Has Matriarchy Influenced Succession

Laws in India?

Anutosh Pandey
Student at National Law University Orissa
 INTRODUCTION

Matriarchy can be referred as a society where females play the central role of moral authority
and responsibility for property. There is a confusion regarding the existence of a pure matriarchal
society but in few parts of the world there are certain communities which show the element of
matriarchy in their system of authority and responsibility.

In India, matriarchy is found in certain part of Assam and certain parts of Kerala .The social
structure of these communities have various elements which are different from other
communities of India.

Keeping in mind the requirements of these communities, various personal laws related to
succession and other family matters had been amended to meet the requirement of these
communities.
 CHAPTER 1- MATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES IN INDIA

In simple terms, matriarchy can be defined as a structure of the society in which women
(especially mother) is the centre of power .All the authority and responsibility related to property
etc rest with the mother.

As per Britannica Encyclopaedia matriarchy is a hypothetical social system in which the mother
or a female elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more women
(as in a council) exert a similar level of authority over the community as a whole.

Rights
related to
property

Women(Mother)

Political
Leadership Moral
Authority

Matriarchy is not just about descent and inheritance being traced through the female line. The
matriarchal system means a system where women have power in “all activities relating to
allocation, exchange and production, as well as socio-cultural and political power…” It is the
very opposite of a patriarchal system where men “take primary responsibility for the welfare of
the community as a whole, and also act as representatives via public office.” It believed that no
society in the world has ever had a matriarchal system.1

1
Are (or were) Meghalaya and Kerala matriarchal societies?
Available at http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/meghalaya-and-kerala-status-of-women/
But it is seen that women in the matrilineal system gets a higher status in society than women in
a patriarchal system.

The matriarchal societies are found in various different parts of the world. In India the elements
of matriarchal societies are found in north east states (Assam and Meghalaya) and in some part
of Kerala.

Two points need to be emphasized about matriliny in Kerala: it was not practised by all groups,
and it was not matriarchy. Though families were based on mothers' homes and organized
through the female line, the controllers and decision makers were men.

Matrilineal system developed in Kerala the eleventh century of the Common Era (CE), possibly
as a result of prolonged war between the Chera and Chola dynasties and their subordinates.
Whatever the origins, matrilineal practices were firmly established, particularly among a caste
category dubbed Nairs (also spelled Nayars) , by the time Europeans began arriving regularly on
the Kerala coast in the 1500s. 2

In South India two major system were found in relation to Matriarchy, Marumakkathayam (In
Kerala) and Aliyasantana (in Karnataka)

Marumakkathayam was a system of matrilineal inheritance prevalent in the present Kerala State
in India. Under the Marumakkathayam system of inheritance, descent and succession to the
property was traced through females. The mother formed the stock of descent and kinship as well
as the rights to the property was traced through females and not through males.
Marumakkathayam literarily meant inheritance by sisters children as opposed to sons and
daughters. Word „Marumakkal‟ in Malayalam means nephews and nieces. The joint family under
matrilineal system is known as Tharavad and it formed the nucleus of the society in Malabar.
This customary law of inheritance was codified by the Madras Marumakkathayam Act 1932;
Malabar was part of the Madras Presidency during British Rule.

The definition of Marumakkathayam in Madras Marumakkathayam Act 1932 is

„Marumakkathayam‟ means the system of inheritance in which descent is traced in the female

2
Robin Jeffrey, Legacies of Matriliny: The Place of Women and the "Kerala Model, available at
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40023536
and „Marumakkathayee‟ means a person governed by Marumakkathayam Law of Inheritance.
„Tarawad‟ means the group of person forming a joint family with community of property
governed by Marumakkathayam Law of Inheritance. This system of inheritance is now abolished
by The Joint Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 by the Kerala State Legislature. A similar
system called Aliyasantana was practiced in the coastal districts of Karnataka.

The chief representatives, by lieu of their social standing and past research interest, of the castes
practicing Marumakkattayam were the Nairs and Mappilas (Muslims) of North Malabar. Their
line of descent was traced from the common female ancestress, and it was not a man's own
children, but his sister's sons who were his heirs. The family or tharavadu consisted of women
living with their brothers and their children in one house. All family property, other than that
acquired through individual exertions, belonged to the family jointly, and except through
common consent, was indivisible. Each member was entitled to be maintained out of the profits
of it, but not to sell or otherwise dispose of it. The management and control of all family property
was vested in the eldest male, who is called the Karanavan. Even property individually acquired,
although their own to deal with during their lifetime, could not be disposed of by will. On their
death, such property merged into the family property.

Aliyasantana (sister's son lineage) was a matrilineal system of inheritance practiced by various
communities notably the Bunts in the coastal districts of Karnataka, India.3

Under this system the children are part of the mother's family and after marriage the wife would
stay at her mother's place and husband would "visit" her. For the Bunt community, the wife
would stay with her husband and return to live with her matrilineal family after the husband's
death. The property of the mother is divided among the children in such a way that female
children would inherit the major share depending upon number of children they have. A son
would get only his share. There were no clear rules for the father's property. Probably, in the
earlier times it might have gone solely to nephew. However, it was observed in the later period
even though the mother's property distribution would always follow matrilineal inheritance rules
(sometimes at the expense of sons), father was free to distribute his property according to his
wish. This system also provides women the right to divorce and re-marry.

