{"title":"Gendered Reflections on the Hindu Code Bill","authors":"Shailaja Menon","doi":"10.1177/2455328x231199362","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Women were always portrayed as self-sacrificing and demure, prisoner of various orthodox traditions and devoted to their family. 1 Her behaviour should be modelled on various religious texts, and she would be severely punished if any moral code were violated. However, at the socio-economic and political levels, she was rendered invisible. It was during the colonial phase of India’s historical trajectory that the gender question attained centre stage and serious efforts were undertaken to alleviate the situation of Indian women. This greater generalization of patriarchal controls and the pativrata ideals (Doniger & Smith, 1991, The laws of Manu, p. 198) throughout the caste hierarchy was a major factor in the increasing number of widows seen in the colonial period, and a gradually declining sex ratio, leaving India as one of the most patriarchal societies in the world when counting the number of ‘missing women’—an estimated 35-40 million women would have been alive were it not for the systematic discrimination (Dreze & Sen, 1995, India: Economic development and social opportunity, OUP Delhi). Nonetheless, the various debates on gender reforms either painted women as victims or heroines thereby denying them any agency.","PeriodicalId":53196,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Voice of Dalit","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary Voice of Dalit","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328x231199362","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Women were always portrayed as self-sacrificing and demure, prisoner of various orthodox traditions and devoted to their family. 1 Her behaviour should be modelled on various religious texts, and she would be severely punished if any moral code were violated. However, at the socio-economic and political levels, she was rendered invisible. It was during the colonial phase of India’s historical trajectory that the gender question attained centre stage and serious efforts were undertaken to alleviate the situation of Indian women. This greater generalization of patriarchal controls and the pativrata ideals (Doniger & Smith, 1991, The laws of Manu, p. 198) throughout the caste hierarchy was a major factor in the increasing number of widows seen in the colonial period, and a gradually declining sex ratio, leaving India as one of the most patriarchal societies in the world when counting the number of ‘missing women’—an estimated 35-40 million women would have been alive were it not for the systematic discrimination (Dreze & Sen, 1995, India: Economic development and social opportunity, OUP Delhi). Nonetheless, the various debates on gender reforms either painted women as victims or heroines thereby denying them any agency.
女性总是被描绘成自我牺牲和娴静的形象,是各种正统传统的囚徒,忠于家庭。她的行为应该以各种宗教典籍为榜样,如果违反任何道德准则,她将受到严厉的惩罚。然而,在社会经济和政治层面,她却被忽视了。正是在印度历史轨迹的殖民阶段,性别问题成为中心问题,并为减轻印度妇女的处境作出了认真的努力。这种对父权控制和私有制理想的更广泛的概括(多尼格&;Smith, 1991, The laws of Manu, p. 198)整个种姓等级制度是导致殖民时期寡妇人数增加和性别比例逐渐下降的一个主要因素,当计算“失踪妇女”的数量时,印度成为世界上最重男轻女的社会之一-估计有3500万至4000万妇女会活着,如果不是系统性的歧视(Dreze &森,1995年,印度:经济发展和社会机会,印度大学出版社德里)。然而,关于性别改革的各种辩论要么把妇女描绘成受害者,要么把她们描绘成女主角,从而否认她们有任何能动作用。