Abstract
Pre-colonial equitable gender relations in the forested upland of Jharkhand plateau have been waning over the last 200 years on a spiraling pace. The rudimentary patriarchy of the indigenous communities of the hoary past received a great fillip during the early phase of ‘feudalism from bellow’ by the primary states. It grew at a faster pace in the colonial period, as a result of the privatization of land and religio-cultural impact of the Zamindari system. Presently, the complete exposure to the dominant society of the plains has triggered of a process of complete demolition of the indigenous institutions that upheld women’s economic rights and social status at a much higher level than that of the peasant society of the plains. The government policfy of economic reform and structural change, since the 90s accelerated the process of masculisation of social institutions further. Through this article I had tried to highlight the situation of tribal women in context with economic rights and social status in the society.
A social transformation happens fundamentally from within the society as a result of its internal contradictions. But external agents of change also play an important role. In the case of Jharkhand, different indigenous communities are no exception to that rule. The only difference is that, as compared to the societies of the surrounding plains, the external impact over the last 200 years has been much stronger. Under the alien political rule, the very economic structure of the past that provided equitable gender relations was completely changed from communal to private ownership of means of production, such as land and forest. Forest that was the domain of women was taken over by the state and land was settled in the name of men. While silviculture robbed the economic stamina of the woman, agriculture under complete male domination lowered her social status. But still the old gender relations kept stalling the full growth of patriarchy, partly because of the persistence of the traditions and customs of the previous era, and partly because of the recognition of resource rights of the community as a whole under the colonial policy of administrative isolation from the Palins. In the postcolonial era the stunned patriarchy has started growing even at a faster pace, for now the whole society is under a great economic stress and economic stratification has been growing at the cost of gender equity. The external impact is hugely influencing the internal developments of patriarchal institutions, such as the ones related to wage, asset rights, family and communal decision making, dowry and patriarchal religious practices.
Women’s Land rights and Customary Laws
International Level
Women’s rights to access, use and control land and other productive resources are best protected when laws and policies pertaining to these rights are harmonized and comprehensive. An example from Uganda shows why such harmonization is important: strategic litigation pertaining to its Divorce Act and its Succession Act nullified sections of the law for the realization of land rights for vulnerable groups, especially women and children (Constitutional Petition No. 2 of 2003: Uganda Association of Women Lawyers & Others v. Attorney General (Divorce Act Petition); Constitutional Petitions Nos. 13/05 and 05/06: Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda v. Attorney General (Succession Law Petition)).
In Namibia, much of the rural population lives on communal land owned by the State and customarily allocated to members of the community by traditional leaders. Under pre-independence customary law, women’s access to land was primarily through their husbands, fathers or some other male relative. Under the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002, there are no bars to gender equality in the allocation of communal land—but there is no direct articulation of the principle of non-discrimination, nor any affirmative action for women. Land continues to be allocated by traditional leaders, with the allocations being ratified by community land boards, about one third of whose members should be women. (Dianne Hubbard, Legal Assistance Centre, Namibia)
The Uganda National Land Policy (Final Draft) seeks to harmonize and streamline the complex tenure regimes in Uganda so as to ensure equitable access to land and security of tenure. It states clearly that a good land tenure system must guarantee security of tenure and must correct provisions which constitute discrimination against women. Because women most often gain access to land and housing through their relationship with a man, widowhood and domestic violence present a serious concern from the point of view of women’s security of tenure. Namibia’s Communal Land Reform Act of 2002 gives surviving spouses who reside in rural areas the right to remain on land allocated to their deceased spouses. This right is not affected by remarriage. In some countries, for instance, Brazil, India and Serbia, national domestic violence legislation now provides that victims of domestic violence are allowed to stay in the marital home, regardless of who owns it. (“Report of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Raquel Rolnik” (A/HRC/19/53).)
Over the past two decades, some 1,500 landless peasant families have been struggling to retain a total of 473.23 acres (191.59 ha) of khas (State-owned) land in their possession at Beel Kuralia. In 1987, the Government of Bangladesh adopted the Khas Land Management and Distribution Policy, according to which landless peasants should get priority in receiving khas land and which guaranteed joint ownership of land between husband and wife. It also set criteria for widows and abandoned women to be given priority to own khas land. As a result, 182 women of a rural area named Beel Kuralia now own khas land in their individual name. This land ensures their families’ food security. These families have had to endure a seemingly endless struggle to retain their land rights against illegal land-grabbing. On 2 May 1993, they were subject to brutal attempts to forcibly evict them. Their homes were looted and set on fire. During one attack, a young boy was caught and attackers chopped off his right hand. People accused the police of sheltering the perpetrators (Source: Rowshan Jahan Moni, Association for Land Reform and Development, Bangladesh.).
National Level
In Madhya Pradesh, three types of legislation have been enforced to protect tribals in their land. These are (a) Central Provinces Land Regulation Act 1960 (still prevalent in old Mahakaushal region); (b) The Madhya Bharat Scheduled Areas (Allotment of Transfer of Land) Regulation 1954 (still enforced in scheduled areas of old Madhya Bharat region); and (c) The Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code 1959, which is applicable for all scheduled areas. Of these, the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code has been enacted to provide single uniform land legislation for the whole state. It gave the state a revenue law in consonance with the ideas of land reform. In Betul, the MP Land Revenue Code 1959 is applicable, and after the Hindu Succession Amendment Act (HSAA), most of the officers follow the rules accordingly. The stakeholders’ interview and field experiences showed that the trend was to follow HSAA among revenue officers. They also encourage people to follow the same.
In Rajasthan, Bhil women’s identity, property ownership, and access to forestland and forest resources are derived from their husband, and they may have little or no access to their natal family property (Mosse, 2005).
In Tripura, the land ownership of a larger percentage of land owning men as compared to land owning women was through inheritance. This indicates that a smaller percentage of women get a share of parental land by way of inheritance. Men and women do not inherit an equal share of parental land in Tripura. Muslim law denies equal inheritance to women and tribal customary laws relating to inheritance discriminate against women. Tribal women do not usually acquire land rights through inheritance because tribal customary laws relating to inheritance are mainly patriarchal with limited rights for women. Among the Kolois, Malsums and Halams who live in Ghantacherra, women get a third of the deceased father’s property and among the Tripuris, the women do not get any share in the deceased father’s landed property. Even though Hindu women are supposed to inherit an equal share of the parental property by law, this is seldom the case in actual practice. The deserted woman in the sample had inherited a small portion of her deceased father’s land. Her brother was enjoying the major portion of her deceased father’s property. The tribals of Tripura are guided by their own customs and laws relating to property. In Riang society, the surviving spouse and the legitimate children are entitled to equal shares of the property but the son or the daughter who looks after the parents in their old age receive a larger share. Among the Moghs, the widow of a deceased person is entitled to subsistence only. She has no right to sell or transfer property. The property is devolved strictly on male successors. Daughters are not entitled to inherit property. The system of inheritance among the Tripuris is patrilineal. Only sons can inherit property. All sons get equal shares but the daughters and the widow of the deceased do not inherit property. The widow is only entitled to subsistence. Among the Jamatias also, the system of inheritance is patrilineal. Daughters do not inherit their father’s property if the deceased has sons. The widow does not inherit property but has the right to subsistence without the right to alienate property. The customary laws of four tribal communities—the Riangs, the Jamatias, the Mogs and the Tripuris including the customary laws relating to inheritance of land are in the process of being codified under the auspices of the Law Research Institute of the Guwahati High Court but the work is not yet complete. (The Tripura Land Revenue Reforms (Allotment of Land), Rules, 1980 (Upto seventh Amendment). Tripura Gazette, Extraordinary Issues, 1981, 1985 and 1988, Government of Tripura.)
Jharkhand
For the settled agriculturist societies land is not only the most crucial means of production it is also their source of cultural and spiritual life. Power and status are directly linked to land the community and individuals hold. Access to land, however, varies based on sex. Men and women enjoy different forms of access to it depending on the social customs. In India the access to land in terms of gender is not homogenous. Whereas in the matrilineal societies, like the Khasis and Rabhas, women still enjoy certain control over the family and the community land as its custodians, among the rest land is essentially under the control of men. Variations are found even in the patrilineal societies. For instance, among the Santals the custom provides ownership rights of land to women, which is denied to women in the Munda society. Women’s access to landed property is important not only for the well-recognized reasons of enhancing women’s livelihood options and overall empowerment, but also for reducing their marital violence. (Agarwal, 2005, pp. 824–825) observes that security provided by property, is relatively certain, unlike employment, which is subject to the vagaries of the labour market. A house or land also visibly signals the strength of a woman’s fallback position and tangible exit option and can thus act as a deterrent to marital violence. And should she face violence, owning (or otherwise having access to) a house or land can give a woman an immediate escape option.
