The Hindu Woman: Life under the Laws of Manu

India is one of the most rapidly developing democracies in the world, but in human rights issues it lags far behind western ideals. India’s predominant religion, Hinduism, had its beginnings two and a half millennia ago and many rituals and rules instituted in ancient times have remained stagnant in the rapidly changing country (Keay, 2000:133). Archaic writings still partition contemporary society and condemn many to exclusion, abuse and subjugation based on their position at birth. Nearly half of India’s people are mandated lesser beings because they were born female.

A fundamental component of Hinduism is dharma which translates as “that which upholds or supports” (Leslie, 1989:23). It defines what one does and what one must do; both the real and the ideal. Dharma describes and prescribes specific actions based on an individual’s position in the universe. These obligations are one’s religious and moral duties, a ‘righteousness’, that when performed facilitate liberation from the constant cycle of rebirth (Radhakrishnan, 1948:104-108). The conditions of one’s dharma are laid out in the Dharmaśāstra, a voluminous sacred text revered so highly it is often considered the fifth Veda (Radhakrishnan, 1948:105). The Laws of Manu, composed around 200 C.E., is a dharmic law code for every caste, class, stage of life, and occupation in Hindu society (Keay, 2000:27).

From this code emerge two perspectives regarding the position of women in Hindu society. The first presents the Indian woman as a symbol of purity and faithfulness, someone who “must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire (their own) welfare” (Laws of Manu 3.55; Buhler, trans.). The code also ordains that “in childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons… a woman must never be independent” (Laws of Manu 5.148; Buhler, trans.). From the view of a western scholar these codes may seem contradictory: how can an oppressed woman treated as a piece of property also be honoured and respected (Singh, 1996:v)? But from a Hindu perspective it is only those women who abandon their desires and independence and willingly submit and dedicate themselves to the men in their lives who are able to receive this honour and adornment. These dichotomous treatises complement each other; one could not exist without the other.

Codifying Female Injustices

This relegation to an inferior position has not always been the reality for Hindu women. From all available accounts, in the early Vedic period it appears that women occupied the same position as men (Andal, 2002:20). However, even then, the birth of a girl was less appreciated than that of a boy (Patil & Patil, 1996:111). Women reached a high standard of learning and culture; some of the Vedic poets were women. Women held property rights, participated in social and religious rituals, and were employed in a number of professions.∗ Later, in the Smitris, the period when social and religious laws were codified, women lost their esteemed status. Manu, the composer of the Laws of Manu, both praised women and denigrated them to the lowest point of Hindu society. It was this codification that ultimately concretized the severe repression of Hindu women:

“It is Manu’s code that has had the most negative effects, forging unbreakable shackles on Indian women for countless succeeding generations. Even today, it is his laws which keep millions helpless in the prison of Hindu orthodoxy. Manu for the first time legally assigned to women her definite place in the scale of society. But his laws reflect a conflict even within himself… He averred that a mother is more to be revered than a thousand fathers, yet his laws place women socially on a level with the lowest of all groups in Aryan society, the Sudra” (Das & Quayson, 1932:27-28).

Over time the role of women became increasingly more restricted. Women could no longer receive an education and they were excluded from religious rituals and from learning the Vedic texts. Women lost all rights to wealth and personal property, including their own body. Marriage became compulsory and virginity was deemed so essential that many young girls were married before they reached puberty. Social freedom was eradicated; a woman was restricted to the household of her husband and became his property. A woman became a liability and when her husband died she became a burden for his family (Andal, 2002:23-29). It was shortly after the Laws of Manu were written, around 300 C.E., that the practice of sati, or voluntary widow immolation, developed (Altekar, 1962:120). This was considered one of the most honourable things a woman could do.

