On the Construction of Gender
Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India
What are the mechanisms through which women acquire the cultural ideas and values which shape their images of
themselves and inform the visions they have of the future? What are the processes by which women are produced
as gendered subjects in the patrilineal, patrivirilocal milieu of Indian society? This article examines the process
of socialisation of Hindu girls through rituals and ceremonies, the use of language, and practices within and in
relation to the family.
T H E process of growing up female in the
patrilineal, patrivirilocal milieu of Indian
society has received inadequate attention
from social scientists. The many subtleties
and complexities of the process have been
missed out. What docs it mean to be a girl?
At what age does a girl become conscious
of the constraints under which she will have
to live, of the differential value accorded to
male and female children, and of the justi-
fications behind it? When and how does she
learn the content of roles appropriate to her?
What are the mechanisms through which
women acquire the cultural ideas and values
that shape their images of themselves, and
inform the visions they have of the future?
How do they acquire sensitivity towards the
contradictions in values and norms pre-
sented to them and towards the limits within
which they have to function, necessitating
the adoption of particular strategies? In
other words, how are women produced as
gendered subjects?
This paper1 goes a part of the way in
answering some of these qestions. I do this
by focusing on aspects of the process of
socialisation of Hindu girls through rituals
and ceremonies, the use of language, and
practices within and in relation to the family.
1 have restricted my focus on the socalisa-
tion of Hindu girls for two reasons: the first-
hand material on rituals and linguistic ex-
pressions, customs and practices which I
could gather for the paper came mostly from
Hindu informants or about Hindu girls; and
my own upbringing in a Hindu family form-
ed a solid base for collecting information
and for understanding and interpreting it.
The material used in this paper comes from
various regions of India. While producing
instances, I have, in the anthropological
tradition, specified the region to which and
often the group to whom the ritual/custom/
practice relates. However, the spread of these
rituals, customs, and practices is wider in
terms of geographical and social space; the
generalisations and inferences drawn from
them have much wider applicability.
It should be kept in mind that gender dif-
ferences that are culturally produced are,
almost invariably, interpreted as being rooted
in biology, as part of 'the natural order of
things'. To give one relevant example, in
patrilineal India the commonly-held idea
regarding the roles of father and mother in
procreation is that man provides the seed
Economic and Political Weekly April 30, 1988
Leela Dube
the essencewhile the woman provides the
field which receives the seed and nourishes
it. A child shares the father's blood. Thus,
while the natal group emphasises woman's
transferability or her non-functional nature
from the point of view of perpetuation of
the group and continuity of the family, the
husband's group emphasises her instrumen-
tality, her place as a receptacle, a vehicle for
the perpetuation of the group. This social
arrangement in which men and women have
unequal rights, positions, and roles, both as
brother and sister and as husband and wife,
is perceived as corresponding to the arrange-
ment of nature which assigns unequal roles
to the two sexes in procreation.'
(lender roles are conceived, enacted and
learnt within a complex of relationships. To
understand this process it is necessary to
keep in mind the implications of the family
structure and the wider context of kinship
in which it is embedded. There arc two ma-
jor aspects of the implications of family
structure. A family structure, at a given point
of time, is not just a function of demo-
graphy, it also reflects the rules of recruit-
ment and marital residence and the nor-
mative and actual patterns of rearrangement
of the family in the process of the replace-
ment of the old generation by the new. Se-
cond, there is something beyond the actual
composition of a family unit its 'configura-
tion of role relationships' and 'specific' and
'objective' contribution of members to the.
business of livingthat goes into the appor-
tionment of family resources, gender-based
and age-based division of work, and the con-
ceptions of, and training for, future roles of
male and female children.
Kinship is not merely a moral code but
provides the organising principles which
govern the recruitment to and placement of
individuals in social groups, formation of
the family and household, residence at mar-
riage, resource distribution including in-
heritance, and obligations and responsi-
bilities in the business of living of individual
members of the group. The notion of
entitlementto membership in a family, to
food and nutrition, to health care, to educa-
tion, to authority and decision-making
cannot be understood and a proper analysis
of family ideology is impossible unless we
take note of these aspects. Many of them
may not be clearly spelt out; it is necessary,
therefore, to examine the assumptions
underlying the ideas and behaviour of the
people. Their close relationship with religion
as it is lived and practised by the people does
not need emphasis. The specificity of a kin-
ship system is crucial for understanding the
process of socialisation. This is, of course,
not to deny the need to examine the various
inter-linkages between the individual
household and the wider structures and pro-
cesses of society; the recognition of the im-
portance of the specificity of kinship is
crucial for such examination.
Finally, family structure and patterns of
kinship are tied to the institution of caste.
In the caste system the fact that membership
of discrete and distinct groups is defined by
birth entails a concern with boundary
maintenance through regulation of marriage
and sexual relations. Although group place-
ment in most of Hindu India is governed by
the principle of patrilineal descent, in the
attribution of caste status to the child the
caste of the mother is not irrelevant. The
onus of boundary maintenance falls on
women because of their role in biological
reproduction. Caste, then, imparts a special
character to the process of growing up
female in Indian society.
THF MALE CHILD
The recognition of the special value ac-
corded to male children comes early. While
surrounded by affectionate and appreciative
parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, a
little girl of three or four may hear a
maidservant exclaim: "Oh such a sweet
child. How wonderful it would have been if
this was a boy?" This incident was narrated
to me by M K Chander of the University of
Mysore. The little girl in question was the
second daughter of parents who were hoping
for a son. The happiness expressed all
around at the birth of a son and the way the
parents and the close relatives of the new
born are congratulated can hardly escape the
attention of little girls. The desirability of
having sons and undesirability of having
more daughters is made explicit, often by
outsiders: "Four daughters? Each one will
take thousands of rupees and walk out of
the house. Bringing up a daughter is like
pouring water in sand'' Parents who have
only daughters are pitied. Their future is
bleak for they will have no support or suc-
cour in old age. A Telegu expression conveys
ws-11
this effectively: "Bringing up a daughter is
like watering a plant in another's courtyard!'
Elders bless young girls and women by
wishing that they have a large number of
sons (and just one daughter). The notion of
the greater value of sons is further streng-
thened by the existence, with regional varia-
tions, of special worships and vratas (fasts
and observances) that are performed by
women to have sons and to ensure a long
life for sons already born. A son born after
the daughter is often described as the fruit
of penance and vows undertaken by the
mother. A male child is so valuable that the
sister after whom it is born comes in for
special praise as auspicious and auguring
good fortune. She is honoured in various
ways. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, a lump
of jaggery is broken on her back. She has
the distinction of bringing in good luck in
the form of brother, a son to continue the
family line.
I am not arguing that a girl is given a feel-
ing of being unwanted all the time. In many
regions there are some special days on which
daughters of the family are honoured. There
is a considerable interest in a daughter's
clothes, ornaments, and accomplishments,
A saying in Marathi that "the father of a
girl will never remain hungry" expresses a
general feeling of the usefulness of a
daughter in the performance of housework.
Many parents are proud of their daughters'
achievements at schools and colleges. The
message that gets communicated is, however,
invariably that of the immutability of the
social system and that a daughter's stay in
her parental home is short-lived. Moreover,
not only is there something unnatural about
a delay in or absence of marriage but that
such a situation is full of danger and risk
to the reputation of the family. An Oriya
proverb equates a daughter with ghee: both
are valuable but both begin to stink if not
disposed of in time. An expression in Telegu,
very often repeated by women in the con-
text of the worry about marrying a girl at
the appropriate time, describes a post-
puberal daughter as a boil on the chest.3
At the premature death of her husband
a woman is consoled that very soon her sons
will grow up and look after her. One never
hears this being said about daughters. On
the contrary they are looked upon as a
liability and the mother is consoled that with
the grace of god these girls too would be
married off well. Related to this contrast
between the expectations from sons and
daughters is the commonly observed fact
that in middle class families with meagre
resources daughters are sent to relatively in-
expensive regional language schools whereas
boys are educated in more expensive English
medium schools. In people's perception the
education of a daughter is essentially for her
own benefit; it is not an investment so far
as the natal family is concerned.
T H E NATAL H O M E
Girls grow up with a notion of their tem-
porary membership within the natal home.
