
Shorter Rituals 0 0 0 3 0 0 21 29 0 0 21 32 53
Hindu Customs
ntroduced 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 4 0 0 8 4 12
Formal Church
Marriage 0 0 1 2 49 44 1 0 1 0 52 46 98
More Expensive 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 14 8 15 9 24
Love Marriage 21 21 24 43 0 0 14 10 34 42 94 116 210
Cousin Marriage
Changing 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 4
Eloping Prevails 0 0 15 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 23 38
Shorter Rituals 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 5 1 6
Living Together
Before Marriage 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 5
Fewer Forced
Marriages 30 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 26 56
Very Few Child
Marriages 32 26 3 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 35 33 68
Less Bride Price 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 4
Marrying Outside
Tribe 8 6 3 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 13 24
Grand TotaI 94 82 54 95 53 47 59 47 54 55 315 317 632
N.B. The total exceeds 500 because of multiple responses except among the Angami.
n their tradition girls had neither a choice nor a voice in the choice of partners. Child marriage
was not uncommon among them. We call it forced marriage since neither the boy nor the girl has
a choice of partner. t goes more against the woman than the man since she has to go to a new
house with no understanding of the life that awaits her. Parents arranged most marriages though
self-selection was permitted to some extent. A leader told us that they have abolished child marriage.
f true, it is a major change. Our interlocutors also told us that with it the woman will hopefully have
some choice. There have been a few cases of persons refusing to marry partners chosen by others
149
and the parents acquiescing in it. Younger people showed preference for love marriage. This right
to choose their life partners can improve the woman's status. While 4 respondents said that no
custom has changed in their society because change of residence and clan remain intact, most
others pointed towards continuity in change. These changes deserve deep analysis in a tribe that
is only now coming to terms with modernity. Marrying outsiders is one of the signs of their experiencing
many new forces.
Love marriage is a major change among the Adibasi. Eloping existed in the past and love
marriage adds to it. Only 5 respondents said that living together before marriage is becoming a new
custom. That may at first seem to contradict Table 6.5 which shows that 28 respondents lived
together before their marriage. However, as we said at that stage, most of them belonged to the
tribal Sarna religion that allowed them to live together after the village council gave its consent to
their marriage. That has disappeared after their change of religion but a few young persons seem
to be reviving it in a new form by living together after falling in love. t is not according to their
tradition but is the result of new influences.
Thus nowadays the socially recognised institution of marriage seems to have become more
an individual affair than a contract between two families. Most respondents said during group
discussion that marriage by mutual consent and elopement is becoming common but the family gets
their society to grant such unions provisional recognition subject to their later turning into socially
recognised marriages. Some Hindus among them said that marriage rituals have been shortened.
Christian marriage has become formal and gets legal recognition. These changes confirm what an
author has said about them finding a new identity through religious schange away from their tradition
(D'Silva 1999: 168). Others like the commercial forces add to this change and influence their
society. Such cultural contacts and influences that began with their migration have co-existed among
them in time and space. Through them the processing of exposure to new situations continues
(Sharma and Kar 1993: 134-135).
nstead of all recent changes, the Angami were asked to mention one major change that has
occurred in their marriage customs because the remaining changes were discussed at length in
group sessions on which we base our analysis. n the individual interviews the biggest number said
that church marriage has replaced their traditional ritual. However, the social customs of marriage
continue in the sense that today most marriages are celebrated in the church but for social recognition
they continue to practise their traditional ritual. That is why 5 respondents belonging to the tribal
religion claim that no change has occurred in their marriage customs. t is true of the social ritual
but many changes have occurred in their other customs. For example, women do not keep their
heads shaved before marriage as they did in the past. t is more because of access gained to
education than because of Christianity.
n that sense change of religion has resulted in a separation between the religious and secular
spheres because their conversion was a social process of coping with their identity crisis. While the
150
missionary demanded total religious adherence, the fact of the tribes using his inputs for social
reform slowly separated the religious from the secular domain (Pakem 1990: 5-6). t is not total but
a beginning is reflected in the marriage customs. After religious acceptance through the church
ceremony the customary rituals are performed for social recognition. Besides, more because of
economic than religious reasons they have the wedding feast on the same day because people with
salaried and other jobs cannot come for a feast later. n the past it was on a later day. Besides, the
celebrations have become more expensive both because of the nature of the feast and because
more gifts than in the past are given.
The Dimasa traditional marriage customs take a long time to complete because of the number
of rituals and formalities the spouses have to go through. Since these customs remain intact 10
respondents said that no change has occurred in their marriage customs in the last three decades
but added that love marriage is not uncommon today. However, 50 respondents added that the
rituals have been shortened since today people cannot afford to spend as much time at the feast
as they did in the past. Thus their marriage has become less expensive. 3 respondents said that
elopement too has taken a new form, as a step after falling in love, if the couple fears that the
parents will not approve of their marriage. Many educated persons have become somewhat liberal
about the marriage customs and do not adhere to all the rituals. 8 men and 4 women spoke of the
introduction of Hindu customs such as applying sindoor and exchanging garlands. Many women
have started wearing saris after marriage. Thus Hinduism, outsiders and their long contact with the
market have influenced their culture
Garo marriages have very little religious connotation despite differences between what Christians
and Animists practise. Christians solemnise their marriage in the church while Animists get the
village priest to sacrifice a fowl. A custom that has disappeared is that of polygamy because of
Christianity. Because of the commercial forces and Christian marriage customs, the formal marriage,
gifts and presentations have become expensive. However regulation of the marriage by the A'kim
remains unchanged, so does exogamy. The cousin marriage that is intrinsic to female succession
is changing slowly and love marriage is becoming the norm. There are cases of women marrying
outside the tribe and changing their family name. t strengthens the man's role. Because of their
implications for the identity of the person and the tribe the Garo discourage such marriages.
3. SETTLEMENT OF CONFLICTS
We have stated above that all the tribes have some village level institutions that look after the
preservation of their customs. These traditional social control mechanisms also deal with marriage,
land and other disputes. n marriage they act as the sanctioning authority before it and conflict
settlement bodies after it. n this section we shall study the second role.
Women, Divorce and ConfIict ResoIution
Tribal women feel discriminated against and victimised not only by outsiders but also in their
own society and family. Such discrimination takes different forms in their daily life and reflects the
151
woman's social status in her society. t takes a new form if a conflict arises in marriage and leads
towards possible divorce. This conflict has to be negotiated tribal societies make provision for it. We
shall study them based on Table 6.8.
Divorce is not common among the Aka, though there are no religious constraints on it. A
woman has as much right to seek divorce as the man does. The husband may divorce her because
of disease, adultery or barrenness. The wife may divorce him for reasons such as extra marital
relations, physical assault, addiction to alcohol or quarrelsome nature. n case of divorce, the
council settles the right over the children of the dissolved marriage. By and large they are the
husband'a responsibility but a suckling baby goes with the mother (Koley 2004: 116). f the wife is
found guilty, she has to pay double the actual bride price to her husband but in some villages she
is only asked to return the bride price. f the husband is guilty he will either get half of the bride
price or will not return anything. f a dispute arises regarding divorce and repayment of bride price,
the village council settles it under the headship of the Nugo in the presence of the spouses, their
parents and middlemen. Once the formal divorce takes place, the husband loses all rights over his
wife and she is free to remarry.
TabIe 6.8 : ConfIicts Proceedings Done by Whom?
Tribes FamiIy TribaI ViIIage CIan FamiIy & FamiIy & TotaI
EIders Chief CounciI EIders cIan ViIIage
eIders Leaders
Aka
Male 0 0 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 34 0 0 0 0 0 34
Female 64 1 1 0 0 0 66
TotaI 98 1 1 0 0 0 100
Angami
Male 23 0 0 3 27 0 53
Female 17 0 0 3 26 1 47
TotaI 40 0 0 6 53 1 100
Dimasa
Male 0 0 53 1 0 0 54
Female 2 0 43 1 0 0 46
TotaI 2 0 96 2 0 0 100
152
Tribes FamiIy TribaI ViIIage CIan FamiIy & FamiIy & TotaI
EIders Chief CounciI EIders cIan ViIIage
eIders Leaders
Garo
Male 9 0 0 41 0 0 50
Female 11 0 0 39 0 0 50
TotaI 20 0 0 80 0 0 100
Grand TotaI
Male 66 0 53 45 27 53 244
Female 94 1 44 43 26 48 256
TotaI 160 1 97 88 53 101 500
The Adibasi allow divorce but it is not common. n case of a conflict between the spouses, the
woman generally accommodates to the man's needs. n a relationship of love it would be adaptation
to the responsibility of marriage but cases leading to divorce do exist (Kaniampady 2003: 132-133).
Either the man or the woman can seek divorce. The reasons leading to it are torture, addiction to
liquor, regular quarrels between them, sickness and extra marital relations of either spouse. Divorce
may also occur when the couples marry against the parents' will. n case of drunkenness or beating,
the wife leaves her husband's house. After it the village council hears both sides and tries to bring
about reconciliation between them (Bhowmick 2002: 142). Conflict proceedings are conducted by
the elders of their families in their presence. Only 2 women said that the tribal chief or the village
council settled the dispute. Most limit the conflict to the family.
Divorce was common among the Angami in the past but it is on the wane today particularly
among the educated and Christians. t may result from a minor misunderstanding between the
spouses or families, from adultery, infidelity or the wife's barrenness. Either spouse may initiate the
proceedings and may at times involve the whole village. Divorce settlement depends on how serious
the issue is. f the spouses find it difficult to bring it about through mutual agreement they refer it
to the close relatives of both and their decision is final (Goswami 1985: 48). 40 respondents said
that even today family elders continue to settle the dispute around divorce. f they fail they bring it
to the clan elders for resolution. But it seems to be an exception because only 6 respondents
referred to it while 51 persons said that members of both sides sit together to settle it. After divorce
it is customary for the wife to get a third of the paddy along with the property she brought along
with her at her marriage. But in case of her adultery she loses all her property including her clothes
and ornaments. The divorced husband has the right to gain custody of the children since they
belong to his clan. n every case the man gets the biggest share of the property, even when he is
the guilty party.
153
Divorce is permissible among the Dimasa though it is not common. t may be sought by either
spouse on grounds of adultery, physical torture and barrenness. On receipt of an appeal of divorce,
the elders of the family try to remove the misunderstandings between them (Nunisa 2004: 14). f
it fails it is referred to the Khunang. Divorce is permitted if he decides in its favour. 96 respondents
said that the conflict resolution of divorce is by the village council and 2 each said that it is by the
family or village elders who hear the representatives of both the parties before disposing of the case
(Goswami1986: 18). n some cases the matter is settled by the clan members of the spouses. n
case the divorce takes place because of the fault of the husband, he cannot get back the bride
price, but if the wife is at fault she has to return it to her husband. But according to our field notes
today the Khunang and the village elders decide whether the bride price is to be refunded or not.
n case of divorce by mutual consent the bride price too is settled through mutual consent. After the
divorce the father takes the sons with him and the mother takes the daughters. Both the spouses
can re-marry after performing a few rituals according to their customary practices (Barpujari 1997:126).
The Garo customary law allows divorce on grounds of adultery, cruelty, refusal to maintain the
family, barrenness, unsound mind and impotency (Marak 2000: 123).. Divorce proceedings are
settled amicably by the elders of the mahari. Before taking any step it is customary for the husband
and wife to inform their respective chra and mahari. n all cases it has to be initiated and approved
by the wife's chra. All except 1 respondent said that even today divorce proceedings are settled
either by the elders of the families or of the clan. f the family elders cannot settle it they involve
the clan elders of both the parties. f after repeated warnings from their chra and mahari the
spouses do not correct their ways they may effect a divorce. t is customary for the aggrieved party
to be compensated with a fine of Rs 60 or as decided by the chra and the Mahari. But no fine is
paid if the husband and wife divorce by mutual consent (Goswami1979: 85). The husband who is
guilty of adultery has to leave his wife's house empty handed but if the wife commits adultery, her
husband can divorce and she has to pay this amount. After divorce the children follow the lineage
of the mother. Both divorcees can remarry. Normally after divorce they break all relationship with
each other.
Women and ConfIict ResoIution Meeting
t is customary for traditional societies not to allow women to attend any dispute resolution
meeting except when they are parties to a dispute. Divorce proceedings belong to that category and
they attend them with the family and clan elders and the village council. n some societies they are
allowed only as witnesses. n this section we shall study what meetings women are allowed to
attend beyond those concerning their divorce (Table 6.9).
Aka dispute and conflict resolution meetings are under the aegis of the Melle which takes the
help of the village elders who command respect and are obeyed by others by virtue of their
experience in the customary law (Koley 2004: 112). Traditionally women were not allowed to attend
the meetings of the decision-making bodies but all adult males could join their members and speak
154
freely in the legal proceedings. Women's participation in the council proceedings is permissible only
when they are invited or accused. They may attend meetings meant to settle disputes regarding
property, marriage and divorce but cannot speak or vote at them. They only answer accusations
against them in case of adultery, elopement, divorce and theft. Our field notes indicate that only
after the introduction of the panchayati system, elected women members were allowed to take part
in the village meetings because today the gaon bura decides village disputes with the panchayat
(Singh 1995: 138-139).
TabIe 6.9 : ConfIict ResoIution Meeting and Women
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
Allowed to Attend 10 10 5 14 10 13 0 0 49 50 74 87 161
Not allowed to Attend 0 0 4 8 20 11 0 0 0 24 19 43
Only to answer
accusations 43 37 0 0 21 19 51 36 1 0 116 92 208
Only as Witnesses 0 0 24 43 1 1 3 10 0 0 28 54 82
Don't Know 0 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 4 6
TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
The Adibasi panchayat discusses various issues but the headman and the village officials
participate in its important affairs. Cases like adultery, illicit love, witchcraft and black magic are
considered offences that the panchayat has to deal with. All village problems arising out of interaction
are finalised by the non-traditional panchayat members (Bhowmick 2002: 79). Women are not
allowed to attend the meetings but there seems to be some change today. 19 persons said that
women too are allowed to attend them but probably they come only as witnesses or accused as
67 persons stated and our field notes confirm. They are not to raise their voice but only witness the
proceedings. Some women are invited as cooks.
As many as 10 male and 13 female Angami respondents said that women are allowed to
attend village meetings in case of a conflict involving a relative or a family member but are not
allowed to speak. 31 think that they are not allowed to attend any such meeting because of their
gossiping nature. Thus they hold some meetings where women cannot overhear what men discuss.
Other reasons given are the weak mind of women and their function of looking after the children
and work in the fields. So they do not have time for such meetings. 21 men and 19 women said
that when women are accused, they are supposed to attend the meeting to answer the accusations.
They are also allowed as witnesses. Whatever the case, even when allowed to attend conflict
resolution meetings they are not allowed to speak unless they are asked to. Thus, there are
psychological and social barriers to their participation in them.
155
According to the Dimasa customary law, women are not allowed to attend any conflict resolution
meeting of the village. The village council headed by the Khunang settles all disputes. ts judgement
is binding on all. n case of a complaint both the complainant and the accused are asked to appear
before the council with witnesses (Danda 1978: 108). Since the witness can be a woman or a man,
87 respondents say that women are allowed to attend them while 13 say that they can attend
conflict resolution meetings as witnesses. Thus, their presence is very limited. According to Bordoloi
(1984) when the conflict meeting concerns women, elderly women are invited to participate in the
trial. They cannot attend other village meetings or take part in conflict resolution. Thus the Dimasa
administration of justice remains a man's domain. Women do not have an active voice and that
reflects their status.
The traditional Garo society did not allow women to participate in the village meetings and
discussion of any type or to speak even in the family or mahari meetings. Even educated women
cannot speak freely in front of their brothers and uncles. However, there is no restriction on their
attending conflict resolution meetings. Only 1 male respondent said that women are allowed to
attend such meetings only to answer accusations against them. The rest said that they are allowed
to attend all conflict resolution meetings. t shows that the presence of women is important in the
administration of justice. Different conflicts are settled by the mahari which includes women. The
members of the family settle amicably conflicts relating to the family and clan members settle those
at the clan level (Goswami 1989: 141). They rarely let them go to the village level. f they go to the
village the Nokma and the village elders settle it. Though women attend these meetings, the
decision of the elders is final. Thus they have limited power compared to that of men. They are
considered ignorant.
ConcIusion
We have seen in this chapter the marriage customs of the five tribes studied. They have
witnessed many recent changes. Traditionally their rules, regulations and formalities were elaborate.
Some of them have changed. For example, marriage through negotiations was the norm but they
have also known marriages by mutual choice and elopement. Some young persons give it a new
form of love marriage which involves a personal choice. At times it is combined with elopement. Not
all observe the conventions, taboos and restrictions. Also their rituals have changed. For example,
some Aka respondents have either abandoned or are on the verge or giving up bride price. The
Garo, Naga and some Adibasi have taken to Christian ceremonies. Some discourage divorce and
others have made its rules more rigid than in the past. On the other side, traditional penalties are
strictly adhered to. Conflict resolution, even while remaining traditional has become prompt and
more effective than in the courts of law.
