Davis Panadan CMI

Paper: Women Leadership in the Dispute Resolution Mechanism among Indian Garo and Khasi Tribes

Abstract

The paper deals with the dispute resolution mechanisms and administration of justice among Garos and Khasis in India. According to 2011 Census, Schedule Tribe constitutes 8.2% of the total population. The dispute settlement mechanisms and administration of justice among twenty tribes in India was analysed with the focus of women leadership in dispute resolution mechanisms. Among these twenty tribes, women are actively involved in the administration of justice in Garos and Khasis tribes, were the matrilineal system is followed. It has been observed that the dispute settlement mechanisms and administration of justice among Garos and Khasis is more democratic and with due process than all other tribes studied, because they have a unique system in the investigation procedure.

In fact majority of the tribal people have never seen the doors of courts, as they preferred settlement within the community which leads to the peaceful life in the society. Many of them consider it as a shame to enter the courts to get justice. In the tribal culture, there is no other plan than the adherence to non-violence in thought, word and deed, and no other goal than to reach justice and welfare. Because good ends can never grow out of bad means, the opponent is not forced to expose him or herself to loss. There is ideally no threat, coercion or punishment. Instead, the idea is to undergo 'self-suffering' in the belief that the opponent can be converted to seeing the truth by touching his or her conscience, or that a clearer vision of truth may grow out of the dialectical process for both parties. This ultimately leads to just and compassionate community among tribal people. In many areas traditional administrative institutions have considerable affinity with the modern administrative institutions of the country. These traditional institutions and customary laws received recognition in the modem political system of the country through the Indian constitution. Several cases remain unattended, unreported, unsettled while others are settled through the dispute resolution mechanisms among the tribes in India.

Davis Panadan CMI holds LL.M and PhD in law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and a Licentiate in Oriental Canon Law from Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (DVK), Bangalore and Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. With a specialisation in “Dispute Resolution Mechanism in India: Problems, Challenges and Solutions”, he published articles in research journals and teaches courses in civil and canon laws at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram. He was actively involved in Human Rights, Environmental protection and Social action programmes of Jananeethi, a NGO based at Thrissur, Kerala.