The Lifecycle of a Hindu Woman

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The Lifecycle of a Hindu Woman

In the Hindu family, female infants are generally considered unwelcome: “the birth of a girl grant it elsewhere, here grant a son” (Atharva Veda 6:2-3, Griffith, trans). It is shameful to not marry off a daughter, but to do so involves payment of a hefty dowry. In poor families this is often not possible (Gatwood, 1985:85). Rather than risk shame or further poverty many poor families chose to poison or starve their infant daughters (Bumiller, 1990:105). Sons are desired because they will be able to support the family monetarily, and to take care of their aging parents. They are also mandatory for carrying on the family name. When sons marry the family gains both a daughter-in-law who can provide additional assistance with housework and an economic reward through dowry payments; this comes at a loss to her family (Andal, 2002:75). She is considered an investment with very little reward because as soon as she is married she moves to her husband's town, in the tradition of patrilocality (Altekar, 1962:3). Male children are also necessary for performing certain religious functions, such as lighting the funeral pyre of his deceased parents; without this act they would not be able to enter heaven (Lemaire, 2002:12). Men are considered the masters and protectors of the family. Over time this protective attitude evolved into a situation where women become a financial and social burden (Guha, 1996:89).

Birth - Feticide & Infanticide

Some Indian families believe that women are destined to such terrible lives that there is no point in giving birth to them (Bumiller, 1990:102). In rural areas female infanticide is still practiced, in the richer urban areas many choose sex-selective abortion. The Indian Medical Association estimates that 3 million female fetuses are aborted each year after sex-determining sonograms are given (Lemaire, 2002:23). Surveys from six hospitals in Bombay revealed that of 8000 fetuses aborted in 1990, 7999 were female (Mascarchras, 1990:94). Estimates of female infanticide reach to several million per year (Lemaire, 2002:23). This has resulted in a discrepancy in the ratio of births, which has been steadily declining since the British began keeping statistics. In 1901 there were 972 live female births to every 1000 males; that ratio had fallen to 929 females per 1000 males by 1991 (Guha, 1996:97). It is estimated that by 2020 there could be 25 million excess males in India (Hudson & Den Boer, 2000:32).

Childhood - Health, Labour & Education

Those girls not “save[d] from a lifetime of suffering” (Bumiller, 1990:108) enter a world in which they are neglected, abused and controlled. It is estimated that one sixth of females under the age of 20, about 5 million, die annually as a result of neglect (Patil & Patil, 1996:115). Girls often receive less education, food, and healthcare than their brothers (Guha, 1996:91). Nowhere in the Laws of Manu does it state that the health of a daughter can be ignored. A study in the province of Gujarat in 1990 demonstrated that only 22 per cent of critically ill children female children were taken to the hospital compared to 80 per cent of male children (Guha, 1996:92). Unhealthy children grow up to be unhealthy adults. Indian women often have less resistance to disease and are more likely to have difficulty giving birth than women who were nourished properly as children (Guha, 1996:100).

The childhood of a young girl usually depends on her status in the Indian caste system (see Gatwood, 1985). However, all are raised to believe that they are inferior to their brothers. Girls must learn to be obedient, conforming, and invisible (Andal, 2002:72). Girls are expected to support the family through labour as a domestic servant, as an agricultural labourer, and as a caretaker of her younger siblings. Her work generally goes unrecognized and unappreciated (Patil & Patil, 1996:113). In general girls work more than their male counterparts. By age 10 most girls are engaged in eight hours of domestic work a day; by the time they are fifteen it is at least ten hours of work (Patil & Patil, 1996:122). Over the past few decades the numbers of young girls (those not ready for marriage) who are shouldering the burden of labour outside of the domestic realm has steadily increased. In turn, the amount of males involved in the work force is decreasing. This is because many young boys are now being enrolled in schools. Only about 15 per cent of young girls are not involved in some sort of labour (Patil & Patil, 1996:123). For most of these girls it is primarily domestic work, but many are also involved in wage labour, the rewards of which she has no entitlement. In many poor families young girls are forced into prostitution in order to support their family. It is estimated that 20 per cent of India’s prostitutes are children; in Bombay alone there are 20,000 child prostitutes. A family can make a lot of money prostituting a virgin daughter (Patil & Patil, 1996:126). Even though many girls provide support for their families they are the subject of bitterness and frustration and become the victims of abuse (Guha, 1996:89).

