Nata Pratha - Polygamic practice in the Bhil Tribe in India

"Asal Marad parne nahi, mathe ni bandhe mod, Parni laave paar ki, jave Ghhosunde daud"

Translating to “Real men don’t get married, nor do they tie ornamental studs on their heads, they bring their wives from lands situated abroad, wherein they choose their life partner by taking her hand from a fare in Ghhosunde - a village in Chittaurgarh Tehsil in Chittorgarh district in Rajasthan.”

Nata Pratha is one of the unique customs prevalent in some states of India. It is a practice in which two persons can enter into a relationship similar to marriage without any legal and religious/social obligation by getting a divorce from existing marriage or otherwise. - Azeez E P, Abdul (Department of Social Work, Amity University Haryana, Gurugram, Haryana, India).

“Nata” is a hindi word which means “relation”. “Pratha” is a hindi word which translates to “Tradition”.

Marriage by definition means the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship (historically and in some jurisdictions specifically a union between a man and a woman).

Nata Pratha as the definition suggests is a customary practice where the man enters in to a relation with a woman by means of marriage or by establishing a live-in relationship with each other. This practice is mostly prevalent in the Bhil and Bhilala tribes of Gujarat, western Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Some categorize this practice as means to empower women who are no longer tied to their domestic responsibilities as wives and had an opinion on how they wish to spend their lives by choosing the partners of their choice and some attribute this practice as providing a second chance to widows or divorcees. In this ritual there is often Bride money associated where the man gives the price as demanded by the bride’s parents and often there is little to no say of the bride with respect to her choice of the groom.

This form of customary practice loosely translates to the modern-day live-in relationship where the man and woman starts living together after entering into a carnal relationship with each other. This doesn’t necessarily require the individuals to be married by law to one another.

It is observed that in this tradition the married man can keep a woman with him in a relationship parallel to marriage in absence of any ceremonial procedure or law.?

Bhil and Bhilalas are natives to one of most backward tribal groups found in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, as well as in Tripura in North-Eastern India, on border with Bangladesh. In Madhya Pradesh, they are found in Dhar, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani, Khargone.

Incidence of poverty is observed highest among these tribes. This could be because of their primary occupation being farming and being agricultural labourers. It is also observed that there are high occurrences of anaemia, IMR, MMR, Malnutrition, Stunted Growth, Drop outs, illiteracy, etc.

Pati Block of Barwani district has about 84% tribal population majorly comprising of Bhil and Bhilalas. Polygamy is very common amongst this tribe. Though women in this tribe are respected but their role remains to be that of child bearing, taking care of the house and as an agricultural labour to pool in money in the family. They are generally married at a very young age, and they are free to leave their husbands if they wish to do so. Though, this might seem to be a case fit for calling women empowered, it is more of an abuse to them. Since, there are no laws protecting their marriage and they often leave each other leaving their kids behind. A centuries-old custom “Nata Pratha” is still alive in several Indian states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The custom allows men to live with as many women resulting in children being abandoned by their parents.

Nata Pratha is practiced by the Bhil tribe which is one of the largest tribes in South Asia. In this practice, it is observed that woman leaves her husband to live with another man abandoning her children from the previous marriage. The husband remarries and second wife remains indifferent to his children from previous marriage, therefore, neglecting them. In some instances, both man and woman leave each other for marrying someone else, making their children orphan; mostly living with their grandparents. In such cases, we see that these children continue to remain in abject poverty by dropping out from schools, being neglected to foster care and nutrition requirement, hence never breaking this vicious circle of poverty. These instances often have physical as well as psychological impact on them. Not only their health is neglected, but also they become indifferent to the whole concept of family and care provided by their parents.

Through this study, I wish to establish a relationship between this custom and its procedure in present day diffusion of polygamy amongst the Bhil tribe with lower rates of literacy, cases of malnutrition and dropouts observed in the tribe in Pati Block.?