Three major changes in their societies that account for this evolution are education,
commercialisation and change of religion. All three have affected their social and marriage customs,
some of them with a positive impact on women and others negative. Since these inputs keep
156
interacting with their tradition, it has become continuity with change. For example, the Garo, Naga
and the Dimasa have accepted their new religion at the macro-level but continue to practise their
traditions in their daily life. This interaction between the traditional and new religions is seen in the
changes in their marriage customs beginning with the permission for the choice of partners. t
creates some ambiguity both at the macro and the micro level, for example in the move towards
a strongle role for men. Religion and education have introduced individualism so have the commercial
forces and administrative systems (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 171-174). ndividualism and stronger
patriarchy by and large had a negative impact on women. They have interacted with their traditions
such as not including women in decision-making even while allowing them to attend some meetings.
Also making the customary laws on divorce stricter can weaken the position of women.
Some other changes such as freedom of choice in some societies and end of child marriage
in others are among the positive moves. Because of commercialisation celebrations have become
more expensive than in the past. That has affected their economy and has introduced class formation.
f directed properly, the new customs together with education can take their societies towards
gender equity. That requires more stress on the freedom that religion propagates and less on their
male dominated system. t also requires a combination of the traditional with the new and creation
of a new ideology to support this change.
157
CHAPTER-7
WOMEN'S PROPERTY RIGHTS AND INHERITANCE
n chapter 5 we examined the nature and extent of women's role in the family economy
because it is an important indicator of their social status. n chapter 6 we studied the marriage
customs and practices, one of them being residence. Underlying the indicators is the question of
women's property rights and inheritance. When she leaves her home after marriage she loses her
right over her ancestral property. After divorce she only has limited rights over her husband's
property. n a tribal area property includes the produce of land, residential house, livestock, personal
belongings and agricultural implements. Her inheritance is often limited to the parents' personal
belongings or acquired property. Besides, the system of rights over land is connected with agricultural
practices. n this context we shall take a look at the customary inheritance laws and what rights
women have in each tribe studied.
1. TYPES OF PROPERTY AND OWNERSHIP
The concept of property implies not merely ownership but also a whole set of rights with
reference to the object owned. ndividuals have rights over property according to the norms prevailing
in a society. Most divide it into movable and immovable and confer rights accordingly. The next
division is between individual and communal ownership, the former implying exclusiveness and the
latter vested in a clan or a village. Property owned by individuals can be ancestral or acquired,
immovable or movable. Men and women have some rights over each type determined by their
customary law and reinforced by the modern law. nheritance involves transfer of property from one
generation or individual to another. Keeping these differences in mind we shall now examine the
ownership and inheritance pattern of different types of property among the five tribes, with focus on
women's rights.
The House
We begin with house ownership (Table 6.1). The Aka trace descent through the male line and
give limited ownership and inheritance rights to women over immovable clan property (Dutta and
Duarah 1997: 171). As stated above, this CPR and jhum based tribe lacked the concept of individual
ownership (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 20-22). However, the house belonged to a family, as such
it introduced the concept of individual ownership among them. Their customary law allows only men
and not women to inherit it.
158
All 54 Adibasi respondents who own a house said that men alone inherit it. The rest are tea
garden workers who live in the "Lines owned by the management. The reason they give is that a
girl goes to another house where her husband inherits his parents' property. So she should not get
any part of her ancestral home. However, some said that sons and daughters should have equal
inheritance rights. Most of them added that, a girl should inherit the house if her brothers do not
take proper care of their parents. Thus the change is marginal. The right remains with the man. f
he does not do his duty it can be transferred to the woman.
99 of the 100 Angami said that men alone inherit the ancestral house and 1 said that a woman
had inherited her father's house. t is customary for the youngest son to inherit it since after their
marriage the elder sons move out and build houses of their own. Some said that if a man does not
have a son his daughters can inherit his land and occupy a portion of his house but in most cases
men alone inherit ancestral property. Though a woman cannot inherit the house she has every right
to stay there as long as she does not leave her husband. A widow can stay in her husband's house
with her children and enjoy the same rights as a wife. The house remains the man's property and
she is its guardian, not owner.
TabIe 7.1 : Ownership of the House
Tribe Men Women Both NA TotaI
Aka
Male 53 0 0 0 53
Female 47 0 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Adibasi
Male 20 0 0 14 34
Female 34 0 0 32 66
TotaI 54 0 0 46 100
Angami
Male 52 0 1 0 53
Female 47 0 0 0 47
TotaI 99 0 1 0 100
Dimasa
Male 51 1 1 1 54
Female 43 2 0 1 46
TotaI 94 3 1 2 100
159
Tribe Men Women Both NA TotaI
Garo
Male 0 40 10 0 50
Female 0 43 7 0 50
TotaI 0 83 17 0 100
Grand TotaI
Male 176 41 12 15 244
Female 171 45 7 33 256
TotaI 347 86 19 48 500
We have mentioned in chapter 2 that the Dimasa have three types of property, paternal,
maternal and common. Paternal property consisting of land, house, weapons, utensils and money
is divided among the sons, the eldest getting the best land and the youngest getting the house
where he resides with the parents. 94 said that men own the ancestral home but some change is
visible as a result of contacts with outsiders. 3 women said that they have a right to own their
parents' house. t is a recent development.
84 Garo respondents confirmed that the chosen daughter gets the house but some change is
beginning around ownership when men are the main earners. 17 said that in those cases men own
it. Most of them live in a small town where they have a salaried job. As noted in the last chapter
they have started "taking their wife home. They interact with their family in the village from this
position and lay claim to their ancestral home.
Community Land
Community land also known as common property resources (CPRs) is vested in the clan,
village or even the entire tribe but is available for the use of a family, especially for jhum but no
individual has a right over it. The family or individual right to cultivate the CPRs is hereditary. Except
in the matrilineal tribes succession is through men. n that sense it is discriminatory of women. We
shall study it according the data given in Table 6.2.
The question of CPR ownership is irrelevant for the Aka, Dimasa, Garo and Adibasi but for
different reason. Among the Aka, most families depend on jhum. A family clears as much land as
it needs to cultivate that year according to the number of mouths to feed. After the jhum season it
reverts to the village bcause a family only has usufruct rights over it and it can neither own nor
alienate it (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 23). However, the concept of settled cultivation is making
an appearance among them because according to their customary law when a family cultivates the
same land continuously for a few years, others cannot cultivate it. Some powerful individuals tend
to keep it under their control for their lifetime. Thus in reality that family owns it though in the name
of the community. Besides, wetland near the river may be cultivated by a family, and some of their
powerful individual leaders appropriate it. An Aka leader told us that gradually it will become
160
individually owned land. The gender issue is is relevant also in the CPRs which belong to the
community but the village council made up of men alone control it. The man chooses the plot to
cultivate that year and after it the woman takes charge of its production and divides work. As seen
earlier, it makes division of work in jhum more gender friendly than that in settled cultivation. The
woman has a little more control over the CPRs than over individually owned land during production.
But as a resource it is controlled by men (Menon 1995: 101).
TabIe 7.2 : Ownership of Community Land
Tribe & Men Women Both Not AppI TotaI
Gender
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 0 34 34
Female 4 0 0 62 66
TotaI 4 0 0 96 100
Angami
Male 53 0 0 0 53
47 0 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 0 0 0 54 54
Female 0 0 0 46 46
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Garo
Male 0 0 0 50 50
Female 0 0 0 50 50
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Grand TotaI
Male 53 0 0 191 244
Female 51 0 0 205 256
TotaI 104 0 0 396 500
161
Since most Adibasi respondents are landless, CPR or individual ownership is irrelevant to
them. Only 4 of them own land as seen in Table 3.14 which shows that 91 of their 417 family
members above 10 are students and only 56 of the remaining 326 (16.56%) are cultivators. 141
(43.25%) are daily wage earners and 71 (21.78%) are tea garden workers. We have seen in the
last section that 46 of them do not own a house because some are plantation labourers living in
the "Lines and the rest are landless. Whatever the type of land, their customs do not allow women
to inherit it. Ownership rights vest in men but women have a right to use the CPRs. However, most
of them cannot speak of the CPRs because they are not even recognised as a tribe in Assam and
cannot come under the Sixth Schedule.
The Angami have individual as well as community land but their customary law does not allow
women to own any type of ancestral property whether individual or community, wet or jhum fields.
Because of the patrilineal system, ownership rights in the CPRs are restricted to the males. All the
male members of a clan are its owners but women have a right to use them.
Jhum land which is community owned is the main type among the Dimasa though individual
ownership is beginning among them. An individual can cultivate a piece of land for a year or longer
with the permission of the Khunang. f a family uses it for more than a year usually it is for growing
fruit trees and remains in its trust in the name of its male head, as long as the trees last (D'Souza,
Kekhrieseno and Nokhwenu 2002: 69). Jhum land is cultivated for a year, the question of women's
ownership rights is irrelevant. However, since she takes charge of the land after the man chooses
it, she has some control over it.
All the Garo respondents said that neither men nor women can own the CPRs. However, with
the Rubber Board subsidising its cultivation only on individually owned patta land and banks giving
loans for it to "heads of families understood as men, much of the community owned land in the East
Garo Hills has been transferred to individual men (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 200-201). Besides,
some men are today demanding male inheritance. Thus more several processes come together to
strengthen patriarchy among them.
CIan Land
Next comes land belonging to the clan or village. Table 7.3 shows that the concept of clan
ownership is stronger among the Angami and Garo than among the Aka who only have CPRs under
the control of the whole village, not of an individual clan.
162
TabIe 7.3 : Ownership of CIan Land
Tribe Men Women Both NAP TotaI
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 0 34 34
Female 4 0 0 62 66
TotaI 4 0 0 96 100
Angami
Male 53 0 0 0 53
Female 47 0 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 0 0 0 54 54
Female 0 0 0 46 46
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Garo
Male 0 23 0 27 50
Female 0 27 3 20 50
TotaI 0 50 3 47 100
Grand TotaI
Male 53 23 0 168 244
Female 51 27 3 175 256
TotaI 104 50 3 343 500
Though the Aka are a CPR based tribe, some of their elite have monopolised wetland. Till now
common land has not been transferred to individuals but since a few of them have come to control
wetland some respondents fear that the trend of individual ownership will soon be extended to jhum
land too. t will have serious repercussions for women because despite their subordinate status,
they have some control over it and they will lose it if individual ownership becomes the norm.
Another threat they face is from immigrants who come to their area as semi-skilled or unskilled
workers, get land on lease for two or three years with the permission of the village council but
refuse to return it at the end of the lease period (Fernandes and Bharali 2002: 49). That this threat
163
is not very strong at present is seen from the fact that all the Aka respondents said that their land
either belongs to the village or to individuals. The village council controls the CPRs but the trend
towards individual ownership can result in class formation and women losing the limited control they
exercise over it.
A 2004 study showed that some basti dwelling Adibasi families of Lakhimpur owned patta land
and others cultivated rented or mortgaged land (Fermandes and Pereira 2005: 113). n our present
sample only 4 respondents cultivate the CPRs owned collectively by men. The remaining 96 families
are landless or cultivate small plots or are daily wage earners or tea garden workers. The concept
of CPRs is irrelevant to them as a group. The customary law of their Jharkhand ancestors had this
concept but they have lost it after their migration to Assam.
As mentioned earlier, the Angami have a combination of individual and community ownership.
Men own all immovable ancestral property including clan land, whether wet, cultivable or forest. All
their respondents confirm that it continues to be the case today but they allow widows the use of
clan land with the permission of the male members. The fields remain with them as long as they
cultivate them. n some cases women belonging to the same lineage are given land. Even when
they marry outside the tribe, the property continues to belong to them and their daughters i.e.
females of that particular lineage. However, it is true more about acquired than inherited clan land
which usually remains in the hands of men.
The Dimasa customary law has been modified to include the DAC which belongs to the Sixth
Schedule not to their tradition. Their tradition allows a family to own clan land as long as it cultivates
trees on it. Today DAC has the power to transfer patta land and the Khunang deals with non-patta
land (Nunisa 2004: 21). Thus, as among the Aka, also among the Dimasa the village council, not
the clan controls the CPRs. That explains why as Table 7.3 shows, the question of clan ownership
does not apply to the Dimasa.
23 male and 27 female Garo respondents said that women own clan land and the rest said
that both own it. The former represents their customary law and the latter shows the change that
is coming among them. Men have started asserting their ownership and inheritance rights. ts first
step is joint ownership which looks just. 3 women said that also men can own clan land. The
minority of men who demand that it be changed fully to male inheritance is taking the tribe towards
patriliny which can become real among them (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 119). The concept of
clan land does not make sense to 47 of them because while women think that it is customary for
them alone to own any type of land, some men who have taken up non-agricultural occupations
speak of male ownership. However it is important to note that they recognise CPR ownership by
women.
FamiIy Land
Since family land can be either ancestral or acquired, some own more than the others do
(Table 7.4). The Aka make no distinction between family and clan land because they do not have
164
a tradition of individual ownership. A household can cultivate as much land as it needs to feed all
its members for a year. After the jhum season it reverts to the community.
Though the Adibasi have lost their tradition of clan land, men in 36 households own small
plots. n 2 others daughters own it in the absence of sons. Only 1 woman said that sons and
daughters have equal rights over family land but most Adibasi are landless or only own small plots.
The little they know of their Jharkhand customary law shows that it discriminated against women
both in ownership and inheritance. That continues to be their norm but they do not call it their
customary law. Most of them do not want to change it. A few women who own land do it in the
absence of a male issue and not because they want women's equality.
All the Angami respondents own land but their tradition of communal and jhum fields and
forest ownership is coming under strain because many of them want to own even a patch of forest
as individual property. Terrace fields have belonged to individuals for long (D'Souza and Kekhrieseno
2002: 78) and are considered family land owned only by men. n the absence of a son they pass
to the nearest male relative. They justify it by saying that girls leave the family after marriage and
they do not want their land to be splintered and lost.
TabIe 7.4 : Ownership of FamiIy Land
Tribe Men Women Both Not App TotaI
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 16 0 0 18 34
Female 20 2 1 43 66
TotaI 36 2 1 61 100
Angami
Male 53 0 0 0 53
Female 47 0 0 0 47
TotaI 100 0 0 0 100
Dimasa
Male 44 1 0 9 54
Female 39 3 0 4 46
TotaI 83 4 0 13 100
165
Tribe Men Women Both Not App TotaI
Garo
Male 0 39 7 4 50
Female 0 41 5 4 50
TotaI 0 80 12 8 100
Grand TotaI
Male 113 40 7 84 244
Female 106 46 6 98 256
TotaI 219 86 13 182 500
The existence of male and female clans should make it possible for sons as well as daughters
among the Dimasa to get a share of the family property but 44 male and 39 female respondents
said that in practice daughters cannot own land. The remaining 13 depend completely on jhum
fields. There are also signs of individual ownership emerging among them. 4 respondents added
that women can have ownership rights if there is no male issue. Female clans are only for the family
name and clan membership. Property continues to be controlled by men but the difference with the
Angami and in common with the Adibasi is that the daughter can own or inherit family land in the
absence of a son. The Angami pass it on to the closest male relative.
Among the Garo property distribution was the monopoly of the chras but we were told in the
group discussion sessions as well as in individual interviews that today the mother and the father
take a joint decision on this issue. Their tradition does not allow men to own land and in 80
respondent families only women own it. However, after giving sufficient land to the nokkrom, the
parents are today allowed to allot a certain portion of it to the sons too. This recent practice that
is a major departure from their tradition has happened in the families of 12 respondents. t can be
a step towards gender equality but during our fieldwork some men told us that they want to change
their inheritance laws in their own favour and turn theirs into a patrilineal society. The move towards
joint decision and allotting a plot to sons seems to be a compromise because of the difficulties
involved in changing the customary law. However, the fact that the move to change inheritance
exists is significant especially since theirr customary law gives a decisive say to men in decisions
concerning land. To some extent the nokma or the chief heiress is the guardian of the land she
inherits. Much of its control is in the hands of her son and now it is being transferred to her husband.
Acquired Land
Most tribes keep a clear distinction between clan and acquired land. The latter belongs to
individuals and the former to the clan or village. Most tribes allow acquired land to be gifted to
daughters. ndividual ownership of jhum fields is unknown among the Aka, so there is no question
of a family acquiring more than the others. However, within the communal milieu there is an
166
unacknowledged private dimension of the house and the trend of the elite taking control of wetland
but they have not yet got pattas for it. They continue to hold it in the name of the village though
in reality they have appropriated it for themselves.
