Madison Miles World History II Honors April 17, 2014 Traditional Roles of Indian Women (before and

According to Hinduism the female was created by Brahman as part of the duality in creation, to provide company to men and facilitate procreation, progeny and continuation of family linage. The Vedas suggest that a woman’s primary duty is to help her husband in performing obligatory duties and enable him to continue his family tradition. Her primary duty is to give birth to his children and take care of them. Hinduism is a predominantly male dominated religion. Woman play a secondary role. The situation is gradually changing. It is difficult to draw generalizations about the status of present day Hindu women because of society is complex. In general, life in cities is much different from life in the rural areas. Those who live abroad live in different conditions than those who live in the country. Yet, we have ample indications that women are still subject to many restrictions and disabilities in rural area as well as urban areas. The financial independence of woman and the education levels of the family play an important role in this regard. Women in urban areas face numerous challenges in their professions and personal lives. But overall, life is better for them compared to the past. Love marriage outside of the caste or community are scorned and sometimes the couples are killed or excommunicated by the elders in the family or village. Widows can now have a life of their own and even remarry. They draw a lot of sympathy. But

"Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors’ garden.” That quote from a Hindu proverb.is referring to is how in some cultures when a daughter is old enough to be married, she leaves that family and joins her husbands'. So, raising a daughter in those cultures is seen as helping another family. Unlike females when a son is born he will stay and take care of the parents as they age. This son preference can lead to some countries committing gendercide. The act of gendercide is the mass killing of people because of their sex. Gendercide is a horrid trend that is due to the son preferences of many countries. Parents in Countries such as china and India have been killing there daughters. In India 25 percent of girls die before they can reach puberty. Also, 200 million women are missing because of being killed at a young age. There are many cultural causes of gendercide. The first is that boy babies are valued far more then female babies. Male children can carry on the family name, take care the parents when they get old and are less "expensive" to raise. In India there is a dowry system where in order for a woman to be married, the bride’s family must give gifts of money, land, livestock or other expensive items. This can put I strain on poorer families who cannot afford to pay a dowry or richer families who do not want to spend that type of money. So , when they have a girl child they either get an abortion or kill the child to save money. There was a Indian mother that

Under Ottoman rule, women “faced legal and social disadvantages”, common to that of previous times. Certain restrictions often forced seclusion and viewing amongst women of all castes. Evidently, women were subordinated to their fathers and husbands in the household (AP world textbook). Likewise, throughout Mughal rule, the position of women, for the most part, faltered, subjecting them to many disadvantages in each sect of life. This came at the hands of patriarchy, polygamy, the practice of Sati (the burning of a widow on her husband’s grave), child marriages, and purdah (the physical seclusion of women in Muslim societies). (Somali, Religious and Social conditions of Society during Mughal Rule) Although low in status, many women in either society gained importance as the dynasty aged and under the rule of specific leaders. For example, this was evident in Akbar’s rule as he even went as far as to outlaw Sati. These contrasting social structures and gender roles all play into their individual history, as well as world history.

Having an uncertain standing in society, many South Asian widows were left without security after their husbands died. The concept of sati was practiced to show a widow’s self-sacrifice and everlasting devotion to her husband. When the colonial British entered India, there were multiple debates about the official definition of sati and what conditions shaped it. Eventually, this debate transformed into whether the practice of sati should still be followed or abolished altogether.

3. A brief review of the work already done in the field: Writings on Indian society begin with the writings of Raja Rammohan Roy who wrote expansively on the rights of women and the predicament of Indian Peasantry. Opposing Sati Pratha, He fervidly asserted in “Translation of a Conference between an Advocate for, and an Opponent of, the Practice of Burning Widows Alive from the original Bungla” that “Those who have no reliance on the Shastru [Hindu sacred scripture], and those who take delight in the self-destruction of women, may well wonder that we should oppose that suicide which is forbidden by all the Shastrus, and by every race of men.” Raja Rammohan Roy minutely observed Indian society and emerged as its foremost exponent. Though Raja Rammohan Roy wasn’t a litterateur in a purist sense and surprisingly Gurudev (Rabindranath) chooses to dwell more on psychology of individual or family dynamics and it was natural for Sri Aurbindo to dwell on spirituality, it was Mulk Raj Anand who with his novels like Untouchable, Coolie, Two Leaves and a Bud, the Village

In Mary Ho Tippeconnic Fox’s, article American Indian Female Leadership she starts talking about the impact that boarding schools and colonization had on Native American female leadership. She goes on to state the three questions that her and other authors used to conduct a study. The three question were Does ethnicity affect the way American Indian women lead?, Does culture affect American Indian female leadership?, Does culture encourage or discourage female leadership? After getting the results from the 17 women who finished the study, she goes into detail about what their answer means. In addition, about what the women thought were the most important when it comes to leadership them based on their experiences. Fox and the other authors tried to get Native women from all different types of leadership positions giving the study

Mohandas K. Gandhi once proclaimed, “There is no occasion for women to consider themselves subordinate or inferior to men” (Gandhi n.p.). Women all throughout the world have been forced to endure innumerable hardships and struggles. Merely accepting women as a rightful component of society and a necessary aspect of culture has taken countless numbers of years. And to this day, unfortunately, gender equality has yet to become a reality for many. Certain judgments and stereotypes have been placed onto women from the very beginning of time. The belief that the female gender should only be seen in society as homemakers is something that is widely accepted by people in a multitude of countries and places. Despite the setbacks, various