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Rituals provide one of the important means idol and for an exchange or distribution of
through which girls come to realise the in- saubhagyachinha or symbols of married
evitability of their transfer from the natal state which indicate good fortune and
home to that of the husband. Sucheta auspiciousness. In all these festivals the com-
Mazumdar, talking about the socialisation ing of daughters to the natal home is a happy
of Hindu middle class Bengali women, says: event but always of brief duration.
... Durga puja does carry one important The change in the daughter's relationship
message for young girls. This puja is sup- with her natal home after marriage forms
posedly in celebration of the goddess's return the content of many other rituals. In a
to her natal home. The fact that it lasts for Bengali wedding, before leaving her natal
five days in the whole year forcefully suggests home with the bridegroom, the bride stands
to the girl that, once married, she too can- with her back towards the house and throws
not expect to visit her family very often.4 a handful of rice over her shoulder. This
Durga puja has a parallel in Karnataka, the signifies that she has returned the rice that
Gauri puja. The Gauri puja, celebrated she has consumed until then and has absolv-
about a month before the Durga puja, com- ed herself of the debt in the natal family.
memorates Gauri's visit to her natal home. Another custom, also from Bengal, which
The songs sung by women describe how is a variation of the 'returning of the rice'
Gauri entreats Shiva to send her home and, theme seems to express a feeling of helpless-
Shiva comes out with a series of arguments ness and worthlessness on the part of a
which spell out the duties of an ideal daughter. The morning after the wedding
housewife and mother. An interesting when the bride is preparing to leave the
argueni that Shiva puts forward is that house she speaks to her father with a hand-
Ganesha is young, he is used to comforts ful of dust and says three times, "1 have
and luxuries in their house, Gauri's parents taken from you in handfuls of gold. I am
are poor; if Ganesha makes demands which giving back in handfuls of dust". In an Oriya
her parents cannot fulfil the child will be wedding, the bride pours rice into the pallu
miserable. It would also be an embarrass- (end of the sari) of her mother. This gives
ment for her parents. Gauri persists in her rise to sighs, mutterings, wailing and weep-
request entreating that she may be allowed ing all around that now that she has return-
to go at least for three days. Finally Shiva ed the rice she has consumed, the daughter's
permits. Just as Durga comes with her four relationship with her natal home is broken
children, Gauri is followed by Ganesha, her for ever.
younger son. The visit lasts for three to five The idea of the accident of birth and the
days and is celebrated with great fanfare. contrasting fortunes of daughter and son is
Then comes the hour of farewell. The at- a common theme in wailings and the 'send-
mosphere is heavy. Young girls are often o f f of a bride from her natal home and also
moved to tears just as they are at the wed- in subsequent visits and departures of a mar-
dings of their female relatives and friends ried daughter. To give one example, in parts
when the transfer of the bride from the natal of central India, on the eve of the ceremonial
family to the husband and his family is departure of a daughter after the wedding,
dramatised through rituals and ceremonies. a mother wails: " M y child, had you been a
The Gauri puja conveys to young girls the son you would have lived with us and
truth that they too will have to leave the ploughed the field and looked after us. I
mother's home. It also underscores a would have served you hot rice. But now you
woman's lack of autonomy with respect to are being sent out of the house like a corpse!'
her visits to the natal home. In fact, in the The songs sung in the Hindi belt at the
process of socialisation of girls there is con- time of sending off the bride express feel-
siderable emphasis on the possible need to ings of sorrow and resentment of the bride:
bow before the wishes of the husband and
O father you brought my brother up to be
his family, and in general, on the sub-
happy,
missiveness and obedience, as feminine
5 You brought me up for shedding tears,
ideals. O father, you have brought your son up to
Gauri puja is celebrated also in parts of give him your house,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maha- And you have left a cage for me.
rashtra. Some other festivals in Andhra Looking upon the daughter as a tem-
Pradesh and Maharashtra contain the same porary member of the family and the son
idea of the coming home of a goddess or as a permanent member has its conse-
goddesses; around the same time as Gauri quences: often girls themselves are keen to
puja many families celebrate the coming collect their own dowry without much con-
home of two devis, known as elder and sideration for the plight of the parents and
younger Mahalakshmis (who are believed to the future of younger siblings. If they have
be sisters) along with their children. The no right of membership in the natal family,
festival lasts for three days. It is customary they also have no obligation to contribute
to invite married daughters of the family, towards its maintenance. Their main concern
real and classificatory, to the feast in honour is to establish themselves in the new family
of the Mahalakshmis. A popular festival of and acquire a status there. They look upon
married women in Maharashtra in the dowry as a necessary contribution towards
month of Chaitra (March-April) celebrates this process. An Oriya proverb brings out the
the coming home of Gauri: women invite lack of convergence between the interests of
each other for viewing the well-decorated the daughter and the mother: "mother and
Economic and Political Weekly April 30, 1988
(laughter go into the temple, each to pray for
her own happiness'. Just as a daughter's well-
being is not essential for her mother's hap-
piness, the daughter too need not pray for
her mother, for her own happiness is not
dependent on her natal family's well-being.
On the other hand, from childhood a boy
is depicted as the future provider, the light
of the lineage, the one who would alter the
family's fortunes. He is induced to do well
in life for his own sake as well as for the sake
of the family. This contributes to feelings of
tension and insecurity and is one of the
reasons why young men find it difficult to
take a stand against dowry which is the
easiest way to improve one's life style
overnight.
The entire complex of wedding rituals
which dramatise the transfer of the bride
from one family to another is, in fact, a
poignant experience and a revelation to girls
in their childhood. Many girls vividly
remember the first experience of the wed-
ding of a girl in the family/kin group. This
is not surprising since the message of the in-
escapability of marriage and of separation
from the parents as a necessary consequence
of marriage is first put across through
lullabies and nursery rhymes:
Rock-a-bye-baby, combs in your pretty hair,
The bridegroom will come soon and take you
away
The drums beat loudly,
The shehnai is playing softly
A stranger's son has come to fetch me
Come my playmates, come with our toys
Let us play, for I shall never play again
When I go off to the stranger's house.6
A necessary corollary of the sense of in-
escapability of marriage is the feeling of
uncertainty about moving to a harsh en-
vironment. This is expressed in terms of a
contrast between the natal home and the
mother-in-law's house:
I went inside the house and the maid-servant
scolded me
Fearing the maid-servant, I went to my room;
And my sister-in-law abused me
Fearing my sister-in-law, I went to the
kitchen to cook
Any my mother-in-law threatened me,
Please do not be angry, mother-in-law, I am
like a daughter to you
If you drive me out, wherever shall 1 go?
Similarly, songs of Bhulabai, a special col-
lective worship of the Mother Goddess
observed for a determinate number of days
by little girls in Maharashtra and the songs
of Gangaur in Gujarat and Rajasthan in-
variably speak of the contrast between the
husband's home and the natal home. An oft-
repeated stanza in the songs of Bhulabai
goes tts follows:
The natal home is beautiful;
There we can play to our heart's content
The in-law's place is cruel
It stifles and kills.
The rituals and ceremonies held at the
bridegroom's place signify a welcome and
the process of incorporation of the bride into
the bridegroom's family. These ceremonies
Economic and Political Weekly A p r i l 30, 1988
and rituals do not, however remove feelings
of uncertainty and insecurity about the
future.
It would be interesting to look further at
the lullabies and nursery rhymes. In Bengal,
as in many other parts of India, such
lullabies and nursery rhymes are very com-
mon and cut across the rural-urban divide
and, often, across class and social group.
Each song has many renderings in different
dialects. There are songs meant for girls
alone, songs, for both boys and girls, and
songs that are meant for boys alone:
Do not cry my beautiful baby, I shall bring
a wife for you
Her skin will be like gold, her lips will be
nipples of red.
I shall fill huge drums with ghee,
I shall cook very fine rice
My son will eat his fill,
His wife will lick his empty plate.
It is obvious that these songs convey the
same message to the girls who hear them:
that of their transferability and the possibili-
ty of an unfriendly environment which they
will have to face in future.
A very effective source of conveying these
ideas is everyday language. Take, for in-
stance, the following questions which form
part of the conversation among elders: ' I n
which family have you given your daughter?'
or, as in Oriya, 'Where have you sent your
daughter to toil?' or, 'Into which family have
you married your daughter?'. These expres-
sions imply transferability or transference of
a female child as 'givens' of the social reality.
