The myth of an egalitarian society: tracing the status of women in the matriarchal society of Meghalaya

A clear understanding of the term “matriarchal state” is essential to examine and understand the status of women in the matriarchal state of Meghalaya. In simple words, matriarchal system can be understood as a system contrary to the patriarchal system where men are considered as the primary actors in undertaking responsibilities for the family, the community as a whole and also bear solely the responsibility in the public sphere. So justifying the contrasting characteristics of a matriarchal system vis-a vis the patriarchal system, it can be understood that matriarchal system is a system whereby it is the women folk who take charge of all the activities both in the private and the public sphere. An attempt would be made in the paper to locate and examine the status of women in Meghalaya based on such understanding of a “matriarchal state.”

This paper would attempt to challenge the “assumed reality” of the matriarchal state Meghalaya by raising certain questions, as to whether matrilineal meant just the “descent and inheritance traced through the female line?” Whether the rights given to the women in Meghalaya are merely customary or commanding? Can a matriarchal society be considered as an egalitarian society?

It has often been said that the Meghalaya state is a ‘matrilineal state with a patriarchal mindset’ because rights and priority given to women in taking decisions on family matters and non-existence of dowry system or non-existence of female infanticide merely does not go further to justify the “egalitarianism” presumed to exist in the state. What needs to be analyzed is that to what degree and extent the women folk in Meghalaya enjoy freedom in the decision-making process, as not much women are found either in the mainstream political sphere or in the Village councils known as “dorbar”. While women in the rest of the country have long got the right of 33 per cent representation in the Panchayats (local self governance), women in Meghalaya have only recently woken up to the need to seek representation in such middle-level political institutions as the district councils.

This paper would focus on the harsh reality of a matrilineal state as a “double edged sword” when it comes to the women folk, for women in the state are often not paid much attention as it is assumed that women in the state enjoy too much rights and power and so no special effort is needed to ensure their rights. Infact, the women's organisations have been demanding the setting up of a State Women's Commission to tackle the problems faced by women in the state. This demand has, however, not been taken seriously by state authorities who are overwhelmingly male. The standard reaction to a demand for mechanisms to protect women's rights is that "in matrilineal communities it is men who need protection as women control everything".

The state also has the dubious distinction of having a high rate of domestic violence, according to North East Network, a women's rights organisation based in Shillong even the National Family Health Survey published by the Government of India reveals that Meghalaya has the highest levels of domestic violence among Northeast states. Such vulnerability of the women folk even in a matrilineal state elucidates the gender based insecurities that persists under the canopy of a matrilineal state. Thus, an attempt would be made to question the assumption of Meghalaya being “the only state that is holding a flame, a beacon of hope by putting the weaker sex on a strong pedestal of society.”