ABSTRACT
In Hindu India, polygamy is legally, morally and religiously prohibited. There are nonetheless small pockets of polyandrous people in the Himalayas; Hindus who based on centuries-old tradition continue to practise polygamy despite it being prohibited by the Hindu Code Bill. In India, polyandry was generally practised in the interior of states where the peoples’ relative isolation was maintained until the first decades of British colonial rule. These regions are now being integrated into modern India by the opening of roads and railways as well as access to education and modern communications. Various developmental programmes are also altering the socio-economic foundations of polyandry, a process occurring in all regions of India where polyandry is practised. Since independence, India has also been swept by various social reforms, and there have been many proposals on how to change what most Indians see as the backward and un-Hindu polyandrous customs to bring them up to what is presumed to be modern and Hindu level.
