PU study finds polyandry proof in Haryana, Punjab

Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 29

A study by Panjab University has found evidence of polyandry in Haryana and Punjab. The study which culminated in a book, ‘Gender Culture and Honour’, found cases of wife sharing in districts of Yamunanagar in Haryana and Mansa and Fatehgarh Sahib of Punjab. 

Along with polyandry, a number of instances of bride purchase were also found in both the states.

“The wife sharing was found primarily among households with small areas of land, scarce resources, which find it difficult to spend money on getting separate brides,” said Prof Rajesh Gill, who carried out the UGC-funded study and authored ‘Gender Culture and Honour’. She added: “It was also observed that due to poverty and lack of property or resources, men remained bachelors till late age, as none was prepared to marry their daughters to them. In order to cope with the situation, one of the brothers would marry and others would share his wife.”

At Daulatpur village in Yamunanagar, Prof Gill’s team found two cases of wife sharing in Gujjar Muslims. In one of the cases, there were four brothers, two of them were married and two unmarried. They had a 15-acre land. “The married brothers formed a group with unmarried ones and thus two brothers were sharing a wife each,” says the book, which was released on October 19.

At Piplian village in Mansa district and Panechan village in Fatehgarh Sahib, the practice was found in Jat Sikh families. In one of the cases in Mansa, there was a family of five brothers but one of them got married and lived separately. Among the rest of the four, who were living together, only one could get married. When contacted, one of the unmarried said their parents didn’t get them married in fear of land getting divided.

In one of the cases in Fatehgarh Sahib, there were three brothers, eldest of them being unmarried and the other two married. During interaction, the unmarried said when you had a wife at home, what’s the need to get married. “His mother too justified, ‘Jats here have small landholdings therefore, all brothers do not marry’,” says the book. 

“Not a single case of domestic violence was found in households with wife sharing. Instead, women in these cases were found to be extremely cheerful, satisfied and happy, unlike their counterparts in other households,” said Prof Gill. A persistent preference for son and resulting female foeticide has led to adverse sex ratio. Prof Gill’s team found 58 of wife purchase with 49 in Haryana alone. 

“There are middlemen who help in this. Drug addicts and alcoholics have bought women as brides and also those with physical disability. In some cases, occupation of men is responsible like truck drivers, who have to stay away from families,” says Prof Gill. Brides are bought from Bihar, Himachal, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Telangana, Manipur and Bangladesh.