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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUTION

Plight of widows: The study of patriarchal society in Bapsi Sidwa’s Water.

Bapsi Sidhwa was born in Karachi in 1939. She was raised and

educated in Lahore. Bapsi Sidhwa has been praised as ‘A Powerful and

Dramatic Novelist.’--- The Times

Sidhwa is the author of five novels: Water, The Bride, Crow Eaters,

An American Brat, and Cracking India (Ice-Candy-Man), which was a

Notable Book of New York Times, nominated by the American Library

Association as Notable Book. The book also won the Literature Prize in

Germany in 1991, and was made into the award-winning film Earth by

Indian director Deepa Mehta in 1999. Sidhwa received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz,

Pakistan's highest honor in the arts in 1991, and was inducted into the

Zoroastrian Hall of Fame in 2000. She has been awarded the National

Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest

Writer's Award, and the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, amongst other

award honors. Her novels have been published in India, Pakistan, the United

Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, and Italy.

Bapsi Sidhwa is a Parsi diaspora writer and the genres discussed in

her novels are Post-colonialism, Partition, and cultural Literature. Deepa

Mehta adapted Sidhwa’s Cracking India into a critically acclaimed movie,

Earth. The two veterans joined hands again for another project called Water.
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Water was made in 2005, and Bapsi Sidhwa according to the wishes of the

producers was asked to write a novel which was to be released with the

movie. Sidhwa’s novel Water brings to light the conventional customs that

victimize women. The subject of the novel is controversial and complicated.

Water offers a concerning examination of the lives of widows in colonial

India, but ultimately it is a haunting and lyrical story of love, faith, and

redemption.

Her writing style is commendable which took the story to another

level. In a span of four months, she gave more background to some of the

characters, including the child widow. Sidhwa says she began to read

extensively about the widow system in India and various related customs

and traditions. She was able to explain the background of many rituals and

customs that the film, given its running time, could not.

It is one of the great works of art which must be not only read but

preserved as a treasure as it focuses on women’s issues, cultures and

customs of India especially on pre-independent India. It is also a wonderful

opportunity to immerse oneself in the delicious language so peculiar to the

Anglo Indian authors of the sub-continent. Sidhwa has written a truly

stunning novel which reveals the fact that even today there are widow

ashrams in Varanasi.

Her recurring themes include human relationships and betrayals, the

coming of age and its attendant disillusionments, immigration, and cultural

hybridity, as well as social and political upheavals. Sidhwa skilfully links

gender to community, nationality, religion, and class, demonstrating the

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ways in which these various aspects of cultural identity and social structure

do not merely affect or reflect one another, but instead are inextricably

intertwined.

Sidhwa’s feminist touch to her characters moves violently forward

despite many obstacles. She exposes the true selves of women by observing

the lives too closely and understanding the limited space given to them in

this patriarchal social system. She does not shy away from stating that

women are by nature loyal, in whatever role they are placed in the society.

They live for love but become the victim of lust, just because of their

lovable nature and considered to be emotionally weak.

This research highlights the complexities the brutalities of Hinduism

against widows. This research also exposes the individual equity, fatalism,

and violence unseen in conventional Hinduism. Sidhwa’s Water is all about

Indian widows in the 1930s and how they were forcefully made to live in

the widow ashrams and fearlessly attacks the oppressing falsity of a

patriarchal customs that have developed over thousands of years of socio-

economic imperatives and now disguises itself as religion.

This research presents the offense of women especially widows by

other heartless people and how they are dragged into adultery. In addition

to, it is not acceptable the remarriage of widows (punar vivah) in Hindu’s

orthodox society back in 1930s which is legally acceptable in our society. It

also powerfully points to some of the underlying economic factors behind

the dispossession of widows. As Narayan explains, when widows are

segregated from their husband, family and property, they are: “One less
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mouth to feed, four saris saved. One bed and a corner are saved in the family

house. There is no other reason why you are sent here.”(Water). And while

the treatment of widows is disguised as religion, he concludes, “It’s all

about money.” These few sentences illuminate the situation in an extremely

powerful manner.

