"Meghalaya, India: Where women rule, and men are suffragettes."

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Nestled in the hills of India the state of Meghalaya is famous for its overwhelming amount of rain produced per year, however, now as the state’s men’s movement grows Meghalaya is devolving a new claim to fame.

It is not uncommon for women’s right’s movements to frequently appear in the media, however, issues raised addressing men’s right’s tend to be much more rare. Unlike many other places in the world Meghalaya, India is a matriarchy state that offers very little rights to the men. The small rainy state challenges the “typical” age-old traditions that other areas of the world abide by. In Meghalaya men adopt the surname of their spouse, live with their spouse’s family, and have no say when it comes to managing the family money. In their society when an object becomes useful it transitions from male to female, for example, wood is feminine but it’s origin, the tree, is masculine. Men who are fed up with the dominating women have joined forces and started a men’s movement. Through the movement they do not want to revoke the women’s rights but rather increase the rights that the men are entitled to. The main objective of the men’s movement is to make the state of Meghalaya a safe sanctuary for the males as well as the females.

Despite the best efforts of the men many of the women say that they do not think that the traditions will change. My question to the class is should the traditions change? Should men receive the same rights that the women do, and if yes, is there a fear that as the men grow more powerful they will slip into “traditional” norms and dominate the women?

Also, on a more general scale I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on how the rest of the world should view the Meghalaya society? Do you think it encourages society to increase women’s rights? Or, does it make some fearful that if women’s right’s movements continue to grow then the women will become too powerful and men will lose their “control”?