Customary Laws and Courts

This paper investigates the property rights of Adivasi women, specifically focusing on the Santals of Jharkhand. It examines customary laws and explores how the already limited property rights available to Adivasi women have been further constrained by shifting customs, weakened social support, and state interventions. A key focus is the practice of Ghar Jawae marriages, the only Santal custom that grants daughters absolute property rights. Over the past few decades, this practice has not only become rare due to diminishing social support but is increasingly mired in legal conflicts, transforming one of the few avenues for women's property rights into a contested space. Facing limited support from their communities, some Adivasi women now seek recourse in the courts, invoking constitutional rights. While court rulings have tended to favor gender-equal property rights, they have also provoked resistance from within Adivasi communities. This study seeks to understand these protests and the intensifying resistance to women’s property rights within the broader context of Adivasi identity, communitarian values, land struggles, and historical marginalization. Engaging with debates on legal pluralism, it further examines the complex interactions between customary law, state interventions, and judicial decisions. The analysis draws on fieldwork conducted in six villages in Jharkhand's Santal Parganas region, interviews with activists and legal experts, and an examination of ethnographic records and customary laws

Context (archaeology · Human rights · Negotiation · Property (philosophy · Property rights · State (computer science · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Land Rights and Reforms · South Asian Studies and Conflicts