C O N S T R U C T I O N OF FEMINEITY: . CONSTRUCTION O F F E M I N E I T Y : O N S E T
PREPUBERTAL PHASE
The construction of femineity, 7 is a con-
tinuous, complex, and occasionally con-
tradictory process. The differential value of
sons and daughters and the unshakable
association between marriage and the depar-
ture from the natal home is complemented
by the notion of the intrinsic purity of pre-
pubertal girls. This quality of purity is given
special recognition in several rituals. In the
marriage ceremonyy of certain brahmin
groups and a few other communities in Kar-
nataka a little girl carries a pot of auspicious
water decorated with betel or mango leaves
on her head and walks in front of the bride.
She is believed to ward off evil. In fact, a
little girl carrying a pot of water decorated
with leaves and often covered with a
coconut is a necessary feature of marriage
ceremony and other rituals among many
caste groups in south India and Maharashtra.
Among the brahmins of Andhra Pradesh
such a girl has to accompany the bride-
groom. In Maharashtra, when Maratha
bridegroom is going in a procession to the
wedding pandal, a little girl sits behind him
on horseback and carries a small pot of
water on her head. A pre-pubertal girl is
looked upon as a manifestation of devi or
Mother Goddess and is believed to be an
anti-dote to evil spirits and the evil eye.
In parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,
and Maharashtra, at the name-giving
ceremony of an infant a little girl is chosen
to act as the mother of an infant which is
represented by a stone, usually an elliptical
grinding stone. She sits near the mother of
the new born on a decorated seat. The stone
representing an infant is wrapped in a new
cloth, just as the human baby is in new
clothes, and may also be adorned with an
ornament. The little girl and the stone in-
fant go through the various rituals before
the mother and the new-born do so; this is
to ward o f f evil. I n some communities a lit-
tle girl also plays the role of a companion
to a pubertal girl during the period of seclu-
sion on her first menstruation.
Beginning from Kashmir in the north-west
the custom of worshipping and the ritual
feeding virgin girls (kanya) on special occa-
sions is widespread in India. The eighth day
of the festival of nine nights (nava ratri) is
one such special occasion. On this occasion
in Bengal, one girl is chosen as representing
the Mother Goddess. She is decorated in
finery and is worshipped. The offerings
made to her are consumed by others as
prasad (consecrated food). Two Points
emerge: First, in the instances given above
the roles or forms assigned to little gifts are
essentially feminine ones8 and help in
developing their consciousness of fernaleity.
Second, the purity and the consequent
privileged status of a girl in the pre-pubertal
phase contrasts sharply with pubetry and
post-pubertal status and helps define the
latter phase with tremendous clarity
OF PUBERTY
The onset of puberty introduces dribasic
changes in the life of a girl. In many Indian
languages menstruation is likened to the
process of flowering or blossoming the
necessary stage before fruit can appear
and expressions such as 'her body is full',
'it is ripe', and 'it is ready' are common.
References to full-grown body, becoming a
'woman' becoming 'big', becoming 'mature'
and 'knowledgeable' all express the fact of
her changed status.
In south India this change in statua is ex-
pressed through rituals and ceremonies.
Some castes in Maharashtra and O r i s s a also
share the essential features of puberty rituals
although they often conduct them on a fairly
modest scale. My account of puberty rituals
and special dietary prescriptions and restric-
tions for pubertal girls is based on observa-
tion and informal interviewing, It was a con-
scious decision on my part not to depend
on the earlier accounts of puberty rituals
prepared by anthropologists and administ-
rators and published in volumes on-tribes
and castes and in monographs and journals;
I was keen to know the situation which ex-
ists now. Information was collected for dif-
ferent castes in various geographical areas.
The common features of the celebration of
the onset of puberty are: confinement or
seclusion of the girl for a certain number of
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days9 arti to signify the auspiciousness of
the occasion and to ward o f f evil to which
a menstruating girl is believed to be especial-
ly vulnerable, serving her special food, in-
forming the relatives and friends, giving the
girl a ritual bath, presenting her with new
clothes and accessories of beautification
such as flowers, jewellery and bangles, and
a feast which also serves the purpose of an-
nouncement of the event.10
In Karnataka, at her first menstruation a
girl is fed with dry coconut, milk, ghee, eer
tain fruits, a mixture of jaggery and sesame
seeds and meat and chicken soups among
meat-eating groups. It is customary for the
relatives, particularly the affinal relatives, to
bring gifts. In Andhra Pradesh jaggery and
sesame seeds are ceremonially pounded by
women often to the accompaniment of
songs; small balls made out of this mixture
are given to the menstruating girl and are
distributed among women and girls. There
is also an exchange of turmeric powder and
kumkum among married women which is
a common feature of most auspicious oc-
casions. Among the vokkaliga of Mysore the
period of confinement lasts for sixteen days
at the end of which there is a celebration.
The girl has to be kept back from attending
school or going out.
The fact of a girl's maturity and her full
grown body is communicated symbolically
through certain gifts. In Andhra pradesh
pre-pubertal girls customarily wear a long
skirt and a blouse. An important component
of the puberty ceremony is the ritual of
wearing a half-sari gifted by the maternal
uncle. A half-sari is much shorter than a full
length sari and hence easily manageable for
a young girl. It, however, serves the main
function of a sari: to provide an outer covet
for the upper portion of her body. The ritual
of wearing a half-sari, therefore, symbolises
the changed status of the pubertal girl.
School-going girls often feel embarrassed
when they are confined at home for a deter
minate number of days, depending upon the
custom of the particular caste, and an ap-
plication for sick leave is sent to school.
Certain customs such as wearing a half-san
make the change in status obvious and in co-
educational institutions when they return to
the school these girls may have to face some
teasing from the boys. It is, however, not easy
for parents to discontinue the practice for
they may be criticised for being stingy in
avoiding the celebration of a gifts coming
of age.
In Marathi, attaining maturity is euphe-
mistically expressed as She has now acquired
a padar' Padar is the upper end of the sari
which is used to cover the bust and is taken
over the shoulder and allowed to hang on
the other side. Among the nattati nadar, a
maternal uncle brings a sari for the niece
when she reaches puberty. The implications
of a full grown body will be discussed a little
later.
It is in the light of her emergent sexuality
and prospective motherhood that the special
diet for the pubertal girl needs to be
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understood. Apart from eating nourishing
food, the girl has to avoid 'cold' or parti-
cularly 'hot' foods. The regulations may
continue from a few days to a few months
to one or two years after the first menstrua-
tion. Indigenous understanding of the
qualities of different kinds of food is at the
back of these restrictions and recommenda-
tions. They are meant to make up for the
loss of blood, regularise the menstrual cycle
and How, strengthen the reproductive organs,
and in general, to contribute towards future
fertility, to make the process of child-bearing
smooth, and to restrain the girl's sexuality.
Puberty celebrations and the special diet
regulations seem to express the value of
restrained and controlled sexuality and of
motherhood.
As a part of the changing scene among
educated people in towns and especially in
cities, the event of first menstruation is be-
ing turned into a family affair without any
ostentatious celebration, though the basic
rituals may be retained. What McGilvray
[1982:34] says about the Moors in Sri Lanka
seems to be the reaction of at least some peo-
ple in Karnataka: "The Moors, on the other
hand, seem now-a-days to be more concern-
ed with the liabilities and proprieties of hav-
ing a nubile unmarried daughter in the
household and so they avoid any public
ritual which might draw attention to her
changed status." It is seen that if an elder
sister is still unmarried, there is a tendency
to hush up the onset of puberty for the
younger sister. As a matter of adherence to
tradition sonic families perform puberty
rituals only for the first daughter, with
celebration and invitations, and take 'he
corning of age of subsequent daughters more
or less as a routine event. A special diet is,
however, given to a pubertal girl, and among
upper castes observances of purity and
pollution relating to menstruation are prac-
tised to a certain extent. Although school-
i n g girls from educated families are able
to have their way and may even be helped
by the father in avoiding the celebration of
the event, they cannot avoid sharing a part
of a common core of ideas and beliefs.