The ritual of Sati is a commitment that a wife will make to her husband and religion. It would be difficult to jump into a fire to burn with a husband. I believe that a person’s upbringing is how they will look at this sacrifice. One person may not agree with the next person’s choice of religion or the rituals that are involved, but, should be respectful of their choice. The thought that came to mind while reading about this sacrifice is that while it is a ritual to burn with your husband, this is also committing suicide, and this would mean eternal punishment in some religion. I would love to understand the beliefs of this topic in Hinduism. I do not believe this ritual is meant to control a woman. This is the way a person is raised or

Hinduism is considered an institutionalized religion, yet it “is not a ‘single’ unified tradition,” but rather a diverse group of beliefs that have primarily evolved from the Vedas (M.P. Fisher 64). While it appears that women were respected in ancient India, this respect has been slowly eroded (M.P. Fisher 67). As Hinduism evolved, male babies were increasingly favored due to the overwhelming burden of the dowry system. Around 400 BCE to 100BCE it is believed that Brahman men’s influence was threatened and previously independently worshipped goddesses were transformed into the wives of gods (M.P. Fisher 68). Further evidence of the erosion of women’s roles is found in the Upanishads, the latest of the Vedic writings, which advises “that if a wife refuses her husband’s sexual advances, he should try to persuade her by coaxing, then by gifts, and finally by beating her with his fists or with rods” (M.P. Fisher 67). However, there are contradictory views in the Laws of Manu that assert that “where women are honored, there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honored no sacred rite yields rewards” (M.P. Fisher 67). Therefore, since the Vedas are comprised of a

Women in India could not own property at all until 1937. Even then, women were only granted that right through family inheritance or their marital status. It is still rare for women to be in possession of land despite the number of acts that have passed over the century. From British colonial rule through postcolonial times and even now, women are still having to express their desire for rights that men have like inheritance and ownership. During colonial times, progress was made by simply the idea of women having rights being expressed. It was seen to conflict with the Hindu beliefs and practices, so most of the time rights for women were only written, not actually implemented. Furthermore, the debates were ongoing and over the years as people persisted, bills like the Age of Consent Act of 1891 and the Hindu Succession Bill of 1956 were passed. The reason for all the opposition of reforming Hindu laws was usually due to how much it interfered with Hindu practices and traditional family values. The more rights women received, the less authenticity was left in the Hindu culture therefore being seen as destructive to the Indian, patriarchal society despite the progress made for women (Williams, 2013). This shows that Hindu itself hinders progress from being made for all people and benefits men more than it does women. Simply put, the

This quote, recorded by Richard Hartley Kennedy, a 19th century British surgeon living in British India exemplifies the almost macabre fascination with the Hindu rite of widow burning known as Sati that the Western World has developed over the course of the last several hundred years. Perhaps, this morbid obsession originated with the Western World seeing in Sati a Romeo and Juliette like expression of true love. Subsequently, the West’s fascination can perhaps be credited to the ensuing human rights controversy that this rite has generated over the course of the past two-hundred years. Regardless as to the reason of why the West has taken an interest in this rite, I will attempt in this paper to decipher and interpret this ritual mostly through the lens of a Western philosopher of religion, Mircea Eliade.

The present paper aims to probe into the patriarchal attitude of the society in which it fixes certain taboo or derogatory identity to women. Manju Kapur shone into fame, receiving the Commonwealth prize with her debut novel, ‘Difficult Daughters’. The title of the novel attracted the attention of many research scholars. Why did Manju Kapur give the title ‘Difficult Daughters’ to her first novel? and why not ‘Audacious Daughters’? Daughters who are not submissive to the patriarchal norms are termed as ‘difficult’ daughters by the society. This attitude of patriarchal society is giving vent to social evils such as female foeticide and gender discrimination. A deep dive into the textual ocean of ‘Difficult Daughters’ makes the fact clear that the protagonist, Virmati is not a simple girl, putting age-old ideals into practice, rather she is ‘difficult’ because she is treading an age- old ideality of male dominated society. Instead of accepting and respecting a women’s self expression,

Indian women are conditioned to a blind dependence on men and in a sense the whole purpose of a woman’s life is to live for him and not following her own ambitions. She has to ensure the love of man for her existence. Women in a global basis can be seen suffering and submitted to patriarchal power. According to Simone de Beauvoir, a woman is ‘a womb, an ovary, she is a female- this word is

Harappan society had unusual gender relations for that era, different from the rigid patriarchies that characterized Mesopotamia or China as governments grew more powerful. Apparently, Harappan husbands moved into their wives’ households after marriage, a practice that suggests a matrilineal system. Yet some customs harmed women. A least some Harappans may have practiced sati, the custom of a widow killing herself by jumping onto the funeral pyre as her dead husband is being cremated.

I grew up in a traditional society where gender discrimination was common experience in day to day life. Men torture women for dowry. By growing up in these situations, I felt that it was common in the society because women didn’t revolt against men that placed women inferior. Reminisce of traditions such as dowry system and child marriages still exists in some parts of India. In our country, gender discrimination is very high. In some areas Parents do not encourage girls for education they send their children for daily wages because in their opinion, investing money on girls in education is a waste. After the daughter 's marriage, parents have to give a dowry to the groom’s family and anyways girls don’t work. They will get married and be housewives.