Khasi Women and Matriliny: Transformations in Gender Relations

This paper examines the link between matriliny and gender. Focused on the Khasi of Northeast India, it shows that while women have comparative security under matriliny, they are not entirely free from subordination. The egalitarian principle, which underlines matrilineal descent, is subverted by men's lust for power and the hierarchical political structures from which women as a rule are excluded. This paper brings into sharp relief how men use their position to produce an ideology that subjugates women. To counter the steamrolling effect of modernization and change and the threat these engender to their identity, men are increasingly using the state machinery to come up with measures that distort the matrilineal system. The arguments they use are also steeped in fundamentalist and patriarchal ideology. Women's traditional exclusion from politics has effectively aided men in this regard. This paper observes that with the Khasis' accession to the Indian Union and the political modernization of the region, the link between ethnicity, patriarchy, and the state, which was lying dormant in the traditional political set-up, has come to the fore.