TabIe 7.5 : Ownership of Acquired Land
Tribe Men Women Both Not AppI TotaI
Aka
Male 0 0 0 53 53
Female 0 0 0 47 47
TotaI 0 0 0 100 100
Adibasi
Male 1 1 0 32 34
Female 4 0 4 58 66
TotaI 5 1 4 90 100
Angami
Male 10 0 43 0 53
Female 4 0 43 0 47
TotaI 14 0 86 0 100
Dimasa
Male 15 1 0 38 54
Female 9 0 0 37 46
TotaI 24 1 0 75 100
Garo
Male 21 2 7 20 50
Female 16 2 8 24 50
TotaI 37 4 15 44 100
Grand TotaI
Male 47 4 50 143 244
Female 33 2 55 166 256
TotaI 80 6 105 309 500
Only 10 Adibasi respondents have bought land, 5 of them in men's name, 1 in a woman's and
4 others jointly. Joint ownership is significant in a tribe that has till now restricted all land ownership
to men alone and has permitted to women only the use of the CPRs. Table 7.5 shows that the tea
167
garden workers and much more so the daily wage earners cannot purchase land because of their
low income.
The commonest Angami method of acquiring land is through purchase. Terrace as well as
jhum fields can be bought and marketisation of agricultural land has become a common practice
among them. t is bound to reduce women's control over it and over their livelihood. Their tradition
allows a daughter to inherit acquired land, house and other assets (Kekhrieseno 2002: 189-191).
That explains why 86 respondents say that both sons and daughters can own land. However, 4
women and 10 men think that only men should own even acquired property. t shows the strengthening
of patriarchy among them and their refusal to change the system in favour of women.
The Dimasa vest the oownership of all property, ancestral or self-acquired in the hands of the
father. Table 7.5 shows that in most cases sons alone inherit even acquired land. t is the case in
24 respondent families against one woman owning it. Thus, despite the female descent clan,
property is not distributed equally among the Dimasa. Women are not allowed to own any land.
Permanent dry and wet fields are individually owned. t has made some of them think of extending
individual ownership even to jhum fields by acquiring a patta on the land of one's choice (D'Souza
and Kekhrieseno 2002: 77). Land marketisation is not common among them but there are signs of
its privatisation beginning. Most of those who acquire land do not allow women to own or their
daughters to inherit it.
Acquired land which the Garo call Man'gital Gam is not under the control of the chra and
Mahari. The Nokkrom has the right to dispose of it (Marak 2000: 187). n 37 respondent families
men own it. Their getting a share of the family land is a major change. t can be a step towards
gender equity or can result in men alone controlling property. n only 4 families women own both
acquired and ancestral land. n 15 others men and women share it. The rest do not have acquired
land so the question is not applicable to them.
Thus one cannot speak of any uniformity in the ownership of acquired land. t changes according
to the type of society. The Akas are close to their tradition and do not acquire individual land.
Landlessness is high among the Adibasi, especially those in the bastis. Their problem is more of
land alienation than of acquisition (Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 144-145). With the slow change
from communal to individual ownership among the Dimasa and Angami marketisation of land can
imply more social cleavages in their traditionally egalitarian societies. Both their traditional and new
ownership patterns go against women. Even in the matrilineal Garo, women only inherit land.
Decisions on it are male centred. The economic and commercial forces strengthen male control
over land and reinforce women's lower status instead of taking them towards equality.
2. INHERITANCE OF LANDED PROPERTY
While the customary laws of the five tribes around property ownership and inheritance are not
uniform, the commonality among them is patriarchy. Some have taken a few small steps in favour
168
of women. Besides, her role differs according to the agricultural system and the type of tribe,
patrilineal or matrilineal. Besides, as long as land belongs to the community women have some
control over their livelihood because they are in charge of the family economy. But they have very
little control over individually owned land. t is as true of the matrilineal Garo as of the patrilineal
tribes. We shall study it in this section (Table 7.6). n so doing we shall exclude all acquired land
and limit ourselves to ancestral property.
Land is abundant and population is sparse in the Aka area but land is CPRs. Only the house
can be called private property. To be exact it is communal property in private possession for the
family's exclusive use. On account of their patriarchal and patrilineal system only males can inherit
it. The concept of land ownership is irrelevant to them, so is inheritance. One can only speak of
inheritance of the family's right to cultivate community land. However, their elite are slowly moving
towards individual ownership although at present it is done in the name of the community. Women
cannot inherit either typeof land.
Table 7.6 shows that 24 Adibasi are landless, so inheritance is irrelevant to them. n 73
families that own small plots, only men inherit private land and in 3 they inherit clan land. However,
clan land is a misnomer because it does not exist among them though in Jharkhand their ancestors
had this concept. As seen in Table 7.5 4 men of 4 families that are in joint possession of common
land call it clan land. Whatever its type, there is no evidence of women inheriting it. They cannot
even inherit acquired land. There is a strong opinion among the Adibasi that daughters too should
inherit family land but such change is slow in coming. Their customs and traditions are against
them. n group discussion as well as in individual interviews many mentioned women's education
as a tool of effecting this change but its implementation is a far cry because as late as in 2002
around 60% of the tea garden workers' girl children aged 6-14 were out of school against 35% of
boys (ASSAM 2002).
Ownership of ancestral land is restricted to men. No woman can own it. Land and forests are
under the control of individuals, descent groups, lineages and clans all of which are male centred
but women enjoy the privilege of inheriting jhum land and the personal land of their mothers. Even
that is given mostly to the eldest daughter (D'Souza 2001: 45). This system continues though
Angami women are by and large better educated than men. The reason some men give is that
many women from their community marry outsiders and if they inherit land ancestral property will
be scattered. But it seems to be more a pretext than a genuine reason. Such deprivation is one of
the reasons why many Angami women have become economically independent and even without
owning land, exercise control over the family's means of livelihood. However, unless they get a
share in the family property, this control may not continue for long since slowly they will have to
move away from their area.
169
TabIe 7.6 : Inheritance of Landed Property
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI Grand
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F TotaI
Sons nherit 0 0 27 46 32 32 50 38 0 1 109 117 226
Daughters nherit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 50 47 50 48 98
Sons get Clan land 0 0 0 0 17 14 0 0 0 1 17 15 32
Daughters get
Clan land 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2
Males alone nherit 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 5
Females alone
nherit 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
Village Chief 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1
Community Owns 53 47 0 3 0 0 2 6 0 0 55 56 111
No Land 0 0 7 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 17 24
Grand TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
From the existence of two types of cland one would have expected the Dimasa to have a
culture of equal inheritance but their customary laws restrict to men even inheritance of what is
acquired. Women get only movable assets like clothes and utensils. Table 7.6 shows that in only
2 families women inherited land. t should be studied also in the context of their search for a new
identity away from what the Bengali administrators had imposed on them. This search is an effort
to go towards a better future, not to go back to the past but they do not seem to give up their
succession laws that go against women. Besides, today most land is communally owned but their
elite are moving towards individual property. Women's status can deteriorate further if gender equity
is not introduced in inheritance and one does not see any such thinking among them.
Among the Garo, the chosen daughter is the heiress. Men are not allowed to inherit ancestral
property, though sometimes acquired land is gifted to them. However, 2 respondents said that men
too inherited the family's landed property. That is a beginning of change of attitude concerning the
matrilineal system. Education has changed the attitude of unquestioning acceptance of tradition and
some men say that they should inherit ancestral property and remain in their parents' house. Some
of them have started giving their own family name to their children (Marak 2002: 163) but till now
there is no organised movement towards partiliny. f it happens, apart from taking decisions about
land inherited by women, men will even get its ownership. t can result in women's marginalisation.
What is needed is a re-interpretation of their inheritance laws that make men and women equal.
170
Inheritance of PersonaI BeIongings
We have said above that women inherit movable property. Table 7.7 substantiates it by listing
the items of property or personal belongings that can be inherited by sons and daughters. n most
tribes the daughter can inherit only her mother's personal belongings.
TabIe 7.7 : Inheritance of PersonaI BeIongings of Parents
From Father From Mother
Tribe Son Daughter Son Daughter
Aka House, land, Dao, Nil Nil Jewellery,
Gun, dress, ornaments,
animals. utensils, clothes.
Adibasi House, land, Furniture, cattle, Money. Utensils, furniture,
farming tools, utensils. clothes.
cattle, money.
Angami House, land, Money, paddy, Money, paddy, Traditional dress,
traditional dress, acquired land, ornaments, shawls. baskets, utensils,
shawls, utensils, cattle. jewellery.
dao, axe, spear,
gun
Dimasa House, land, gun, Acquired Land. Utensils. Jewellery,
dao, spears, cattle. ornaments, looms,
utensils, clothes,
baskets.
Garo Spear, Gun, Dao, Nil Dao, Gun, Turban Clothes, jewellery,
Turban, ornaments
Among the Aka, men inherit their father's immovable as well movable property such as dao,
gun, dress and domestic animals. The daughter may be given some property when she leaves for
her husband's house after marriage or when it is shared among the living members of the family.
She inherits the jewellery, ornaments, utensils and clothes and other personal belongingsof her
mother. She may be gifted these items even during her lifetime. Apart from them she is not entitled
to any of her father's property.
We have already said that the Adibasi own very little land but have personal belongings that
both daughters and sons may inherit. Some insisted that the woman inherits them and does not
receive them as a gift. She gets utensils, furniture and clothes from her mother as well as some
from her father but the homestead land goes to the sons. Daughters get these gifts after their
171
marriage. Many said that daughters should be given all the personal belongings because they do
not inherit any land.
Among the Angami the father and mother hand over their personal belongings to their sons
or daughters. Both get a share of the paddy, ornaments, baskets, traditional attires, jewellery,
utensils and domestic animals. The joint property acquired by the father and mother goes to the
sons and daughters at their marriage or at the time of separation but there is no hard and fast rule
about the amount of money. The parents give it to the children according to their need. The gun
is the common property of all the sons. Some respondents said that apart from personal belongings
a daughter can also inherit land from the parents. They were referring to acquired land that we
exclude in this section.
The Dimasa customary law restricts women's inheritance to movable property alone. She can
inherit the personal belongings of her mother such as utensils, ornaments, looms, clothes and
baskets and also get a share of the common property. The son can never inherit maternal property
even if the family does not have a daughter. The daughter can never inherit paternal property that
includes the house, land, gun, dao, spears and cattle. The common property is shared between
sons and daughters. 1 person said that women can even inherit the acquired land. t seems to be
a beginning of change in their society, possibly as a result of individual property that the parents
are able to dispose of according to their will. n fact, in two villages we found cases of the community
accepting daughters inheriting land.
Among the Garo personal or movable property consists of the spear, gun, dao, turban, clothes,
jewellery and ornaments. The heiress inherits moveable and immoveable property. The chra and
mahari control ancestral land, not the moveable or acquired property of the husband and wife.
Men's belongings like the turban, gun and dao go to the son but what he earns becomes the
property of his mother or sister and after marriage, of his wife. The mother can give her son a share
of the property at his marriage with the consent of her mahari.
Change in the Laws of Inheritance
The above description of the property rights of women in the five tribes shows that by and
large the customary laws give women very limited rights over immovable property. They can claim
only personal belongings as their own. Even in the matrilineal tribe women are in reality only
guardians of their inheritance. They get some control over their livelihood when the resources are
community owned but more and more CPR dependent tribes are moving towards individual ownership.
With it women may lose the few rights they had. Keeping this situation in view, we shall examine
the changes in inheritance as the respondents see them.
Table 7.8 shows that not much change is taking place in the Aka inheritance laws. One view
is that, inheritance laws are irrelevant to them because they are CPR dependants. That would be
a simplistic view because according to their customary law the village owns the CPRs but the
community owning it is made up of men alone. t is inherited by the village chief or the village
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council made up of men. They take all decisions concerning it and their sons inherit that right. 70
respondents said that there is no change in these laws. Most of them stopped at it because they
saw some movement towards individual ownership and did not know how to react to it. 8 men and
women each said that the inheritance laws should remain unchanged. Whether owned as a community
or individually, only men should inherit land. Another group of 13 respondents, 6 men and 7 women
felt that there should be some change in the inheritance laws and that instead of a few individuals
monopolising wet fields, women should have inheritance rights and that at least 50% of the property
should go to the daughters. Most of those who took this stand are young persons who have some
exposure to the thinking on gender equity because of their contact with the "mainstream society
and are aware of the changes taking place. They can help the Aka to move towards gender equity.
Despite patriliny and the stand of many that they experience no change all the Adibasi think
that their inheritance laws should hve gender equity and that sons and daughters should get an
equal share of parental property. Though most respondents are either landless or are tea garden
workers living in the "Lines, they feel the need for change because they see women being deprived
of all rights and their status has not changed during the last few decades. They added that inheritance
should go together with good quality education because they view it as intrinsic to social equality
and other changes in their society. For example, some of them said that women's status will not
change as long as drunkenness continues among their men. They want inheritance to emerge out
of a sense of equality accepted by all.
TabIe 7.8 : Change in Laws of Inheritance
Tribe No No, GirIs 50% to Yes, if No, No both TotaI
Change Marry Women un- women inherit
Outside married inherit today
Aka
Male 38 8 6 0 0 1 53
Female 32 8 7 0 0 0 47
TotaI 70 16 13 0 0 1 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 34 0 0 0 34
Female 0 0 66 0 0 0 66
TotaI 0 0 100 0 0 0 100
Angami
Male 46 2 5 0 0 0 53
Female 33 2 10 2 0 0 47
TotaI 79 4 15 2 0 0 100
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Tribe No No, GirIs 50% to Yes, if No, No both TotaI
Change Marry Women un- women inherit
Outside married inherit today
Dimasa
Male 34 0 0 0 0 20 54
Female 27 0 1 0 0 18 46
TotaI 61 0 1 0 0 38 100
Garo
Male 27 0 0 0 23 0 50
Female 25 0 0 0 25 0 50
TotaI 52 0 0 0 48 0 100
Grand TotaI 262 20 129 2 48 39 500
At first this view that signifies hope sounds surprising in a society that has has been marginalised.
After the immigration of their ancestors from Jharkhand, their experience of life in the tea estates
has been one of subjugation and poverty (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 5). Two recent
changes in this area account for this attitude. The first is the opening of a school that tries to give
them quality education. The second is the formation of self-help groups that have gone beyond
micro-credit to which many SHGs limit themselves. They have had ongoing reflection on the future
of the tea workers in general and of women in particular. All our respondents are members of SHGs
that have developed a sense of hope in the future of their community. So what they say may not
be fully true of all other Adibasi. We chose those who have passed through this process since they
can continue it in their community.
85 Angamis think that women should not inherit clan land. 4 of them said that since girls leave
home at their marriage, property will be splintered if it is shared with them. 2 are ready to give them
a share if they are unmarried. Thus 85 of them are not ready to share it with married daughters.
Only 15, including 10 women said that daughters should get 50% of their ancestral property. Thus
the stand that women should not inherit clan land is common both to men and women who have
internalised the patriarchal ideology and consider it integral to their customary law. Some added that
if the girl is educated it is an additional reason not to give her a share because money has been
spent on her "gift of education.
However, the strongest argument came in the name of the customary law. They said that this
law is integral to their identity and should not be changed. ntroduction of women's equality would
be a drastic change in it and it would go against their identity. The 5 men and 6 out 10 women who
spoke in favour of women's equality are in their 50s and have gone through the political process
of the Naga Nationalist Struggle during which young men went underground leaving both the home
174
and their society in the hands of women. That is when new educational institutions came to their
area and girl children gained access to them. As a result, girls are better educated than boys. The
egalitarian ideology that they have developed belongs to this political process and education (Fernandes
and Barbora 2002a: 86-88). t also means that the next generation has not absorbed this thinking
and is going back to a conservative interpretation of their customary law demanding women's
subordination.
Double descent accounts for the special features of the Dimasa inheritance system. However,
women's role is limited mostly to movable property and despite female clans, their law of inheritance
does not do justice to both men and women. On the other side, 38 of them say that both inherit
property. As we know already from Table 7.6, not all of them are cases of women inheriting clan
land. Some have inherited individual land and others have inherited personal belongings. However,
we found at least one family that has divided its ancestral property equally between sons and
daughters and the village gave its consent to it. n more than one case, daughters inherited property
in the absence of a son. Unlike among the Angami whose customary law demands that the property
pass to the closest male relative, the Dimasa village allowed it to be given to the daughter. Thus,
there is some change in their thinking though 34 men and 27 women say that the existing laws on
inheritance should not change against 20 men and 18 women who say that both should inherit
family land. t should be seen in the context of the desire of the Dimasa to go back to their
customary law which limits inheritance. All of them think that their identity is closely linked to their
customary law. However, those who want change in favour of women say that it is another interpretation
of the same law and that it can strengthen their identity rather than weaken it. They said that
equality is basic to their ethos and that it should be emphasised also in their inheritance laws.
