JSAWS Vol. 2, No. 2 - January 1996 - ISSN 1085-7478

[Enrica Garzilli]

We are very pleased to announce that the *JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIA WOMEN 
STUDIES*, VOL. 2, NO. 1 (JANUARY 26, 1996) -- ISSN 1085-7478 

has just been distributed to our members via email (jswas at shore.net).
It will be published in our WWW pages 
(http://www.shore.net/~india/jsaws/) in a few days. 

CONTENTS:

- Note from the Editor
- How to submit a contribution?
- Copyright Notice
- News
- The Kyoto-Harvard Transcription
- Paper: *StrIdhana: To Have and To Have Not*, by Enrica
  Garzilli
- Directory Email Book (DEB)

                        * * * * * 

             STRIDHANA: TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT
                           by 
                     Enrica Garzilli

Abstract: 

The paper is a survey and an analysis of Hindu women's rights to 
property (strIdhana) in India. The first part deals with the 
connection between Indian dowry and property. In fact, dowry has 
been for centuries the only property of Hindu women. The second 
part is a diachronical study of the law according to the 
traditional Hindu law-books, the dharmashastras. The 
interdependence between dowry, considered for centuries as a 
substitute for inheritance, and inheritance itself has also been 
investigated. The most authoritative Indian law-books from the 
Manavadharmashastra (2nd-3rd A.D.) until the Hindu Succession 
Act of 1956, and some major commentaries and digests on them, 
have been considered. The third part of the study focuses on 
the legal fracture between the concepts of property and strIdhana 
under the British rule. The English misinterpretation of the 
traditional law allowed women to have full property rights only 
with certain restrictions and only when still alive. The third 
and fourth parts of the paper analyze the Hindu Women's Rights to 
Property Act (1937) and the Hindu Succession Act (1956). In the 
last part there is an attempt to answer a few questions that come 
from the study.
                            * * * * * 


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Thank you. 
Enjoy the reading!

Dott. Enrica Garzilli
Harvard Law School
Editor-in-Chief