Out of the following which custom is practiced in Khasi society?
(A) passing of property from mother to daughter
(B) transfer of control of property from maternal uncle to nephew
(C) making out a will
(D) brother controlling his sister's property
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A), (B) And (D) Only
(A) passing of property from mother to daughter Correct. The Khasi are matrilineal: a woman inherits property from her mother and passes it on to her daughter, and Khasi custom prescribes the devolution of ancestral property in the female line.
(B) transfer of control of property from maternal uncle to nephew Correct. While inheritance runs from mother to daughter, control passes from the (maternal) uncle to the nephew, the sister’s son. This split between inheritance and control is the main contradiction of the Khasi system.
(C) making out a will Incorrect. The practice of making out a will does not exist in Khasi custom. The right to dispose of self-acquired property by will came only with the Meghalaya Succession Act of 1986, a law seen as an attempt at removing the restrictions of the custom, not a part of it.
(D) brother controlling his sister’s property Correct. A man controls his sister’s property and passes on that control to his sister’s son. Women possess only token authority; the men are the de facto power holders.
Note: Box 3.3 on the Khasi matrilineal family, in the chapter ‘Social Institutions: Continuity and Change’, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This box has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter and its section on matriliny and matriarchy are still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “3.3 F amily and K inship … With regard to the rules of inheritance, matrilineal societies pass on property from mother to daughter while patrilineal societies do so from father to son. A patriarchal family structure exists where the men exercise authority and dominance, and matriarchy where the women play a similarly dominant role. However, matriarchy – unlike patriarchy – has been a theoretical rather than an empirical concept. There is no historical or anthropological evidence of matriarchy – i.e., societies where women exercise dominance. However, there do exist matrilineal societies, i.e., societies where women inherit property from their mothers but do not exercise control over it, nor are they the decision makers in public affairs.”
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): Box 3.3 |