Although the celebration and the ingre-
dients of the special diet may vary across
regions and caste groups, the message is
clear: the girl is now equipped to become a
mother and this is a matter of rejoicing, for
the main purpose of the female body is to
reproduce. The ceremonial wearing of green
bangles by a pubertal girl among the
Maratha caste group in Maharashtra make
this clear since green is the colour of fertility
and signifies auspiciousness. The girl has,
moreover, reached marriageable age and
those people (particularly affines) who are
likely to be interested in a marital alliance
should know about this fact.
Does this emphasis on fertility and mar
nage and special attention which a girl
receives when she reaches puberty increase
her sense of self-worth? Or does it give her
a feeling of being trapped and having lost
her freedom? We cannot be certain. What
Economic and Political Weekly
is clear, however, is that the special value ac-
corded to fertility and marriage also has its
other side, the apprehension of barrenness
and of the failure to get married.
In most of north India the first menstrua-
tion is not marked by rituals. The event is
taken care of by the mother and the female
relatives unobstrusively and within the
home. The observances relating to menstrual
pollution are introduced quietly, often with
the attempt that children and males in the
family and outsiders should not notice them.
A menstruating girl is asked not to eat spicy
food, pickles and curds, and in general to
avoid what are considered very 'cold' or very
'hot' foods. She is advised not to stand in
cold water for too long or to walk around
with wet feet. Jumping, playing rough games
and riding a bicycle are considered as harm-
ful during menstruation. A l l these are related
to the care which needs to be taken of the
girl's reproductive organs and of the regu-
larity of the menstrual period and flow.
It is interesting to note that to the north
of north India, in Nepal, the onset of puber-
ty is marked by confinement and special
rituals. As described by Lynn Bennett,
among the upper caste Pabatiyas, it is mark-
ed by the immediate removal of the girl from
her natal home and seclusion in a dark win-
dowless room known as the 'gupha' or cave.
She may not see or be seen by Surya, the
sun-god, or her male natal kin during the
period of her seclusion. At the end of her
seclusion she must take a purificatory bath
and receive from her father and brothers
gifts consisting of a red sari and a blouse
and accessories of a married woman signi-
fying 'a complete transference of the
daughter's nascent sexuality away from her
natal group and to another patrilme' (p 240),
A significant point made by Bennett is about
the cultural assertion of a girl's sexuality in
relation to her natal male kin as symbolised
by the severe avoidance of these kin by her
during the period of seclusion."
In both north and south India the onset
of puberty is a definite point of departure
in the life of a girl. She has now crossed the
threshold of childhood and entered the most
critical stage of life when her body has ac-
quired a capacity to reproduce but she has
no authority to do so. During the period
between puberty and marriage a woman's
vulnerability is at its peak. The post-pubertal
phase then is characterised by restrictions on
movements and on interaction with males
and by the imposition of special safeguards.
I shall look into these later. My point here
is that the management of a girl's sexuality
is tied to her future as a wife and mother.
Motherhood is the highest achievement in
a woman's life. Marriage is the gateway to
motherhood. Everything else is secondary
to these two goals.
T H E ' F O R T U N A T E ' A N D T H E 'AUSPICIOUS'
Preoccupation with the desirability of
marriage is expressed through a number of
practices. Blessings and vratas for getting a
April 30, 1988
husband like Shiva or Vishnu convey the
message forcefully. The purpose of the two
popular festivals, specially meant for little
girls, Bhulabai in parts of Maharashtra and
Gangaur in parts of Gujarat, which are
characterised by collective worship, singing
and playing, is to obtain a good husband.
There are parallels in collective and in-
dividual worships and fasts in other
regions. 12 The commemoration of the
penance performed by Parvati for obtaining
Shiva as a husband through a fast and puja
(worship) has a very wide spread. In Kar-
nataka when the bride worships Gauri and
distributes prasad, young unmarried girls are
advised to come forward to get a share so
that they too become fortunate tike the bride
and soon get married. In Andhra Pradesh,
it is believed that whoever acts as the bride's
companion during the wedding ceremony
while she is going through the rituals will
soon get married. The same idea informs the
practice of sharing the bride's plate and
absorbing some of her good luck.
It is impossible for young girls to escape
the value of the married state. Marriage
signifies good fortune and a state of bliss.
The terms for a married woman whose hus-
band is alive are saubhagyavati or suhagan
which means the fortunate one and suman-
gali which means the auspicious one. (in
wedding invitations, the prefixes to the
names of the bridegroom and bride differ:
for the bridegroom it is ayushman or chiren-
jeev meaning 'one with long life'; a feminine
form of such a prefix may or may not be
used for the bride, but what is invariably
used is saubhagyakankshini 'one who aspires
for a blissful married state;) On all kinds of
ceremonial occasions and rituals participa-
tion of these 'fortunate' and 'auspicious'
women is essential. Thus, it is only a mar-
ried woman with a living husband who can
participate in digging the earth and carrying
it to the marriage pandal, spreading oil and
turmeric paste on the body of the bride or
the bridegroom, and performing an arti on
these auspicious occasions. The instances are
innumerable.
The saubhagyagood fortuneor
suspiciousness has to be carefully nurtured,
There are a series of vratas to be observed
by married women for the long life and pro-
sperity of the husband and the accompany-
ing narratives have clear messages. Feeding
a 'fortunate' married woman on special
occasions increases one's good fortune; so
does the distribution and exchange of
various accessories symbolising good fortune
and auspiciousness of the married state such
as turmeric powder and kumkum, vermilion,
glass bangles, fruits, flowers, comb, and mir-
ror. Although there are considerable regional
variations the core appears to be the same.
During the last few decades the age of
marriage for girls has gone up, particularly
among the middle and upper middle classes,
and the number of unmarried young women
in white collar occupations has increased.
At the same time, the cultural import of
marriage has changed very little. Unmarried
Economic and Political Weekly April 30, 1988
women are excluded from the 'auspicious'
activities of the 'fortunate' women and are
made to feel that there is something wron,
with them. Those who remain unmarried,
by choice or through the compulsion of cir-
cumstances, often prefer to live in large cities
where it is possible for them to exist in
relative anonymity, and where the norms are
less stringent. 13
The message of the value of the married
state is also transmitted in negative terms.
If a married woman is auspicious, a widow
is inauspicious and the significance of
widowhood has to be avoided. If bangles
break it is not said that they have broken,
but that 'they have increased' or 'they have
become many'. So also w i t h the
mangalsutra, a necklace of black beads, or
tali (of south India), a special gold chain.
These are the symbols of married state to
be removed at widowhood. Similarly, in
language kumkum does not get rubbed off
a married woman's forehead; it increases in
size'. The same care in language is taken in
regard to the vermilion in the parting of the
haira mark which signifies the married
state of a woman in central, northern, and
eastern India. These euphemisms are a part
of several Indian languages such as, Marathi,
Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi,
and Oriya. The underlying idea is the same:
everything happens as though spoken words
have a capacity to act or to come true and
hence their utterance must be avoided. At
the husband's death, a woman's bangles are
ceremonially broken, her vermilion
mark/kumkum is rubbed off and her
mangalsutra/tali and toe rings are removed.
Even among those communities which tradi-
tionally allow remarriage of widows these
practices are followed: at the second mar-
riage the insignia are restored.
A l l over India, depending on the kind of
attire that is accepted for widows, there are
rules regarding what a married woman
should not wear. In parts of south India
there are rules which say that a married
woman should not sleep at night on an emp-
ty stomach, without eating at least a little-
bit of rice, particularly on certain auspicious
days, for such practices of self-denial are
associated with widowhood. And even
though the practice of shaving off hair of
widows has almost died out, there is still an
association of scissors and razors with wido-
whood. In many houses girls are discouraged
from letting scissors, blade or any sharp in-
strument touch their hair. There still exist
considerable reservations about girls cutting
the ends of their hair in order to make them
even. Many women in south India are very
particular about wearing flowers in their
hair: flowers signify an auspicious state and
a right to beauty which a widow is denied.
Among the iyer brahmins of Tamil Nadu
when the husband dies the wife continues
to wear the insignia of married state for ten-
days. At midnight of the tenth day all these
are removed. This job has to be done by
women who have already become widows.
Sumangali women have to scrupulously
avoid being anywhere near the unfortunate
and inauspicious woman on this occasion.
The atmosphere is considered charged with
misfortune and in order to protect herself
from inauspiciousness, a sumangali woman
must clench a piece of turmeric in her first.