This research is primarily intended to highlight the history of

oppression on widows in misogynist patriarchal society. This study

explicates the journey of child widow chuhiya who unaware of social

obligations and hierarchies, but acts according to her emotions. The only

social role she has had so far was being the child of her parents. She cannot

remember her marriage and therefore cannot be considered a married

woman. She is even too young to know women’s role in society general, so

how should she understand what being a widow means? This age is even so

immature to understand the concept of marriage.

This research explicates the prevalent conditions of widows. The

male domination and prevailing superstitions have made woman so hard-

hearted that she becomes cruel towards her own sex. They are getting

suppressed in the name of religion. Within the dominator system, the widow

constitutes threat to society as she is perceived to be inauspicious and

polluted, because of her association with death and sexually dangerous as she

becomes desirable and uncontrolled by a male counterpart. The disfiguring of

the body is enforced in order to reduce their attractiveness as women by

transforming them into neuter or sexual beings by prohibiting them from

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wearing the symbols of marriage (vermillion mark, bangles, marriage,

pendant) and, more deeply traumatic, having their heads shaven.

Kate Young in an article published in Gender and Development

journal as “Widows without rights: challenging marginalisation and

dispossession” states:

In some cultures, a widow is liable to lose all the possessions

acquired during the duration of her marriage, including

access to the means of making a livelihood for herself / and

her children, if, as is often the case, the widow is young and

her children are still unable to fend for themselves. To avoid

destitution, she may be forced to marry one of her husband’s

close kinsmen / a younger brother, perhaps many years

younger than herself, or an older brother, who already has

one or several wives, who may not welcome yet another set

of mouths to be fed from the collective landholding.

Through the topic of widowhood, Uma Chakravarti an Indian

feminist historian demonstrates in On Widowhood: The Critique of Cultural

Practices that how women writers went on to discusses issues of female

agency and autonomy, and critique larger patriarchal structures such as

religion and family, which reinforced oppressive practices against women.

Chakravarti thus claims that these works were responsible for expanding the

boundaries of the discourse around widowhood, making widows the subject

of the issue than mere lifeless objects. She critiques these works, analysing

the ideologies and influences of each writer.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The primary source of this study is Bapsi Sidhwa’s Water (2006). The research

methodology of this thesis is descriptive, analytic and explanatory. In order to

support the argument, various secondary sources are utilized like research journals

and websites. This research work is divided into four chapters.

Chapter 1

This chapter introduces the thesis statement besides featuring an introduction of the

writer and highlighting her writing style. The topic of the research is also

introduced in this chapter besides a brief summary of chapters.

Chapter 2

This chapter deals with the Literature Review incorporating the arguments and

viewpoints of different critics and writers relevant to the research thesis are

included in this section.

Chapter 3

This chapter discusses the hardships of widows facing marginalization from society

and family and how they forcefully make to live in widow ashrams.

Chapter 4

This chapter discusses the prevalent conditions of widows and how they are still

facing social destitution.

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Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

A large number of social cultures throughout the world, brand widows

as a curse and they are at times blamed for the demise of their husbands,

irrespective of the original cause of death. As a result, they are subjected to a

number of humiliations and denial in the name of religious and customary

rites. Most cultures deny rights of widow on the husband’s property and are

driven out from their homes until and unless they marry their brother-in-law.

Even worse, they might be abused physically or even murdered to keep them

from claiming any inheritance and land rights.

The plight of widows has gone unnoticed through several centuries.

However, with increasing awareness of human rights, people have drawn their

attention to the bereaved life of widows. Programs are now held to provide

support to widow women and make their life more secure, both socially and

financially. An international law for widows has been implemented to put an

end to their suffering and help them acquire the rights which they truly

deserve.

On an interview by Francesco Mannomi, Bapsi Sidhwa discussed the

significance of Gandhi movement for freedom and independence. One the

question she answered:

The ‘Untouchables’ are the pariahs of the Hindu caste system and

Gandhi fought against their inhuman treatment. He renamed

them ‘Harijans’ (Children-of-God); they now have a chance for

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education and some political power. This was Gandhi’s most

significant contribution in the social sphere. He also tried to

dispel the prejudice against Hindu widows, and other social

injustices. The prejudices remain, but there is improvement.

