Hindu Women and Marriage Law: From Sacrament to Contract

This book is an in-depth study of the developments and changes in Hindu marriage laws over the past 150 years, through the colonial period to the present. Highly contentious issues like child marriage, dowry, sati, widow remarriage, and divorce laws are analysed to explain constructions of women’s positions in Hindu society. Remedial legislative measures, the many long-drawn legislative procedures and stages that these measures had to go through, their content and success are also studied at length. Laws that affect the status of Hindu women in the context of marriage, the Age of Consent Act 1891, the Widow Remarriage Act 1956 and others are examined in detail. The author analyses them and arrives at the conclusion that although the position of married women under Hindu law has undergone much transformation, in actual practice, little social benefit has resulted. This book will be of interest to general readers, social workers, and students of gender studies and modern social history.