It's called polyandry.
One woman, several
Husbands.
It's an unusual arrangement.
Today, polyandry
only persists in
isolated villages
in the Himalayas.
When it was time
for Sunita Kumari to
wed, her family, like
many in India, made
arrangements.
But they involved more than
a dowry and celebration.
Sunita has not
one husband, not two
husbands, but three,
all brothers.
What must their life be like?
Westerners might
find the practice
Shocking, but for this
community it works
fine.
One reason: sheer practicality.
In the
Himalayas, arable
land is scarce.
Farms
are tiny.
If each generation divided
each family's holdings,
everyone would
starve.
Polyandry preserves the farm and
the family's future.
Unlike most men in
India, husbands
here handle domestic
duties.
They're willing to help with the
cooking and childcare.
In fraternal
polyandry, a family
picks a wife for its
oldest son.
The marriage can also include
his younger brothers.
They don't have to
join in, but most do.
No one takes a
decision regarding
one's own marriage.
Everyone at home sits
down together and
then it is decided
with the consent of
everyone.
Polyandry also functions as a
form of birth control.
No matter how many
husbands she has, a
wife can get pregnant
only so often.
If each man were to wed
separately, the
population here would
explode.
But what about sex,
the forbidden core
of a polyandry taboo?
In truth, it's a matter
of scheduling and
on the wife's part, forbearance.
Tolerance is
very important.
The wife has to
understand everything.
The older brother’s nature.
The
younger brother’s nature.
What about jealousy,
that bane of
even the most mundane marriage?
If the wife
is smart, she will
take turns each night
and sleep with all the brothers.
It's not like the older
brother wants her the
whole time.
Until recently, no
one here much cared
what the outside world thought.
Isolation had
preserved a way of life that had
withered everywhere else.
But a road now
links the region
to distant cities.
And
on roofs once decorated
only with prayer
flags,
satellite dishes sprout.
This village has
entered the modern
world whose images of
romance stand in
sharp contrast to
polyandry.
But polyandry here faces a
bigger threat: education.
As more people
are becoming more
educated we are also
practicing family planning.
If a father
has only one son
there will be no
question about the
land, therefore, common
marriages will come to an end.
In two,
perhaps three
generations, polyandry may
vanish here.
But for now, those who
practice it find
comfort in the familiar.
I, myself, feel that common
marriage is very good.
I feel
like everyone
should live like our
family.
Even if we do not have anything
to eat or drink, we
sit happily, we live
peacefully.
English (auto-generated)