Gandhi’s doctrines are respected by people of all faiths; even if

they are not followed.

Kate Young in an article published in Gender and Development

journal as “Widows without rights: challenging marginalisation and

dispossession” states:

The ill-treatment of widows is thus an acute expression of gender

inequality. It stems from a denial of the possibility of women

being and behaving autonomously from men, and the creation of

women as highly dependent social beings. A widow no longer has

a male ‘protector’ and despite a proper and recognised marriage,

her rights in her husband’s kin group are weak, while she retains

few rights in her natal kin group. As the widow is socially weak,

she therefore can be thought to be an easy prey for the ruthless.

As such, widows often lose control of land and other assets to

which they have rights, and are subjected to all forms of sexual

harassment-the word for widow and for whore are closely related

in Hindi. They can have the heartbreak of losing their young

children, due to the inability to earn an independent living and

live autonomously in patriarchal societies.

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In India widowhood was not just transition from one marital status to

another after the death of the husband. Entering into widowhood is more

hazardous, painful and humiliating to women than to a widower because of

the discrimination and the ritual sanctions of the society against widows. With

the result, widows not only suffer social and economic sanctions but also face

many psychological consequences, loneliness, and in many cases deprivation

causing emotional disturbances and imbalance.

In Ghandi's movement for freedom and independence he fought for

women's right which was against child marriage, purdah, and sati. The Child

Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 states that girls under 18 and boys under 21

could not get married. Ghandi was open to the idea of widows getting

remarried and soon there was a law that allowed it too.

Gandhi believed that the Hindu concept of faithful widow who

remains chaste and devotes herself to good work in her husband's memory is

a worthy ideal for women to strive for salvation. However, enforced

widowhood, which is the result of social pressure rather than inner

conviction, is merely a charade, which far from encouraging morality may

have the opposite effect. According to Gandhi,

Widowhood imposed by religion or custom is an unbearable

yoke, and defiles the home by secret vice and degrades

religion. In order to save Hinduism, enforced widowhood must

be ridden. Child widows must be duly and well married and

not remarried. They were never really married" (India of My

Dreams).
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Sarah Lamb in her article Aging, gender and widowhood: Perspectives

from rural West Bengal states that:

Widowhood was the phase of despair in the life for most

women. Widowhood hence was also a dreaded time of life.

Depending on her caste and age at widowhood, a woman

could expect to face numerous of hardships.

French indologist Abbé Dubois in his Hindu Manners, Customs and

Ceremonies wrote:

The happiest death for a woman is that which overtakes her

while she is still in a wedded state.

The Bengali intellectual and reformer Ram Mohan Roy, who had seen

his own widowed sister-in-law burnt in 1812 – "A hysterical and unhappy

sacrifice" (quoted in Allan / Haig / Dodwell 1934: 722)

Filmmaker Deepa Mehta also praised by her movie in The New York

Times:

Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, "Water" is an

exquisite film about the institutionalized oppression of an

entire class of women and the way patriarchal imperatives

inform religious belief.

‘A magnificent film!’ -Salman Rushdie

The novel has been commented upon by a Canadian novelist M.G.

Vassangi:
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‘A Deeply Moving Story, Elegantly Told, With All The

Assurance Of A Master’

Sara Suleri Goodyear praises Novel Water,

‘In this brilliant work Bapsi Sidhwa adds richness and depth

to the beautiful film Water. With her characteristic grace,

Sidhwa historicize the image, lends greater poignancy to

faces and provides speech where the film must leave the

women speechless.’
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CHAPTER 3:

THE HARDSHIPS OF WIDOWS IN ASHRAM

The novel takes the most controversial issues including patriarchy,

religion, corruption, poverty, child prostitution and hidden love. These issues

are brought to light through the stories of three widows: Chuyia, a child

widow who brings life into the ashram; Kalyani, a beautiful young widow,

who falls in love with a reformist law student Narayan, and Shakuntala, a

devout believes in the traditions who struggle to make sense of the realities

that surround her.

