📰 What is the story?
In July 2025, a wedding photo from Himachal Pradesh’s Shillai village went viral. Sunita Chauhan, dressed as a bride, was seen sitting between two grooms—brothers Pradeep and Kapil Negi. Their marriage wasn’t a gimmick or media stunt—it was a revival of an old tribal custom known as Jodidaran, practiced by the Hatti tribe.
This was not an isolated case. The Hatti community has witnessed five such polyandrous marriages in just six years, showing that the tradition, though fading, still finds support in some parts of the region.
🕊️ What is the custom?
Jodidaran, also known as ‘Ujla Paksh’ or ‘Draupadi Pratha’, is a form of fraternal polyandry, where one woman marries multiple brothers. Practiced by the Hatti tribe (now officially recognized as a Scheduled Tribe), this tradition has deep cultural and economic roots:
- Land Protection: Scarce farmland in the hilly region is kept undivided when brothers share a wife. This helps families avoid splitting property into unviable portions.
- Family Unity & Cooperation: A shared wife ensures that the family remains intact, resources are pooled, and brothers remain close-knit.
- Economic & Physical Security: In remote areas with difficult terrain, a larger family unit offers better protection and labor support.
Weddings are celebrated with traditional three-day rituals called ‘Jajda’, with spiritual offerings like ‘Seenj’ (holy water and jaggery), reflecting the tribe’s sacred beliefs.
⚖️ What does the law of the land say?
Legally, polyandry is not recognized under Indian marriage laws:
- The Hindu Marriage Act (1955) and the Special Marriage Act do not permit polyandrous unions.
- Under the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, such arrangements may even attract criminal liability.
However, there’s a constitutional exception:
- Article 342 allows Scheduled Tribes to follow their customary laws, unless explicitly overridden by the state.
- The Himachal Pradesh High Court has in the past recognized such unions based on village records (Wajib-ul-Arz) for purposes like inheritance.
- Even the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code (2025) excludes Scheduled Tribes from its purview, protecting traditions like this in regions such as Kinnaur and Jaunsar-Bawar.
So, while Jodidaran isn’t legally a “marriage”, in tribal areas it’s treated with cultural legitimacy, especially in revenue and inheritance matters.
🔍 Sociologists on Polyandry in India
Sociologists have long studied polyandry in the Himalayan belt—including regions like Kinnaur, Jaunsar, and Trans-Giri—where the practice was shaped by environmental, social, and economic conditions.
Key insights from experts include:
- Resource Management: Sharing one wife was a practical solution in places with scarce land and tough terrain, allowing families to remain united and financially stable.
- Demographic Reality: Skewed sex ratios and harsh living conditions historically made polyandry more viable.
- Cultural Identity: For communities like the Hattis, polyandry isn’t just a practice—it’s a symbol of tribal distinctiveness.
Renowned sociologist Dr. Y.S. Parmar, who later became Himachal’s first Chief Minister, studied Himalayan polyandry extensively. He warned that while the system may serve practical needs, it can also reinforce patriarchal norms and suppress women’s autonomy.
Others, like Dr. O.P. Sharma, advocate for a more empathetic view:
“If live-in relationships are socially accepted, why condemn customs rooted in survival and tradition?”
💭 A Tradition at a Crossroads
The wedding of Sunita Chauhan and the Negi brothers brings an ancient tradition into sharp focus. While some hail it as a proud assertion of tribal identity, others raise valid concerns about its legal status and gender dynamics.
With increasing migration, education, and awareness, Jodidaran may slowly fade, but it continues to pose essential questions:
- Can India’s diverse legal and cultural landscape make space for such age-old traditions?
- Where do we draw the line between cultural autonomy and individual rights?
As the Supreme Court noted recently:
“Customs cannot remain stuck in time… but others cannot hide behind them to deprive rights.”
For now, in the misty mountains of Himachal, the bond of land, love, and legacy continues—between two brothers and one bride.
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In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)