Fight for Land against Patriarchy

My brothers took the decision, after my father’s death, to divide the family land between themselves and leave me out. So I wrote a letter to my brothers saying that I wanted to take an equal share of the land. But they didn’t reply. After some time I gave them a legal notice and then filed a case in court under the provisions of the inheritance law. This case was filed in 1994 and it took around 5 years for the court to decide in my favour and send a notice to the village council. My brothers defied the court’s decision with the connivance of the patriarchal village council. I then phoned the secretary to the Chief Minister in Bhopal giving details of my land case and he ordered the magistrate who had decided the case to see that the land was given to me. In this process I was alone and it was a difficult time as I could not share my problems with any body because every one was opposing me. After one week the magistrate and the village council members gathered in the village and called my brothers and told them that if they obstructed the division of land then the police would take them into custody. We went to our land and I got my share in the presence of the officials and police. This was the first time that a woman in my community had fought and got a share of the ancestral land.