According to Gandhi, the problem of early widowhood for Hindu

girls is closely connected to the problem of child marriage. He pointed out

that girl children left widowed should not be considered widows in the true

sense of the term, because they had never experienced married-life. Gandhi

referred to the prohibition of remarriage for child widows as a senseless and

cruel custom, which should be abolished forthwith. The unhappy girls should

be given every opportunity to find mates. Gandhi's opposition to enforced

widowhood of young girls went so far to publically call upon young college

men to take a vow to marry none other than a girl widow. (Young India)

Chuyia is an eight year old child, married to an elderly man, Hira Lal,

who is nearing fifty. After two years, Chuyia had literally forgotten that she

was married. Hira Lal is taken ill and dies, leaving Chuyia a widow at a

tender age. Her father Somnath, takes her for the funeral rites, where looking

at the pyres, Chuyia is bewitched by the flames.

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She is too young to understand any notion of marriage and of death.

Chuyia’s mother-in-law gazes callously at her as she thinks it is her bad

karmas that have brought death to her son. Hindu customs in the villages of

Bihar, bordering Bengal, are heart-wrenching. Chuyia is stripped off her

mangal-sutra and other symbols that are indicative of her marital status. Her

bangles are smashed brutally, treating her as if she was cast in stone. Even the

barber who is to shave her head was moved by the predicament in which

Chuyia is enmeshed. After bathing, on the ghats, she is stripped off the

colorful clothes by a hired woman and is wrapped in just a single white

coarse-cloth. She is left to her fate by her mother-in-law. Her father can’t

keep her because of the strict codes of Hindu Brahminical laws.

From now onwards Chuyia has stopped existing as a person and is fit

to be part of the society. It is tragic beyond comprehension how even parents

could be so indifferent to one’s own child just for the sake of carrying the

burden of inhuman laws of the land. In spite of Chuyia’s imploration to take

her back home, Somnath, left her in the widow-ashram, where Chuyia first of

all confronts Madhumati who welcomes her saying: “In our shared grief

we’re all sisters here and this ashram is our only refuge” (Water 36)

This is the larger concern that Sidhwa touches upon, speaking for the

suffering of women across the globe, in one way or the other. But her

protagonists are daring, causing ripples in the surroundings in which they are

forced to live and in the process come to self-realization. The unawareness of

inscribed social stigma also makes her think, that she can decide whether she

wants to be a widow or not.

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In the dialogue, Chuiya first takes a glimpse inside the ashram and

then comes to the decision that she would prefer going home. Then she is

taken inside and experiences some more of the lives of the widows. After

Madhumati’s explanations Chuiya angrily shouts at her: “I don’t want to be a

stupid widow! Fatty!” (Water 37)

Chuyia is always hoping against hope that one day she will go back

home. In this regard Jai Arjun Singh’s observation is pertinent.

“Slowly, Chuyia overcomes her sense of dislocation, makes

friends with other women in the ashram and stirs a few

hackles with her directness in situations where others simply

follow the letter of the ancient texts”

Chuyia, Bapsi’s protagonist, is a keen observer. When she sees a

large number of widows’s collected in the temple hall, clapping and singing

joylessly, as this was their only means of sustenance, feeding a fistful of rice

and daal, served after the performance of the religious rites, Chuyia

instinctively asks: “Where is the house for men-widows?”(Water 70)

This question sends simmers down the widows who instinctively cry

out aloud, “God, protect our men from such a fate!” (Water 70)

Chuyia, who is quiet observant notices that among the widows, there

is one, whose head,is not shaven. She befriends her and finds out that this

young widow is Kalyani, who is assigned a separate room on the terrace.

Kalyani too, is touched by the fate of this child-widow and is reminded of her

own wounds. She is sympathetic and caring towards Chuyia who in turn
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serves as a huge wave upon which Kalyani tries to surf for a fulfilment. When

her friend Kalyani falls in love with a young Gandhian idealist, the proscribed

affair boldly defies Hindu tradition and threatens to destabilize the delicate

power balance within the ashram. Kalyani tells Chuyia that she is free to visit

her room and play with Kaalu, the pet dog, whenever she likes. But Chuyia

instantly responds with all gravity, ‘I am not staying here…My mother is

coming to get me.’ (Water 45) When Kalyani makes no attempt to answer,

Chuyia again asserted, ‘If not today, tomorrow for sure.’ (Water 45)

