Dowry & Inheritance

Dowry & Inheritance

Product ID: 15551

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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