KHASI TRIBAL COUNCIL - POLITY
News: Row over adopting father’s surname in matrilineal Meghalay
What's in the news?
● A
tribal council’s order not to issue a Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificate to any
Khasi person who adopts the surname of her or his father has triggered a war of
words in matrilineal Meghalaya.
Key takeaways:
● Men’s
rights organizations and activists slam the Khasi Hills Autonomous District
Council’s order to headmen not to issue Scheduled Tribe certificates to anyone
not adopting his or her mother’s clan name.
Khasi Tribes:
● The
Khasis, numbering about 1.39 lakh, are one of the three matrilineal indigenous
communities in the north-eastern state
of Meghalaya.
● The
other two are the Garos and the
Jaintias.
● The
Khasis are the largest surviving
matrilineal cultures of the world.
● The
tribes have a distinguishing language, ceremonies, rites and habits and share
an ethnic identity as Ki HynniewTrep (The Seven huts)
● The
Khasi tribes follow the ancient
tradition of matrilineage.
○ Among
them, women who inherit ancestral
property, children adopt their mother’s surname and the local market runs
primarily with independent female vendors controlling their business.
● In
these societies, the birth of a girl is more celebrated than a boy. After
marriage, the husbands live in the mother-in-law’s home.
● The
Khasi men feel that they are accorded secondary status for which they have
established societies like the Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai tha.