Land ownership pattern in Jharkhand may be categorized as follows.
Inherited Family Land Communally owned but individually possessed Individually owned Acquired Land- purchased from the market Received land Under Land Reform Under Bhoodan Government Lease Land Inherited Forest Land Communally Owned Privately Owned
Rest of the land, such as Gaiyr Majrua (GM) land and Forests, except for private forests, such as, Mindari Khuntkatti forests, is owned by the state. This arrangement leaves the woman at the mercy of the family and the state. If she can accumulate enough money, she can buy land from the market, which happens very rarely, mostly in the case of women in service.
The socially accepted norm is that women are not supposed to own agricultural land, because they do not till it or tabooed against it, homestead land, as she does not head the family, and on the same ground the land distributed under Land Reform or Bhoodan. Even the left led land-reform movements likewise interpret their slogan of ‘land to the tillers’ or ‘jote, boye, kate dhan jamin ka malik wohi kisan’ in terms male ownership of land. What is deliberately ignored is the role of women in agricultural operations. The taboo against women touching the plough does not exclude them from carrying on the rest of the hard work, the sowing, weeding and reaping.
According to a study about 85% of women in Jharkhand are engaged in agriculture as cultivators and labourers. It is estimated that they normally work for 12–14 hours a day whereas men spend only 7–9 hours (Goswami, 2010, p. 180). In Jharkhand customs play the most crucial role in determining the land rights of women irrespective of tribe and caste.
Formation of Jharkhand/Land Laws in the Eye of History
The history of the formation of the present Jharkhandi society comprising of the Adivasis (tribes) and the so-called Mulvasis (castes) remains fresh in the collective memory of the people. Since the land was first occupied by the ancestors of the Adivasi communities presently categorized as Schedule Tribes under the Constitution of India (Section 342. A, The Constitution of India, 2007); and the Mulvasi communities, consisting of Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, joined them at much later dates, the customary laws of the former enjoy a precedence over that of the latter. Therefore, Customary laws of Jharkhand, as recognized by the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 and the Santal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1949, uphold the Adivasi or tribal customs and practices.
Customary laws of the tribes are derived from their myths and beliefs. Since the Austro-Asiatic language speaking peoples were the first settlers in Jharkhand the later migrants, especially the Dravidian speaking ones, adopted or accommodated the traditions of the former. The Munda myth of the ‘first plough’ though gives ‘the wife’ of the Supreme Being (Hadam) the credit of invention of the plough it cleverly relieves her of the burden of using it to till the land. The myth obviously sanctions a taboo on women of not touching the plough. But then the taboo itself is not without a meaning. Taken together with other taboos – not to sow rice and not to climb roofs—it may justify, and be justified by, the law of male inheritance (Van Exem, 1982, p. 34). The law of inheritance, especially of land inheritance, strictly follows the patrilineal clan system.
In the face of popular struggle for political autonomy and cultural identity in Jharkhand the British colonial government conferred the tribal customs and practices the status of law and in exercise of the power conferred by Section 332 of the Indian Succession Act 1865 the Governor General in Council exempted the communities, such as, the Mundas, Santals, Hos, Kharias, Oraons, Gonds, Mals, Saurias, Kurmis, Ghasis, Pans and so on, called as ‘aboriginal tribes’, from the operation of the provisions of the said Act. Later, when the Indian Succession Act of 1925 came into operation by repealing the Act of 1865 it too retained the same position. Under Section 3 of this Act the State Government of Bihar and Orissa, vide Notification No. 3563 J dated the 8 December 1931exempted the same communities from the operation of the section of the Act that would contradict the customary laws of succession of these communities. The non-tribal castes or ‘aboriginal castes’, as the colonial legal system categorized them, also considered themselves to be exempted from this Act.
