TY - BOOK ID - 77895697 TI - She comes to take her rights : Indian women, property, and propriety PY - 1999 SN - 0585075727 9780585075723 0791440958 0791440966 0791495922 DB - UniCat KW - Property (Hindu law). KW - Sex role KW - Women (Hindu law). KW - Women KW - Women's rights KW - Economic conditions. KW - Social conditions. KW - Women (Hindu law) KW - Property (Hindu law) KW - Hindu law KW - Legal status, laws, etc. (Hindu law) KW - Women's Rights KW - Law KW - Political Science KW - Social Science KW - Religion KW - Social science UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77895697 AB - Using the contemporary workings of property law in India through the lives and thoughts of middle-class and poor women, this is a study of the ways in which cultural practices, and particularly notions of gender ideology, guide the workings of law. It urges a close reading of decisions by women that appear to be contrary to material interests and that reinforce patriarchal ideologies.Hailed as a radical moment for gender equality, the Hindu Succession Act was passed in India in 1956 theoretically giving Hindu women the right to equal inheritance of their parents' self-acquired property. However, in the years since the act's existence, its provisions have scarcely been utilized. Using interview data drawn from middle-class and poor neighborhoods in Delhi, this book explores the complexity of women's decisions with regard to family property in this context. The book shows that it is not passivity, ignorance of the law, naivet about wealth, or unthinking adherence to gender prescriptions that guides women's decisions, but rather an intricate negotiation of kinship and an optimization of socioeconomic and emotional needs. An examination of recent legal cases also reveals that the formal legal realm can be hospitable to women's rights-based claims, but judgments are still coded in terms of customary provisions despite legal criteria to the contrary. ER -