Women and Law in India

This omnibus brings together three significant works on Gender equality which comprehensively analyse key issues including women's rights, social justice, and empowerment. Together, the Books span Legal change in India over two centuries when women's rights were negotiated, rewritten and coded. In doing so they provide a comprehensive and significant understanding of why progressive laws, once passed, continue to be implemented in such a limited manner. They highlight the fact that legislations in the past fifty years have not brought gender equality in any real sense. In An Introduction especially written for this collection, social activist and women's rights lawyer Flavia Agnes explores the complex Relationship between notions of patriarchy, sexuality, property, and the manner in which they are normalized and essentialized through State intervention and judicial discourse.

Introduction by Flavia Agnes Law and Gender Inequality The Politics of Womenas Rights in India Abbreviations Table of Cases 1. IntroductionaA Need for Rescrutiny Part One: PRE-COLONIAL LEGAL STRUCTURES 2. Plurality of Hindu Law and Womenas Rights Under It 3. Evolution of Islamic Law and Womenas Spaces within It 4. Colonial Rule and Subversion of Rights 5. Politicization of Womenas Rights Part Two: POST-INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENTS 6. Hindu Law ReformsaStilted 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 Womenas 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 AppendicesaA 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