Polyandry (Multiple Men Marrying single Woman) is prohibited throughout most of India, although it is still practiced often in various villages of the Sirmaur, Kinnaur, and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh. Some villages in Uttarkhand continue to follow this tradition, even though it is rapidly fading.

For the Hatti tribe, polyandry serves more than a marriage purpose it acts as a vehicle to preserve family land and property. When one brother dies, subsequent land and property remain with their brother and wife. This helps retain land ownership rather than passing down land with generations being divided into un-viable plots of land.

The Hatti’s local names for the tradition are ‘Jodidaran’ or ‘Draupadi Pratha’ named in honour of the famous figure Draupadi from the Mahabharata who married five brothers. For, the Hatti’s polyandry is valued as aspects of their ethnic identity and ability to sustain themselves and family in an uncertain time.

The Hatti tribe became officially recognized as a Scheduled Tribe and thr tribe’s culture and traditions, including polyandry, are now recognized and validated. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that young boys and girls from Hatti village are increasingly modernized by some form of education or urban life, which complicates their views of polyandry. Many of them are moving into cities, living not unlike a person living in a town, which clearly makes things challenging for their traditional views of the specific socio-legal relationship of a man, a woman, and another man.

The Legal and Communal Support
Although the Hatti followers embrace the Hindu Marriage Act, India does not outlaw tribal customs. Some very loal lawyers have adjudicated a very cultural form of polyandry over decades. Ransingh Chauhan cites the Hatti’s polyandry has been the “Jodidar law” for longest time, especially as practiced under the leadership of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Hundreds of polyandry still happen in the region to keep the family together and prevent land from being divided. The recent media hype and hysteria over marriage in Shillai is really just a daily event for the folks in Hatti.

There are 154 village councils (panchayats) in the Trans-Giri region that is home to the Hatti community. The Hattis reside in all but a handful of these councils demonstrating the size and distribution of their culture across this region.

Times are Changing, a Tradition at Risk
Kundan Singh Shastri, a Hatti community leader stated that education and migrants moving away to urban centers will eventually lead to a gradual decline of polyandry. Until then, polyandry is still a key part of their identity.

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The tale of these two brothers, and one wife further reinforces how some communities can continue to preserve customs, habits and patterns amid an advancing world. Polyandry in Himachal is not merely the result of union; it means family, culture, survival, and identity.

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