The other opposition which serves to
define the value of the married state, par-
ticularly for unmarried post-pubertal girls,
is the image of the prostitute. The ways of
the fallen, wanton, provocative, immoral
woman must be avoided. This takes us into
the question of the management of a girl's
sexuality.
F E M I N I T Y A N D S E X U A L I T Y : BODY,
SPACE A N D T I M E
A girl is, we have seen, at her most
vulnerable between the onset of puberty and
marriage. Marriage has to be carefully con-
trolled in a caste society concerned with the
maintenance of boundaries. I hope my em-
phasis on significance of caste in the con-
cern for management of sexuality of young
unmarried girls does not give an impression
of a changeless Hindu society nor of im-
penetrable boundaries of castes. The
phenomenon of caste is too complex, and
subsumes too baffling a variety of patterns
to yield to simple explanations. It may be
mentioned, however, that due to a variety of
factors contributing towards social change
the boundaries of endogamy are widening:
distinctions between 'sub-castes' are not con-
sidered relevant by many. There is also
greater tolerance of inter-caste marriages,
provided the ritual distance between con-
cerned caste groups is not too wide, and
there are no problems of disparity in
economic and social status. But, these
changes are limited in scope and extent and
have not radically affected people's ideas.
The phenomenon of boundary main-
tenance is a crucial element in the definition
of the cultural apprehension of the vulnera-
bility of young girls and the emphasis on
their purity and restraint in behaviour. This
is expressed in the construction of legitimate'
and 'proper' modes of speech, demeanour
and behaviour for young girls and in the
organisation of their space and time. 'A Girl
is Born', a contemporary , street play in
Marathi by a group of feminists which has
attained considerable popularity, sums up
the do's and don'ts administered to a post-
pubertal girl:
Do not abandon the vow of womanhood
taken by you
You have to follow your mother, grand-
mother, and great grandmother
You have to mind the hearth and children
Do not ask odd questions, Do not exceed the
boundaries
Do not get out of control, Do not aban-
don the vow of womanhood.
Do not speak with your face up, Be inside
the house
Wash clothes, clean the utensils, Cook and
serve food
Clear the leavings and remove the soiled
plates
WS-15
 Sew and embroider, Sweep and draw designs
on the floor
Water the Tulsi plant, Circumambulate the
sacred tree
Observe fasts a n d perform vratas
Bend your neck downwards, Look down
wards
walk without looking up, do not let your eyes
wander
Do not abandon the vow of womanhood. 1 4
concederable i m p o r t a n c e is attached to
the B E g i r l carries herself, the way she sits,
stand and t a l k s , a n d interacts w i t h others.
A girl s h o u l d w a l k w i t h soft steps: so soft
that they are barely audible to others. Taking
l o n g strides denotes m a s c u l i n i t y . G i r l s are
often rebuked for j u m p i n g , r u n n i n g , rushing
to a place a n d h o p p i n g . These movements
are c o n s i d e r e d a p a r t o f m a s c u l i n e
behaviour, unbecoming to a female; however,
the logic of the management of a girl's sex-
uality also defines t h e m as un feminine; they
can t y r i n g the contours o f the b o d y i n t o
greater p r o m i n e n c e a n d attract people's at-
t e n t i o n . A g i r l has to be careful about her
posture. She s h o u l d not sit cross-legged or
w i t h her legs w i d e apart. Keeping one's knees
close together w h i l e s i t t i n g , standing, or
sleeping is 'decent'; a n d indicates a sense of
shame and modesty. ' D o n ' t stand like a man'
is a c o m m o n rebuke to make a g i r l aware of
the demands o f f e m i n i n i t y .
G i r l s are encouraged to speak softly, and
to avoid abrasivemale'language. Boys, of
course, learn a l l kinds of abuses; however,
even the m i l d e r abuses used by w o m e n are
frowned u p o n i f used b y y o u n g girls. A g i r l
must demonstrate her c a p a c i t y for self-
restraint: t a l k i n g and l a u g h i n g l o u d l y is
disapproved o f ; a g i r l s h o u l d n o t be argu-
mentative. In A n d h r a Pradesh, a l o u d -
m o u t h e d g i r l may receive t h e epithet of
' M a r i ' w h i c h refers t o the malevolent g o d -
dess w h o b r i n g s pests a n d d e s t r u c t i o n .
Sucheta M a z u m d a r ' s statement that being
soft-spoken a n d demure qualifies a Bengali
girl for a description of her being like L a x m i ,
the goddess o f wealth, w h i l e a l o u d a n d
noisy g i r l is rebuked as A l o k k h i (the op-
posite of L a x m i ) seems to capture a c o m -
m o n experience for girls. The actual epithets,
however, vary.
To establish her feminine identity, a young
g i r l s h o u l d a v o i d masculine d e m e a n o u r a n d
behaviour. T h i s i d e n t i t y also demands t h a t
she s h o u l d be circumspect w i t h men. A g i r l
w h o has come of age has to be protected not
o n l y f r o m men but also f r o m herself. T h e
need to c o n t r o l female sexuality is often ex-
pressed t h r o u g h metaphors. Emphasising the
security of not allowing young women and
men' to c o m e close it is said t h a t unless a
physical distance is m a i n t a i n e d between hay
and fire, it is impossible to protect the hay
f r o m catching fire. A n o t h e r saying prevalent
a m o n g the m a t r i l i n e a l b u t caste-bound
nayar p o w e r f u l l y conveys the fact of vulnera-
bility of young girls: 'Whether the t h o r n falls
o n the petal o r the petal falls o n the t h o r n ,
WS-16
it is always the petal w h i c h r u n s the risk of
g e t t i n g h u r t a n d disfigured'. T h e same idea
is expressed in central I n d i a : "Whatever can
happen t o b u t t e r - m i l k ? I t i s the m i l k w h i c h
gets b a d " and " I t i s the earthen p o t w h i c h
gets p o l l u t e d a n d d e f i l e d easily a n d per-
manently; a m e t a l one can be rubbed, wash-
e d o f f a n d cleaned t o p u r i t y ; n o t h i n g hap-
pens to It?' L i k e n i n g w o m a n to an earthen
vessel a n d m a n to a vessel m a d e of brass is
widespread in I n d i a a n d is even used in the
deliberations o f village councils i n adjudica-
t i o n o f cases o f elopement, molestation, and
sexual aggression.
A g i r l has to be carefully guarded against
even a remote semblance to a w o m a n of
loose character, a w o m a n of the street, a pro-
stitute, someone w h o uses her charms to at-
tract men. For a post-pubertal g i r l w h i s t l i n g
is n o t merely to be a t o m b o y ; it signifies
a m o r o u s i n c l i n a t i o n . T h i s is also true of the
j i n g l i n g o f bangles. S m i l i n g w i t h o u t pur-
pose, g l a n c i n g ' f u r t i v e l y ' , l o o k i n g t h r o u g h
the corners of one's eyes do n o t become a
well-bred g i r l . Shyness a n d modesty are ap-
proved a n d considered as ' n a t u r a l ' feminine
qualities. W h i l e o n the theme o f develop-
ment of f e m i n i n i t y , it is necessary to make
one p o i n t : the i m p o r t a n c e given to the
physical appearance of a g i r l . T h e value ac-
c o r d e d t o v a r i o u s c o m p o n e n t s o f physical
appearance is conveyed n o t o n l y t h r o u g h
lullabies, songs, and sayings b u t also t h r o u g h
open praise o r c r i t i c i s m o f i n d i v i d u a l girls
w i t h i n their h e a r i n g . A girl's f o r t u n e (mar-
riage being its most salient c o m p o n e n t ) is
tied up w i t h her appearance; g o o d l o o k s are
considered as an i m p o r t a n t ' q u a l i f i c a t i o n '
of a female. No wonder that m a n y girls tend
to develop an excessive interest in their
appearanceoften at the cost of other quali-
f i c a t i o n s a n d i n clothes, jewellery, a n d
cosmetics. Such an interest is interpreted as
a n expression o f f e m i n i n i t y a n d thus
'natural'.