Parents rarely see a point in educating, nourishing, or nurturing their daughters because they leave the household upon marriage. Rural areas outside of a school’s reach contribute to this problem, as do families who refuse to let their daughters receive an education. A census taken in 1931 noted that the rate of female literacy was 3.1% while male literacy was 17.4%. Thirty years prior female literacy had been less than one per cent (Shirras, 1931:444). A 2001 census indicated that the male literacy rate had risen to 73.4% while female literacy lagged behind at 47.8% (CIA Factbook, 2007). This number primarily represents urban woman; the literacy rate of rural women is 18 per cent (Patil & Patil, 1996:120). Young girls that do get a chance at education are often so burdened by their domestic duties that they either fail or drop out of school (Patil & Patil, 1996:119). Often their education is cut short by early marriage.

A girl spends her brief childhood as a domestic servant who has been denied an education, loving support from her family, and the chance to socialize with peers. The development of her personality is hindered and as a result young women often become depressed and suicidal. Young women in South India have the highest suicide rates in the world at 148 per 100,000 (Bhattacharya, 2004). India is the only country in the world where the rate of suicide is higher in females than in males. Manu warns “where the female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes” (Laws of Manu, 3.57; Buhler, trans.).

Marriage - Chastity, Dowry & Motherhood

In Vedic times women married when they became physically mature (Leslie, 1991:49). Over time child marriage gained prominence. The purpose of marriage shifted from procreative potential to the transfer of guardianship of the female from her father to her husband. Female chastity replaced progeny as the most important expectation of marriage. The importance of virginity at marriage is evinced in the Rig Veda: “Mingle your body with that of your husband…The purple and red appears, a magic spirit…Her family prospers, and her husband is bound in the bonds” (Rig Veda 10.85-28, Griffith, trans.). By the Classical Age a girl of eight was considered suitable for marriage (Jain, 2003a:53). This enabled the child to get better acquainted with her husband and his family before the marriage had to be consummated (Leslie, 1991:48). This would often result in a prepubescent girl marrying someone old enough to be her father. For much of the past love-marriages did not exist in India (Gupta, 1976:82). Marriages were arranged by the parents, usually based on matters such as wealth and caste. Her wishes were never honoured: “Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father's permission, she shall obey as long as he lives” (Laws of Manu 5.151; Buhler, trans.). The bride’s parents are required to pay a dowry, usually an exorbitant sum (Bumiller, 1990:25) to the groom’s family to compensate for his new burden of having to care for a wife. The dowry turns marriage into a financial institution and some men constantly re-marry in order to become wealthier (Jain, 2003b:74). It is estimated that about 95 per cent of marriages in India are arranged (Bumiller, 1990:25).

The dharma of a woman is to fulfill the wishes of her husband. Her foremost duty is to become a mother, preferably one who produces sons. Motherhood is extolled, “…the mother [is] a thousand times more than the father” (Laws of Manu, 2.144; Buhler, trans.), but the actual mother is disregarded and relegated to subservience. The Rāmāyana states “the husband is the god and the master of the wife, while she is alive and she obtains the highest heaven by serving her husband” (Rāmāyana 2.39; Griffith, trans.). In Tryambakayajvan’s Strīdharmapaddhati, or Guide to the Religious Status and Duties of Women he concludes that the obedient service to one’s husband is the primary duty of a wife (in Leslie, 1989:v). A wife should serve her husband without regard to her own life. She should even accept her husband’s sale of her. And finally she should be obedient to his demands even if it conflicts with her other duties (Leslie, 1989:3-5-314). She is in a position of honourable submission. In return for this the husband should love and cherish his wife, as well as protect her and provide for her; he must “always give happiness to his wife” (Laws of Manu 5.153; Buhler, trans.). Increasingly this is not the case. In recent years the number of ‘dowry deaths’ where young women are murdered by their husbands or in-laws in an effort to extort an increased dowry from the bride’s family has risen. Suicides, usually by burning or poisoning are also common. The Indian National Crime Bureau (2005) reported 6,787 incidences of dowry death in 2005; this number was a 46 per cent increase from the 1995 amount (4,648). Such action contradicts Manu’s law that “…men who seek (their own) welfare, should always honour women…” (Laws of Manu 3.59; Buhler, trans.). For many women death is the only escape from a lifetime of horror. Even widowhood offers no relief.

