Shifting Inheritance Norms in Lakshadweep: A Sociological Study of
Matrilineal Change

Alif Jalil

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i06.019

Title: Shifting Inheritance Norms in Lakshadweep: A Sociological Study of Matrilineal Change
Authors: Alif Jalil
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 6 Publication Date: June 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i06.019
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Alif Jalil Pondicherry University
MLA 8 Jalil, Alif. "Shifting Inheritance Norms in Lakshadweep: A Sociological Study of Matrilineal Change." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 6, June 2026, pp. 2743-2755, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i06.019. Accessed June 2026. APA 6 Jalil, A. (2026, June). Shifting Inheritance Norms in Lakshadweep: A Sociological Study of Matrilineal Change. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(6), 2743-2755. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i06.019 Chicago Jalil, Alif. "Shifting Inheritance Norms in Lakshadweep: A Sociological Study of Matrilineal Change." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 6 (June 2026), 2743-2755. Accessed June, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i06.019.
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ABSTRACT: Lakshadweep, a group of coral islands off the southwestern coast of India, carries within it one of the most distinctive social inheritances of the subcontinent a matrilineal kinship system rooted in the Marumakkathayam tradition, practised by an entirely Muslim population. For generations, property in these islands descended not through sons but through daughters; not from father to child, but through the female bloodline of the tharavad, the matrilineal household. This article examines the processes through which this system of inheritance has been gradually transformed, not through any single dramatic rupture, but through the slow accumulation of pressures from movements, colonial and post-colonial legal transformation, administrative integration into the Indian Union, educational expansion, and the occupational restructuring of island life. Drawing on the foundational ethnographic work of Leela Dube, the comparative kinship scholarship of Kathleen Gough and David Schneider, and the historical and sociological literature on Muslim communities in South India, the article traces the social logic of matrilineal inheritance, the mechanisms of its change, and the consequences, particularly as a geographically isolated community. It argues that what is unfolding in Lakshadweep is not simply a shift in property law, but a transformation of social identity, household authority, and gender relations that deserves sustained sociological attention.

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