She Comes to Take Her Rights
Indian Women, Property, and Propriety
Published on 25. February 1999
Book
Hardback
305 pages
978-0-7914-4095-7 (ISBN)
Description
Examines the contemporary workings of property law in India through the lives and thoughts of middle-class and poor women.
Using the contemporary workings of property law in India through the lives and thoughts of middle-class and poor women, this is a study of the ways in which cultural practices, and particularly notions of gender ideology, guide the workings of law. It urges a close reading of decisions by women that appear to be contrary to material interests and that reinforce patriarchal ideologies.
Hailed as a radical moment for gender equality, the Hindu Succession Act was passed in India in 1956 theoretically giving Hindu women the right to equal inheritance of their parents' self-acquired property. However, in the years since the act's existence, its provisions have scarcely been utilized. Using interview data drawn from middle-class and poor neighborhoods in Delhi, this book explores the complexity of women's decisions with regard to family property in this context. The book shows that it is not passivity, ignorance of the law, naivete about wealth, or unthinking adherence to gender prescriptions that guides women's decisions, but rather an intricate negotiation of kinship and an optimization of socioeconomic and emotional needs. An examination of recent legal cases also reveals that the formal legal realm can be hospitable to women's rights-based claims, but judgments are still coded in terms of customary provisions despite legal criteria to the contrary.
Using the contemporary workings of property law in India through the lives and thoughts of middle-class and poor women, this is a study of the ways in which cultural practices, and particularly notions of gender ideology, guide the workings of law. It urges a close reading of decisions by women that appear to be contrary to material interests and that reinforce patriarchal ideologies.
Hailed as a radical moment for gender equality, the Hindu Succession Act was passed in India in 1956 theoretically giving Hindu women the right to equal inheritance of their parents' self-acquired property. However, in the years since the act's existence, its provisions have scarcely been utilized. Using interview data drawn from middle-class and poor neighborhoods in Delhi, this book explores the complexity of women's decisions with regard to family property in this context. The book shows that it is not passivity, ignorance of the law, naivete about wealth, or unthinking adherence to gender prescriptions that guides women's decisions, but rather an intricate negotiation of kinship and an optimization of socioeconomic and emotional needs. An examination of recent legal cases also reveals that the formal legal realm can be hospitable to women's rights-based claims, but judgments are still coded in terms of customary provisions despite legal criteria to the contrary.
Reviews / Votes
"Basu's research offers a persuasive argument that it is not passivity or ignorance that restricts women's enjoyment of property ownership, but a conscious negotiation of familial relationships and bonds to build social capital and ensure immediate and long-term emotional and material security." - Feminist Collections"Our view of India is filled with images of downtrodden women in various guises: women burned to death over dowry, women immolated on their husbands' funeral pyres, women committing female infanticide, women who are poor, illiterate, exploited. In Western discourse about India, Indian women are constructed as helpless victims and in the process Indian society and culture is constituted as less than modern. We need to understand the lives of Indian women because the repetition of the atrocity stories tell us very little about what is happening, why it is happening, and what is changing or likely to change. Basu's decision to focus on women and property and ask the 'why' question makes this a very important book." - Geraldine Forbes, State University of New York, Oswego
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-4095-7 (9780791440957)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Srimati Basu is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Depauw University.
