Hinduisation of tribal women for grant of inheritance rights in India: A way forward or a conundrum?

The inheritance right of tribal women in India is uncertain and in conundrum. The customary rights of tribals deny absolute right in property to tribal women and the Hindu laws in India also exempt the application of the enactments to the tribals, but the Supreme Court of India has lately in some cases, started granting benefits of Hindu laws particularly inheritance rights to tribal women among those tribes who have Hinduised i.e., those tribes who have abandoned their customary practices and adopted Hindu customs and traditions. The inconsistent approach of court, that excludes tribal women from getting inheritance right due to acceptance of the exclusion clause under Hindu laws and in other instances grants them rights under Hindu law due to Hinduisation, has caused confusion in the minds of tribal women on their right to inherit. The grant of right to tribal women in name of Hinduisation raises various concerns such as whether by judicial pronouncements rights could be given to tribal women when Scheduled Tribes have expressly been legislatively exempted under various statutes, whether tribal women’s right in property could be protected only by course to Hinduisation, whether rights could be given only on basis of bringing them within the domain of religion at the expense of their cultural distinctiveness, whether giving differential treatment to certain tribe on basis of Hinduisation and separating them from other tribes only on the basis of religion is constitutionally valid etc. The paper explores the conundrum created by contradicting opinions of the court and suggests the ways to create a balance between protecting the unique and distinct customary rights as well as the rights of women among such tribal communities.