Hindu Widow Marriage
Hindu Widow Marriage

Author: Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2011-11-22

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0231526601

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Before the passage of the Hindu Widow's Re-marriage Act of 1856, Hindu tradition required a woman to live as a virtual outcast after her husband's death. Widows were expected to shave their heads, discard their jewelry, live in seclusion, and undergo regular acts of penance. Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar was the first Indian intellectual to successfully argue against these strictures. A Sanskrit scholar and passionate social reformer, Vidyasagar was a leading proponent of widow marriage in colonial India, urging his contemporaries to reject a ban that caused countless women to suffer needlessly. Vidyasagar's brilliant strategy paired a rereading of Hindu scripture with an emotional plea on behalf of the widow, resulting in an organic reimagining of Hindu law and custom. Vidyasagar made his case through the two-part publication Hindu Widow Marriage, a tour de force of logic, erudition, and humanitarian rhetoric. In this new translation, Brian A. Hatcher makes available in English for the first time the entire text of one of the most important nineteenth-century treatises on Indian social reform. An expert on Vidyasagar, Hinduism, and colonial Bengal, Hatcher enhances the original treatise with a substantial introduction describing Vidyasagar's multifaceted career, as well as the history of colonial debates on widow marriage. He innovatively interprets the significance of Hindu Widow Marriage within modern Indian intellectual history by situating the text in relation to indigenous commentarial practices. Finally, Hatcher increases the accessibility of the text by providing an overview of basic Hindu categories for first-time readers, a glossary of technical vocabulary, and an extensive bibliography.

Wet Silence
Wet Silence

Author: Sweta Srivastava Vikram

Publisher: Modern History Press

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 73

ISBN-13: 1615992561

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ÿ"Sweta Vikram captures bold raw passion, poignant reality and crafts a powerful voice for the voiceless." --Kate Campbell Stevenson, Actor & Producer Wet Silenceÿbears moving accounts of Hindu widows in India. The book raises concern about the treatment of widowed women by society; lends their stories a voice; shares their unheard tales about marriage; reveals the heavy hand of patriarchy; and, addresses the lack of companionship and sensuality in their lives. This collection of poems covers a myriad of social evils such as misogyny, infidelity, gender inequality, and celibacy amongst other things. The poems in the collection are bold, unapologetic, and visceral. The collection will haunt you.ÿ "Nothing short of sacred genius,ÿWet Silenceÿreads with a sensual and dangerous grace. It is a body of work that ushers presence into absence and love into a world that has all but done away with the word."ÿ --Slash Coleman, author ofÿThe Bohemian Love Diariesÿand blogger forÿPsychology Today. "Sweta's poems did a powerful job at highlighting the mental and sexual abuse, violence, loneliness and the pain experienced by millions of widows in India. Why I ask, is being a widow a crime?" --Shruti Kapoor, Founder of Sayfty, an organization that helps women protect themselves against violence "In a gorgeous choir of reclaimed voices, Sweta Srivastava Vikram tells the stories of women forgotten and passed over, women silenced and without choices, women who ?don't exist'--Hindu widows. Through the magical breath of her poetry Vikram not only animates these women's hopes, sorrows, dreams, and defeats, she lovingly restores them to honor." --Melissa Studdard, award-winning author ofÿI Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast. Learn more at www.SwetaVikram.com From the World Voices series at Modern History Press POE005060 Poetry : American - Asian American SOC028000 Social Science : Women's Studies - General FAM001000 Family & Relationships : Abuse - General

Women's Rights and Human Rights
Women's Rights and Human Rights

Author: P. Grimshaw

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-03-20

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0333977645

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This international collection of historical work explores the breadth and creativity of women's struggles for human rights, citizenship and social justice across the world. It brings together twenty contributions by scholars in women's history, whose work reflects the global reach of the International Federation for Research in Women's History. In addition to presenting studies by well known scholars in the United States and Europe, the book is distinctive in also bringing the work of scholars from regions such as South and East Asia and the Pacific to the attention of an international audience.

Perpetual Mourning
Perpetual Mourning

Author: Martha Alter Chen

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13:

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Basing Her Book On Rich Empirical Date And In-Depth Interviews With More Than 550 Widows From 14 Villages In Seven States, The Author Analyses The Social And Economic Challenges Widows Pose To The Social Order.

Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation
Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation

Author: Tanika Sarkar

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780253340467

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What are the major Hindu ideas and traditions of India that have shaped dominant conceptions of womanhood, domesticity, wifeliness, and mothering, and of India as a Hindu nation? Tanika Sarkar analyzes literary and social traditions, the elite voices and popular culture that helped create the lived reality of north India today. She explores the proto-nationalist novels of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya as well as scandal literature, rumors, women's memoirs, and the popular press of colonial times for the subaltern ideas that have shaped contemporary India. Sarkar also examines the way earlier Indian religious traditions of saintliness, sacrifice, heroism, and warfare are being subverted or transformed by militant and fundamentalist forms of Hinduism.