One does not have to labour the point that Garo women are in favour of continuing the present
inheritance rights so are 27 men. The remaining 23 men and 25 women said that women are
already inheriting property and that any talk of change in their favour made no sense. However,
some of them added that they have serious questions about it. A few of them wanted complete
switchover to a patrilineal system, some others wanted men and women to inherit property jointly
and another group was in favour of making some concessions in favour of men without abandoning
female inheritance. The first group is averse to women owning property. They claim that men being
more mobile are in a better position to communicate with outsiders in business matters. Those who
hold this view are mostly young businessmen and men with a salaried job and "have brought their
wife home. They also believe that sons should remain in their parents' house and are convinced
that the Garo will not make progress under matriliny. Those who demand equal rights say that today
both men and women have got educated and move away to the urban areas. So the community
cannot afford inheritance that binds one or the other to the village. The third group that says that
some concession should be made to men is made up mostly of women. n all the discussion on their
succession rights, hardly anyone mentioned that women's rights are only partial in their inheritance
175
laws, that in pactice the heiress is the guardian of what she inherits and that much control on
decisions concerning its use and alienation is in the hands of men.
ConcIusion
n this chapter we have looked at the ownership and inheritance rights of women among the
five tribes studied. The discussion shows that women have very limited rights in their customary
law. That includes the matrilineal tribe in which the woman inherits ancestral property but decisions
concerning its use and transfer are in the hands of men. The thinking that men should continue to
own and inherit land continues even when it becomes individual property, for example among the
Angami. While women are often better educated than men, their social system denies them equality
within their own society and deprives them of inheritance rights for no reason other that that they
are "women. As a result when the society around them changes and the tribe is unable to cope
with the challenges, women among them feel their negative effects more than men do. One has to
change the laws and traditions to suit these needs. However, most young men too seem to oppose
changes in their favour.
However, one cannot take an exclusive view of women's rights. They are crucial because
most societies discriminate against them and subjugate them. f one were to take an exclusive view
of rights, one may demand the abolition of the customary laws in their totality but one cannot ignore
the fact that they are basic to tribal identity and that ethnic conflicts are in many cases in the name
of protecting it. However, many of those who try to protect it, for that equity is basic to tribal culture
and identity and that women's subordination is a consequence of external processes (Sharma 1989:
25). The Dimasa women who want equal inheritance are in fact, demanding it in the name of the
values on which their customary law is based. They demand equality, not merely women's rights.
That component needs to be introduced in the discussion among the Garo and Khasi. Today there
is polarisation between those who demand matrilineal or patrilineal inheritance because they forget
equality which may involve questioning not merely inheritance but also the ongoing control over
land that continues to be in the hands of men. One needs to go towards equal power.
Simultaneously, one cannot ignore the fact that exposure to the "mainstream can facilitate the
movement towards equality but cannot ensure it. The Angami have had the highest exposure to the
external world but the trend towards patriarchy is the strongest among them. The Adibasi have been
the most marginalised and have had much lower exposure to the positive elements of modernisation
though they are the worst victims of its negative inputs. However, one sees some major changes
in their attitude which we attribute to the social processes introduced among them through the SHG
and education. The combination of the political processes of the nationalist struggles and education
introduced similar changes among the Angami. The political processes have got weak and despite
a high educational status, younger Angami men would like to go back to their tradition rather than
modernise it. They are not ready to share power with women though their political ideology is in its
favour.
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Some of these processes need to be studied and new ones facilitated among these five tribes
and others. That requires an understanding of their attitudes towards equality and change. n an
effort to see whether their attitudes support change towards social and economic equality, in the
next chapter we shall try to understand the impact of modern inputs on women and their reaction
to it. That can lead us to a reflection on the type of changes that are desirable and and are feasible
and can lead to small steps towards equality.
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CHAPTER-8
IMPACT OF MODERN INPUTS ON WOMEN
n chapter 3 the study of women's educational and occupational status showed us the changing
trends over the decades. Some tribes have benefited immensely from opportunities that were not
available to them a couple of decades ago. We shall now re-visit the same from a different angle.
n chapter 3 the focus was on the number of boys/men and girls/women who went to school or ae
literate and those out of school. We shall now go beyond statistics and try to get in touch with the
attitudes that govern their choices in making educational and job opportunities accessible to boys/
men and girls/women. n order to understand them we asked the respondents about their preference
for boys' and girls' primary and higher education and their attitudes to women taking up salaried
jobs. While answers to these questions gave us their preference what touched the crux of the issue
was group discussion, interviews with the leaders of men's and women's associations and participant
observation.
1. ACCESS TO EDUCATION
Our past studies had indicated that though most parents were open to the idea of sending girls
to school, there continued some subtle discrimination by way of sending boys to private schools and
girls to government schools that are ill managed and inefficient (D'Souza, Kekhrieseno and Nokhwenu
2002: 51). There was also a certain bias, even discrimination against girls attaining higher levels
of education. They also gave indications of the possibility of the patriarchal value system being
reproduced through the educational system and transmitted to the tribal communities of the Northeast
(Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 160). We shall re-examine these issues in this chapter in order to
get deeper insights into them.
Various factors play a role in children's enrolment in schools and their reaching higher classes.
Availability of institutions does not by itself ensure access. An institution may be available but
factors such as its cost, culture and vested interest deny the poor access to it and keep them out
of it. For example, in theory all are equal before the law courts. n practice, "everyone knows who
can go to them. The poor do not go to the court but are taken to them (Baxi 1983: 103). Similarly,
educational institutions are available but not accessible to some groups. Studies in UP show that
while landlords send their sons to schools far from home, they oppose any school being built in their
village for fear that the Dalit labourers would send their children to them and become aware of their
rights (Jetley 1977: 23-24).
178
Even when all go to school, hidden discrimination may continue in a society. For example a
study in the Nagaon district showed that all the ethnic Assamese children in the 6-14 age group
were at school and a large number of them reached the college. However, by and large girls were
sent to colleges close to their homes while boys went to better colleges away from home. As a
result, men got better jobs far from their birth place while women had to be content with jobs near
their homes (Fernandes and Barbora 2002b: 96). n other cases girls are sent for what are called
"female disciplines and boys to higher status "male subjects that help them to get good jobs later
(Karlekar 1986: 194). n order to understand the factors that prevent or facilitate children's especially
girls' access to schools, we shall study the attitude of the respondents on these issues and on
women taking up salaried jobs.
Access to Primary Education
Since our objective was to find out the access girl children have to education, we chose areas
where institutions are available and see whether the respondents favoured girls' education in general
and higher education in particular. The data in chapter 3 show that, by and large the social environment
supports girls' education. nstitutions have been available in the Garo and Angami areas for a long
time but they are recent among the Aka, Adibasi and Dimasa. The level of literacy and education
showed a favourable attitude towards education.
TabIe 8.1 : EducationaI Opportunities to Boys & GirIs
Tribe Preference to Priority to girIs Send both to TotaI
boys schooI
Aka
Male 1 0 52 53
Female 0 0 47 47
TotaI 1 0 99 100
Adibasi
Male 0 0 34 34
Female 0 0 66 66
TotaI 0 0 100 100
Angami
Male 2 0 51 53
Female 0 0 47 47
TotaI 2 0 98 100
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Tribe Preference to Priority to girIs Send both to TotaI
boys schooI
Dimasa
Male 4 0 50 54
Female 0 1 45 46
Total 4 1 95 100
Garo
Male 0 0 50 50
Female 0 0 50 50
Total 0 0 100 100
Grand TotaI
Male 7 0 237 244
Female 0 1 255 256
TotaI 7 1 492 500
The remaining chapters have shown that the Aka are waking up to this need while the
situation of acute poverty deprives the Adibasi of the possibility of sending their children to school.
All the villages studied have lower primary schools but not many high schools and colleges. The
Angami and Garo are better placed in it than the Dimasa, Aka and Adibasi. Wwhile examining their
gender preference in sending children to the primary school we shall study whether the attitude of
each group depends on the fact of various levels of exposure to the outside world.
Table 8.1 indicates a consensus in the 5 tribes for equal opportunities for boys and girls. 492
out of 500 respondents are in favour of gender parity in elementary education. t is a remarkable
change compared to what it was a few years ago. Of the 8 respondents who hold a different opinion,
7 Aka, Angami and Dimasa men want boys to get preference and a Dimasa woman wants priority
for girls. We know from the preceding chapters the strong patriarchal bias of these tribes. Also age
is a factor. Of the 7 men who want preference for boys, 1 is in the 50-59 age group and the rest
are above 60. They are conditioned by their tradition while many younger men and women have
outgrown it, at least in what concerns education. The woman who wants preference to girls is in
the 20-29 cohort.
Gender Preference in Higher Education
We have said above that not all the tribes have equal access to higher education. The first
factor preventing it is the non-availability of institutions that forces children to travel a long distance
and colours their access to colleges. ndian culture expects parents to protect girls, so relatively few
of them go to a hostel where children have to be sent because of their distance. t requires money
180
and there is a possibility of them spending it on boys rather than on girls. The situation is similar
to what was said in the discussion on inheritance. Daughters do not get parental property because
they go away from home after marriage. Education too is an investment in the child's future and
their own security requires parents to be selective in it. Thirdly some girls are married off in their
teens and are deprived of higher education.
TabIe 8.2 : Preference in Higher Education.
Tribe Boys GirIs Both TotaI
Aka
Male 25 0 28 53
Female 10 0 37 47
TotaI 35 0 65 100
Adibasi
Male 34 0 0 34
Female 63 0 3 66
TotaI 97 0 3 100
Angami
Male 1 1 51 53
Female 3 1 43 47
TotaI 4 2 94 100
Dimasa
Male 19 0 35 54
Female 4 0 42 46
TotaI 23 0 77 100
Garo
Male 1 0 49 50
Female 0 0 50 50
TotaI 1 0 99 100
Grand TotaI
Male 80 1 163 244
Female 80 1 175 256
TotaI 160 2 338 500
We shall keep these aspects in mind while studying Table 8.2 on gender preference in higher
education. n it we find data on this aspect only according to the tribe and gender of the respondents
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while Table 8.3 adds their age group. Table 8.1 shows that very few respondents oppose the idea
of sending girls for primary education. As a result boys and girls have equal opportunities at this
level but one is not certain that it is true of higher education. f given a choice, 32% of the
respondents would like to send boys rather than girls to college. Men and women are 80 each
among them. Thus the respondent's gender is not a consideration. Women too have internalised the
patriarchal ideology. Among the Aka and Dimasa more men than women want to restrict higher
education to boys. All the Adibasi men opt for it. However, 338 (67.6%) respondents favour equal
opportunities for boys and girls in higher education. At first sight it looks like a telling change in
favour of gender equity. The situation was different about 30 years ago as one can see in chapter
3 in the gender based division in literacy and various levels of education. t also showed improvement
in these aspects in the lower age groups.
One cannot infer from it that modernisation and exposure to the outside world have by themselves
brought about attitudinal change among them. t depends also on the length of exposure and the
nature of the political and social processes they have lived through. These variables can explain the
difference by tribe. As many as 97 Adibasi respondents would restrict higher education to boys.
Their number comes down to 35 among the Aka and to 23 among the Dimasa. These tribes have
gained access to high school education in recent years. n fact, even today, the overall literacy
among the Adibasi is low and 43% of their children in the 6-14 age group are out of school, 60%
of them girls and 35% boys (Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 55).
The present study was done in an area where a school was built recently. Many parents are
tea garden workers and have to struggle to pay for their children's education. The school has given
them some hope in the future of their children as we saw from the attitudes on inheritance given
in Table 7.7. However, at this stage they see education as investment in their children's and their
own future. With the limited funds at their disposal, they have to keep their vision at school education.
Parents in other areas have alternatives to meet the expenses. For example, after schools came
to their area, many Angami families began to grow a second crop of potatoes to pay for their
children's education. When time came to send their children to college, some of them began to cut
forests that they had preserved till then (D'Souza 2001: 50). The Adibasi have no such alternative.
The remote area where the study was done is far from the towns where colleges exist. Poverty may
not be as great among the Aka and Dimasa but after schools were built in their areas in recent
years, they too have started changing their cropping pattern to pay for their children's education
(Fernandes and Pereira 2005: 179) and cannot make the quantum jump towards higher education.
The Angami and Garo who were Christianised several decades ago have had access to
education for a long time. Churches built schools and later colleges in their area. Besides, the
Angami have experienced political processes that have made it possible for girls to gain access to
higher education (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 91) and have thus gone beyond physical availability
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of institutions to social access to them. t is reflected both in the data on education (Table 3.9) and
their attitudes on gender preference in education (Table 8.2).
Gender Preference in Higher Education by Age Group
We shall countercheck this information by looking at their age groups (Table 8.3). 20 of the
50 (40%) female and 14 out of 30 (46.6%) male respondents below 30 would like to give preference
to boys in higher education. t is not surprising. All of them are from the Aka, Adibasi and Dimasa
tribes that have gained access to education somewhat recently. Even the generation to which these
respondents belong did not have much access to education. As a result, their vision is limited to
high school education and does not go beyond it because colleges are not available in their area.
As Tables 3.8 and 3.14 show those few who have gained access to higher education in their tribe
are men. As stated in chapter 1, we could not find an Aka woman investigator for this study and
had to choose an Assamese woman for it.
The Adibasi continue to be tied to the tea gardens that prefer female workers to pluck leaves.
As a result, motivation to send girls to school or college is low. f alternatives to work in the garden
are available, they automatically choose boys. Besides, among the Adibasi both the parents work
in the garden or as daily wage earners. They are out at work from morning to evening. During the
day the house and the younger siblings are left in the care of girls. That prevents them from going
to school and they cannot even think of higher education (Kaniampady 2003: 179). Thus, their
social context adds to the internalisation of patriarchal values and women too give preference to
boys in higher education. Besides, many said forcefully in the group discussion sessions that the
family benefits by sending boys for higher education because they become its breadwinners while
girls get married and go to another family. Thus, investment on them is a loss to the family since
no returns will be got from it.
19 Dimasa men and 4 women prefer to send boys for higher education, 3 men and 1 woman
among them in the 30-39 cohort and 6 men and 1 woman above 60, the cohorts in which literacy
is very low (Table 3.10). To them a high school is progress since schools came to the area only
recently. Some persons below 30 have been exposed to institutions outside their region. Some
leaders below 40 who want to take their tribe to find a new identity view education as central to their
revival but not the older persons. That is a major difference between the Dimasa revivalist movement
and that of many other tribes in the Northeast as well as in Middle ndia. Most of them return to
their past, glorify it and remain there. The Dimasa view it as a mode of building their future on their
past. Secondly, most such movements tend to be male-centred. Even the Angami do not lack this
element and it is much more so in Middle ndia. The gender component may not be prominent in
the Dimasa revival but it is present as we have seen in Table 7.6 on inheritance and on attitudes
of change in Table 7.7. Besides, some Dimasa women have been active in SHGs or in projects
supported by voluntary agencies. t has added to the gender dimension.
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TabIe 8.3 : Gender Preference in Higher Education by Tribe, Age-Group & Sex
Age 15-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
Aka
Boys 2 0 1 4 7 0 4 4 8 1 3 1 25 10 35
Girls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Both 0 0 6 14 10 8 11 12 0 2 1 1 28 37 65
Total 2 0 7 18 17 8 15 16 8 3 4 2 53 47 100
Adibasi
Boys 0 0 11 16 7 33 13 12 1 2 2 0 34 63 97
Girls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Both 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
Total 0 0 11 16 7 36 13 12 1 2 2 0 34 66 100
Angami
Boys 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 3 4
Girls 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2
Both 0 1 1 1 16 17 13 10 10 7 11 7 51 43 94
Total 0 1 1 1 16 18 14 11 11 7 11 9 53 47 100
Dimasa
Boys 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 2 6 0 6 1 19 4 23
Girls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Both 0 1 9 9 10 14 11 9 2 7 3 2 35 42 77
Total 0 1 9 9 13 15 15 11 8 7 9 3 54 46 100
Garo
Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1
Girls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Both 0 0 0 4 6 16 31 24 10 6 2 0 49 50 99
Total 0 0 0 4 6 16 31 24 11 6 2 0 50 50 100
Grand TotaI
Boys 2 0 12 20 17 35 21 18 17 3 11 4 80 80 160
GirIs 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2
Both 0 2 16 28 42 58 66 55 22 22 17 10 163 175 338
TotaI 2 2 28 48 59 93 88 74 39 25 28 14 244 256 500
94 Angami respondents favour gender parity in higher education. Some said during group
discussion that in the past men used to be preferred at this level but today the tide has turned in
favour of gender equality. We have discussed in chapter 3 the political processes that have led to
184
the change of attitudes that have helped women to avail of the opportunities when educational
institutions were built in their region (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 91). However, as chapter 6
shows, the change does not extend to inheritance. n fact, some of them view education as a "gift
that girls get in the place of property and include it among the "personal belongings that daughters
inherit. Thus, a male bias in inheritance goes together with an attitude favouring equal access to
higher education. Some pointed out that subtle discrimination against women exists in higher education
(D'Souza and Kekhrieseno 2002: 48). More boys than girls are sent to better schools in distant
places like Delhi and Shillong because their customary law demands that the husband be better
educated than the wife. But as Table 8.3 shows, women too have had good opportunities because
of the political processes. Thus though the fear of "not getting a suitable match can be a deterrent
to their higher education (bid: 4), the socio-political processes seem to counter this fear.