Thus, conversion to Christianity or Hinduism cannot force the tribes or castes in Jharkhand to follow Christian Personal Law or Hindu norms of succession. Even the Muslim artisan castes tend to ignore the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937 and accept the daughter’s inheritance rights in father’s property, which, however, excludes all agricultural land, unlike other property from its purview. Here we must mention that the last three communities of the above-mentioned list now do not belong to the Schedule Tribe category. Kurmis lost their tribal status in 1931 and now included in the Annexure 1 of the list of Other Backward Classes. The Ghasis and Pans are, on the other hand, have been given the status of the Schedule Casts. Similarly, many other communities listed as aboriginal communities by the British were de-scheduled form the tribal list and were put into the Schedule Castes list on essentially political considerations rather than the cultural ones. Therefore, a great deal of confusion prevails today about the legal status of their customary laws. However, all of them even now are reported to be following their respective customs and practices about inheritance and succession that are like that of the Schedule Tribes.
Both the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act 1908 and Santal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1949 recognize the customary laws. Section 76 of the CNT, for instance says, “Nothing in this Act shall affect any custom, usage or customary rights not inconsistent with, or not expressly or by necessary implication modified or abolished by its provisions.” The Constitution of India in accordance with the principles laid down by the Constituent Assembly recognizes customs and usages as laws (Part III Fundamental Rights, Section 13, 3.a).
Traditional Law of Women Land Rights in Jharkhand
Jharkhandi communities, tribe and non-tribe alike are at different levels of their social evolution or disintegration; their customs and practices are also reflective of that. The difference between the so-called Primitive Tribal Groups and the settled agriculturists is obvious. But even among the settled agriculturist tribal communities’ remarkable differences are observed in terms of, say for instance, women’s customary rights in parental property, especially land, as daughters, sisters, mothers and widows.
However, there is a remarkable area of commonality. Both tribes and other analogous communities, now called castes, are patrilineal and Patri-local. Resources are under the control of men and the decision-making process is male dominated. The Munda saying, ‘sirmare sing bonga oro otere poncho’ (‘The sky is ruled by Singh Bonga, the male High God and the earth by the panch, the lineage brotherhood’), brings the point home. Thus, the whole universe in controlled by men. But that does not mean that women are completely debarred from the organizational system, that is, economic and political structures. Their access to means of production and power vary from tribe to tribe and caste to caste, and accordingly their status is determined. Economic resources are both land and forest. Land has been reclaimed from forest and the tenancy acts allow both tribal and non-tribal tenants the right to such reclamation. For them land is the major source of accumulation in their economies and land is inherited in the male line.
The determining factor of the extent of rights the women enjoy in a community is the nature and level of patriarchy prevalent in it.
The nature of patriarchy is different in different societies, in different classes of the same society, in different periods of history of the same people. The broad principle remains the same, i.e., men are in control, but the nature of this control may differ. The experience of patriarchy is different for tribal women and for upper caste Hindu women (Bhasin, 1993, p. 5).
Similarly, tribal patriarchy differs from tribe to tribe depending on economic and social factors promoting or stalling its growth. The Santal women enjoy more access to land than their Munda counter parts, for instance.
The de-scheduled tribes and the Schedule Caste communities, now call themselves as the Mulvasis, also are guided by their respective customary laws of inheritance, which are like that of the Adivasis (Singh, 1994, p. 112). Among the Muslims in the rural areas, especially the Adivasi converts, and weavers largely follow the tribal customary laws. The rest of the people abide by the Muslim Law of Inheritance as coded in the Shariat.
Based on the observations and documentations of the tribal customary law of inheritance by W. G. Archer on the Santals (1984), S. C. Roy on the Mundas and the Oraons (1912, 1915), J. B. Hoffman on the Mundas (1915) and D. N. Majumdar on the Hos (1950) S. C. Roy and R. C. Roy on the Kharias (1937), Govind Kelker and Dev Nathan (1991) summarizes the tribal women’s rights in the parental land.
