Source: www.nytimes.com
MALANG, INDIA, July 16, 2010: In the remote villages of this Himalayan valley, polyandry, the practice of multiple men marrying one wife, was for centuries a practical solution to a set of geographic, economic and meteorological problems.
Polyandry has been practiced here for centuries, but in a single generation it has all but vanished. That is a remarkably swift change for the Himalayan communities.
Malang sits in the Lahaul Valley, one of India’s most remote and isolated corners. For six months heavy snow cuts off the single mountain road that connects the region to the rest of the country. In summer, its steep mountainsides shimmer with wildflowers, and glacial rivers irrigate small valley farm fields and orchards, which yield generous crops of peas, potatoes, apples and plums.
Sukh Dayal Bhagsen, 60, is from the neighboring village of Tholang. As a young man he joined his elder brother’s marriage to a woman named Prem Dasi. It was never discussed, but always assumed, that he would do this when he reached marriageable age, he said.
“If you marry a different woman, then there are more chances of family disputes,” Mr. Bhagsen said. “Family property is divided, and problems arise.” Three brothers married Ms. Dasi, who bore five children.
The logistics of sharing one wife among several men are daunting. All the children, regardless of who their biological father is, call the eldest brother pitaji, or father, while the younger brothers are all called chacha, or uncle.
“Each child knows who his father is, but you call your eldest uncle father,” said Neelchand Bhagsen, Sukh Dayal Bhagsen’s 40-year-old son. The wife decides the delicate question of who is the father of a child, and her word in this matter is law. “A mother knows,” Ms. Devi said, unwilling to discuss the sensitive particularities of this knowledge further.
The practice also acted as a form of birth control. Five brothers with a wife each could easily produce dozens of children. But polyandrous families seldom had more than six or seven children.
Although the society of the Lahaul Valley is patrilineal, the practice of polyandry gave women considerable sway over many matters. “The wife’s voice is the dominant voice in the household,” Neelchand Bhagsen said. When his mother demanded a new house for the growing brood in 1979, there was no question that it would be built. “Whatever my mother said was the final word,” he said.
No one, it seems, mourns polyandry’s passing. “That system had utility for a time,” Mr. Bhagsen said. “But in the present context it has outlived its usefulness. The world has changed.”