In n o r t h I n d i a the association of a curved
posture w i t h a d a n c i n g g i r l is so strong that
even an unconscious act on the part of a g i r l
of leaning against a w a l l or a p i l l a r brings
f o r t h rebuke f r o m elders. C h e w i n g betels
makes the l i p s red, loose u n p l a i t e d hair
speak of a b a n d o n ; these are sources of at-
t r a c t i o n . I n m a n y parts o f I n d i a girls were
traditionally forbidden to l o o k into a m i r r o r
or to c o m b their hair after sunset since these
acts were associated w i t h a prostitute get-
t i n g ready for her customers. These practices
s t i l l c o n t i n u e i n m a n y families. Restrictions
o n the wearing o f b r i g h t a n d gaudy clothes
by u n m a r r i e d g i r l s are also r o o t e d in similar
associations. A g i r l standing in the d o o r w a y
of the house, p a r t i c u l a r l y at dusk, m a y be
rebuked even by brothers w i t h a m e n t i o n of
the prostitute. I n the process o f t r a i n i n g for
proper behaviour, certain assumptions a n d
i n d i c a t i o n s can seriously o f f e n d the sen-
sibilities of g r o w i n g girls. For instance, there
is a c o m m o n l y held n o t i o n t h a t the de-
m e a n o u r of a g i r l is itself responsible for
E c o n o m i c a n d P o l i t i c a l Weekly
w h a t is k n o w n as 'eve-teasing' in I n d i a . T h e
presence o f t h i s n o t i o n can b e sensed, i f n o t
clearly expressed, i n the m a n n e r i n w h i c h
p a r t i c u l a r instances o f y o u n g m e n m a k i n g
passes at y o u n g w o m e n are analysed.
Prescriptions regarding the ways in w h i c h
a g i r l s h o u l d act a n d behave t h a t we have
discussed are, it s h o u l d be clear, set o u t in
the context o f specific n o t i o n s o f space and
time. T h e i n j u n c t i o n s about physical seg-
regation a n d c o n t r o l o f contact w i t h males
make certain demands on a g i r l outside her
home: w i t h downcast eyes, silent a n d u n -
obtrusive movements, a n d her b o d y almost
s h r i n k i n g , a g i r l is expected to create a
separate space for herself i n places full o f
strangers. M o r e often, however, a g i r l prefers
to move w i t h o t h e r girls in a group. T h i s is
well b r o u g h t o u t b y K r i s h n a K u m a r :
.. .We boys used the street for so many dif-
ferent thingsas a place to stand around
watching, to r u n around and play, try out the
manoeuvrability of our bikes. Not so for
girls. As we noticed all the time, for girls the
street was simply a means to get straight
home from school. A n d even for this limited
use of the street they always went in clusters,
perhaps because behind their purposeful de-
meanour they carried the worst fears of be-
ing assaulted.
K r i s h n a K u m a r goes o n :
Watching these silent clusters for years eroded
my basic sense of endowing individuality to
every human being. I got used to believing
that girls are not individuals.
K r i s h n a K u m a r is describing, w h a t he
c a l l s , ' tragic pattern of socialisation': his ex-
periences o f b o y h o o d i n a small t o w n i n
M a d h y a Pradesh, central I n d i a . H i s article
is a r e m i n d e r that to understand the
socialisation o f girls i t i s i m p e r a t i v e t o l o o k
i n t o socialisation o f male c h i l d r e n . 1 5
It is not o n l y molestation b u t also the fear
of being m a l i g n e d as a g i r l of b a d character
w h i c h a g i r l tries to avoid in f o l l o w i n g a
strategy that Johanna Lessinger w h i l e
describing the activities o f w o m e n petty
traders i n M a d r a s has called ' p u b l i c
chaperoning'. 1 6
If the space outside the house has to be
negotiated in determinate ways by girls, this
is also t r u e of spatial divisions w i t h i n the
house. Pre-pubertal girls can generally p l a y
w i t h b o t h boys a n d other girls on streets and
in parks, courtyards and o t h e r open spaces
W i t h the onset o f puberty t h e c o m p u l s i o n s
of safeguard on female m o d e s t y push her
i n t o the i n t e r i o r of the house w h i c h is the
secluded ' p r i v a t e ' d o m a i n o f the family. I n
poorer sections o f the p o p u l a t i o n , w i t h -
drawal o f y o u n g girls, between the onset o f
p u b e r t y a n d marriage, f r o m the l a b o u r
market i n l c u d i n g domestic service in private
homes i n a w e l l - k n o w n p h e n o m e n o n . I n
r u r a l areas a n d a m o n g c e r t a i n sections i n
u r b a n areas d r o p o u t rates for girls at the age
o f p u b e r t y increase substantially.
There are s i m i l a r restrictions t h a t are
A p r i l 30, 1988
defined by the d i m e n s i o n of t i m e . There is
a certain f a m i l i a r i t y w h i c h g i r l s have w i t h
" R e t u r n before i t gets d a r k " and " W h o i s
going w i t h y o u ? " These constraints of space
a n d t i m e create problems f o r m i d d l e class
girls i n terms o f choice o f schools/colleges
a n d coursesco-education a n d staying o u t
t i l l late w h i c h certain courses d e m a n d are
frowned u p o n a n d , consequently, in their
choice of careers.
A t any rate, i t appears t h a t h o m e a n d
school reinforce each other in the process of
socialisation. My experience at a school in
one o f the villages i n K o l h a p u r district o f
Maharashtra brings this o u t clearly. D u r i n g
my visit to the school a l o n g w i t h a g r o u p
of post-graduate students we were taken to
various classrooms and, as is the practice in
such schools, students sang songs. In the
j u n i o r m o s t class boys and girls sat together;
the song in w h i c h b o t h j o i n e d was about
C h a n d a m a m a (the m o o n addressed as
maternal uncle), a p o p u l a r theme for
nursery rhymes and songs f o r c h i l d r e n of
this age. In a somewhat senior class,
however, certain shifts had occurred: girls sat
i n one h a l f p o r t i o n o f the r o o m and boys
in the other h a l f . They sang t w o separate
songs. The song w h i c h the girls sang was ac-
c o m p a n i e d by a dance and was about the
flowers in the rainy season. B o t h the boys
and the girls were reasonably confident.
In the classroom of seventh standard, the
girls w h o were a l l sari-clad n o t o n l y sat in
a p o r t i o n of the r o o m separated f r o m the
boys, but they sat on the f l o o r by the side
of the planks. T h e boys were cocky: they
stood u p o n the w o o d e n p l a n k s and i n f u l l -
throated voices sang c o n f i d e n t l y a song
describing the valour of Shivaji, the well-
k n o w n M a r a t h a hero. We t r i e d very hard to
persuade the girls to sing b u t they sat coyly
and d i d not open their m o u t h s . T h e teacher
w h o was a m a l e d i d ask the girls to sing but
seemed to appreciate a n d understand their
reticence a n d shyness. W h e n we questioned
the girls as to why they d i d n o t sit on the
planks it was the boys w h o answered: "They
themselves choose to sit on the floor. W h a t
can others d o ? "
It is i m p o r t a n t that the m o s t p r o m i n e n t
caste g r o u p i n K o l h a p u r d i s t r i c t i s t h a t o f
the M a r a t h a s w h o emphasise their m a r t i a l
past, f o l l o w a pattern of hypergamous mar-
riages, observe a k i n d of seclusion of
w o m e n , a n d t a l k of sexual a s y m m e t r y as a
part of the n a t u r a l order of things. A ques-
t i o n emerges: C a n w e really t h i n k o f refor-
m i n g the educational system or of a reform-
e d system o f f o r m a l e d u c a t i o n t o b r i n g
about a more Enlightened' relationship bet-
ween the sexes as l o n g as t h e larger struc-
tures w h i c h p r o v i d e the context for this
e d u c a t i o n a l system c o n t i n u e to reproduce
gender-based relationships o f d o m i n a t i o n
and subordination?
I have t o u c h e d u p o n o n l y a few issues in
the way the o r g a n i s a t i o n of space a n d t i m e
E c o n o m i c and P o l i t i c a l Weekly A p r i l 30, 1988
for a g i r l is i m p l i c a t e d in t h e management
o f her sexuality. I t w o u l d b e interesting t o
explore these questions f u r t h e r keeping in
m i n d the variations across caste, class, a n d
social groups.
PROCESS OF T R A I N I N G : T A S K S A N D
IDEOLOGY
I t u r n now t o another aspect o f the pro-
cess of socialisation: t r a i n i n g for feminine
tasks, It is, of course, d i f f i c u l t to speak of
a single pattern of gender-based d i v i s i o n of
work since it is characterised by considerable
diversity across regions and social groups.
