Author: Srimati Basu
Publisher: Kali/Women Unlimited
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 318
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8188965227
Description
Perhaps nothing in modern India epitomizes the gulf between the ideal and the real than the practice of dowry. Stridhan or dakshina were gifts traditionally given at the time of marriage; gifts to ensure the well-being of the bride in her new home. In actual practice, however, dowry has caused brides to be tortured and killed.
The essays in this book examine the sociological, legal, cultural and economic implications of dowry. The connection between dowry or bridewealth norms and the status of women, inheritance and its impact on women’s empowerment are discussed from the multiple perspectives adopted by different feminist scholars. Feminist interventions have dealt with slippery definitions, concepts in legal formulations and theoretical questions regarding the volition and agency of women in a patriarchal structure.
The essays examine the activist position vis-à-vis dowry and inheritance: should dowry be boycotted in toto, or only its excesses? Is dowry a form of inheritance? Legal intervention is often seen as the most concrete means to address issues of equity, but the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1984 leaves room for manoeuvre: dowry as a condition of marriage is punishable, but voluntary gifts are excluded from the ambit of the law. More recently, legislative intervention has sought to grant equal inheritance rights to women. Will these developments make for greater gender equity?
Contents
SERIES NOTE
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Politics of Giving: Dowry and Inheritance as Feminist Issues
SRIMATI BASU
DOWRY AND BRIDEPRICE
Some Reflections on Dowry
M N SRINIVAS
Dowry in North India: Its Consequences for Women
URSULA SHARMA
Girasia Brideprice and the Politics of Marriage Payments
MAYA UNNITHAN-KUMAR
Economics of Brideprice and Dowry
INDIRA RAJARAMAN
Sociology of Brideprice and Dowry
SHALINI RANDERIA & LEELA VISARIA
Legal Reform in Dowry Laws
D N SANDANSHIV & JOLLY MATHEW
INHERITANCE AND WOMEN’S MARGINALITY
A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia
BINA AGARWAL
Bringing Land Rights Centre-Stage
INDU AGNIHOTRI
Gender and Land Rights: A Response
BINA AGARWAL
Widows and Property Rights: A Study of Two Villages in Bihar
SEEMA MISRA & ENAKSHI GANGULY THUKRAL
Haklenewali: Indian Women’s Negotiations of Discourses of Inheritance
SRIMATI BASU
Conjugality, Law and State: Inheritance Rights as Pivot of Control in Northern India
PREM CHOWDHRY
Women, Land and Law: Dispute Resolutions at the Village Level
JAYOTI GUPTA
Progressive Land Legislations and Subordination of Women?
K SARADAMONI
Ants in the Pants
MARY ROY
DOWRY-RELATED VIOLENCE AND ITS PREVENTION
The Tangled Tale of Twisting a Safety Net into a Noose
VEENA TALWAR OLDENBURG
The Political Economy of Dowry
RANJANA SHEEL
Beginning with Our Own Lives: A Call for dowry Boycott
MADHU KISHWAR & FIVE OTHERS
Rethinking Dowry Boycott
MADHU KISHWAR
Reaffirming the Anti-Dowry Struggle
RAJNI PALRIWALA
On Kidneys and Dowry
C S LAKSHMI
Dowry and Inheritance Rights
MADHU KISHWAR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTRIBUTORS