Gender and Urbanisation in Contemporary Bengal
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University of London London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Anthropology Women and Gold : Gender and Urbanisation / in Contemporary Bengal Fentje Henrike Donner Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 1999 UMI Number: U12B024 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U123024 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I i-v^s t- S F 7GI+H- 7115^7 Abstract of thesis The thesis is based on data collected during a twenty months period of fieldwork undertaken in Calcutta, India. The main concern is with the effects of processes of urbanisation on middle-class women’s lives in a heterogeneous neighbourhood. While focusing on members of the Bengali Hindu majority comparative material drawn from data referring to the Bengali Christian and Marwari communities is incorporated. Initially the socio-economic history of different castes and communities and in particular the Subamabanik Bene (goldsmiths and sellers of gold) occupational and ritual patterns as well as educational standards are investigated. In the following chapters the effects of socio-economic change on marriage patterns (love- and arranged marriages) and their evaluation as well as various types of marriage transactions undertaken are described and interpreted. In the course of the remaining chapters household structures, women’s work in the domestic sphere and female employment as well as redefined concepts relating to segregation and seclusion are analysed. Throughout the thesis various aspects of women’s ritual activities, reproductive behaviour and kinship relations are investigated in a rapidly changing urban setting. Within the given context concepts of gender- and community-identity are explored and the influence of long-term and recent economic changes are analysed. Different meanings of phenomena like dowry, seclusion or the joint family and ideologies employed to legitimise the same are described with reference to traditional and modem practice. The domestic sphere identified with women and kinship is interpreted as linked to concepts of status within the urban setting where caste and community affiliation are among a number of defining features of group 3 affiliation such as class and regional origin. Relations between gender and community are explored within the context of the locality and its history. As an overall hypothesis the flexibility and modem content of assumedly traditional concepts and practices is demonstrated. 4 Table of Contents List of tables.........................................................................................7 Note on transliteration........................................................................ 8 Introduction......................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: At the margins of bhadralok culture............................37 1.1 Bhadralok as a reference group .................................................37 1.2 Occupation as determining caste status in Bengal ..................39 1.3 The low status of the Subarnabaniks ........................................ 42 1.4 Movements to enhance the status of castes: ritual status, occupation and status........................................................................ 48 1.5 Gender issues: the advancement of women as status marker .................................................................................56 Chapter 2: Arranging Marriage .....................................................62 2.1 The main criteria for arranged marriages ...............................62 2.2 Caste, occupation and status...................................................... 64 2.3 Parents’ involvement in marriage negotiations....................... 71 2.4 The muddle concerning isogamy and hypergamy...................73 2.5 Adan-pradan : affinal relations and code of conduct...............77 2.6 New forms of upward mobility..................................................81 2.7 Meeting the prospective affines and settling the details 84 2.8. Qualities of brides and grooms: education, siblings and household composition...................................................................... 88 2.9 Going public: Relatives, invitations and organisation of the wedding........................................................................................ 93 2.10 Conspicuous consumption: The wedding feast.....................101 2.11 Staging tradition: Wedding rituals ........................................104 2.12 Guests and Hosts..................................................................... 110 Chapter 3: Love-marriages ............................................................114 3.1 What is a love-marriage ? .........................................................118 3.2 Different types of love............................................................... 122 3.3 Accommodating love-marriages.............................................. 126 3.4 Evaluation of love-marriages....................................................128 3.5 Love-marriages in the neighbourhood.....................................130 3.6 Inter-community love-marriages............................................. 132 3.7 Inter-caste marriages ................................................................ 140 3.8 Newly emerged distinctions and status....................................145 Chapter 4: Marriage transactions. 148 5 4.1 Tattya: the mutual prestation.................................................. 151 4.2 The content oftattya .................................................................. 154 4.3 Representations of different transactions and status ............ 158 4.4 The encompassing voluntary gift:tattya and dan.................. 164 4.5 The recipients of dan................................................................. 169 4.6 Joutuk and pom morals and economy of the excessive marriage prestation.................................................. 174 4.7 Content ofjoutuk ........................................................................182 4.8 Joutuk as social disruption........................................................184 4.9 From dowry to property: The gift that marks the crisis 187 4.10 Women’s property, inheritance and dowry.........................194 4.11 Inheritance and incorporation............................................... 196 4.12 Codes of law and customary practice....................................198 4.13 Sisters and wives .....................................................................200 4.14 Marriage and prestations, or what is a dowry .................... 205 4.15 The relative increase in transactions .................................... 208 Chapter 5: The domestic unit: household composition and family patterns ......................................................................... 214 5.1 Definition of urban households................................................215 5.2 Ideology of joint families.......................................................... 217 5.3 Intra-household relations at different stages of life..............221 5.4 Typical household patterns experienced................................234 5.5 Time, causes and evaluation of divisions................................240 5.6 Property ownership and divisions...........................................248 5.7 Migration...................................................................................251 5.8 Marital migration and bilaterality..........................................252 5.9 Male guardianship in the house...............................................258 5.10 Female headed households : Male migration abroad..........261 5.11 Female headed households: widows...................................... 264 5.12 Household composition and sources of income.................... 266 5.13 Female employment................................................................273 5.14 Extra resources : the role of unmarried siblings................. 281 Chapter 6: Women’s work: Housework, reproduction, and the body....................................................................................284 6.1 Definition of housework as work.............................................284 6.2 Division of labour among women.............................................287 6.3 Types of work undertaken....................................................... 291 6.3.1 Nourishing and caring: providing a meal............................292 6.3.1.1 Meaning and context of meals...........................................298 6.3.1.2Time spent on the preparation of meals............................302 6.3.2 Progressive motherhood: educational needs.....................306 6.3.2.1 Reforming motherhood...................................................... 310 6.3.3. Bichar-achar and the domestic sphere as locus of significant distinctions....................................................................312 6.3.3.1 Bichar-achar related