Adivasi custom has a fine gradation of various rights in land that women in different stations can have. The rights of unmarried daughters, wives, widows, and so on have all been elaborately spelled out. Summing up of the whole gamut of these rights one can say that they are of two kinds—one is a life-interest in land, a right to manage land and its produce; and the other is a right to a share of the produce of the land. (Kelkar & Nathan, 1991, pp. 88–89) The second right, a right not to manage or use the land as one wishes but to share of the produce, is again of two kinds. The first is a maintenance (khorposh) right. The second is to a share of produce, which may be over and above such maintenance needs—that of an unmarried daughter to a small portion of any crop that she has helped harvest, which may be accumulated by her or be used to buy her own clothes, ornaments etc. This in poorer families would only be a way of assuring maintenance for the daughters. But in that case too, such a right to decide one’s own consumption would give the daughters a superior position as compared to that where their every act of consumption must be approved before hand by the head of the house. In the case of better-off families, this share of the income can be used by the daughters to, say, lend out money or purchase a goat etc. Accumulation from ir arpa, as the share of the harvest is known, can also be exchanged against a part of the family land. (Kelkar & Nathan, 1991).
Rights of Women During their Different Status/Position
Rights of Unmarried Daughter
Unmarried daughter is entitled to maintenance during the lifetime and even after the death of her father. Generally, property is not partitioned during the father’s lifetime, but if so desired by him the unmarried daughter usually gets enough land for her maintenance until her marriage. But she cannot transfer this piece of land to any one and only enjoys usufractory rights over it. In Kolhan, the land of the Hos, these usufructory rights were often registered in the Khatians (Sundar & Upadhya, 2009, pp. 12 and 38).
During the colonial times a man having only daughter but no son tends to gift his land to his daughter to save the land from passing to the landlord or Zamindar. Hoffman, in fact, for this reason suggested that daughters should be given inheritance rights (Hoffman, 1961, pp. 336–338).
Rights of Married Daughter
A married daughter may enjoy rights on her father’s land only under the arrangement of the ghar jamai, the son in law living in the father-in-law’s home and help him in cultivation of his land as a son. However, after her death the land goes back to the agnates of her father.
Rights of Widow
The panch generally sets aside some land for the maintenance of the widow, she has only a life-interest in that property of her deceased husband. If she lives separately from her sons, this land repartitioned upon her death. This land she cannot sale without the consent of the agnates, to whom the property passes after her death. Even if she is issue less, she is entitled to have usufructuary right over this land. If she comes back to her parents, her lifelong maintenance is taken care of by the father and in his absence by the brother or brothers jointly.
The Tenancy Acts of Jharkhand do not spell out the land rights of women. They only recognize the customs of both ‘aboriginal tribes and aboriginal castes’. The SPTA (Santal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act) permits the transfer by a recorded Santhal of his holding or any portion thereof as gifts to a sister and daughter. It also permits ‘an aboriginal raiyat’ to ‘make a grant in respect of his lands not exceeding one half or the area of his holding to his widowed mother or to his wife for her maintenance after his death’. In both the cases a prior permission of the Deputy Commissioner is required (Singh, 2016, p. 6). However, no such permission is required in the case of ‘transfer made by an aboriginal raiyat of his right in his holding or portion thereof in favour of his gardi jamai or ghar jamai’. (Singh, 2016, p. 6). The CNTA (Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act 1908), on the other hand, is not vocal about such details. The courts take the help of authorities like S. C. Roy, for instance, as mentioned in his book The Mundas and Their Country (Roy, 1912), for the settlement of disputes concerning custom, partition and inheritance. In some cases, the interpretation of the ‘Honourable Court’ also helps the women to assert their rights. For instance, the widow’s right in the Mundari Khuntkatti land is not mentioned in the Act. The Act recognizes only the ‘heir male in the male line’ as the right holder of land. But in the case of Jit Mohan Singh Munda v. Ram Rattan Singh and another, 1958 BLJR 373, the Court held, ‘That the plaintiff representing the next senior-most branch of the family cannot recover possession of the property during the life time of widow but is only entitled to a declaration that he will succeed after her death’.
It is important to note that among the sedentary tribal communities the customary laws of the Santhals provide the woman more access to the ancestral land than that of the Mundas and together than that of the Oraons. The Hos and the Kharias follow the Mundas.
