Place of Women in the Hindu Society
Dr. Upinder Jit Kaur,
Professor of Economics,
Punjabi University, Patiala, INDIA

courtesy: Gateway to Sikhism
September 5, 2001
 

In India, woman was reduced to the status of slave ever since the establishment of Brahman's dominance and enforcement of Manu's code.

It is true that during the Vedic period, women commanded respect, and no religious or social work was considered to be completer without the active support of one's wife. Women had the right to education and knowledge.

Boys and girls used to get their education together. Even among the authors of the Vedas, there were said to be twenty-two women. Women like Gargi and Maitreyi were revered as seers.

But Manusmriti, the Veda of the Brahmanical revival, laid down the fundamental and outrageous doctrine of woman's perpetual subjection.

Says Manu, "In childhood, a female must be subject to her father; in youth to her husband; when her lord is dead, to her son : a woman must never be independent"? The position of women in Hindu society was governed by rules and regulations laid down by Manu. And it seems that there was a deliberate attempt in the dharam shastra of Manu to lower the rank of women.

A woman was considered inferior to man in all respects. The natural affectionate relationship between husband and wife was marred by the degraded and inferior position in which woman was placed.

A woman was required to worship her husband as God whatever his failings. According to Manu, "Though destitute of virtue or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a God by a faithful wife."

She was not to grumble or show any disrespect in any manner. On the other hand, the husband was fully empowered to take action against the erring wife. "She who shows disrespect to (a husband) who is addicted to (some evil) passion, is a drunkard, or diseased, shall be deserted for three months (and be) deprived of her ornaments and the furniture.......She who drinks spirituous liquor, is of bad conduct, rebellious, diseased, mischievous or wasteful, may at any time be superseded".

The husband was authorised to supersede his wife even on much less serious grounds. "A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth year, she whose children (all) die in the tenth, she who bears only daughters in the eleventh, but she who is quarrelsome without delay".10 The poor wife was made to bear all the insults and humiliations and degradation with stoic calmness. If she made any protest, she was beaten with a rope or a split bamboo and humiliated.

She had no rights. She was no match to her husband. Commenting on the sad plight of women, R.C. Majumdar says, "The poor wife was expected to follow her husband even in death by burning herself alive, but the husband, "having given sacred fires to his wife who dies before him, may marry again, and again kindle the fires".

Strangest of all, women who once even composed Vedic hymns, were not allowed to study the Vedas and perform sacrificial rites."11 Women were thus condemned to a life of permanent degradation and misery. They were required to observe strict purdah and confined to the four walls of the house. Their mobility was constrained. They were denied access to education and got caught in the whirlpool of ignorance.

A woman had no identity of her own. Marriage became her only career and goal in life. Child-marriages came to be practised. They became the rule rather than the exception because it was considered obligatory for parents to marry off their daughters before they attained the age of puberty. In the case of husband's death a woman could not marry as widow remarriage was strictly prohibited by Manu. So child-widows became a familiar phenomenon who had to go through a hell of life and bear various atrocities.

In the case of married women barrenness was considered sinful. The birth of a son was the most desired thing. It led to frequent pregnancies and poor health of women. The birth of a female child was a sign of misfortune. So female infanticide came to be practised.

A female child was not even entitled to the basic human right to live in the world. Similarly, a woman had no right to live after the death of her husband. So sati-widow cremation was practised. It was only the birth of a male child that improved the position of a woman in her family and society. The iniquitous barrier which the Hindu society had raised between man and woman drained the strength and liveliness of social and domestic life. The stifling environment obstructed development of a woman's mental and intellectuals faculties, shortened her life, and in turn sapped the strength and vitality of domestic and national life.