99 Garo respondents support equal opportunities for boys and girls in higher education. The
change towards equality has been gradual. Chapter 3 shows that subtle discrimination existed in
the past in this matrilineal tribe against women's higher education (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a:
90) but that it is disappearing. Table 8.3 shows attitudes favouring equal opportunities to boys and
girls. n this analysis one cannot ignore the anxious moments the Garo society is passing through
because of the efforts to take the tribe from its matrilineal moorings to a patrilineal and virilocal
society. Some educated men with salaried jobs have started "taking their wives home and demanding
male inheritance (Marak 2002: 163-164). One has to interpret Table 8.3 within this context. During
group discussion women were vociferous in demanding equal rights in education but some men
expressed a feeling of being slighted in the wife's house. Amid this silent tension both men and
women are somewhat uncertain of what they are to think but it has brought about a silent revolution
in their attitude towards girls' education. Women know that if they do not claim their rights in
education today they will be the losers forever. Thus at a moment of transition, women try to find
security by demanding equality of access to higher education for boys and girls.
Tables 8.1 to 8.3 show that not merely the Garo but also the remaining tribes are in a
transition on this issue. The Aka, Adibasi and Dimasa show male preference but the Angami and
Garo are moving towards equal rights. However, one cannot speak of a total change in any direction.
Most Garo and Angami men are ready to concede equal rights in education but not in inheritance.
One is also left with an impression of subtle discrimination against women in education. Many girls
have to study close to their home while boys are sent far away but we were also told that such
discrimination is decreasing. Many girls are today ready to go to colleges and universities far from
home. Most Garo and Angami respondents who are ready to give a new opportunity to girls are
second generation learners. Some resistance comes from the Aka and the Adibasi who have not
had access to education till now. Today they know only schools and they are ready to give equal
opportunities in them. But they do not know higher education since colleges are not available in
their area. They have till now sent some boys to colleges away from home but have not yet started
the tradition of sending girls there. Once the girls at school reach the college going age, they will
have to take a decision about their higher studies and that will be the time to study their real
attitudes. The Adibasi who have to maximise their meagre resources prefer to bet on boys because
185
to them education is an investment in the future of the family. Thus, their attitude can be considered
more an example of the feminisation of poverty than of a gender bias in education.
2. WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
n the past most tribes were tied to the forest economy and to crops grown through jhum that
met their consumption needs. n chapter 4 we have seen the woman's central role in this subsistence
economy. With the introduction of modern agricultural methods, more than one crop a year, settled
agriculture, fertilisers and high yield variety seeds, the forest based economy has got weak. That
has had an adverse impact also on their CPRs around which their economy was organised. Some
have adopted individual ownership which has by and large strengthened the patriarchal ethos with
a negative impact on women's status (Fernandes and Barbora 2002a: 142; Fernandes and Pereira
2005: 194). These factors have redefined women's role in their economy. The last few chapters
have shown its implications for their access to education and jobs. We shall study the nature of their
access in this section
Varying Responses
The questions in this section on women and employment opportunities will show us the
openness of each tribe to the possibility of women taking up salaried jobs and tell us whether the
tradition of confining them to the home has changed. Can they be breadwinners of the family? f
they are allowed to take up jobs what drives them to the employment market? This question was
fictional for some tribes and was meaningful to others. For example, Aka women laughed at the
question because most of them have not had access to schools and the question of employment
was irrelevant to them. So we asked them to imagine a situation of Aka women getting a job. t was
similar with the Adibasi among whom the only salaried jobs women took up are in the tea garden.
They did not require any formal education. But it made sense to Angami and Garo women who have
taken up salaried jobs.
TabIe 8.4 : Job Opportunities for Women
Tribe/Gender Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Attitude M F M F M F M F M F M F
Yes. They are
educated 20 12 2 3 21 21 1 0 24 15 68 51 119
Yes. Extra source of
income 29 6 24 56 26 19 49 37 20 34 148 152 300
Yes to be ndependent 3 29 8 7 5 7 2 9 6 1 24 53 77
No. Family work is
important 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 4 0 4
Grand TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
186
Table 8.4 answers the question of whether women should take up salaried jobs and what
motivates them to do it. Only 4 men, one each Aka and Angami and 2 Dimasa, all of them above
60, said that women should not take them up because they have to look after the family. That 496
of 500 respondents support the idea of women having salaried jobs is a sign of some new thinking
among them. Not all of them may take it to the end. When the time comes to practise it they may
not allow women to work for a salary. Besides, even if allowed, most women will be unable to work
either because there are not enough jobs going round or because they do not have the qualifications
required for them. The statement about such possible second thoughts applies especially to the 300
respondents (60% of the sample, 148 male and 152 female) who want women to work outside
because their earnings will add to the family income and lessen its financial burden, not necessarily
with a higher status of women in view. One cannot from it that such an opportunity will improve their
status automatically. t can even increase their workload since they may have to work both at home
and in the office. However, the financial autonomy it gives is a step towards equality.
99 Aka respondents support the idea of women taking up jobs. 32 of them say that they should
take them up if they are educated and qualified. 35 feel that it can add to the family income and
32 including 29 women say that a job can make the woman independent. t is an interesting
response from those who did not even want to discuss the issue because it was irrelevant to them.
t is possible that the discussion brought out their hidden desire for autonomy. As stated more than
once, they are only now being exposed to modernity. Women who do most of the work in the house
and in jhum would like to go beyond their homes. n this context one can ask why 29 of them view
a salaried job as a step towards autonomy. Are they asking for freedom from the domination of men
or from what they consider drudgery or both? n the chapter on matrimony we said that our field
notes indicate that bride price that was a mode of compensating the family for the loss of a worker
was being reinterpreted as turning women into commodities. Such a change of attitude can eventually
become oppressive of women. On one side child marriage has almost stopped and on the other
there is a possibility of denial of equal rights to women. That may explain why 29 women want
financial autonomy as a step towards. One cannot say that this view is conclusive or is the main
cause. We only surmise it from their statements. t is thus an intelligent guess.
All the 100 Adibasi respondents support the idea of women taking up salaried jobs knowing
fully well that the question is irrelevant to them. However, as among the Aka so also among the
Adibasi this attitude can have an impact on the next generation. 80 of them feel that it will add to
the family income. That statement has to be understood within the context of most of them having
the double duty of working at home and in the tea garden. n the context of their poverty it adds
to their income and makes survival possible (Kaniampady 2003: 212). They extend that experience
to a salaried job which may not be relevant to their generation but can have a meaning for the next
if girls are educated.
21 Angami men and women each would be ready to allow women to take up jobs if they are
educated and qualified. 45 others (26 men and 19 women) accept it as a source of extra income.
The remaining 12 (5 men and 7 women) view it as a woman's need to be independent. Group
187
discussion sessions gave us some more insights into the thinking behind the choices. Apart from
additional income or women's independence, some viewed education and jobs as modernisation.
To be modern women should have jobs. A few were uncomfortable with this trend even while
supporting the idea of women taking up jobs. They saw the additional income as essential for a
higher standard of living and others as a mode of raising the family's status in their society but not
of the woman's autonomy or social status.
n other words, only a few view women taking up jobs as supportive of their autonomy. Most
think of it as a mode of supplementing the income or raising the status of the family. However, some
of those who spoke of modernisation went beyond the normal clichs to say that the focus should
be on women's empowerment. Thus, they accepted jobs as a source of autonomy and they expected
education to instil in girl children a sense of their own value and the need for them to be independent.
t is crucial if jobs are to become tools of their autonomy. As a woman said: "Now both have the
same responsibilities. So both have to take up jobs. Another woman said: "Women feel secure
when they have a job. These statements from women show among them a consciousness of their
equal rights in a tribe in which the trend is towards stronger patriarchy. These issues have been
discussed in chapter 7.
49 Dimasa men and 37 women expressed the view that working women can bring additional
income into the family. Some women also viewed it as basic to their autonomy within the family.
They said that men and women should share the burden of running the family and earn enough
income for it. Without it women become dependent on men. Thus, though only 11 gave independence
as the main reason for women taking up salaried jobs, in the group discussion sessions they
mentioned autonomy as the main motive. Like the Angami, Dimasa women too said that a higher
standard of living is another important motive.
24 Garo men and 15 women said that if women are educated and qualified they saw no
reason why they should not take up salaried jobs. 54 others (20 men and 34 women) see salaried
women as an extra source of income. During group discussion most women said that a salary would
give women security and a sense of independence since they will not have to depend on the man's
single salary to run the family. Most women know that the need for more money, not only independence
forces them to take up a job. Time and again they said: "Our life situation forces us to take up
salaried jobs. One has to understand this expression also in the context of their society in transition,
the demand from men their rights and the hidden tension and anxiety that accompany it. Thus,
several motives go together.
Impact of Modern Inputs on Women
The above analysis of the impact of modern inputs on the woman has brought to light her
changing role in society. She is no more a mute spectator to what is happening around her but is
an active participant in the processes taking place in her family and society. The pace of change
is not the same in all five tribes. Those with a scope for education and jobs have gained a lot from
the new opportunities. Those without such an atmosphere may take time for that big leap. But while
observing these changes, one has also to study whether women's status has improved or deteriorated
188
because of the changes. Women getting opportunities for higher education is a sign of their higher
status in society. Denial of the same ties her down to her traditional role at home. She takes up a
salaried job when she is qualified, able and are self-confident, briefly has a feeling of well being in
society. Not allowing them to work can limit them to the house and stunt their growth in the family
and society.
This chapter has thus been an eye opener as far as attitudinal changes are concerned in their
patriarchal societies. Even the Aka who are close to their tradition, would be ready to encourage
women to take up more responsibilities in the family and society. Angami women have made
progress and are demanding equal rights alongside men in every field. Garo society is undergoing
change. t has to some extent resulted in the deterioration of women's status (Fernandes and
Barbora 2002a: 124). t shows that the agencies that take part in this process have to tread
cautiously while initiating development programmes. Dimasa women too show signs of awareness
of the changing times. They favour equality in higher education and in job opportunities. Adibasi
women are the ones whose woes seem to have multiplied and they have not benefited from the
modern inputs. This is so because they are not provided with such inputs though the Plantation
Labourer Act 1951 enjoins on the tea garden management the duty to provide these facilities
(Fernandes, Barbora and Bharali 2003: 5).
The hectic life of the modern woman of playing the dual role of looking after the household
and working outside for a salary has both merits and demerits. On the one hand there is an extra
source of income leading to comforts and luxury in lifestyle. t also results in a sense of independence
and of women gaining equal rights in society. On the other hand because of the dual role she is
over-burdened and may not have time for leisure or to be with her children. Should this situation
deter her from taking up jobs? We do not imply it in the analysis. What is intended is change of
structures wherein both men and women share jointly the household and social responsibilities.
Should this take place, it will lead to lessening of burden on women and men and will result in them
too enjoying life in its fullness.
3. WOMEN'S STATUS AND RETURN TO THE CUSTOMARY LAW
n the introduction to this study we have noted the trend among some tribes to go back to their
customary law in order to assert their identity. So we tried to find out whether modern inputs have
affected these laws. f yes, what are the changes? Have they improved women's status or resulted
in its deterioration? f the tribe is to go back to the customary law what form should it take? Their
laws are patriarchal in nature. Should they be modified to introduce gender equality? Some women's
groups consider a return to the customary law dangerous from the point of view of gender justice.
One of their apprehensions is about a conservative reading of their tradition and the consequent
denial of their political rights. t can relegate them to the home. They feel that a new look at the
customary laws from the point of view of their identity should have worked towards women's
equality but in practice it does not.
We posed these questions in the final section of our individual schedule and continued them
in the group discussion sessions. Since the questions touched the core of their customary laws we
189
experienced heated debates on this issue. n posing these questions we wanted to know what
prompted the tribes to go back to their customary law and see whether they have kept women's
status in mind. Some have already modified their customary law in favour of women. Have these
changes resulted in attitudinal changes in their communities? These questions were crucial for the
study since they touched upon the core values of the customary law. At the same time they were
sensitive and one had to be careful in posing them. As mentioned earlier in some places they did
lead to heated debates during the group discussion. Those who are aware of the dynamics of the
modernisation of customary laws know the complexities involved in it. But one cannot brush aside
this issue since it has implications especially for women and that is the focus of our study.
Gender EquaIity
n the individual schedule we posed 3 pointed questions. The first was whether women should
be equal to men but did not enter into the intricacies of its many facets. We limited ourselves to
the political, economic and social equality of men and women in the family and society. 113 respondents
(22.6%) answered in the negative, 67 of them men and 46 women. We have already mentioned the
internalisation of this ideology by women. So 46 of them taking this stand is not surprising. Answers
varied according to tribes. Of those who wanted gender inequality to persist 76 were Aka, 7 Adibasi,
2 Angami, 26 Dimasa and 2 Garo. This difference is in keeping with what we have seen earlier. The
Aka have said consistently that their customary laws do not give equal status to women and that
opinion was echoed in this section. 26 Dimasa respondents too said that women cannot be equal
to men. n the following paragraphs we shall look into these questions in depth (Table 8.5).
TabIe 8.5 : ShouId Women be EquaI to Men in Your Tribe?
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
The Question Does
not Arise 10 3 4 3 2 0 16 8 2 0 34 14 48
No They are Weak 31 32 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 33 32 65
Yes they do Better
than Men 0 0 4 14 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 15 19
Yes not Fully 4 6 1 2 19 13 6 2 0 0 30 23 53
Yes should Be Equal 4 5 13 27 20 23 25 22 10 17 72 94 166
Yes they Maintain
Family 1 0 11 13 12 9 4 9 26 15 54 46 100
Yes They are Equal
Partners 3 1 1 7 0 2 1 5 12 17 17 32 49
TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
190
387 respondents (77.4%) want to uphold gender parity, 167 of them men (33.4%) and 220
women (44%). That more women than men want equality is not surprising. The group discussion
sessions in which women stood for gender parity indicated their awareness of their rights due
largely to their exposure to education and other political and social processes. n Table 5.1 on
women's participation in traditional institutions, we noticed that the Aka do not want them to be
members of their village council. Table 8.2 showed their reluctance to send girls for higher education.
Hence the position of 41 Aka men and 36 women in table 8.5 that they cannot be equal to men is
not surprising. n chapter 5 they have given reasons against women's equality. The same set of
reasons such as that women are weak have guided them to this conclusion. Thus, most Aka women
too have internalised the patriarchal ideology.
93 Adibasi respondents said that women should be equal to men. t shows the level of
awareness of women's rights among them. SHGs in the bhagans and bastis where the study was
done have been focusing on their equality. That may explain why 63 respondents support it, though
Adibasi women have experienced greater discrimination than the remaining tribes have done. 12 of
them think that women do better than men. One needs to go deeper into this issue. n the occupational
pattern in chapter 3 and in the discussion above on job opportunities we have seen the amount of
manual work that Adibasi women do. Besides, most of their income is used in the family while men
spend much of it on alcohol. This age-old oppression might have made the awareness of their rights
easier.
Except 2 men, all the Angami respondents support gender equality but 19 men and 13 women
do not want full equality. t is not an unequivocal answer and almost an equal number of men and
women have said it. Thus, though this tribe is exposed to the outside world and has earned high
dividends in education it is strong it its patriarchal ethos. 18 Dimasa men and 8 women do not want
women to be equal to men but 38 of the 48 Dimasa women have asked for gender equality. The
8 who have no problem with men being superior are 50 years and above. t shows a generational
change among them on this issue. The younger generation wants equality of opportunity in all fields
but 18 out of 54 men uphold male superiority in one form or the other thus suggesting a patriarchal
bias. That too is not surprising in a society that has been exposed to male dominated religious
change and commercial forces in which men have to take the initiative. Education has not made
much progress among them. Schools and SHG are of recent origin. They have a long way to go
in the direction of gender equity.
That except 2 men the entire Garo sample is in favour of gender parity is no surprise since
this society has a tradition of women inheriting property and matrilineal descent. Only 2 men have
said that the question does not arise because women are already in charge. However, we know
from chapter 5 that in their tradition women had no voice in their societal affairs but in chapter 8
we noticed that there is openness in this society towards women going ahead with higher education
and taking up jobs. We also noted that they are in transition and are going through anxious moments
due to this process. Hence while noting these changes in favour of equality one needs to cautiously
observe the intricate factors that have led to them.
