Two things about Kerala which always fascinate an outsider are its matriarchal society and its subscription to communism. I feel both these facets about Kerala seem to be intriguing the observer more on an intellectual level. Many of us tend to think that the high ranking of Kerala in social indicators is directly related to its matriarchal culture. The concept of matriarchy is invoked every time we find a human development report ranking Kerala at the top. Is there a causal link between matriarchy and social indicators? If yes, what has been the form of matriarchy that survives in today’s society?
I have always thought that my understanding of matriarchy is historical and theoretical. Historical in the sense that matriarchy in its real form was knocked out of existence since the advent of modernity and theoretical in the sense that matriarchy lacked its essence in the absence of ‘taravad’ and right to property. Taravad simply meant the ancestral house. It is said that in matriarchal Nair families only women folk lived in and the eldest woman headed the household. That is, normally a household had the eldest woman and her children, her sisters and their children and her own unmarried male siblings. No married men lived in the household permanently. They just remained as visitors.
This picture of a household where women are the complete masters is replete in textbooks. It is also said that women had unassailable property rights and for a Nair his/her clan, gotra and religion were identified through his/her mother (matrilineal). Being a Nair myself I was at a loss when I tried to translate this theoretical picture of matriarchy into the present day Nair families. I could not have thought that a matriarchal family exists as it does in the textbooks. Does it mean that matriarchy is non- existent or it has taken new forms in the modern societies?
I gathered from my conversations that matriarchal family did not mean the overarching presence of women in it. Rather it was just a euphemism for ‘marumakkattayam’, where the eldest maternal uncle was the real head of the family (karanavar). His properties were to be inherited by his sister’s son who may even marry his daughter. Thus we see that the right to property was not direct and it did not exist between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters. This right existed mainly between a maternal uncle and his sister’s children. When matriarchy was banned by the Travancore king the right to property was established between father/mother and their children. Thus even after a husband died a woman had the chance of getting a share of his property.
Male chauvinism and patriarchy still exist in families where women continue to be restricted under the male gaze. Property continues to be the pivot of families. The difference between the sorts of matriarchy that existed during the time of my grandparents from that of the contemporary times is spectacular. Women are no longer just homemakers but decision makers also. Though the institution of matriarchy is specific to the Nair community, others also attest to it. But the extent of this sympathetic attitude towards women varies with communities. The new matriarchy, that is, a belief in women’s powers and their education is common to all Keralites by now.