Such confidence is undoubtedly the domain of Sidhwa’s protagonists

in novel after novel. Sidhwa’s canvas encompasses daring women who have a

strong urge to bury that is obsolete and walk their own paths. Chuyia loves

Kalyani’s pet Kaalu, as it reminds her own pet back home. Both of them had

gone to the ghats to bathe Kaalu, when Narayan, a young follower of Gandhi

is mesmerized by the onset of his feelings for Kaalu and wanted to know

where she lived, Chuyia’s acute perception of his innermost recesses cast her

into the role of an elder and taking pity on him says: ‘She lives in the House

of widows, and that, I am just visiting her’ (Water 55). This statement by

Chuyia brings to surface the dubiousness of the strictures imposed on her

childhood and she is sure of returning to her parents someday.

Chuyia serves as a vehicle for Narayan and Kalyani’s romance to

flourish, helping them exchange written scripts, professing the love for each

other. Sidhwa herself acknowledges Chuyia’s role in this developing

relationship. Chuyia became the secret emissary between Narayan and kalyani

and took her role seriously and delighted in it.

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The most elderly widow, whose husband had also died when she was

young, tells Chuyia that life is unhappiness. She passes the time dreaming

about sweets like the ones she had eaten at her wedding and pines for the only

physical pleasure she had known. When another widow dies, her sardonic

comment sums up the oppression of Indian women and, ironically, the place

of religion in this oppression: “God willing, she’ll be reborn as a man!”(Water

100)

Chuyia was once offered puris by Gulabi, the eunuch, but Madhumati

scolded her saying,“Are you mad?’ she scolded Gulabi. ‘Giving a widow

forbidden food!’ (Water 122) Chuyia is offended and challenges say, “So

what? I will eat a hundred puris at Kalyani’s wedding.”(Water 122)

The piece of information and the defying attitude of Chuyia was too

much for Madhumati to digest and conforming again from Chuyia, she

snorted, “She will get married over my dead body! Widows don’t get

married.”(Water 122) But Chuyia maintained what was the truth and rightful,

insisted, “But she will.” “No she won’t! Now get off” (Water 122).

At a later stage in the novel when Madhumati tries to push Chuyia into

prostitution, through Gulabi, the eunuch, and had literally sent her across the

water on the pretext of sending Chuyia to her parental home as this was the

weak spot where Madhumati could take advantage of otherwise defying child.

Chuyia, as a child she is, unaware of the ways of the adult world. She is

rescued by Shakuntala from the boat by which Gulabi was rowing back to

Ghats across the waters. Seeing Shakuntala’s rage, Gulabi runs away to save

herself from her wrath. Shakuntala with the help of a woman, a Gandhi
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follower sprinkled water on Chuyia who seemed to have been drugged.

Shakuntala was clear about the way Chuyia’s life should be stirred:

After Kalyani’s suicide and the bestial horrors that had been

perpetrated on the poor child in her arms, her convictions had

been shaken; they couldn’t be counted on to direct her life

any more. (Water)

Shakuntala had a fainting hope that this was the right time when

Chuyia should be boarded on the train and handed over to any of the Gandhi

followers. Taking Chuyia in her lap, she runs across the platform the train by

which Gandhi was travelling had just whistled and sped off. But her faith in

Gandhi and his followers was so strong that Shakuntala ran to the risk of her

life. There was loud screams, and just then she saw Narayan gasping to hold

Chuyia. With the help of people on board Chuyia was ultimately in the safe

hands of Narayan and other Gandhi followers. Shakuntala was hopeful that

anyone of them would marry Chuyia and she will find a blessed future in the

custody of people with broadened outlook. Sidhwa hints that there is a ray of

hope, bringing to readers the fact among the followers of Gandhi. Shakuntala

also has a glance of the face of the same woman who had helped Chuyia

regain consciousness at the ghats, and she promised to take care of Chuyia.

