Divorce is unknown to the customary Hindu law, because marriage is an indissoluble union between the husband and the wife.  Incompatibility of temper, adultery, fornication, cruelty and incurable diseases are not grounds that call for divorce.The conception of a tribal marriage being that of a contract, divorce is but its logical corollary. Persons who enter into a contract have the legal right to get rid of the bond which they created for themselves.  Divorce and marriage of widows are, therefore, freely practiced by the aboriginal people.  If the husband and wife do not get on quite well, they separate.  No ceremony is required for affecting a divorce, except a formal intimation. 

The Khond women had till the recent past the right to quit their husbands at pleasure as many as eight or ten times.  The Santhals effected divorce in the presence of the assembled villagers, the husband tearing three Sal leaves in token of separation and upsetting a brass put full of water. The Lepchas got their decree of divorce from the Lama who united the pair.Writing of three customs of divorce among the people of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, O’Malley makes the following observations: “Divorce is allowed for adultery, or misconduct and sometimes also for barrenness and incurable diseases; it is generally symbolised by breaking the iron bangle which is the insignia of a married woman or by tearing some leaves into pieces’. Among some castes, the consent of the Panchayats are necessary before a divorce can be affected. And among the Gonds of Sambalpur, the consent of the Sethia or headman used to be necessary before a divorced woman was remarried.  Fees had to be paid to him for his consent, and he was practically the owner of the women, selling them to their suitors and pocketing the proceeds. It is rarely that a woman has the right to divorce her husband, but this previlege is enjoyed by the newar women in Nepal. According to Colonial Kirkpatrick, a century ago, Newar women were at liberty to divorce one man after another on the slightest pretext; and they still leave their husband and marry again if their marriage proves uncongenial. 

They only intimation necessary before then woman leaves the house is that she should place two betel nuts in her bed. She is then free to choose another husband. At the same time, provided that she only cohabits with a man of her own or of a higher caste, she can, whenever she pleases, return to the house of her first husband and resume change of his family.  This practice of divorcing husbands is said to be falling into bad repute among the Newars of Darjeeling.  This has been so because the Newar girls are married, when children, to a bed fruit, which is thrown into a sacred river after the ceremony.

Divorce among the matriarchal population of India is more easily achieved. The speed with which a divorce is obtained among the Khasis may be gauged from the fact that a man who did not look more than 35 or 40 years of age confessed to a missionary that he had married 37 times. The ceremony of divorce is achieved by simply tearing a pan leave. The Nair ladies used to discard a number of suitors at their pleasure.Among the koravas of South India, a woman who marries seven men successively, one after the other, either after the death of her husband or after divorce, is considered a respectable lady and is called padda Boyisani, says Mr. Paupa Rao Naidu. She takes the lead in marriages and other religious ceremonies.