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 points
- The Khasis are one of the three indigenous matrilineal communities in the northeastern State. The other two are Garos and Jaintias.
- The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) directed the headmen of all villages and urban localities across the Khasi domain not to issue ST certificates to those who adopt their father’s surname instead of sticking to tradition by taking their mother’s clan name.
- According to the KHADC, for preservation and protection of the age-old tradition of the community, it is mandatory for any Khasi woman who marries a non-Khasi needs to obtain the Khasi tribe certificate for applying for the ST certificate for her children.
- Men’s rights activists among the Khasis have been fighting for switching over from the matrilineal to the patrilineal system since the 1960s.
