The condition of women in north india
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Arguing that ‘cow protection' continues to inflame passions, she points out, with a sense of satisfaction and profound relief, how the Bajrang Dal/VHP combine failed in its efforts to communalise the issue.
The challenges that confronted the traditional structure of authority stand out as Chowdhry's major concern. Some of the interesting questions she raises relate to gender, property and inheritance rights of women (particularly, widows), and the resistance of the patriarchal society to any pro-women reform. She juxtaposes the property rights of widows with the untiring efforts of the patriarchal system to exercise control over their sexuality.
In a highly insightful piece, she looks at the way widows sought to retain their hold over the deceased husband's property, defying the common practice of levirate marriage and illustrates how some even courted the label, ‘unchaste' by living with a partner instead of submitting to the levirate/ karewa system. Also evident from her studies is that men feel threatened whenever any law that seeks to empower women is formulated or implemented. There is the case of the Haryana Government trying to undo some of the progressive pro-women features of the Hindu Succession Act through an amending legislation in 1979. It fell through because the President withheld his assent. Men's perceived threat is also behind much of resistance to any attempt to reform the working of traditional institutions, such as ‘caste Panchayats' that perpetuate the regressive age-old practices.