191
Going Back to the Customary Laws
A return to customary laws in order to assert their identity is a major demand in the Northeast.
n the introduction to this section we have said that this move can go against women. 43 men and
60 women agree with it and do not want to go back to them (Table 8.6). 51 men and 43 women
feel that they are already practising equality and that their laws respect women. Another 38 men
and 35 women said that they want to practise the laws though they do not treat women as equal
because it is their tradition. The remaining 112 men and 118 women feel that a return to the
customary law is essential. Thus the opinion is divided but a majority favours a return to them. We
shall, therefore, study the responses by tribe and sex.
72 Aka respondents (38 men and 34 women) say that the question does not arise because
they are close to their tradition and are practising their customary laws. At different stages of the
above chapters we have noted that Aka men and women are not yet ready to question their tradition
from the point of view of gender equality. Their focus is on their tradtion, not on male mental, social
and physical superiority. They accept their law as central to their identity and life and are not in a
position to see its gender and other implications. However, as many as 13 men and women each
do not want to return to their customary law precisely because it goes against women. The fact that
most of them are young may indicate the beginning of a generational change in attitudes and that
is a sign of hope.
TabIe 8.6 : ShouId Your Tribe go back to Its Customary Laws?
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
No Against Women 6 7 4 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 11 28 39
No-Outdated 7 6 4 4 2 5 19 16 0 1 32 32 64
No-Already Favours
Women 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 48 39 51 43 94
Question Does not
Arise 38 34 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 35 73
Yes to Preserve
Culture 0 0 17 18 27 20 24 17 2 10 70 65 135
Yes to Maintain
Justice 0 0 2 0 10 8 7 0 0 0 19 8 27
Yes with Changes
for Women 2 0 7 22 13 14 1 9 0 0 23 45 68
TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
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Among the Adibasi 66 (26 men and 40 women) have expressed their wish to return to the
customary law. 35 of them say that they need to do it in order to preserve their culture and identity.
29 others (22 women and 7 men) said that they should go back to it but should also introduce some
changes in them in favour of women. 33 others are against going back to the customary laws since
they go against women and are outdated. These 33 should be counted together with those who
want to bring about changes in favour of gender equity while returning to their customary law. With
it the number of those who want changes in favour of women swells to 62. They want to regain their
tribal identity but with gender equality.
As many as 37 Angami men and 28 women want to return to their customary laws in order
to preserve their culture and identity. Group discussion and interviews with their leaders substantiated
this stand. Many said that customary laws protect individual and community rights and settle disputes
while maintaining order in their tribe. Some others felt that there were instances of disputes not
settled by courts of law being settled by their customary laws. They added that the customary laws
are built on just and fair principles. At the same time, 14 Angami 14 men and 13 women insisted
that while returning to them one should bring about changes in favour of women. n a discussion
session the Jakhama youth group (boys and girls) brought out this point powerfully. They were
unequivocal in demanding changes from the point of gender equity in case of a return to the
customary laws.
Among the Dimasa, 35 respondents (19 men and 16 women) do not want to go back to the
customary laws because they are outdated by which they mean the long ceremonies and rituals
surrounding birth, marriage and death, not because they go against women. We have seen earlier
in the study that they are a double descent tribe and women have a relatively high status among
them. During group discussion too many women said that their tribe has always respected them.
For example, certain religious ceremonies at birth and death cannot be performed without the
presence of some elderly women (Chetia 1993: 96). That shows why they feel that their customary
laws are not against women. t can be disputed in the sense that it shows that women enjoy a
relatively high status among them but it does not make them equal to men. 24 men and 17 women
want to go back to their customary laws in order to preserve their identity and 7 others want to do
it in order to maintain law and order in their community. They are of the view that their laws are
founded on just principles and hence justice will be meted out in times of conflicts. n group
discussion sessions, they stated that Dimasa women have never felt unequal to men because they
have always been respected and honoured. However, 1 man and 9 women feel that some changes
are needed. All of them are young. t is a sign that a section of the younger generation is not
satisfied with the traditional stand of mere respect to women but want equal rights and opportunities.
48 Garo men and 39 women do not see the need to go back to their customary laws since
they are already practising them. They added that women were respected in the past and are
respected today. 2 men and 10 women felt that they have to go back to them in order to preserve
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their culture and identity but women among them said that there should no deviation from the
present laws of inheritance. On the other side, 48 out of 50 men do not want to return to their
customary laws. These stands reinforce what we have said above that the Garo as a tribe are
passing through a social turmoil and men do not want their matrilineal system. f that is the intention
of their refusal to return to these laws it does not solve the problem of inequality and may even
intensify it. The discussion on inheritance can be fruitful if ways are found of changing their laws
to ensure equality in the family and in their society.
Measures to Ensure Gender EquaIity
The above discussion indicates that most respondents want some change in their customary
laws. 103 of them do not want to go back to them. 39 feel that they are outdated and 64 said that
they are against women. 68 others, most of them Angami and Adibasi want to return to their laws
with modifications to suit women. 94 Garo men and women said that they favour women already,
so the question of returning to them with gender equity in view does not arise. Thus the feeling of
more than a third of them is that if they go back to their customary laws they would like to see some
changes in them. f we add the 94 Garo to this number, those who oppose a return to them in their
present form become a majority.
We, therefore, asked them what changes they expected if they returned to them. 86 men and
67 women opted for no change because they consider the customary laws fair to women. Even if
they have been denied equal opportunities in its name their law is not unjust to them. Those who
take this stand include 75 Aka, 60 Dimasa, 17 Angami and 1 Adibasi. t confirms the findings of
Table 8.6 in which most Aka and Dimasa respondents held that their tradition is just to women. 323
others suggest changes in order to bring about gender equality. 135 of them want equal opportunities
for women and 175 wanto to see women getting socio-political rights and equal inheritance. 11
others think that only changing the law is inadequate. Men's attitudes have to be changed in order
to ensure equality. The suggestions change from tribe to tribe. We shall, therefore study Table 8.7
by tribe and gender.
75 Aka (41 men and 34 women) do not see the need for any change in favour of gender
equality because the situation is fine as it is. They include 34 out of 47 women. t shows the extent
of internalisation. However, a different picture emerged during group discussion. n reply to the
question on the changes they wanted, women gave a number of suggestions and added that some
of them have already been implemented. They said that child marriage, bride price, forced marriage
and the punishment system in which women were the primary targets has been abolished. t is
difficult to know whether the changes came about because the panchayats implemented these laws
or through awareness of their rights because of education or was a result of contacts with other
societies. The discussion left us with the impression that whatever their origin, these changes have
a bearing on women. 18 Aka respondents have suggested that social and political rights be granted
to women and that they be given equal inheritance. That indicates the winds of change blowing in
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their tribe. 8 of them are men and 10 are women, from the younger generation and that is a positive
sign.
TabIe 8.7 : Changes Required to Ensure EquaIity
Tribe Aka Adibasi Angami Dimasa Garo TotaI TotaI
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
Not Required 41 34 0 1 10 7 35 25 0 0 86 67 153
Not Sure 0 0 2 3 8 7 4 0 0 0 14 10 24
Attitudinal Change
in Men 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 10 0 0 2 11 13
Equal Opportunities 4 3 15 37 23 26 11 9 6 1 59 76 135
Equal Social/Political/
nheritance 8 10 17 25 12 6 2 2 44 49 83 92 175
Grand TotaI 53 47 34 66 53 47 54 46 50 50 244 256 500
62 Adibasi women and 32 men want women to get political and social rights and also equality
in inheritance. That 94 out of 100 ask for equality points to the change of attitudes that they have
undergone in favour of women's equal rights. As mentioned in the last section the SHG have
contributed to this overwhelming support to changes benefiting women. But one does not know to
what extent it has been internalised. Only 25 women and 17 men want equality in inheritance. Thus,
one can only say that a sizable number but not all of them want equal inheritance. 50% of their male
respondents favour equality. t is a good beginning.
68 Angami respondents (35 men and 33 women) want equal political and social rights and
inheritance for women. 49 of them want equal opportunities in jobs and education and 18 have
asked for equal inheritance rights. 60 Dimasa respondents (35 men and 25 women) have suggested
no change in order to bring about gender equality since they feel that their tribe does not discriminate
against women. This is in keeping with what has been said in Table 8.6 where they had mentioned
that their tribe has treated women as partners with men and has given them a place of respect in
social and religious spheres. 12 Dimasa respondents have asked for attitudinal changes in men in
order to bring about gender equality. 20 0thers suggest equal opportunities in the educational and
employment sphere. n the group discussion sessions many Dimasa women pointed out that their
society is flexible and adapts itself to the needs of women. Hence the need for changes did not
arise in order to attain gender equality.
All the Garo respondents have asked for changes in favour of women. 93 of them want them
to get equal social and political rights and 7 others ask for equal opportunities in their traditional
bodies. We had noted in chapter 5 that Garo women have no voice in them and they show their
desire to participate in them. Not many among them have contested elections and they want to take
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part in the societal activities. t substantiates what we have said in the last section that the discussion
cannot be limited to inheritance rights alone but has to be extended to the whole family and social
sphere where discrimination exists.
ConcIusion
We have studied in this chapter the attitude of the respondents towards women's equality in
education, jobs and the customary law. Chapter 3 showed that most were giving girl children equal
access to primary education. We wanted to go beyond it to know what they wanted at the higher
level. The Angami and Garo who have a long tradition of primary and secondary education have
a better understanding of the college level than the remaining tribes do. Private educational institutions
that can grant them equal opportunity have come to the region of the latter only recently. As a result,
they are not in a position to envisage the future of higher education. They may have to wait a while
to take a stand on this issue.
Also financial aspects condition their thinking. The Adibasi have to depend on a very low
income and little land to supplement their wages. They are already feeling the pinch of paying for
their children's education and cannot see how they will be able to manage the additional expenses
involved. Given that the boy will remain at home and will become its bread winner, if a choice has
to be made it may be in his favour. The Dimasa are already growing commercial crops to pay for
their children's education. Like the Angami they may have to cut more of their forests to send their
children to the college. As a result, they too may make a choice in favour of boys. Besides, in the
past the Aka have sent a few boys but not girls out of their region for college studies also because
of cultural imperatives of women's security. The Angami and the Garo claim that all have equal
access to education but thhere are indications of hidden discrimination at the higher level. That too
seems to be disappearing slowly at least among the Angami.
The attitude towards equality in jobs is somewhat different. While a few view the girl's education
as a gift that can take the place of inheritance and a possession which she takes with her, Table
8.2 shows greater resistance in the case of jobs. Most of those who favour women taking up
salaried jobs see it from the perspective of additional income rather than as gender equity. However,
it can become a starting point in the search for equality. Such resistance is probably explained by
the insercurity that the shortage of jobs causes.
That is where we asked the respondents whether they want changes in their customary laws
in favour of women. A majority of them wanted to go back to their customary laws because they
consider them the centre of their identity. They felt that any revival of their tribal culture has to begin
with the recognition of their customary laws. Little wonder then, that after a nationalist struggle,
negotiations with the Naga and Mizo militants resulted in the recognition of their customary laws
under Articles 371A and 371G respectively. However, many of those who want a return to them also
hold that it is against gender equality and should be changed. Some supplement it with the statement
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that the scriptures of their new (Christian or Hindu) religion do not recognise women's equality. As
such they cannot accept it. even among the 171 who did not want a return to their customary laws,
a third said it not because they go against gender equity but because their birth, marriage and death
rituals are too long. Gender equity was the concern of only 107 out of 500 respondents or 21.4%.
Thus, more than a third of the respondents saw no need for changes in their customary laws
in favour of gender equity. Of the remaining 323, some want only equal opportunities for them in
education, a few want them to be allowed to contest elections or join their village political bodies,
some want only marginal modifications and only a very small number looks at inheritance as a right
of women. The opinions change according to the tribe. Thus, desire for change is not common
among all the tribes but a third of them want some change and we consider it a good beginning
especially because most of those who desire it are young. As such, they can make a difference in
the future. Moreover, not all opposition to change is based on attachment to male superiority. n
many cases it is also based on the financial situation or social insecurity of a tribe. For example,
the Adibasi who are struggling to send their children to primary schools cannot think of investing
in the college education of their daughters because they have to use their limited financial resources
judiciously. Thus it is another version of feminisation of poverty. That is reason enough to continue
the process of reflection among the tribes on real and hidden discrimination and on the meaning
of equality.
That shows the need for a process of reflection and interaction among the tribes studied. We
have looked at the attitudes that can take many of them towards stronger patriarchy. Some have
felt an attack on their economy and culture and would like to reassert themselves by going back
to their past. That is a legitimate desire. n some cases their return may be somewhat fundamentalist
and can be male-centred. Some others, for example the Dimasa, would like to return to their
primordial identity in order to build a better future based on the value system of the past. They have
a better possibility of taking their community towards equality. These and other processes need to
be pushed ahead and we shall see how.
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CHAPTER-9
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON
THE CUSTOMARY LAW
This study on the impact on women of the interface of tribal customary laws of North Eastern
ndia with modernity has resulted in some significant findings. Our effort was to find out whether this
interface has resulted in the improvement or deterioration of their status. We hypothesised that
modernisation cannot and should not be stopped but it cannot be imposed on the traditional communities
either. Modernity has both positive and negative impacts. f they have to face it without measures
to counter its ill effects, the changes it introduces far from benefiting women, can even result in the
deterioration of their status.
The Background of the Study
We geared the study to the need to understand these processes. We chose five tribes that
are representative of the region from the perspective of the tradition-modernity interface. The Aka
are close to their tradition but are experiencing many positive and negative effects of modern inputs.
They run their civil affairs according to their community based customary law but do not come under
the Sixth Schedule. As a result, the law does not recognise their CPRs as their sustenance. Their
Hinduisation by the Bengali administrators and railway employees who entered the region with the
British colonial regime had exposed the Dimasa to other cultures. Today they are searching for a
new future built on their primordial identity. They come under the Sixth Schedule. The Angami have
had exposure to modern education and political processes through the Naga Nationalist Struggle,
Christianisation and formal education and come under Article 371A that recognises their customary
law. The Adibasi belong to the other extreme of experiencing all the negative impacts of modernisation.
Their ancestors were victims of the colonial process of the Permanent Settlement 1793 and zamindari
that resulted in their marginalisation and migration to Assam which was a victim of a similar colonial
process of the Assam Land Rules 1838. Finally, the matrilineal Garo come under the Sixth Schedule,
have been Christianised and have gained access to education but have not passed through the
political processes that the Angami have experienced.
We adapted our methodology to this need. Since it was a comparative study we chose tribes
that were at different stages of the impact of modernity on their community. During the first two
months of the study that began in November 2004, we collected secondary data on the Northeast
and the five tribes studied. We then chose five representative villages of each tribe, some that were
198
remote and others close to a road. The assumption in this choice was that the remote villages would
be closer to their tradition than those near the road. We could thus compare the impact of various
degrees of exposure to modernity. n our fieldwork we combined individual interviews with participant
observation and group discussion.
For this purpose we developed a schedule for individual interviews (Appendix 1), one for
group discussion (Appendix 2) and another for the leaders (Appendix 3). ndividual interview is a
misnomer because we chose a sample 100 families in each tribe and from each family we chose
one person as the main respondent. Since we ensured an equal number of male and female
respondents, we had 244 men and 256 women among them (Table 1.2). While interviewing them
we did not ignore their family members or the peer group who were present but wrote their views
separately under "field notes or in other forms. We began work in each village with three group
discussion sessions, for men, women and the youth. n the last men and women sat together since
women were not inhibited by the presence of men of their age. The purpose of the group discussion
sessions was to establish rapport with the village and to understand its social structure. t made the
choice of the sample better and interviews became more effective since the sample knew the
purpose of our study.
The fieldwork was done in January-February 2005. We computerised and tabulated the data
in March-April 2005 and checked them for gaps. n May 2005 we went back to each tribe but not
to the same village in order to counter-check our findings and used the individual schedule to
interview some male and female leaders like heads of the village councils, village development
boards, panchayat and women's organisation. We wrote the report from June to August 2005. The
project director finalised it in September 2005.
The study has shown us that the impact of modern inputs on the customary laws of the five
tribes studied has not been uniform and hence its impact on women varies. Some communities that
are better exposed to the modern inputs such as schools have experienced changes at a faster
pace than those that were less exposed to them. Whether the changes ushered in have resulted
in the strengthening of their customary laws and the interface has been on an equal footing will be
discussed in paragraphs below.
1. SOME MAJOR FINDINGS
While summarising the findings of this study we insist that they are not conclusive. Our
hypothesis was based on our past findings in the same tribes, as such the present study reinforces
our past analysis. However, these conclusions too need deeper reflection through an interaction
with the communities than we have done in the course of our fieldwork. We hope to take the
findings back to them for reflection and authentication by writing popular reports for their consideration.