Dimensions of the Study covered:

• Health & Education of children: Understanding ways in which this practice is impacting the child development in its early childhood, middle childhood and adulthood.
• Marriage as a custom: Understanding the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Special Marriage Act, 1954, Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, Importance of promoting monogamy in law, secondary case study analysis, pre-conditions for marriage, protection by law, etc.
• Socio-cultural and welfare: There are customs which are now practiced blindly and have disrupted the lives of the innocents who are the victims of such rituals. Through this, few cases where the lives of women have been impacted because of being abandoned by their partners were studied.
• Socio-economic: The economic security of a woman chiefly depends upon her spouse. The law protects the rights of wife in a marriage and in its absence the woman is exposed to many hardships which results in drudgery. This is another dimension which was studied here.

Rationale of the Study

Certain practices subsisted during the ancient times for reasons attributing to security of one another, for instance, Sati Pratha (the Indian custom of a wife immolating herself either on the funeral pyre of her dead husband or in some other fashion soon after his death. Although never widely practiced, Sati was the ideal of womanly devotion held by certain Brahman and royal castes) existed because in those times women were dependent on their husbands for financial and social security and after the death of their partner they were exposed to many social ills, as a result of which they were excluded from the society. At the beginning, the idea was to let the widow decide her fate, which changed however, due to strong roots of patriarchy in our society, to be a mandatory and forfeiting custom.

With the passage of time this process had to be ceased; since, no matter how it was supposedly addressing the premonition of harassment the widow would have suffered, it was incongruent to free will and other fundamental rights by ending a person’s life, whether forcefully or by individual’s will, was abhorred by individuals who could understand the tyranny of this custom being inhuman and insensitive towards the women in society.

The customs and cultures need amendment as the society evolves. Though, abstaining anyone from practicing their culture is not an easy task, but taking steps towards making the community realize the implications of their practice isn’t a daunting task.

Nata Pratha encourages polygamy amongst the tribe. There is no law to support their marriages and they are free to react to their physical needs. For them, essence of marriage lies in carnal relationship between husband and wife, which often degrades the status of woman in the family as she is objectified as somebody to please and act on whims of her husband to be looked upon as a domestic help and someone to bear children. Husband is free to leave his wife for another woman since there is no social pressure, or any law forbidding polygamy.

Hence, the wife is also free to leave her husband for another man if her husband cannot keep her happy. This lowers the impact a family has in bringing up their children and these children on growing up believes it to be natural to leave a wife or husband.

Tribe in Bhil community might call it “step towards ending male dominance”, truth is this has an impact on their overall life. For the very reason someone is free to enter into a polygamy doesn’t imply they should be still practicing something that is dishonoring their relationship and responsibilities that they should be sharing as man and woman in a family.

The implications of the absence of law protecting the vulnerable are many. One of the interviewee also shared how the responsibility of the child fell upon her while her husband left her for another woman. In such cases, the mother of the child cannot claim alimony or support from her ex-husband or their family. Such practices have maligned the concept of a family which has resulted in the negligence of the betterment of their child. The children in these blocks are the sufferers of drudgery and find it impossible to escape the vicious circle of poverty.

This study was in the tribal block(s) of the district Barwani in Madhya Pradesh. The block where the cases of Nata Pratha are predominant is Pati Block, which is one of the ten most backward blocks in India. It has a population of 1.62 lakh and literacy rate of 29%. It has a tribal population of about 82-84% (census India). The tribe in Pati block majorly comprises of Bhil, Bhilala and Barela. This study was conducted with an intention to give solutions that will help in the development of those children who are suffering due to the persisting Polygamy amongst the tribe and ensuring ways to encourage men and women to understand their responsibilities towards one another and their children in a marriage.

One possible solution, considering the vulnerability of the tribal groups and their traditions, is in the encouragement of more institutions which can take care of the children abandoned by their parents. These institutions can be established at the places not far from these blocks, where the children can be offered help at an early stage in their life so that they may choose to live better, and have an option to escape the drudgery brought on to them.