Arjun Singh’s states that,

“Growing influence of Mahatama Gandhi does in fact seem

to indicate a better future for society’s victims, and Water

ends on a tenuous note of hope”

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The author in an interview to Francesco Mannoni acknowledges that,

“At eight years old, Chuyia is too young and seems to have

been doctrined by the worst of these traditions, and she rebels

against them. Most girls in her position succumb to the

pressures of traditional mores by their teens, but they don’t

lose their desire for romance and love. Chuyia’s example and

the change in thinking of other widows, especially Shakuntla,

are cause for hope and celebration.”

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CHAPTER 4

PREVALENT CONDITIONS OF INDIAN WIDOWS

In all societies, the loss of the marital partner through death

necessarily involves several changes in the financial arrangements and

subsequent economic management, and these are even more so if the dead

spouse was the primary earner in the family. In general, women tend to be

worse affected, largely because of the gender construction of society: in

almost all societies, men are disproportionately likely to hold assets of all

kinds and engage in paid work, relative to women.

The well-known gender gaps in occupational distribution and pay add

to the discrepancy. So a wide range of patriarchal institutions, most particular

patrilineal inheritance, patrilocal residence and the gendered division of

labour in a society, which affect all women, also affect widows and make

their situation that much more difficult than for widowed men. Patrilocality in

the narrow sense refers to the norm prevalent in most Hindu communities of

India, according to which a woman has to leave her parental home at the time

of marriage to join her husband in his home. In a broader sense, especially in

North India where marriage rules dictate marriage outside the village,

Patrilocality can also be understood to refer to the drastic alienation from her

parental family experienced by a married woman after her 'transfer' to her

husband's family.

The system of patrilocal residence also plays a crucial part in the

deprivation of widows. In North India, in particular, widows are expected to

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remain in their husband's village, and most of them do so. However, they are

unlikely to receive much support from their in-laws. In effect, most North

Indian widows are denied both the freedom to leave their husband's village,

and the support they need to live there happily (Dreze and Sen 1995:174). The

north Indian widow tends to be a highly marginalised person. She typically

receives very little support from persons other than her children, and even

when she lives with one or several of her adult sons she remains highly

vulnerable to neglect.

But in India the gender dimensions of this are much stronger than in

most other countries and they affect many more women. There are at least 55

million widows in India, probably more. That is around the same as the entire

population of countries like South Africa and Tanzania, more than all the

people in South Korea or Myanmar. It is well known that in India widows

tend to face many difficulties and deprivations because of negative social

attitudes towards them and social restrictions that are placed upon them and

their activities. They are subject to patriarchal customs, religious laws and

widespread discrimination in inheritance rights. Many suffer abuse and

exploitation at the hands of family members, often in the context of property

disputes.

Remarriage is much less common than among male widowers, and

often explicitly or implicitly forbidden by local communities and prevalent

cultural norms. Widows are often perceived as “unlucky” and subject to

various kinds of discrimination and even ostracism. Issues about the division

of the marital property and the rights of the widowed over such property,
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relative to the rights of children, are also significant. In many instances,

women are denied automatic rights over the property of the dead spouse, and

are therefore forced to reply upon the largesse of inheriting children. In

families with less assets and incomes they are also more prone to being

abandoned or forced to reside in ashrams and similar refuges, as testified by

the well-known presence of widows in Banaras. Among the extremely

destitute in India, widows are disproportionately represented.

In the northern Indian state of Punjab, a widow is referred to as

Randi, which means “prostitute” in Punjabi. In this region, they usually

arrange for the widow to marry her deceased husband’s brother because being

owned by a man is a way to avoid being raped.

“Widowhood is a state of social death, even among the higher castes,”

says Mohini Giri, a veteran activist in the fight for women’s rights who was

nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She is also the director of the

Chennai-based social work non-profit organization Guild for Service.

Widows are still accused of being responsible for their

husband’s death, and they are expected to have a spiritual life

with many restrictions which affects them both physically

and psychologically.

Laxmi Puri, acting Head of UN Women, told The Hindu during her recent

visit to India:

First because they are women and second being widows, such

women encounter heightened discrimination. So we need to

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address the issues of widows and their condition as part of gender

equality and empowerment agenda.