The customary rules that regulate the devolution of property among the Oraons appear to have been determined partly by the belief that the ancestral spirits protect the land of the family or lineage. If a married girl takes away any property from her parents, the spirits remain in contact with such property and inflict sickness or some other affliction to her in-laws family. This belief prevents the Oraon to give his land to any person other than his male descendents or other agnates. He cannot even gift his land to his son-in-law who lives with him as the ghar damad (Gupta, 2002, p. 91). Among the Oraons the traditional notion of the life-interest of the widows, or of their right to khorposh lands, does not exist (Kelkar & Nathan, 1991, p. 92). The Oraons are guided by two fundamental rules of inheritance and succession: that the land must not pass out of the lineage and that the woman shall not inherit it in any circumstances. The Mundas, however, as mentioned above, recognize the widow’s rights in the husband’s land.
Forest is traditionally considered to be common resources accessible to both men and women without any restrictions. But the male members of the lineage own the forestland that is brought under cultivation. Men control the timber trading and own the money thus accumulated. Forest Department following the same custom pays the share of the village of the coup felling to the men folk. Women as foragers are entitled to own the collection of the forest produces and the money gained by their sale. British recognized the customary rights of the people in forests. Lager part of the forest, about 80%, was kept under the custodianship of the Zamindars for the use of the rayats (tenants at will).
Erosion in Customary Rights
Since the invention of agriculture, in the sense of domestication of plants, till the time of the development of hoe agriculture the food production remained to be the domain of women. In swidden or slash and burn agriculture though there was a complementarity and some joint labour by women and men, it was basically a women’s domain. Swidden by itself was generally associated with a relative equality in gender relations. Sedenterization and plough agriculture established the authority of men in the process of production and changed the previous relations of production (Nathan, 1997, pp. 252–253). This was reflected in the field of politics expressed in terms of religion (Sarna system of belief). These internal processes of change were not the same among all the communities. In Jharkhand some of the communities adopted swidden agriculture whereas the rest of the communities continued to practice hunting and gathering. The customs of the settled agriculturists, both tribe and caste, of Jharkhand today have their roots in the history of their sedanterization or settling down as swidden agriculturists. Till the advent of the British, as has been described above, even though the tribal women entered the era of their ‘historical defeat’ the end of that era was yet to come. The prevailing customs provided them certain rights both in the ownership and control of resources as well as in the realms of politics and belief system. Colonial state prepared the ground for the momentous growth of patriarchy by its ardent effort of peasantization of the tribes and by its policy of promotion of Sanskritization and Missionization processes. Customs originated in an egalitarian society based on communal ownership of resources and animistic or naturalistic belief system became superfluous and unaccepted in a radically new situation under colonial and post-colonial system of governance. Thus, customs are not static but dynamic in nature. Since one of the most important factors that contribute to the growth of customs is the mode of production of a given period in a society any change in it forces the prevailing customs to go through a corresponding change to remain relevant.
Therefore, though customs are supposed to be archaic in origin the Allahabad High Court have, as a matter of fact, refused to apply in India the principle of English law that a custom to be valid must be shown to be ancient, Kuar Sen v. Mamman, 17 All 87. (
According to the tradition among the tribes the widow becomes, in a sense, a substitute of her late husband. The life interest of a widow in her deceased husband’s land is the right that has been under attack and in which there has been numerous changes (Kelker & Nathan, 1991, p. 90). Since customary laws are not codified the space for interpretation is immense. Archer identified the departure from tradition in terms of Santal widow’s land rights form the records of 1906 to the Revision Survey Settlement of 1922. The life interest of a widow in land gradually changed to merely maintenance or khorposh rights by providing only that much land enough to maintain her till death. Among the Mundas the dominant trend has been only to provide food and shelter to the widow as a dependent, without any right to land. Thus Kelker and Nathan observe three phases in the degradation of widow’s land rights: in the first, the widow has rights equal to those of her late husband; in the second, she has rights over a plot of land sufficient for her own maintenance; in the third, any independent access to land is neglected, and the widow merely lives on maintenance provided by the male heir of husband.
Similarly, the practice of propitiation of the ancestral spirit by a woman in the absence of her husband or officiating as the temporal head of the village community in the event of the demise of her husband who held that post, is not heard any longer. Women’s participation in the decision-making process has gradually reduced to naught. Some tribal traditional organizations have registered their grievances on the 33% reservation for women under the PPESA (Provisions of Panchayat Extension to the Scheduled Areas), 1996. They wanted the continuation of the male dominated traditional panchyat to be recognized under PPESA.
