Wives, Widows, and Concubines: The Conjugal Family Ideal in Colonial India

by Mytheli Sreenivas

Overview

The family was at the center of intense debates about identity, community, and nation in colonial Tamil Nadu, India. Emerging ideas about love, marriage, and desire were linked to caste politics, the colonial economy, and nationalist agitation. In the first detailed historical study of Tamil families in colonial India, Wives, Widows, and Concubines maps changes in the late colonial family in relation to the region's culture, politics, and economy. Among professional and mercantile elites, the conjugal relationship displaced the extended family as the focal point of household dynamics. Conjugality provided a language with which women laid claim to new rights, even as the structures of the conjugal family reinscribed women's oppression inside and outside marriage.

Published in association with the American Institute of Indian Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253219725
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/13/2008
Series:	Contemporary Indian Studies Series
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mytheli Sreenivas is Assistant Professor of History and Women's Studies at The Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration

Introduction: Situating Families
1. Colonizing the Family: Kinship, Household, and State
2. Conjugality and Capital: Defining Women's Rights to Family Property
3. Nationalizing Marriage: Indian and Dravidian Politics of Conjugality
4. Marrying for Love: Emotion and Desire in Women's Print Culture
Conclusion: Families and History

Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

1893 - Menakshi Sundra Nachiar

The Zemindar used to take his meals with me. The Zemindar used to sleep during nights in the upstairs of the new palace. I and he used to sleep in the same bed.

1885 - Muthuverammal

Whenever my husband felt amorous, he would occasionally cohabit with any woman and pay her occasionally. This is all. They were concubines.

1935 - P. C. Tyagaraja Iyer

The very principle of the joint family is against giving equal rights to females.

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, this book is a valuable addition in the list of historical research works on the issues of women, community politics and colonial legislative ventures in southern India. The research related strength of the book is that it draws information from a variety of primary sources, ranging from archives of court cases, women's narratives and women's writings in the magazines. The author, in a very articulate manner, simplifies the complex history of family, politics, caste, class and economic pressures in Tamil Nadu.2009"—Human Rights and Human Welfare

"Sreenivas's study is, without a doubt, a 'must read' for scholars interested in the history of the family, women and gender, as well as the development of anti-colonial nationalist politics. Her careful historicization of the 'family' as an equally powerful force alongside the 'nation,' and the many qualifications to Chatterjee's influential work that this approach pulls into the foreground makes 'Widows, Wives and Concubines' an invaluable addition to both Indian social history and colonial studies. Vol. 10.3 Winter 20009"—Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

"This volume about the changing family in colonial South India is a welcome addition to the literature on marriage and family.Volume 69/1, February 2010"—The Journal of Asian Studies

"Sreenivas's discussion points to the importance for feminist scholarship of exploring the links among conjugality, kinship, and capitalisms both historically and today."—Feminist Formations

"Scholarly and eminently readable, this book commends itself to both scholars and non-scholars across disciplines. While analysing the debates about 'family' that proliferated in the Tamil region of India during the late 19th century and the mid-20th century, it examines the claims about the family — its appropriate membership, its role in buttressing 'culture' and 'tradition', and the property relations of its members — that, according to the author, became critical to the formulation and contestation of Tamil social relations.Dec. 22, 2009"—The Hindu

"This is . . . a well-researched, theoretically informed and stylistically refined study of the articulation of a new—the conjugal—family ideal in colonial India.Vol. 114. 4 Oct. 2009"—SUDHIR CHANDRA, Mizoram University

"Rather than settling on one conception of the family, Sreenivas tracks how ideals changed over time through very public debates in Tamil society. She does not settle for quick or easy answers about family values and demonstrates how different social groups engaged the question to advance their interests in political and economic spheres.Vol. 21.2 August 2009"—DURBA GHOSH, Cornell University, USA

"Whenever my husband felt amorous, he would occasionally cohabit with any woman and pay her occasionally. This is all. They were concubines."—Muthuverammal, 1885

"The very principle of the joint family is against giving equal rights to females."—P. C. Tyagaraja Iyer, 1935

"The Zemindar used to take his meals with me. The Zemindar used to sleep during nights in the upstairs of the new palace. I and he used to sleep in the same bed."—Menakshi Sundra Nachiar, 1893

From the Publisher

This volume about the changing family in colonial South India is a welcome addition to the literature on marriage and family.Volume 69/1, February 2010

The Journal of Asian Studies

Sreenivas's discussion points to the importance for feminist scholarship of exploring the links among conjugality, kinship, and capitalisms both historically and today.

