Women and Law in India

Description

THREE ESSENTIAL WORKS ON GENDER EQUALITY AND LAW, ONE GREAT OMNIBUS
How have Indian laws evolved with regard to women’s rights? What curbs the reach of the progressive laws introduced in India? These three texts highlight the fact that legislations in the past more than fifty years have not brought about gender equality in its real sense.
Law and Gender Inequality maps the issue of gender and law reforms upon a canvas of history and politics, and explores strategies that could safeguard women’s rights within the bounds of India’s complex social and political landscape.
Enslaved Daughters reveals the inner working of India’s legal system during the colonial period and studies the conflicting and overlapping ideologies underpinning it.
Hindu Women and Marriage Law studies the development and changes in Hindu marriage laws over the last century.

About the Editors

Flavia Agnes is a women’s rights lawyer.
Sudhir Chandra is an independent historian.
Monmayee Basu teaches in the Department of History, University of Delhi.

Reviews

Law and Gender Inequality
‘Flavia Agnes’ work … interweaves numerous perspectives into a meaningful whole … crisp and racy … analysis backed by facts and cases … a valuable contribution.’ —Economic and Political Weekly
‘Agnes provides facts to dispel long-standing myths … [She] presents a cogent argument that is engaging, accessible, and a solid read.’ —Book Review
Enslaved Daughters
‘It goes to the credit of Sudhir Chandra that he has not just gifted us an extremely riveting and compelling monograph, but that he has made clear his “feminist” biases. For once, the discourse and interlocutor can be easily demarcated. And this requires some skill and sensitivity.’ —Seminar
‘On glance at social attitudes and we could still be in Rukmabai’s time. Sudhir Chandra has written a well-researched, wonderfully detailed, empathetic book on the trials and tribulations of Rukhmabai.’ —India Today
Hindu Women and Marriage Law
‘Monmayee Basu has written a book on a subject to which we must return again and again … interesting and varied package of insights that hang together in a readable way.’ —Indian Review of Books

Table of contents

Introduction by Flavia Agnes

LAW AND GENDER INEQUALITY
The Politics of Women’s Rights in India

Abbreviations
Table of Cases

1. Introduction—A Need for Rescrutiny
Part One: PRE-COLONIAL LEGAL STRUCTURES
2. Plurality of Hindu Law and Women’s Rights Under It
3. Evolution of Islamic Law and Women’s Spaces within It
4. Colonial Rule and Subversion of Rights
5. Politicization of Women’s Rights

Part Two: POST-INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENTS

6. Hindu Law Reforms—Stilted Efforts at Gender Justice
7. Erosion of Secular Principles
8. Communal Undertones Within Recent Judicial Decisions

Part Three: DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PERSONAL LAWS OF NON-MUSLIM MINORITIES

9. Legal Significance of the Parsi Community
10. Political Reformulation of Christian Personal Law

Part Four: CURRENT DEBATES

11. Model Drafts and Legal Doctrines
12. Strategies of Reform
13. Conclusion

Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Bibliography
Tables
Index


ENSLAVED DAUGHTERS
Colonialism, Law and Women’s Rights

Prologue

1. Rukhmabai and Her Case
2. A Disputed Charter
3. The Law on Trial
4. A Challenge to Civilized Society
5. The Brutal Embrace: Let it Stand

Epilogue
Appendices—A to E
Index


HINDU WOMEN AND MARRIAGE LAW
From Sacrament to Contract

Preface

1. Condition of Hindu Women during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
2. The Changing Concept of Hindu Marriage
3. The Age of Marriage
4. Shackles for the Widow
5. Dowry
6. Severing the Sacred Tie
7. The Right to Property
Epilogue
Glossary
Appendices
Bibliography
Index