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Son Preference and Sex Selection Among Hindus in India Sherry Aldrich Sineath

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Son Preference and Sex Selection Among Hindus in India Sherry Aldrich Sineath Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2004 Son Preference and Sex Selection Among Hindus in India Sherry Aldrich Sineath Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES SON PREFERENCE AND SEX SELECTION AMONG HINDUS IN INDIA By SHERRY ALDRICH SINEATH A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004 The members of the Committee approve the Thesis of Sherry Aldrich Sineath defended on March 23, 2004. Kathleen M. Erndl Professor Directing Thesis Dr. Bryan J. Cuevas Committee Member Dr. Aline Kalbian Committee Member Approved: John Kelsay, Chair, Department of Religion Donald Foss, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii To Dr. Kathleen M. Erndl, Whose inspiration kept me steadfast over the years, and Tiffani Aldrich Sineath, Doug and Bert Aldrich, Wendy Abernethy, and Dr. Christopher Capeless, Whose love, faith, and support kept this boat afloat. I thank you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................ v Note on Transliteration..................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1. THE HARDCORE REALITY OF SON PREFERENCE: SELECTIVELY ELIMINATING DAUGHTERS ...................................... 8 The Impact of Son Preference on Secondary Sex Ratios .......................... 8 Historical Perspective on Abortion in India .............................................. 16 Controlling Female Reproduction............................................................. 21 Sex Selection, Abortion, and Female Infanticide....................................... 24 Women’s Agency and Empowerment....................................................... 36 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 40 2. HINDU RELIGIOUS SOURCES AND SON PREFERENCE .................... 42 Hindu Religious Sources and their Dissemination..................................... 42 The Early Vedas: Rituals for Sons and Protection of Fetuses................... 47 Women and the Laws of Manu................................................................. 51 Special Powers of Females in Contemporary Hindu Culture ..................... 54 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 59 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 61 AFTERWORD ............................................................................................ 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................ 69 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ........................................................................... 82 iv ABSTRACT There is strong pressure among Hindus to prefer sons, and this is most apparent through the example of India’s exceptionally high prevalence of sex-selective abortions, and by other practices such as female infanticide and neglect that contribute to excess female mortality. The paper examines how, why, and to what degree son preference has a detrimental impact on the survival and status of Hindu females in India. Drawing from persistent socio-religious themes-- reverence for the female in the traditional roles of wife and mother; a pronounced emphasis on the importance of the family unit; goddess worship; the strong desire for sons; dominance of the male; and subordinate status of the female--there is evidence of both discrimination against the female and a corresponding acknowledgement of her special powers and value. It is concluded that the widespread practice of dowry is the major, but not sole, cause exacerbating son preference to the extent that India sex ratios are abnormally imbalanced in favor of males. v NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION For ease in printing, I have followed the standard transliteration system for Sanskrit and other Indian languages, electing to omit all diacritics from the text, including those in quoted material. vi INTRODUCTION India’s deficit of females was first cited in 1901, with the advent of the Indian national census, and in the ensuing years, India’s secondary sex ratio has continued to drop (Agnihotri 2000, 18). Concern over India’s imbalanced sex ratio is not new; it has caused a heightened awareness of the ways in which low female status and discrimination are directly linked to this disproportion of females to males. There is strong pressure among Hindus to prefer sons, and this is most apparent through the example of India’s exceptionally high prevalence of sex-selective abortions (purposely aborting a fetus because it is perceived to be that of an undesired sex) resulting in a preponderance of aborted females--and by other practices such as female infanticide and neglect that contribute to excess female mortality. How, why, and to what degree does son preference have a detrimental impact on the survival and the status of Hindu females in India, and what can be done about it? In part one, I explore the effect of son preference on the Indian sex ratio and Hindu practices in contemporary India, placing particular emphasis on the extent to which these practices affect females. I do this by engaging a wide range of studies chosen for their ability to demonstrate the breadth and complexity of the issue through ongoing development in the modern context. In part two, I examine beliefs and practices located in Hindu religious sources beginning with the Vedic age that might provide clues to the origin and subsequent persistence of the Hindu preference for sons. I also place further emphasis on various ways in which female identity and status are influenced by the permutation of underlying beliefs and pragmatic realities. In the conclusion, I posit that there are distinguishing factors present in Indian Hindu experiences, beliefs and practices that help facilitate the perpetuation of son preference to a degree of extremity that is largely absent in Western cultures. I offer some preliminary observations on how this situation may be 1 improved or amended; however, I conclude that adherence to the dowry system, despite being illegal, is a root cause of the problem. Summarily, one way to address the larger problem of sex selection and female neglect is to eliminate the practice of the dowry that reinforces the notion that daughters are life-long economic liabilities. I do not believe that Hindu women are less valued per se than women in other cultures, despite the fact that there is a negative economic correlation attached to them. From a more holistic examination of the problem, I will argue that Hindu women do indeed occupy a lower overall status in contrast to Hindu men, but this is only one aspect of a very complex gender issue that is distorted either more or less depending on the type and degree of socio-economic and religious pressures that are present. In fact, it is often argued that because women play such a central role in Hindu culture, there is a need for special measures to control and dominate them. Discrimination against women in India has been amply documented; however, the magnitude of India’s problem with sex-selection disfavoring females invites a deeper understanding of Indian cultural dynamics to explain the surprising degree of compliance and even facilitation that many women exhibit by aborting their daughters in preference for sons. Therefore, discrimination against women cannot be the sole reason India’s sex ratio is imbalanced, even when strong socialization to adhere to prescribed gender roles is present. Likewise, unequal treatment and perceived differences in the genders do not necessarily mean that one can do without the other, or that one is more valuable than the other. The very foundation of Hindu religion and culture is emphatic on the cosmologically-deemed, inherent, and complementary natures of male and female without which nothing could exist. India has a rich source of potential to indeed solve its sex-ratio problem, but it will not be without a concerted effort on many fronts and must be tackled within the context of Indian culture without the presumption that Western developmental or feminist models are appropriate panaceas for India. When I refer to son preference in this paper, it must be acknowledged that this necessarily excludes the random wish for sons (i.e., having a girl and now wanting a boy) that might naturally occur in any society. By contrast, I will refer to son preference that arises as a predominant response to daily cultural, political, and economic pressures. In 2 India, these pressures bear down to such a degree that son preference becomes influential in skewing the sex ratio, particularly in the absence of war, disease, or other factors that might otherwise account for it. India has a plurality of religions, but I have chosen to concentrate on Hindus who comprise over three-quarters of the Indian population and for whom there is abundant evidence of son preferring practices.1 Therefore, while there will be at times a tendency to speak of Indian females and males in a
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