The cities of Vrindavan and Varanasi – referred to as the “widow

cities” of India –welcome thousands of widows every year; those who have

no other place left to go. These cities are home to a large number of dingy,

suffocated, guest houses and “ashrams” where impoverished and abandoned

widows spend the remainder of their lives.

In such places, young widows are often sexually exploited or enter

prostitution. Elderly widows are reduced to begging outside temples or busy

streets. Such widows don’t have roofs over their heads. It’s believed that

about 15,000 of them live on the streets of Vrindavan, which makes a large

majority of the 55, 000 people who live there.

Although widows today are not forced to die in ritual sati (where a

wife is forced to immolates herself on the burning pyre of her deceased

husband), they are still generally expected to mourn until the end of their

lives. According to 2,000-year-old sacred texts by Manu, the Hindu

progenitor of mankind:

“A virtuous wife is one who after the death of her husband

constantly remains chaste and reaches heaven though she has

no son.”

Historically, traditions like ‘widow-burning’ or Sati characterized the

norms of Hindu society for widows. The treatment they got was extremely

discriminatory and inhuman. Practices such as Sati were abolished during the
 Akhtar 23

British rule and in 1856 the British legalized widow remarriage in India. A

century and a half has passed away since then; Indian Independence has

happened, economic liberalization and globalization have transformed our

basic cultural system. Yet, widows still lead a miserable and pitiable life in

many towns of India. In the absence of financial independence, their

hardships only increase. This is one of the major reasons behind their ouster

from home — because they’re seen as a financial drain on their families.

The fundamental flaw in the law’s treatment of widows is the bias that

exists towards women’s protection, rather than women’s independence.

Widows are left marginalised as the legal system assumes a paternalistic

stance. Instead of helping women to become self-sufficient, the state takes

over and propagates the rhetoric appropriate to a caretaker social welfare

ideology, but it does not implement programs that would provide the

measures it promises.

According to recent information, widows represent a little over 9 per

cent of the female population. The incidence of widowhood is lower in most

of the northern states than in south India. This can be attributed to several

factors, including strong survival advantages of adult females (compared with

adult males) in the south; a large difference between male and female age at

marriage in the south; comparatively high remarriage rates in the north; and

high mortality rates among north Indian widows. The incidence of

widowhood rises sharply with age. The proportion of widows is as high as 64

per cent among women aged 60 and above, and 80 per cent among women
 Akhtar 24

aged 70 and above. In other words, an Indian woman who survives to old age

is almost certain to become a widow.

Leaving aside societal stigmas, economic problems could be addressed to

some extent by formulating welfare schemes for widows. But facts reveal

those that currently exist are poorly implemented. Only about 28 percent of

the widows in India are eligible for pensions and even among them less than

11 percent actually receive their dues.

A tiny ray of hope, however, has made its way recently as the Supreme

Court of India has appointed a seven-member panel to collect data on the

socio-economic conditions of widows in Uttar Pradesh, taking note of their

“pitiable condition”. The committee is to conduct an enumeration of the

widows living in the city within eight weeks. The SC bench has taken note of

the need for “immediate steps for their rehabilitation and better living”. In

2015 The Widow Protection and Maintenance bill passed by Shri Janardan

Singh, M.P to provide for the measures to be undertaken by the State for the

protection and maintenance of neglected, abandoned and destitute widows by

establishing a Welfare Board for such widows and for matters connected

therewith or incidental thereto. Also Water concludes with a sign of hope for

the widows in the ashram; as well as for all the other discarded and

untouchables in India. Gandhi’s train goes through the village bringing that

message of change and hope.

 Akhtar 25

CONCLUSION

Throughout the novel, there is a stigma around widows. Widows are

considered a disgrace in society and go through a lot of hardships to survive.

In culture and tradition widows are considered also to be a bad omen and the

reason for the death of their husbands. They are supposed to do the work

others are doing for a long time. They follow the same rules like other

widows and believe it is the fate they deserve like putting restrictions on their

diets and do what traditions ask them to do. The novel proves to be a seething

critique of India social system prior to independence days. Gandhi is seen as

the "only" hope for the upliftment of the widows.

This research concludes with the sign of hope when the widow child gets free

from the irrational conventional norms implied by patriarchal society.

 Akhtar 26

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 Akhtar 27

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