3
Praveena Kodoth,Courting Legitimacy or Delegitimizing Customs ? Sexuality,Sambandham, and Marriage Reform
in Late Nineteenth Century Malabar ,available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/313121
In the north east India matriarchy is found mainly in two tribes Khasi and Garo.The Khasi and
Garo are agricultural peoples who live in hill districts in Meghalaya.Among the Garo,one
daughter ,usually the youngest is chosen as heiress.The youngest son-in-law comes to live in his
wife‟s parents‟ house and becomes the father-in-law‟s nokrom, or clan representative in the
mother-in-law‟s family.If the father-in-law‟s family dies ,the nokrom marries (and the marriage
has to be consummated ) the widowed mother-in-law .4

4
Jaana Holvikivi,Contemporary matriarchal societies, available at
http://www.saunalahti.fi/penelope/Feminism/KhasiGaro.html
 CHAPTER 2- INFLUENCE OF MATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES ON SUCCESSION LAWS IN INDIA

Personal laws always get influenced by the various different social phenomena. Similarly
matriarchy had also influenced the succession laws in India.
In theory, matriliny ended completely on 1 December 1976, when the Kerala government
promulgated the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, passed in the previous
year. The act abolished 12 other pieces of legislation going back to 1925, passed in different
units of what became the state of Kerala in 1956. Although matriliny was being dismantled
piecemeal from the beginning of the twentieth century, as late as 1976, families that had not
explicitly divided themselves were still regarded as joint- families and deemed to hold joint-
family property.
Matriliny received a remarkable concession - one little-known outside Kerala - in the Hindu
Succession Act of 1956. Under section 15 of the act, the heirs of the property of a Hindu
woman who dies without a will are to be, sons, daughters and husband. But the act contains
an exception in section 17, which says that for women who would have been governed by
matrilineal law if the act had not been passed, the heirs will be sons, daughters and mother.
In the year 2002, a number of cases reaching the Kerala High Court illustrated the degree to
which matrilineal practice and sentiment still prevailed among significant sections of Kerala
society, including Hindus and Muslims.
The most important case laying down the law on this question was decided in 1992. It upheld
the matrilineal provisions of section 17 of the Hindu Succession Act. Instead of the husband,
sons and daughters being first in the line of inheritance of a woman dying intestate, section17
substitutes the mother for the husband. The case in 1992 challenged this provision, claiming
the Kerala legislation of 1976 overrode it: that is, that once all matrilineal claims on property
were removed, as the 1976 act had done, the provisions for matrilineal people in the Hindu
Succession Act no longer applied. The Kerala High Court held otherwise: the matrilineal
recognition of section 17 of the Hindu Succession Act prevailed for as long as there were
people alive who would have been governed by aspects of matrilineal law. This means
anyone born before the notification of the Kerala act in 1976. Thus matrilineal ideas - the
need to be conscious of one‟s female relatives and their legal rights and usefulness - have a
legal life of at least another sixty years.5
Though such cases are not daily occurrences, the loose ends of matriliny still crop up
regularly in civil litigation.

5
Supra Note 2
 CONCLUSION

Matriarchy as a system of society is still evident in certain parts of India. Although many
different legislations had brought the effect to abolish this system but it is still prevalent in
the society. We had already discussed the effect of matriarchy in the Hindu Succession Act
1956 and also the approach of judiciary in cases involving matriarchy and it is very evident
that still the court decided in certain cases keeping in mind the system of matriarchy as the
system is deeply rooted in the society .In a land mark case of the Kerala High Court Justice
M.Ramachandran had ruled:
“At the most, it could be held that ... "the system" was abolished [by the 1976 act], but that
did not thereby meant that the joint family as well stood abolished. ... The family and
relationship could not have been considered, as disturbed by the Abolition Act, and the Act
had authority to deal with properties of the joint family alone.”
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles
1. Are (or were) Meghalaya and Kerala matriarchal societies?
available at http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/meghalaya-and-kerala-status
of-women/

2. Robin Jeffrey, Legacies of Matriliny: The Place of Women and the "Kerala Model,
available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/40023536

1. Praveena Kodoth,Courting Legitimacy or Delegitimizing Customs ?

Sexuality,Sambandham, and Marriage Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Malabar ,
available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/313121

2. Jaana Holvikivi,Contemporary matriarchal societies, available at

http://www.saunalahti.fi/penelope/Feminism/KhasiGaro.html

3. Shruti Pandey, Property Rights of Indian Women available at

http://www.muslimpersonallaw.co.za/inheritancedocs/Property%20Rights%20of%20INd
ian%20Women.pdf

Books
1. Poonam Pradhan Saxena ,Family Law Lectures Family Law II,Second Edition

2. Satyajeet A Desai,Mulla Hindu Law,21st Edition

Acts
1. Hindu Succession Act 1956