Journey of a woman – from an unidentified living being to the ‘karta’ of a family

“The year is 1935. You are five years old. Your father has died. There is a hustle in the house. Your mother is crying. You are her only child, a girl. Your house is big. Your aunts snatch your mother’s ornaments. Since she is a widow, what would she do with all these worldly pleasures? You are sitting in a corner, sobbing. Your father, in heaven, reaches out, “I wish I would have lived enough. Or maybe she (your mother) could own some of my property so she could live. But how could she? She cannot own anything. What about you, my daughter? How are you going to survive, without us, without the money? I wish you were a son!” Your aunts are readying your mother for a ceremony. Your mother stares at you in despair. She sits beside your father. The drums beat, screeching through your ears. There’s a flash. The flames guzzle her.”

You wake up, consumed in thoughts. You pick up the newspaper. You come across the Delhi high court ruling that a woman can be a ‘karta’ of a joint family if she is the eldest member. You realise, it is 2016. It was a dream. But not for the women who lived pre-independence.  Let us review our history of inheritance to understand the reasons behind the poor state of women that persists even today.

Ancient India was divided into provinces following mainly two schools of law - Mitakshra School prevalent all over India except the eastern provinces of Bengal and Assam abiding by Dayabagha School. Mitakshra maintained that only men could inherit and not women. However, Dayabagha differed since it gave limited rights to widows in the absence of male descendants. The absolute rights still lay with the men of the family since a woman could not pass her share to her daughters. Only the males could inherit property.

A woman’s fortune was called ‘stridhan’ and limited to the gifts she received during marriage. That is, the clothes, jewellery, utensils and cattle were her ‘stridhan’. Even if you were the only child, you could not own, buy, sell, or rent property of your father. Since all the powers lay with a son, it gave rise to social crimes of bigamy, wife abandonment, remarriage for male heirs and female infanticide.

Medieval period saw many changes. ‘Stridhan’ became popular as dowry or ‘Varadakhshina’. A woman was empowered to the extent that she could take care of the property for dispensing her duties, such as, marrying off the children. Widows were expected to wear white attire. The immediate family members would take all her ornaments. ‘Sati pratha’ was born where widows were encouraged to burn alive at their husband’s pyre.

The colonial invasion set the beginning of the release from the clutches of these laws.The Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act 1937 was initiated. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar brought in changes in the new Hindu Code Bill in 1948 to empower women and brought them at par with men in matters of inheritance. The Hindu Succession Act 1956 gave women absolute rights over their property. The amendment in 2005 gave equal rights to daughters when it came to ancestral property.

Despite the progress, we still have to fight it out in courts for our rights. But at least, a woman can now be the "karta" of a joint family.

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