The insights got from it will also be integrated into the publications coming from it. For the time
being we only summarise our findings below.
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Access to Modern Inputs
Change among the tribes studied has not been uniform mainly because access to modern
inputs differed from tribe to tribe. Among the modern inputs we include education, change of
religion, transport facilities, the commercial forces, administrative and financial systems and others
that expose them to processes and communities outside their own. We saw its impact in the
demographic and social data of the communities (chapter 3) as well as in their educational and
occupational status. We noticed differential access to these inputs by their tribe, age group and
gender. Literacy was high among the Angami and Garo to whom the Christian Churches had made
educational institutions available several decades ago and it was low among the rest. However,
today all have started gaining access to some of the inputs such as education and jobs in the
administration and it has changed their situation.
Also the occupational status showed this difference. The proportion of cultivators is lower
among the Adibasi than in the other tribes because a big number of them are tea garden workers.
Another difference was caused by the season in which we did our fieldwork. We did our 2004 study
in the harvesting season while the present one was done after the agricultural operations were
completed. No Dimasa woman gave her occupation as housewife in our 2004 study (Fernandes and
Pereira 2005: 94) but several of them reported as such in the present one. n the harvesting season
they perceived themselves as cultivators. n the present one they felt that their work was limited to
their family. And yet studies show that shifting cultivation which is the predominant form in three of
the tribes studied including the Dimasa, is women's economy (Fernandes and Menon 1987: 72-74).
Their main occupation outside their house would then be cultivation. We, therefore, included most
housewives among cultivators. The only exceptions to it were old women and young pregnant
women who could not work in the fields. We decided to include them among cultivators because
the former had retired after a lifetime as cultivators. The latter had taken a temporary break from
their main occupation. As such we believe that both of them are entitled to be included among
cultivators.
Those who had access to salaried jobs have improved their economic status. Their interaction
with the outside world has also influenced their customary law. For example, in the Angami tradition
the woman was involved in her children's informal education but much of the training of young men
into adulthood was by men. Girls did not have access to such education since it belonged to the
social sphere. However, because of the political processes of the Naga Nationalist Struggle and the
absence of young men from the village during the years of this movement, women had to be in
charge both of the family and their society. That is when schools came to their area, especially
Southern Angami and girl children gained access to them. As a result there are more female than
male graduates among them but more salaried jobs are given to men than to women. Thus, their
customary law that views men as heads of families and breadwinners is being modernised and it
goes against women.
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The FamiIy Sphere
These changes have affected also the family sphere. A look at the child upbringing customs
showed that money has become the interface between the family and society. n most tribes the
woman continues to be in charge of the child's discipline. At times she calls on the man to assist
her if she finds it difficult to discipline the child because the man may be feared more than the
woman. However, it is her domain and she is in charge. Traditionally she was also in charge of the
family's health care which was based on herbal and other medicines got from the fields and forests
in and around the village. Today, however, many have switched over to allopathic medicine. Some
combine religious rites with medicine from the hospital or pharmacy and that involves money. As
a result, in some tribes decisions about health care are shifting step by step to the man who is in
charge of money
The transition was clearly visible in decisions concerning education. t was an interface with
society already in their tradition. As stated above the woman was involved in the child's socialisation
in the family but education that involved training into adulthood was left to men because it belonged
to their domain. That aspect of education has now been modernised because money has become
important in it. Some like the Angami and Dimasa grow commercial crops to earn it. When children
reached the college going age, the Angami who had preserved their forests when their neighbours
were destroying them, began to cut trees in order to earn money for this purpose (D'Souza 2001:
50).
Of importance from the gender perspective is the fact that, with the intervention of money, in
some tribes decisions on education have shifted to men. Even when men do not take decisions
about it directly, they choose the commercial crops to grow. Decisions on spending money remain
to a great extent in their hands. Besides, the parents have to decide how best to maximise the
returns from the money spent on education and they make choices. Some tribes have developed
the tradition of equal access to boys and girls to primary schools but there is a possibility of their
discriminating against girls in higher education wither by not sending them to college and if they do,
by limiting their choice of subjects or college.
Schools came only recently to the Aka, Adibasi and Dimasa areas. They cannot as yet
envisage what will happen when their children reach the college going age. At this stage most of
them think that girls should not be sent to college since they may not have enough money to spend
on both and that they will have to limit college education to boys. Many Adibasi respondents added
what others were only hinting at, that boys will be able to contribute to the family since they remain
at home while girls go away after their marriage. The Angami give equal access to boys and girls
at the higher education level but some of them thought that it is a gift they give to their daughters.
t should be considered their personal property which they take with them to their husband's house
and they should not demand inheritance rights.
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Interface with Society
After the family comes their society of which education and money are the interface. To it we
added the woman's role in agriculture and handicrafts production. We have stated more than once
that jhum is considered women's economy. Unlike in settled agriculture in which the man owns land
and takes all decisions concerning the type of crops and division of work, jhum has a more gender
friendly division of work. n the tradition of most tribes the village council made up of men alone
decided which plot the village would cultivate that year, what area would be allotted to each family
according to the number of mouths to feed, which family with excess labour would help which one
with not enough hands to work with and the day before which work could not begin. After it the man
of the house chose the plot his family would cultivate and performed the pre-cultivation rituals. At
that stage the woman took charge of production and divided work (Fernandes and Menon 1987: 72-
76). The woman friendly division of work continues also in terrace cultivation (D'Souza 2001: 51).
However, men tend to take charge when commercial crops are grown, for example to earn
money for education. Similarly, decisions about handicrafts depended on their type. The Aka and
others rarely sell them said that the question of a decision was irrelevant to them because the man
or the woman produces them according to need. Their custom has already divided the type of
handicrafts that the one and the other can produce and use. They keep to this division. Some
change has entered the tribes that have started selling their agricultural produce, handicrafts or
other goods. n most cases men have taken charge of it if middlemen are involved. That is the case
with the Dimasa and Aka among whom women have had less exposure to the market economy than
men have. n the Aka tradition every village used to appoint one or two women to take their surplus
to the plains for barter or sale. Today middlemen from outside the tribe have entered the arena and
women find it difficult to deal with them. As a result, men have taken charge of sale and dealings
with them.
Marriage and Society
Another interface with society is marriage which is a social reproduction system. t has experienced
more change than any other system, some of it positive and others less so. The tradition of some
tribes had fixed the partners in advance. For example, the Garo heiress had to marry her father's
nephew. But most tribes also allowed choice of partners. The tribes that allowed marriage by
elopement also had punishment fixed for it. Where the partner was not fixed in advance, marriage
was through personal choice or arranged with the help of mediators. Some like the Aka did not give
much choice to the girl and in some cases even the boy because child marriage was not uncommon
among them. Once the partners were fixed some got the mother's permission and others of both
the parents but in every case the boy or girl approached the father through the mother. After the
approval in the family the father took it to the village council for its consent. At this stage some tribes
allowed the boy and girl to live together as man and wife. The formal marriage could come much
later (Sharma 1978).
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These customs have changed enormously because of modern influences or change of religion.
Love marriage, as different from elopement, and inter-community marriages are not uncommon but
are always exogamous. Education is a factor in inter-community marriages. Where women have
had better access to education than boys have, for example among the Angami, many girls remain
unmarried because the norm that the boy should be better educated than the girl has remained
unchanged. n some other cases their traditional norms are not followed if it is a love marriage. Only
some Adibasi in our sample had followed the custom of the boy and girl living together immediately
after getting the consent of the village council. All of them belong to the older generation. t is being
reintroduced in a new form.
The ban on pre-marital living together is mainly because of their Christianisation or Hinduisation.
Also other customs have changed. For example, for all practical purposes child marriage has been
banned among the Aka. Bride price exists among them and the Dimasa but some Aka women
would like it to be banned because its nature has changed. n their tradition it was viewed as the
compensation paid to the girl's family for the loss of a worker. n that understanding she was an
economic asset. Today some men tend to view the mithuns and other items they give to her father
as a price paid for her and she becomes a commodity. Rules exist also about the quantum of bride
price. Among the Aka it is fixed by the priest and among the Dimasa it is settled through negotiations
according to the norms of the tribe.
Also the formalisation of marriage has changed. n their tradition the tribal priest used to
perform rituals to get the marriage accepted by their society. After their Christianisation most Angami
and Garo and some Adibasi have their marriage formalised in the Church. Most Dimasa and the
remaining Adibasi go through temple rituals. However, after the religious marriage most of them go
back to their homes and perform their traditional rituals. That is required for social recognition. Thus
religious change has not destroyed their culture but has given it a new meaning. t has brought
about a separation between the religious and the social sphere. The church or the temple gives
them religious sanction. Their traditional rituals give them social recognition. However, among those
who have changed their religion, the village council has lost its role. Social recognition comes
through the rituals, not the village council.
Change of habitat and clan that is linked to marriage differs according to the tribe. Three of
the five tribes studied are virilocal and in their case the woman joined the man's clan and the
children belonged to it. That remains unchanged. Among the matrilocal Garo the boy and the girl
retain their original clan but the children belonged to the mother's line. The Dimasa have both male
and female descent clans. n most of them the man and the woman retained their clan. n some
the children joined the father's clan and in the female descent clans they belonged to the mother's
clan. Similar rules were followed for the family name.
Also the rules on the residence differed according to the tribe. The Angami couple built a new
house on land allotted by the husband's father. The husband of the Garo heiress came to her
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parents' house. Her other sisters were allowed to live in her house till they built their own house
on land allotted to them. The Dimasa husband spent some time in the girl's house and after that
period built a house close to the girl's house. However, they could not live in his parents' house
because it did not allow two women of the same clan to live in the same house. By and large the
Aka went to the husband's house, so did the Adibasi.
This custom has changed enormously. The nuclear family is beginning to become the norm
particularly among those who have a salaried job. n most cases their house is away from that of
the bride's and bridegroom's parents. However, that too can have a gender component. For example,
some educated Garo young men with a salaried job are demanding a changeover to a patrilineal,
virilocal society. They tend to "take the bride home and give their own family name to the children
instead of that of the wife which is their tradition.
Finally, the customary law lays down norms for conflict resolution and divorce if the man and
woman find it difficult to live together. The law decides who is to take the initiative in it. n some
tribes the elders of the two sides try to bring about reconciliation and if they do not succeed, fix the
conditions of separation. f the elders do not succeed in it, some tribes demand that the conflict be
taken to the village council or to some other elders for resolution. n case of divorce the woman gets
only limited property rights.
Inheritance Rights
An immediate consequence of the type of habitation is inheritance. Only the Garo have female
inheritance but even among them a difference is kept between inheritance and management. The
wife inherits ancestral property but men manage it. Her uncle's permission is required for its alienation.
With the State encouraging commercial crops and giving loans and subsidies only to individual
owners and heads of families understood as men, there is a slow changeover to pattas in the name
of men. Some like the Aka claim that they do not have an inheritance system because they are CPR
dependants who lack the very concept of individual ownership and by assumption, of inheritance.
However, the control over the CPRs belongs to the village council made up of men alone. This right
passes from father to son.
The remaining three tribes have male inheritance but with some nuances. The Angami woman
cannot inherit clan property but the father can gift acquired land to her and she can inherit what
belongs to her mother. f the man dies without a male issue, his inheritance goes to his closest male
relative. The Dimasa too have male inheritance but if the man dies without a son, his daughter can
inherit his property. We found two cases in which the man divided his property equally between his
sons and daughters and the village recognised their inheritance. The Adibasi too have male inheritance.
All justify it by saying that the girl goes to her husband's house and he inherits his ancestral
property, so only sons should inherit property.
204
All the tribes allow the girl to inherit movable property. By and large what belongs to the
mother is shared among her daughters and what belongs to the father is shared by the sons but
among the Angami the father may gift some items to the daughters. Besides, because the girl is
allowed to receive gifts and take her personal belonging with her. some of them justify the exclusion
of women from inheritance by claiming that the father has given the girl the "gift of education and
her qualifications have become her personal belongings which she takes with her to her husband's
house. The Dimasa divide personal belongings into three categories. What belongs to the mother
goes to her daughters, the father's personal belongings go to the sons, the common belongings are
divided between sons and daughters.
There has been a demand among most tribes for changes in the inheritance system but it has
not been uniform across tribes. While among the matrilineal Garo it has taken the form of a few men
asking for inheritance rights, in the remaining tribes some women are demanding equal rights. Also
the degree and extent of the demand differs by the tribe. Those who are exposed to the forces of
modernisation and even urbanisation are quite articulate. n tribes in which these forces have not
had an impact it is minimal. The Aka and Dimasa do not demand this right as vigorously as the
Adibasi and the Angami do. The Aka are close to their CPR tradition and continue to be largely
guided by the customary laws. Even women among them feel that it is right for men to inherit the
right over the CPRs through the village council. Dimasa respondents too were not vociferous in the
demand for equal inheritance rights but for different reasons. Most of them felt that their tradition
has never treated women unjustly. No doubt only men inherited property but it did not result in the
deterioration of women's status. As a result, women themselves do not see the need to demand
equal inheritance rights.
This situation changes significantly with the Adibasi and Angami. SHGs have helped the
former to become aware of their legitimate rights and some women sounded impatient on this issue.
They have very little to inherit but the awareness of their rights has grown among them. The Angami
have got most benefits of modernisation and women have felt some of its positive impact as their
educational and occupational status shows. For example, it has improved their sense of self-worth.
Little wonder then that they demand equal rights. Among the matrilineal Garo women are fighting
against the demand for male inheritance.
The PoIiticaI Systems
Power is not merely social but also political. We, therefore, looked at the tribal traditional
political systems. While there was difference between the tribes on the remaining components,
common to them is their total separation between the family and social spheres. There may be
difference in the inheritance, marriage and conflict resolution systems but whether they are patrilineal,
matrilineal or of double descent, all of them are patriarchal. The woman may take family decisions
such as her children's education but social power is in the hands of men. Even in matrilineal
205
societies, the woman who inherits land is only its custodian. Decisions concerning the resource are
in the social sphere and are taken by men.
Nowhere is the patriarchal system more visible than in their traditional political systems through
which the North Eastern tribes governed themselves. n could be the village council in some cases,
the village chief in a few and the clan elders in others. But in every case it was made up of men
alone. The tenure of the council was hereditary in some tribes and by election in others but in every
case only adult males were their members and women were denied a voice. Some change has
started and some tribes have given a small voice to women. The Angami, for example, have in
some villages admitted the president of the Women's Association to the village council but she
cannot hope to become its president. The Garo heiress had some voice in decisions concerning
their society though the village council itself was controlled by men. That voice has declined substantially
with modernisation.
These changes have occurred because of their exposure to other value systems through
education and other inputs. The most important change is through electoral politics and universal
adult franchise which gave women the right to vote that they were denied in their tradition. They
continue to be denied this right in their traditional councils. However, because of women's associations
and other bodies and processes linked to inputs such as education and change of religion, they
have become aware of their rights at least to a limited extent. Some associations have started
voicing opinions in favour of women's rights. The entry of a woman into the Angami traditional
council resulted from such demands.
Some new bodies such as the Village Development Board, Village Panchayats and the District
Autonomous Council have been set up, based on electoral politics. The law confers on men and
women the right to contest elections to them as well as to the State Assembly and the Parliament.
However, very few tribal women have been able to avail of the opportunities they provide. After
initial resistance some communities allowed them to contest elections but it is a slow process. For
example the Meghalaya Assembly had its first woman legislator about two decades ago and today
it has 3 of them in a total of 40. This limited participation is the result both of lack of awareness
of their rights among women and of resistance from men. Except for the Garo, the other four
communities studied have not elected a single woman to the DAC or the State legislature. Nagaland
had a Rajya Sabha member in the 1970s and none after it. A Naga woman who contested the last
State Assembly Elections was defeated badly. Before the 2004 Central elections, some women's
organisations wanted to put up a woman candidate for the only Lok Sabha seat of Nagaland but
they were discouraged from doing so.
A major change introduced recently is the 73
rd
Constitution Amendment Act 1993 that reserves
one third of the seats and posts in these bodies for women. Of the five tribes studied, only the Aka
and Adibasi have the Panchayats. As a result, for the first time in their history women of these tribes
have become their members. Some of them have also been chosen their chairpersons. For example
206
in Palizi, one of our Aka study villages, a woman was elected Pradhan. However, this legal provision
does not apply to the Sixth Schedule areas of the Garo and the Dimasa. The Angami run their civil
affairs according to their customary law under Article 371A. These bodies remain almost fully male
dominated (Nongbri 1998: 236).
Thus, the customary law, re-interpreted to suit modern inputs has become an obstacle to
gender equity. On the other side, though a third of the Panchayat members are women, one cannot
be euphoric about their number either. One should see whether the legal change has resulted in
social transformation. A careful look into the dynamics of this provision reveals that the powers that
the tribal women get through the Panchayats are restricted largely to the four walls of the Panchayat
Samiti (Banu 2001: 145). For example, though Aka women have become members of the Village
Panchayats, their status in society and family has not changed. A law cannot by itself lead to social
change. A social environment has to be created. Steps need to be taken to deal with this contradiction
between the legal and social reality.