Factors of Change
Internal Factors of Change
The indigenous peoples of Jharkhand may be categorized as
Settled agriculturists with considerable economic dependence on forest, such as the Mundas, the Hos, the Santals, the Oraons, Kharias, the Kudmis, the Koiris and so on. oraging communities, such as the birhors, the binjias, the Paharias and most of the minor tribes who do little or no agriculture, and Artisan communities namely, the Ghasis, the Turis, the Sawansis, the Chik Baraiks and so on.
All these communities follow patrilineal inheritance and are divided into exogamous clans or lineages. The customary rights of their women are determined by these two factors. Exogamy extinguishes the married woman’s rights over her father’s land but provides her rights over her husband’s land. However, it is the most fundamental social institution that promotes patriarchy. Inheritance determined by exogamy recognizes male line, which makes women dependent on their men, as father, brother, husband and son. Generally, these communities practice monogamy, but polygamy is not unknown.
External Factors Promoting Patriarchy
Clan exogamy and patrilineal inheritance of cultivable land alone in an egalitarian social system could not help patriarchy to grow to its fullest form. Communal ownership means of production, and the dependence on forest as livelihood resources, which was largely the domain of women, kept the society relatively gender just. External forces that initiated a societal change in the indigenous societies including the change in the gender relations happened with the process of forced peasantization of the people who lived in subsistence economy. The compulsion of surplus production led to the considerable shift from foraging in the forest and swidden agriculture to plough agriculture with animal power. In swidden agriculture enjoyed much more asset rights than in fixed-land agriculture. Growing dependence on plough agriculture led to the breaking down of old gender equations as women became more and more engaged in agriculture and thereby a part of the male dominated economic structure. Taboos were made to keep women under masculine control. Branding women as witches is another means to achieve the same goal.
The change in economics was accompanied by a change in politics as well. Both Mughal and British colonial rules encouraged and strengthened male dominated decision-making process among the indigenous peoples. Some tribes, partly or fully, entered medieval state formation, like the Cheros and a section of the Mundas called the Bhumijs. In the British colonial period many settled agriculturist tribes got stratified and in several pockets the fractured groups joined the ranks of the Zamindars or their subordinates. This process was substantiated by the spread of dominant religious systems of the rulers.
These communities even though originally followed naturalistic belief system (also called animism, and Sarna faith) now accommodated Islam, Christianity and popular variety of Hinduism (as opposed to Brhamanical Hinduism). The Islam being more exclusive belief system could not flourish further after the Mughal influence ended. With the rise of the British, the popular Hinduism and Christianity attempted to be inclusive in their approach to the indigenous peoples. The Pauranic Hinduism, with the blessings of the both pre and postcolonial states, could make a fast inroad in Jharkhand owing to its liberal approach. Christianity that made a late entry also tried to localize herself and attracted considerable number of people. However, all three promoted patriarchy, albeit at different levels of their intensity.
Impact on Tribal women of Jharkhand
Impact of Economic Reforms
Jharkhand, born in the post economic reform period, has been an arena of the dramatic performance of the reform policy of the government. Generally, the reforms that began in the 90’ have been a great boon for the richest 10%–25% of Indian population. However, it has been proved to be a greater curses for the rest of the population especially the poor. What has been its impact on the gender relations is an important area of social analysis in the post reform period.
Govind Kelker observes, ‘Women’s experience of economic growth and macroeconomic reform is mediated through their gendered position within the household and outside, and more so with regard to the distribution of productive assets. There is growing dissatisfaction with market oriented reforms in these conditions and the growing realization that these reforms have paid little attentions to mechanisms of gender and social equalities’(Kelkar, 2013, p. 60). The basic problem with the present policy of economic reform is that it promotes unrestrained market economy, the inherent logic of which is to maximize economic growth. It is today fundamentally at odds with the goal of ecological sustainability and social equity (Shrivastav & Kothari, 2012, p. 29).