At the same t i m e , w o r k a r o u n d the kitchen,
m e n i a l and d i r t y household w o r k and c h i l d
care generally fall in the feminine sphere.
The n o t i o n s o f appropriateness o r inap-
propriateness o f particular kinds o f work for
adult females a n d males get reflected, if not
replicated, in the w o r k assigned to girls a n d
boys. The distinction between feminine w o r k
a n d m a s c u l i n e w o r k c o m e s early i n
c h i l d h o o d and becomes sharper as the c h i l d
grows up.
T h e responses of 100 r a n d o m l y selected
parents of students admitted to Sardar Patel
Vidyalaya, a h i g h class school in New D e l h i ,
to the question whether they w o u l d have girls
or boys to do certain chores are revealing.
Twenty-five per cent of the parents d i d not
distinguish between their sons and daughters
for any of the ten chores m e n t i o n e d in the
list but a m o n g the rest, there was a clear bias
towards asking the girls t o w o r k i n the k i t -
chen, sweep the floor, wash tea cups, put
washed clothes on the line, a n d dust the fur
niture, and the boys to fetch eggs and bread
f r o m the market, help change the tyre of the
scooter or car, and so o n . These responses
p o i n t towards deep rooted ideas regarding
the gender-based d i v i s i o n o f w o r k i n the
society. 1 7
T h e naturalness o f the w o r k supposed t o
be appropriate for girls is conveyed effective-
ly, w i t h o u t necessarily generating a feeling-
of d i s c r i m i n a t i o n , to l i t t l e girls by encourag-
i n g t h e m i n v a r i o u s games w h i c h involve
'dolls', 'household', 'kitchenwork', 'marriage',
'baby', a n d ' v i s i t i n g neighbours'. B e g i n n i n g
w i t h assistance i n c o o k i n g a n d other k i t
c h e n w o r k , serving of f o o d , c a r i n g for
younger siblings, preparing f o r the w o r s h i p
of f a m i l y deities, and l o o k i n g after the ag-
ed, girls learn to take over some of the
responsibilities themselves. Washing clothes
is a feminine task to be shared by the girls;
where men wash their own clothes, children's
clothes are s t i l l left to w o m e n and girls.
Sweeping a n d m o p p i n g the f l o o r is women's
w o r k . A c c o r d i n g t o m y i n f o r m a n t s i n Kar-
nataka a n d A n d h r a Pradesh it is, in fact,
considered the height o f i m p r o p r i e t y i f the
b r o o m touches any male o f the f a m i l y . 1 8
T h e p o i n t w h i c h needs emphasis, then, is
the naturalness w h i c h imbues the gender-
based d i v i s i o n of w o r k . T h i s is expressed in
many ways. A g i r l w h o does not like
' f e m i n i n e ' tasks is r e m i n d e d t h a t if she
t h i n k s that she can become a male, she is
mistaken and that she may as well learn to
do the w o r k assigned to her, for, having been
b o r n a female how can she escape i t , A boy
w h o likes to w o r k in and a r o u n d the kitchen
and is interested in d o i n g what are con-
sidered as feminine tasks,for instance, em-
b r o i d e r y o r d r a w i n g designs o n the f l o o r -
becomes the target for derision and teasing.
The most c o m m o n terms used for such a boy
describe h i m as a w o m a n i s h male, one w h o
is neither male nor female, effeminate, u n -
manly, and even i m p o t e n t .
A n i m p o r t a n t component o f this 'natural'
d i v i s i o n of w o r k is the n o t i o n of a sense of
service (sewa) as the necessary q u a l i t y for
girls. I shall examine this n o t i o n as p a r t of
the t r a i n i n g o f girls t h r o u g h the ideas,
values, and practices associated w i t h f o o d .
A necessary feature of the organisation
o f the serving and d i s t r i b u t i o n o f f o o d
w i t h i n the household is that the left-overs
s h o u l d be eaten by female a n d n o t by male
members o f the family. L i t t l e girls have t o
learn this: an expression of resentment on
their part may b r i n g in concessions but often
w i t h a remark that a capacity to adjust is
o f p r i m e i m p o r t a n c e for girls. I f a g i r l c o n -
tinues to cry a n d shout for food because she
is hungry she is considered fussy and is teas-
ed about her lack of self-restraint. In many
m i d d l e class houses girls are instructed to
take care that the rice at the b o t t o m of the
pan (which runs the risk of getting b u r n t and
of c o n t a i n i n g t i n y pebbles) is not served to
a male member of the f a m i l y . S i m i l a r care
is taken regarding the first dosa.
G i r l s s h o u l d t e a m t o bear p a i n a n d
d e p r i v a t i o n , to eat a n y t h i n g that is given to
t h e m and t o acquire the q u a l i t y o f self-
denial. T h i s is a part of the t r a i n i n g for the
reality that they are l i k e l y to c o n f r o n t in the
house o f the mother-in-law.
T h e notions of tolerance a n d self-restraint
are also rooted in a consciously-cultivated
feminine role w h i c h is embedded in and
legitimised by culture and c u l t u r a l ideology.
The c o o k i n g , serving a n d d i s t r i b u t i o n o f
f o o d are i m p o r t a n t constituents of a presti-
gious and valued role for H i n d u w o m e n .
This role contributes to women's self-esteem,
offers t h e m a genuine sense of f u l f i l m e n t
a n d i s central t o the d e f i n i t i o n o f m a n y
female k i n s h i p roles. T h e ideal o f A n n a -
p u m a , the u n f a i l i n g supplier o f f o o d , i s
accepted across different regions of I n d i a .
This ideal w h i c h has an aesthetic appeal and
w h i c h sets o u t p r i v a t i o n a n d sacrifice as
d e f i n i n g characteristics o f f e m i n i n e m o r a l
character generates a set of dispositions
where a w o m a n has to t h i n k of others before
oneself a n d o u g h t not to care a b o u t w h a t
is being left for her. Finally practices relating
t o f o o d are associated w i t h n o t i o n s o f the
male and female body. Tall a n d hefty boys
are a matter of pride for the f a m i l y ; special
WS-17
care is taken to give boys such food as would
make them strong. On the contrary it is said
that a girl grows like a refuse heap. It is best,
therefore, if her intake of food is controll-
ed, particularly just before and after the
onset of puberty. Girls should look younger
than their age: a girl with a developed body
raises questions about containment of her
sexuality and reminds people that marriage
is imminent for her; she, it is believed, is also
more likely to become a victim of sexual ag-
gression. Women's concern that girls should
internalise proper attitudes and modes of
behaviour as a part of their training to
become women and the different notions
regarding requirements of male and female
bodies often combine to make a significant
difference in nutrition for males and
females.
Before closing this section, one point
needs to be made. There is, I feel, a certain
ambiguity that characterises the training of
girls. While they are being trained for pre-
sent and future roles, the fact that they will
eventually be going into another family is
never forgotten. Families differ. That a girl
will leave her parental home eventually is
certain: to what kind of a home she will go
is not. And it will take years for her to ac-
quire any power of decision-making or any
autonomy in that new home. There are also
many 'ifs' in the process. Socialisation for
an unfamiliar setting and an uncertain future
imparts a degree of tentativeness and pro-
visionality to the process. This, I feel affects
the development of self-confidence and in-
itiative in girls. Ambiguity also characterises
the presence of contradictory values and ex-
pectations which essentially reflect the con-
tradictions inherent in the patrilineal
patrivirilocal kinship system. To give one ex-
ample, the tie between a brother and a sister
is supposed to be life-long; throughout their
life sisters are expected to observe special
days for the well-being, long life and hap-
piness of brothers. At the same time, they
also hear that a woman should be like water
which does not have any shape of its own
and so can take the shape of the vessel in
which it is poured; nor docs it retain any
mark on it. Or, that a woman should be like
pliable mudto be cast into a shape of his
choice by the potter. A woman should thus
be able to discard all the earlier loyalties and
habits and get absorbed in the husband's
family.