Extent of Discrimination and Transformation.
One can thus see that the change has not been uniform and not all of it favours gender equity.
A positive change is the near disappearance of discrimination at the level of primary education
(Table 3.6). n fact, 492 out of 500 respondents supported the idea of female literacy but one is not
certain that the same openness exists about sending girls for higher education. Such reluctance
differs from tribe to tribe. The Garo and the Angami have developed a tradition of sending girls for
higher education but the remaining three tribes do not seem to be ready for this step. Reasons for
it are not hard to find. The Aka and Dimasa are close to their tradition that assigns a higher status
to men. Adibasi women are trying to survive amid their impoverishment. This step is too big for them
to take at this stage.
There is uncertainty also on the issue of women taking up salaried jobs. Economic independence
is crucial for gender equity. We have seen that 285 of the 800 female family members above 20
are employed in private or public institutions. t is a good transition because in the past they were
totally dependent on agriculture and were not allowed to work outside. However, the shift is not
uniform. Only 2 out of 127 Aka women above the age of 20 have salaried jobs against 24 men who
are involved in them. Adibasi women and men have salaried jobs only as tea garden workers but
for the 7 men and 3 women among them who have other jobs. On the other hand 46% of Garo and
31% of Angami women above 20 have salaried jobs so do 14 out of 129 Dimasa women who have
started the process of entering this field. t also means that once they are educated, women are not
automatically pushed into taking up employment. Their educational opportunities are limited and
where they exist there may be hidden discrimination against them. Of greater importance is the
overall perception of men as the bread winners and women as subordinates. That explains why only
a third of the respondents supported the idea of women taking up salaried jobs. Even among them
a third thought of it only as a source of additional income, not as movement towards gender equity.
207
Back to the Customary Law?
This is the cotext of the demand of return to the customary law. n chapter 2 we mentioned
the debate on whether the customary laws should be codified or not. nstead of posing this question
directly to our respondents (since they would not see its ramifications), we quizzed them on the
importance of their customary laws and the advisability of going back to them. To them this question
was more important than their codification because all of them consider the customary law basic
to their identity and culture and a threat to it as an attack on both. Most opted for retaining or
preserving or going back to it but very few were aware of their conservative reading that can take
them to the past but ignore gender justice.
Their reaction also shows the ambiguity within which they practise their customary law. ts
codification can make the customary law rigid and it can also remain fully patriarchal and strengthen
its ethos. Besides, there is a danger of the policy makers either imposing another law or codifying
their customs or interpreting them according to it in the name of national unity and integration. That
may go against the diversity that is required and the tribal search for a new identity based on their
past. The relationship of the local to the national is problematic today as it was five decades ago
(Telegraph 2005). t is mainly because most national leaders perceive national unity as derived from
New Delhi. The integration that has been at work for over five decades since ndia attained independence
has more often than not come from the top and then implemented at the grass roots level to the
detriment of the local knowledge, customs and cultural practices that should be important components
of what constitutes the national. Official agencies need to respect their rich culture while planning
development measures. Thus, there is a strong case for granting statutory recognition to the customary
laws in order to bridge the gap between the national and the local. n so doing, one should not go
back to their patriarchal ethos and ignore gender justice. Their customary laws have to be changed
to suit this need. t can be done through a grass roots level process.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON THE STUDY
The recommendations, which the study proposes, are based on the suggestions made by the
respondents. Some of them are common to all the tribes and others are specific to a few. A point
that stands out is the need for a process of reflection in each tribe in order to internalise the issue
of gender justice. The data on political institutions show that even when they accept the law of one
third women's representation imposed on the new bodies, they make no such provision in their
traditional institutions. When they accept it, as the Angami have done, it is minimal concession
made under pressure. One has to go beyond it to equality.
GeneraI Recommendations
1. Accordingly, the first recommendation concerns the process required for a serious reflection
among the leaders to evaluate their customary laws. For it to be effective, the policy makers
208
should begin by accepting their importance in the culture and identity search of the tribal
communities. A refusal to understand this basic cultural need of the communities can go
against serious reflection and change for equity.
2. Recognition of their customary laws is important also in the context of encroachment of their
land by outsiders. Many tribes, for example the Aka, run their affairs according to their customary
law but in the absence of legal recognition of this right, outsiders can deprive them of their
livelihood with impunity and impoverish them. n order to recognise their community rights,
one can look at the possibility of introducing the positive points of the Sixth Schedule, the 73
rd
Amendment Act and PESA Act 1996. Land is central to their customary law and identity and
it should be accorded legal protection but it should also be changed to accord rights to
women.
3. n other words, recognition of their law as central to their identity and culture goes together
with the equality of classes and sexes. Thus, recognition is of the law as a whole and not of
each and every clause. t may begin with legal imposition of some components such as one
third representations of women in all their political bodies. t makes recognition conditional,
based not on the type of nationalism or unity that goes against their diversity and identity but
on the democratic value of equality.
4. Thus recognition of their customary law also involves acceptance of their community. We have
given instances of their communities breaking up because of the individualist and male centred
approach of the administrative systems. Among them is the encouragement given to individual
male owners to cultivate commercial crops or the TDP which is purely individual-based.
These processes result in class formation and strengthening of the patriarchal ethos. t is
important for the State to encourage development based on the community as a whole and
not merely individuals. TDP and others can be given to the whole village, not to individuals.
5. An area where individualism and nationalism negate their diversity is education. The historical,
social and political systems taught to them belong to "Mainland ndia. For example, a student
studying at Dimapur in Nagaland knows all about the Fort of Jhansi but nothing about the
Dimasa fort just outside Dimapur. They resent that type of alienation. When they demand a
return to their identity and customary laws in their purity, they are in fact reacting to such
uniformity that denies them their specificity. The solution is to integrate education with their
culture in order to re-establish respect for their land and history through its contents. ts focus
has to be on the community rather than on individuals and the role that women have played
and continue to play in their communities has to be highlighted. Within this history of each
tribe and of the region as a whole the need to establish class and gender equity has to be
stressed.
209
Recommendations for Specific Communities
Apart from the recommendations that are applicable to all the tribes of the Northeast, one has
to think of individual tribes too. We take the risk making some recommendations even while
acknowledging that we need to go deeper than we have done, into their culture and processes of
identity formation. We take most recommendations for individual tribes from the feedback the people
gave us during individual and group interaction.
The Aka: Beyond Panchayati Raj
With the woman's status in view, many Aka respondents made suggestions around marriage
and others on land and village councils that have been replaced by the Panchayat. They feel that
the introduction of the panchayati raj system has done them good but they need to go beyond it.
t has helped them to find some voice in the political systems but it remains subordinate. They
would like to improve them and ensure class and gender equality. They make the following
recommendations to ensure the woman's place.
I Child and Forced Marriage: Child marriage has, for all practical purposes been abolished but
some of its vestiges remain in the form of forced and fixed marriages when women are
teenagers or just after the teens. Their exposure to the outside world is minimised because
of lack of educational facilities. Early marriage adds to their subordination. The panchayat
should be mandated to ensure free consent.
I Similarly, inter-community marriages are a sign of freedom. There are many problems linked
to it, one of them being tribal identity and the fear of land passing to outsiders. The issue has
to be studied properly and not rushed through. n this manner a balance has to be struck
between the tribe's identity and the woman's freedom.
I Aka women feel that they have got many benefits out of their panchayat membership but have
not attained equality. Often they are inhibited by the presence of men, especially the leaders.
One way of ensuring equality is to respect also their traditional systems and make mandatory
women's full participation in these bodies.
I Some want to abolish bride price. We do not think that it is a solution to women's subordinate
status if it is replaced with dowry as some want to do because it is much more oppressive of
women. Change in it should result only from awareness building on women's status and the
role the components play in favour of or against them.
I That requires importance to be given to the educational facilities in the Aka and other tribal
areas. Since it is not easy to get local teachers immediately, persons are brought from outside.
They impose another culture on them and devalue theirs. With some private schools coming
up, good local teachers will be available soon at least at the primary level. They and their
language have to be given importance.
210
I Women also felt that the punishments that are meted out are unjust. The woman is punished
more than the man in case of divorce or offences related to marriage.
I Though legal changes are required, they can be effective only when women take up their
responsibility. Because of their lack of exposure to the systems outside their community, they
are unable to handle modern inputs. One way of preparing women to take up this responsibility
is to encourage adult and girl children's education.
I We believe that urgent steps have to be taken because during our fieldwork we were told that
the Aka leaders have almost finished compiling their customary laws. They seem to have
retained the clauses that relegate women to a subordinate place. t is important to recognise
their customary laws with changes in favour of women.
Adibasi Community: Education for Using One's Power
The Adibasi suggested the following measures to improve women's status.
I Child labour and emigration of girl children as domestic helps has to be stopped by improving
educational and income generation opportunities. Today they cannot get the benefits of free
education because they are not a Scheduled tribe. The tea garden management has neglected
their education. As a result, illiteracy is very high among their children. One way of remedying
it is to include them in the schedule to which their counterparts elsewhere in ndia belong. On
one side the management deprives of them of the possibility of finding alternatives and on the
other the State deprives them of free education by denying them the scheduled status. t has
to be remedied now because their status is deteriorating with more gardens closing down.
I Recognition as a scheduled tribe will also make it possible for the State to recognise their
customary law which is important for their identity formation. However, recognition has to go
with cautious monitoring. Some of them want to return to their Jharkand roots while others
reject such a move because they feel that a Jharkhand identity will keep them as outsiders
in Assam forever. There is some truth in both these contentions. They need to begin with their
Jharkhand culture but update it by evolving an Assam tribal identity. Recognition of their
customary law with changes to suit the local situation is one way of helping them to build a
future on their past.
I While recognising their customary laws, the State should ensure that they are changed to
grant equal rights to women, for example in their village and tribal councils. A law may even
have to be enacted to give one third representation to women in them and to equal inheritance.
Their right to a salaried job should be made integral to their culture. They can be helped to
become aware of their rights through SHGs and other tools.
211
Angami : ConsoIidation of the Gains without Losing the Rich CuIturaI Heritage
The Angami, including women among them, have got more positive benefits of modernisation
than the other tribes have. They have also experienced a political process that helped them to
become aware of their rights but its positive effects are wearing off because of competition for land
and jobs. Relatively few younger men have internalised the political fervour of the struggle. As a
result the patriarchal ethos is taking over once again, particularly in their traditional political systems
and women's inheritance rights. The Constitution was amended to recognise their customary law.
Angami women only need its modernisation:
I Women should be given equal inheritance rights with men.
I The village council needs to be democratised by giving equal membership to women. One
way out is to ensure one third membership as a first step.
I The trend of women's access to higher education has to be reinforced.
Dimasa : Securing Legitimate Rights of Women
Surprisingly Dimasa respondents were reluctant to give any suggestions for the improvement
of women's status because they did not feel discriminated against. When coaxed further they gave
the following suggestions rather hesitatingly.
I Encourage girls to go for higher education.
I Establish institutions for higher education so that girls too can avail of this facility easily
without being forced to go out of their area.
I This can be supplemented by ensuring one third representation of women in their village
councils and in the District Autonomous Council.
Garo : Safeguarding the Customs
We have referred to the silent gender based tension among the Garo. Some men want a
patriarchal and patrilineal society but they do not realise that, the issue is of gender equality that
cannot be achieved by changing inheritance laws alone. One has to look at other aspects too of
their customary law. nheritance favours women but their tribe remains patriarchal. The woman is
only the custodian of her inheritance. They come under the Sixth Schedule but their customary law
that is effective at the village level being modified against women and the community by the
individual based administrative systems and development inputs. Garo women have also made a
beginning in higher education and in salaried jobs but on many counts they remain inferior to men.
The law and the official inputs have to remedy this trend.
I Their customary law deserves formal recognition. While recognising it formally, it has to be
amended to ensure that women are equal participants in the village councils and other traditional
212
bodies. Denial of entry to them is the visible face of injustice. There is a strong case for
extending 33% reservations to these bodies too.
I There cannot be much delay in ensuring such representation in the District Autonomous
Council. From there it can go up to the legislative assembly. Representation in the DAC can
on one side trickle down to the village council and on the other create an atmosphere in favour
greater representation at the State level.
I Any change of inheritance rights should be in favour of equality. That requires change also in
the remaining clauses on control of that inheritance. The change has to be in favour of
keeping its control with husband and wife jointly instead of other men.
I There is justice on the issue of clan belonging in the sense that the man and the woman retain
theirs. Any modification to it should come through a consensus.
ConcIusion
We have discussed in this study the interface of customary laws with modern inputs and its
impact on the status of women among five tribes of the Northeast. The interface has affected them
at various levels and has facilitated changes in their lifestyle, some of them positive, others negative
from women's perspective. Education has been the main catalyst for change along with factors like
the formal administrative and political systems and change of religion. That is the context of an
analysis of women's status in their customary laws and the impact of recent changes on them. t
showed the need for changes in many of their institutions. Many such changes are possible because
the tribes have already initiated some of them. For example, Aka women are aware of the negative
impact of the present interpretation of the bride price. We do have reservations about doing away
with it for fear that dowry may replace it but we are in agreement with them on issues such as
freedom of choice for women. They themselves are trying to do away with child marriage that
denies the couple freedom.
The Adibasi too have been demanding women's equality. Education that has reached them
recently and the SHGs have helped both men and women among them to become aware of their
rights. However, the trend to stop at reviving a Jharkhand culture can go against women. t is
important for them to begin with the Jharkhand past and move towards an Assam tribal identity. t
requires their inclusion in the schedule as a tribe and recognition of their customary law which is
to be revived with changes in favour of gender equality.
Among the five tribes studied, the Angami men as well as women have got most benefits of
modernisation. However, this positive state goes hand in hand with their trend to strengthen the
patriarchal ethos. As women become aware of their rights also resistance to their demands is
growing. The Angami customary law that has been recognised already gives women very limited
rights of ownership and inheritance. t has to be amended to meet these needs and also to make
sure that their voice is heard in their councils.
213
Dimasa respondents including women were reluctant to give any suggestions because they
felt that they did not have any grievances. t is understandable because double descent introduces
a great amount of ambiguity into their customary law. However, one is left with the impression that
a social atmosphere does not exist among them in favour of equality. Their society is flexible but
it does not make women equal. They only have a feeling of not being discriminated against. That
feeling can provide a healthy atmosphere for a creative discussion on their future, without their
leaders falling on the defensive.
The Garo represent a totally different dimension of the North Eastern tribal world. There is
silent tension among them on the issue of gender based rights which a casual visitor may not be
able to notice. Some men are demanding exclusive inheritance rights and women want the same
in the social sphere. Opting for one or the other can vitiate the atmosphere against equality. Gender
based equality has to be the norm guiding this debate.
These are among the challeges of the tribes studied. One has to continue this debate among
them. A positive atmosphere of reflection has to be created among all of them in order to encourage
them to the challenge of finding an identity in the customary law. While demanding it one needs to
begin with the norm of class and gender equity as the value guiding them. Thus recognition goes
together with the updating of their tradition of equality.
215
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CUSTOMARY LAWS IN NORTH EAST INDIA :
IMPACT ON WOMEN
By
WALTER FERNANDES
MELVILLE PEREIRA
VIZALENU KHATSO
NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
NEW DELH
STAFF OF THE PROJECT
Project Director : Dr. WaIter Fernandes is Director, North Eastern Social Research Centre
MeIviIIe Pereira and VizaIeno Khatso were Research Associates at North Eastern Social Research
Centre during the study
Study done :
North Eastern SociaI Research Centre
110 Kharghuli Road (1st Floor)
Guwahati-781004
Assam
Tel.: (0361) 2602819
Fax : (0361) 2602713
Email : nesrc1@sancharnet.in
Staff of the Project :
Field nvestigators : Sangeeta Tete (Adibasi)
Rekha Saikia (Aka)
Ms MhaIeno Zashiimo
KakoIi Khersa (Dimasa)
Merikka D. Shira (Garo)
Computerisation and Secretariat : Geetima Bhuyan, S. NedumaIa
Technical Assistance : KuntaIa Choudhury
CONTENTS
Foreword
Chapter 1 Tribal Customary Law and Women's Status : An ntroduction 1
Chapter 2 Tribal Customary Laws in North Eastern ndia 23
Chapter 3 Demographic, Educational and Occupational Status 51
Chapter 4 Status of Women in the Family 77
Chapter 5 Women's Role in Society 107
Chapter 6 Women and Matrimonial Laws 131
Chapter 7 Women's Property Rights and nheritance 157
Chapter 8 mpact of Modern nputs on Women 177
Chapter 9 Conclusion and Recommendations on the Customary Law 197
References 215