Article
Cultural Freedom and Legal Exclusion: Gendered Property Rights under Customary Law in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh
The socioeconomic and legal status of Kinnaura tribal women in the Kinnaur area of Himachal Pradesh is examined in this essay, with a focus on property rights and customary inheritance systems. Due to their active involvement in home economies, gardening, agriculture, and communal decision-making, Kinnauri women are frequently seen as socially powerful; nonetheless, they are still structurally excluded from owning ancestral land. By examining the cohabitation of legal marginalization and cultural acknowledgment within the context of tribal customary law, the study investigates this paradox.
The research uses a qualitative analytical method, drawing on secondary sources such as census data, ethnographic literature, regional socio-economic surveys, legal texts like the Wajib-ul-Urj (1926), and constitutional articles pertaining to tribal governance. It critically investigates how, despite their significant economic contributions, women's access to resources is shaped by patrilineal inheritance patterns. In order to comprehend gendered property relations within Kinnauri society, the research also examines traditional marital customs and arrangements such udanang and bitho-pono. It contends that the preservation of indigenous cultural sovereignty and constitutional commitments to equality must be balanced in the achievement of gender equality in tribal areas. The study comes to the conclusion that community-led approaches to legal transformation, participatory policy discourse, and structural changes in inheritance systems are necessary for the genuine empowerment of tribal women.