Feminist Formations

Sreenivas's study is, without a doubt, a 'must read' for scholars interested in the history of the family, women and gender, as well as the development of anti-colonial nationalist politics. Her careful historicization of the 'family' as an equally powerful force alongside the 'nation,' and the many qualifications to Chatterjee's influential work that this approach pulls into the foreground makes 'Widows, Wives and Concubines' an invaluable addition to both Indian social history and colonial studies. Vol. 10.3 Winter 20009

Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

This is . . . a well-researched, theoretically informed and stylistically refined study of the articulation of a new—the conjugal—family ideal in colonial India.Vol. 114. 4 Oct. 2009

Mizoram University - SUDHIR CHANDRA

Rather than settling on one conception of the family, Sreenivas tracks how ideals changed over time through very public debates in Tamil society. She does not settle for quick or easy answers about family values and demonstrates how different social groups engaged the question to advance their interests in political and economic spheres.Vol. 21.2 August 2009

Cornell University, USA - DURBA GHOSH

Scholarly and eminently readable, this book commends itself to both scholars and non-scholars across disciplines. While analysing the debates about 'family' that proliferated in the Tamil region of India during the late 19th century and the mid-20th century, it examines the claims about the family — its appropriate membership, its role in buttressing 'culture' and 'tradition', and the property relations of its members — that, according to the author, became critical to the formulation and contestation of Tamil social relations.Dec. 22, 2009

The Hindu

Overall, this book is a valuable addition in the list of historical research works on the issues of women, community politics and colonial legislative ventures in southern India. The research related strength of the book is that it draws information from a variety of primary sources, ranging from archives of court cases, women's narratives and women's writings in the magazines. The author, in a very articulate manner, simplifies the complex history of family, politics, caste, class and economic pressures in Tamil Nadu.2009

Human Rights and Human Welfare

"This is... a well-researched, theoretically informed and stylistically refined study of the articulation of a new—the conjugal—family ideal in colonial India." —SUDHIR CHANDRA, Mizoram University, American Historical Review, Vol. 114. 4 Oct. 2009

— SUDHIR CHANDRA, Mizoram University

American Historical Review

"Rather than settling on one conception of the family, Sreenivas tracks how ideals changed over time through very public debates in Tamil society. She does not settle for quick or easy answers about family values and demonstrates how different social groups engaged the question to advance their interests in political and economic spheres." —DURBA GHOSH, Cornell University, USA, Gender and History, Vol. 21.2 August 2009

— DURBA GHOSH, Cornell University, USA

Gender and History

"Overall, this book is a valuable addition in the list of historical research works on the issues of women, community politics and colonial legislative ventures in southern India. The research related strength of the book is that it draws information from a variety of primary sources, ranging from archives of court cases, women’s narratives and women’s writings in the magazines. The author, in a very articulate manner, simplifies the complex history of family, politics, caste, class and economic pressures in Tamil Nadu." —Human Rights and Human Welfare, 2009

Human Rights & Human Welfare

"Whenever my husband felt amorous, he would occasionally cohabit with any woman and pay her occasionally. This is all. They were concubines." —Muthuverammal, 1885

1885 Muthuverammal

"The Zemindar used to take his meals with me. The Zemindar used to sleep during nights in the upstairs of the new palace. I and he used to sleep in the same bed." —Menakshi Sundra Nachiar, 1893

Menakshi Sundra Nachiar

"The very principle of the joint family is against giving equal rights to females." —P. C. Tyagaraja Iyer, 1935

P. C. Tyagaraja Iyer