Content
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
1 Women, Law, and Property in India
Women and Property
The Power of Law on Women and in the "New" Nations
Nominating Agents, Marking Resistance
Camouflaging the Self: Methodological Choices and Other Fieldwork Angst
The Three Delhi Neighborhoods
Looking Ahead
2 Women and Property Inheritance:
Scant and Slippery Footholds
Property Values
The Significance of Class and Residence
Women As Property Owners
Property Distribution and Marital Status
Relative Wealth
Non-Hindu Women and Property
Blocking Women's Inheritance
"Hishabey to Ami Pai" ("Well, I Get It According to the Calculations"): Shipra's Family Property
Conclusion: Stable Systems of Disentitlement
3 Gifts for Alliance: Marriage and the Flow of Goods
Setting Up Matches: Gifts for "Alliances" Only
Wedding Ceremonies: The Framework for Gifts
"Jo dena hota hai" ("What Has to Be Given"): The Nature and Parity of Wedding Gifts
"Ladkiwale ko to dena hi parta hai" ("The Woman's Side Does Have to Give Things, of Course"): Issues of Dowry and Demand
Paying for Weddings
Protima's Life: The Instability of Marriage
Conclusion: Marriage and the Transfer of Wealth
4 "Wo Ayee Hak Lene" ("There She Comes, to Take Her Rights"): The Dreadful Specter of the Property-Owning Woman
Multilayered Attitudes toward Natal Property and Women's Property
Equal Love: Conceptions of Equitable Distribution
"Naihar Tut Hi Jaye" ("The Natal Home Is Broken for Me"): Fears of Natal Abandonment
Property over Time: Dowry and Long-Term Help in Relation to Property
Surrogate Sons: Brotherless Women Inherit Property
Property as Payoff: Eldercare and Other Family Responsibilities
Medha's Case: Complex Negotiations
Conclusion: Multiple Positions, Optimal Compromises
5 Knowing Themselves:
Women's Attitudes toward Wealth and Well-Being
Reconceptualizing Stridhan (Women's Wealth)
Crucial Problems, Imagined Solutions
The Shadow of the Legal Realm
Conclusion: The Limits of Critical Analysis
6 Protecting Property:
Gendered Identity in the Indian Higher Courts
Mise-en-scene: The Legislative Construction of Women's Property Rights
Patterns of Authority
Different Spaces for Daughters, Sons, and Wives
Defining Religion, Faith, and Custom
Conclusion: "Spoilt Darlings" and "Patient Packhorses"?
7 Conclusion: Property and Propriety
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
1 Women, Law, and Property in India
Women and Property
The Power of Law on Women and in the "New" Nations
Nominating Agents, Marking Resistance
Camouflaging the Self: Methodological Choices and Other Fieldwork Angst
The Three Delhi Neighborhoods
Looking Ahead
2 Women and Property Inheritance:
Scant and Slippery Footholds
Property Values
The Significance of Class and Residence
Women As Property Owners
Property Distribution and Marital Status
Relative Wealth
Non-Hindu Women and Property
Blocking Women's Inheritance
"Hishabey to Ami Pai" ("Well, I Get It According to the Calculations"): Shipra's Family Property
Conclusion: Stable Systems of Disentitlement
3 Gifts for Alliance: Marriage and the Flow of Goods
Setting Up Matches: Gifts for "Alliances" Only
Wedding Ceremonies: The Framework for Gifts
"Jo dena hota hai" ("What Has to Be Given"): The Nature and Parity of Wedding Gifts
"Ladkiwale ko to dena hi parta hai" ("The Woman's Side Does Have to Give Things, of Course"): Issues of Dowry and Demand
Paying for Weddings
Protima's Life: The Instability of Marriage
Conclusion: Marriage and the Transfer of Wealth
4 "Wo Ayee Hak Lene" ("There She Comes, to Take Her Rights"): The Dreadful Specter of the Property-Owning Woman
Multilayered Attitudes toward Natal Property and Women's Property
Equal Love: Conceptions of Equitable Distribution
"Naihar Tut Hi Jaye" ("The Natal Home Is Broken for Me"): Fears of Natal Abandonment
Property over Time: Dowry and Long-Term Help in Relation to Property
Surrogate Sons: Brotherless Women Inherit Property
Property as Payoff: Eldercare and Other Family Responsibilities
Medha's Case: Complex Negotiations
Conclusion: Multiple Positions, Optimal Compromises
5 Knowing Themselves:
Women's Attitudes toward Wealth and Well-Being
Reconceptualizing Stridhan (Women's Wealth)
Crucial Problems, Imagined Solutions
The Shadow of the Legal Realm
Conclusion: The Limits of Critical Analysis
6 Protecting Property:
Gendered Identity in the Indian Higher Courts
Mise-en-scene: The Legislative Construction of Women's Property Rights
Patterns of Authority
Different Spaces for Daughters, Sons, and Wives
Defining Religion, Faith, and Custom
Conclusion: "Spoilt Darlings" and "Patient Packhorses"?
7 Conclusion: Property and Propriety
Appendix A
Appendix B
Notes
Bibliography
Index