Widowhood - Exclusion & Sati

The life of a widow is even more restricted than that of a married woman. Women are not allowed to re-marry: “…she must never even mention the name of another man after her husband has died. Until death let her be patient (of hardships), self-controlled, and chaste, and strive (to fulfill) that most excellent duty which (is prescribed) for wives who have one husband only…By violating her duty towards her husband, a wife is disgraced in this world…” (Laws of Manu 5.157-158, 164; Buhler, trans.). Widowhood was considered extremely unfortunate, not only for the widow but for her family and society at large (Gupta, 1976:60). Widows were considered worthless; many were forced to lead a life of torture, tonsure and deprivation. This was extremely trying for child-widows. Those that did re-marry or failed to live a chaste, lonely life were shunned by society and denied a place in heaven. Instead of living this arduous life of asceticism or animosity many women opted for the virtuous alternative of self-sacrifice.

Sati is a Hindu funeral custom in which a widow immolates herself on her husbands’ funeral pyre. A woman who committed sati cleansed herself and her husband of sins and would eternally remain by his side. How this custom developed is unknown, but by 1000 CE it was highly advocated and even justified in the Vishnu Smriti: “Now the duties of a woman (are) ... After the death of her husband, to preserve her chastity, or to ascend the pile after him” (Vishnu Smriti 25.14; Freund trans.). The practice continued to the modern era. During British occupation of India over 8000 known occurrences of widow-burning were recorded from 1813 to 1828 (Bentnick, 1922:212). However, this amounts to less than one percent of the entire widowed community (Gupta, 1976:62). It was banned in 1829 under the Prevention of Sati Act (Subbama, 1992:179).

Stagnant in a Changing World

Although the Indian Constitution, passed in 1950, guaranteed women complete equality with men, in the social sphere the rights of women have generally remained unchanged. Women’s rights movements have supported and freed a small proportion of Indian women, mainly those from metropolitan areas whose parents, educated under the British regime, rejected Hinduism’s conservative orthodoxy and adopted western ideas such as equality (Bumiller, 1990:127). India boasts the world’s largest number of professionally qualified women. It has more trained female professors, doctors and scientists than the United States (Bumiller, 1990:125), but it also has one of the lowest female literacy rates and one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. For the vast majority of women in the rural areas, very little has changed. Laws have been passed to outlaw child marriage (Child Marriage Restraint Age, 1929), ban dowries (Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961) and to prevent children from being exploited in the workplace (Indian Constitution of 1950, Art. 15)∗, but these traditions remain pervasive, especially in rural areas. Nor have laws stopped infanticide and sex-selective abortions. Domestic abuse and violence, and the number of dowry deaths continue to escalate. Education and literacy in women is near to nil in rural areas. As the country continues its uneven development, a large proportion of its population sinks even further into poverty. In families where survival is the first priority religious tradition is often held tightest.

For millennia women have been inculcated by traditional religious teachings to accept these injustices as their destiny. It impoverishes not only the religion, but the entire society, when religious leaders foster those parts of the doctrine which force women into helpless reliance and abuse. The Indian government, with its democratic ideals of liberty and equality, has long been engaging the education and the legal system to unshackle women from these archaic teachings. It is a desperately slow process. Fulfilling her dharma, as prescribed by the Laws of Manu, and hopefully reincarnating as a man, should not be the only chance a woman will have of escaping the oppressively traditional world she has been born in to. Increasingly Indian women are seeking, and finding, the independence to choose whatever role they want.

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∗ For a contrary assessment on women in Vedic times see: Subbama, 1992

∗ For a complete discussion of these laws see: Subbama, 1992