Strategy of Women’s Movement
The women’s movements for rights to life and livelihood, and status and dignity are divided ideologically. One view stands for feminist position against patriarchy inside and outside the family and community, and the other believes in going beyond ‘gender dialectics’ to face the immediate challenges of survival as a community. The former view upholds the equal ownership rights of women on land and produce of land and other productive assets. And to achieve that goal it is even ready to challenge traditions and customs. For it, custom is a dynamic phenomenon and should change according to the need of the hour. The women who stand for this view site the example of loss of life saving assets of the family owing to the drunkenness of their male partners and greed of the young people of the present generation. Joint ownership of such assets, especially land, can prevent such misfortune. Besides, it holds the view that outdated customs prevent women from being benefitted by the pro women legislations, like, Provisions of Panchayat (Extension in Scheduled Areas) 1996, Forest Rights Act 2006, that provide women equal right to participate in decision making. The tribal women point out that why should they be deprived of property rights in the family and in the community unlike their sisters of the Hindu communities who are now entitled with equal rights to parental property. United Nations Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 1980 upholds this view. It requires all signatory states (including India) to modify or abolish all existing laws, customs, practices and regulations that discriminate against women. Para IV, Para 2 of Article 15 and 16 of CEDAW, states that all signatory states must ‘(i) Recognize women’s rights to own, inherit and administer property in their own names; (ii) Provide equal rights for both spouses in respect to ownership, acquisition, management, administration’.
Conclusion
The other view presents a different position on the issue of productive assets ownership rights and rights to decision-making. According to it the struggle to protect productive assets should take precedence over the gender struggle over ownership rights of family property. This view apprehends weakening of community solidarity against its fight for survival in the event of sharpening of gender struggle within the family and community by disregarding customs. The subscribers of this view sites the contemporary movements against any amendments of the CNT and SPT Acts that protect the land of the cultivators and recognize the custom of inheritance of the Jharkhandi communities. According to them any demand to amend the custom of inheritance would weaken the Acts and eventually the communities would suffer. Therefore, now is the time to accept a compromised position on gender inequality as a strategy of survival against the predators of productive assets of the family and the community. This view, similarly, rejects women’s equal participation in the Panchyati Raj system and ‘Mukhia-Pati’-‘Sarpanch-Pati’ syndrome is not uncommon in Jharkhand. The patrilineal inheritance of property and male dominated system of decision-making cut across tribe, caste and religion.
To Hoffman the Munda land system appeared to be ‘one of the wisest creations of the prehistoric times’ (Hoffman, 1952, p. 2402). But time has passed since then. Women’s movement for equal economic and political rights has gathered momentum over the years and it has also impacted upon the Indigenous women of Jharkhand. It is now generally accepted that women’s empowerment entails two entwined elements, productive asset rights and right to participate. The women’s asset rights are prevented by customs and the forces of globalization. It is found to be easier to negotiate with male members of the family or the traditional communal leadership for land transfers to the corporates rather than with the women members. Weaker voice of women is easily suppressed and the compensation money is deposited in the names of male family heads in the event of a successful deal. Consumerism and drunkenness of male members ruin the family and women and children become the worst sufferers. On many occasions and by several movements of women the issue of joint ownership has kept emerging. One of the outcomes of this demand is found in the legal arrangement of joint usufruct rights of both men and women on farmland in the FRA 2006 that over rules the custom. Gender inequality among the Indigenous Peoples in Jharkhand is not confined to the land rights alone, it is noticed in different household division of labour, restraint in participation in traditional panchyats, women speaking in public and participation in electoral politics.
It is true that now the indigenous communities of Jharkahnd are threatened by external forces of resource predation. Land and other productive assets alienation have been the order of the day. Without communal solidarity no affective resistance could be possible. But then the question is canning a community, which is porous internally with unequal gender relations, stand strong before such aggression? Can masculine control of resources (both productive and reproductive) and decisionmaking help the community to survive? It has been proved time and again that powerful women were the key factors in the success of the movements, such as Chipko, Narmada Bachao andolan, POSCO (The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Pratirod andolan, Niyamgiri pahar bachao andolan and so on. The issue of strengthening the community internally by accepting gender equality needs to be further taken up to confront the aggressive external forces. Women’s empowerment is dependent on increased entitlements and capacities.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Approval
The work involves full compliance with Ethical Standards and have proper ethical approval.
Funding
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