In 1896, the government of

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

passed the Malabar Marriage Act in response to the recommendations of the Malabar Marriage Commission of 1891. This allowed members of any caste practising '' marumakkatayam'' ( matriliny) in Malabar to register a ''

sambandham Sambandam was the traditional marriage practiced by Nambudiris, Nairs, Samantha Kshatriya and Ambalavasis among their own communities as well as with each other, in Kerala, India. "Sambandham" was derived from the Sanskrit words "Sama" mea ...

'' as a

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. It was permissive rather than restrictive law: whether or not a relationship was registered was entirely the decision of the people involved in that relationship. Initiated by the work of Sir C. Sankaran Nair, the measure was largely a failure, with Panikkar noting that in the 20 years following introduction of the Act only six such relationships were registered and that all of those involved family members of Nair himself.

Sambandham and marumakkatayam

The ''sambandham system of marriage'' was not recognised by the British colonial government. The civil courts refused jurisdiction, principally because the relationship could so easily be dissolved by either party to it and because there were no rights of property connected to it. ''Marumakkatayam'' was also a source of angst among the colonial administrators. Expressions of dissatisfaction with ''marumakkatayam'' became prominent in newspapers of the 1870s and 1880s, and were also voiced by the colonial administrator William Logan in an official report of that period. Matters came to a head in 1890 when Nair introduced a bill seeking legitimisation of the customs in the Madras Legislative Council, causing the administration to establish the Malabar Marriage Commission in 1891. This was to investigate matrilineal customs and was also charged with recommending whether or not legal measures should be used to effect changes to the traditional practices for marriage, family organisation and inheritance.

References

{{Reflist 1896 in India Kerala state legislation Indian family law Social history of India Marriage law in India