CONCLUSION
The structuring of women as gendered
subjects through Hindu rituals and practices
is fundamentally implicated in the constitu-
tion and reproduction of a social system
characterised by gender asymmetry and the
overall subordination of women. 19 To state
this, however, is not to argue that women are
passive, unquestioning victims of these prac-
tices and the representation of these prac-
tices. It is to suggest that Hindu rituals and
WS-18
practices set certain limits in terms of the
dispositions they inculcate among women
and the different kinship roles within vary-
ing status which they assign to them within
the family. The rituals and practices and the
social system are, moreover, imbued with a
certain givenness and appear as a part of the
natural order of things. It is within these
limits that women question their situation,
express resentment, use manipulative
strategies, often against other women, turn
deprivation and self-denial into sources of
power, and attempt to carve out a living
space.
Notes
[This is a somewhat altered version of the paper
which forms a part of Socialisation, Education
and Women: Explorations in Gender Identity,
(ed) Karuna Chanana (New Delhi: Orient
Longman, 1988). The paper, in an incipient
form, was presented in a seminar on Socialisa-
tion, Women and Education at the Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. I
am grateful to Ravinder Kumar for his sensitive
reception of the paper and for the facilities at
the library during the period of its revision. I
would like to express my appreciation to Karuna
Chanana for her patience and her faith in me.
Saurabh Dube's association with the paper, at
all stages, has been invaluable. His help is
acknowledged.]
1 Material for this paper has come from a
variety of sources. I have drawn upon the
experiences of a number of people from
various regions of the countrytheir obser-
vations, accounts of rituals and festivals,
and counter-questions have helped shape
this paper. Very often these people also
acted as mediators and interpreters between
other informants and me. I shall acknow-
ledge here, among many others, Ahalya,
Annapurna, M K Chander, Suzanne Daniel,
Suresh Patil, Rati Rao, D Vijaya, and
Robert Zaedenbos from Mysore; Abhilasha
Tiwari and Pramiia Kumar from Bhopal;
Pratima Sant from Nagpur; Bhoites and
Ramanamma from Pune; Kamala Ganesh
from Bombay; V Mohan Kumar from
Trivandrum; and Indrani Chatterjee,
Pragati Mahapatra, Sujata Patel, Tanika
Sarkar, Aiaka Sharma and Sanjay Sharma
from Delhi. Yashodhara Misra, a sensitive
story writer in Oriya, generously allowed me
to borrow proverbs and sayings used by her
in her stones and in a paper presented at
the Asian Regional Conference on Womer
and the Household held at New Delhi in
January 1985.
2 For an elaboration of the implication of this
symbolism of biological reproduction for
gender relations within the family and
household, see Leela Dube, 'Seed and
Earth: Symbolism of Biological Reproduc-
tion and Sexual Relations of Production'
in Visibility and Power: Essays on Women
in Society and Development, (eds) Leela
Dube, Eleanor Leacock and Shirley Ardener
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986),
22-53.
Economic and Political Weekly
3 This was brought to my attention by
Ramamurthy of the University of
Mysore.
4 Sucheta Mazumdar, 'Socialisation of Hindu
Middle Class Bengali Women', South Asia
Bulletin, Vol I, No 1 (Winter 1981).
5 I owe the account of Gauri puja to discus-
sions with D Vijaya of the University of
Mysore, a feminist scholar and a writer in
Kannada.
6 This and the following lullabies are from
Bengal. I thank Meenakshi Mukherjee and
Tanika Sarkar for them.
7 I follow Shirley Ardener's use of the term
femineity. The notion has been elaborated
by Renee Hirchon: "Femineity comprises
aspects of self-identification on a deep
structural level, as opposed to the less
precise and not separate reality of feminini-
ty which is loaded with notions of secon-
dary sexual characteristics and man's ap-
preciation of these" (p 55); Ardener adds:
"Femineity is not merely an equivalent of
femininity, since it is located at a different
level of abstraction and articulation" (p 46).
See Shirley Ardener 'Sexual Insult and
Female Militancy' in Perceiving Women,
(ed) Shirley Ardener (London: J M Dent
and Sons Ltd; New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 1975, 1977) 29-53; and Kirsten
Hastrup, The Semantics of Biology-
Virginity', in Defining Females, (ed) Shirley
Ardener (London: Croom Helm in associa-
tion with Oxford University Women's
Studies Committee, 1978),' 49-65.
8 The rituals show that a pre-pubertal girl is
never visualised as someone who can engage
in the pursuit of knowledge or in the learn-
ing of a professional craft. This contrasts
with the situation regarding boys. Among
many brahmin groups all over India and
among some upper castes, the beginning of
the process of learning of alphabet is
ritualised for a male child. Generally, the
father or guru (priest or preceptor of the
family) makes the little boy write the first
alphabet with his finger on specially spread
out rice grains or earth, or on a special slate
with a bamboo pen. The first word to be
written is generally 'om', believed to be the
first sound uttered at the beginning of the
creation, or an ode to 'Sri Ganesha', the god
who removes obstacles. Among occupa-
tional groups a little boy may be ceremo-
niously initiated into the craft of the family
and the community.
9 Confinement or seclusion can take various
forms. The menstruating girl may be con-
fined to a corner in the back part of the
house in a dark room; to a hut made with
bamboo and different kinds of leaves; to a
shade away from the house made with nine
kinds of leaves, or there may be just a sym-
bol of such a shade for which nine kinds
of leaves are woven together and kept near
the leaves, with a few grains of rice spread
underneath the seat, as among the brahmins
of Andhra Pradesh. The important aspects
of confinement of a menstruating girl are
to avoid causing pollution to others, to be
protected from the possible effect of evil eye,
and to be out of sight of men, away from
A p r i l 30, 1988
 their gaze.
10 I have benefited greatly from some recent
articles dealing with puberty rituals. Pauline
Kolenda 'Women as Tribute Woman as
Flower: Images of Woman in Weddings in
North and South' India', American
Ethnologist, Vol 11, No 3, (1984); Denis
McGilvray, 'Sexual Power and Fertility in
Sri Lanka: Batticaloa Tamils and Moors' in
Ethnography of Fertility and Btrth, (ed)
Carol MacCormack, London: Academic
Press 1982; and Deborah Winslow, 'Rituals
of First Menstruation in Sri Lanka', Man
(NS), Vol 15, No 4, (1980), 603-25.
11 See Lynn Bennett, Dangerous Wives and
Sacred Sisters: Social and Symbolic Roles
of High Caste Women in Nepal (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1983), 234-242.
12 For Bengal see Mazumdar (Note No 5).
13 My emphasis on the inescapability of mar-
riage for girls should not be understood as
freedom from compulsion for young men
to get married. They too are under pressure
for marrying within the acceptable boun-
daries and, more importantly, to bring
dowry to contribute towards the expenses
incurred on their own education or in the
marriage of daughter(s). Marriage of a son
is necessary to continue the family line. In
the case of girls, however, their placement
in a group depends on marriage and an un-
married status runs the risk of tarnishing
the reputation of the family. The propor-
tion of unmarried, married, and widowed
males and females in the population is in-
dicative of different norms for girls and
boys.
14 See Jyoti Mhapasekar, Mulagi Jhali Ho (A
Girl is Born) in Marathi (Bombay: Gran-
thali, 1984), The translation is mine.
15 Krishna Kumar, 'Growing up Male',
Seminar 318 (February 1986), 21-23.
16 See Johanna Lessinger, 'Work and Modes-
ty: The Dilemma of Women Market Traders
in South India', paper presented at the
Regional Conference for Asia on Women
and the Household, New Delhi 1985. Forth-
coming in Kinship, Production, and the
Household, (eds) Leela Dube and Rajni
Palriwala (New Delhi: Sage, 1988).
17 See Vibha Parthasarathy, 'Socialisation,
Women and Education: An Experiment' in
Socialisation, Education and Women: Ex-
plorations in Gender Identity, (ed) Karuna
Chanana (New Delhi: Orient Longman,
1988).
18 Needless to say, this description of division
of work, based on conceptions of masculine
and feminine tasks, has specific reference
to the domestic scene: it does not apply to
paid work outside one's own home.
19 The argument of this paragraph was
developed in discussion wit h Saurabh Dube
and was set out in a paper we did together
on 'Women in India, Hinduism, and the
Category of Politics' for a Symposium on
Women, Religion, and Politics organised by
IPSA Research Committee on Sex Roles
and Politics and ISA Research Committee
on Women in Society prior to the Eleventh
World Congress of Sociology, New Delhi,
August 1986.

Economic and Political Weekly April 30, 1988 WS-I9