Owning Land, Being Women

Owning Land, Being Women enquires into the processes that establish inheritance as a unique form of property relation in law and society. It focuses on India, examining the legislative processes that led to the 2005 amendment of the Hindu Succession Act 1956, along with several interconnected welfare policies. Scholars have understood these Acts as a response to growing concerns about women's property rights in developing countries.

In re-reading these Acts and exploring the wider nexus of Indian society in which the legislation was drafted, this study considers how questions of family structure and property rights contribute to the creation of legal subjects and demonstrates the significance of the politico-economic context of rights formulation. On the basis of an ethnography of a village in West Bengal, this book brings the moral axis of inheritance into sharp focus, elucidating the interwoven dynamics of bequest, distribution of family wealth and reciprocity of care work that are integral to the logic of inheritance. It explains why inheritance rights based on the notion of individual property rights are inadequate to account for practices of inheritance.

Mondal shows that inheritance includes normative structures of affective attachment and expectations, i.e., evaluatively-charged imaginaries of the future that coordinate present practices. These insights pose questions of the dominant resource-based conceptualisation of inherited property in the debate on women's empowerment. In doing so, this work opens up a line of investigation that brings feminist rights discourse into conversation with ethics, enriching the liberal theory of gender justice.

Auteur

Amrita Mondal, Universität Erfurt

Résumé

De Gruyter Studies in Global Asia
edited by Pervaiz K. Ahmed and Mahendhiran S. Nair, Monash University Malaysia

The De Gruyter Studies in Global Asia series shines a multidisciplinary lens to explore issues facing Asia as it emerges on the global scene. It locates Asia in the global while simultaneously locating the global in the local. The interdisciplinary nature of the series brings into focus new directions and approaches at the intersection of society, science & technology and economics.

Drawing on the social sciences, engineering, politics and economics and other disciplines, the series explores the complex dynamics taking places between and within regional blocks, nation states, industries, and individuals. The focus is to examine experiences at the macro - (e.g. economies, markets), meso - (e.g. industries, institutions, communities) and micro - (e.g. individuals, patterns and behaviour) levels.

The emphasis of the Series is on utilising inter-disciplinary, multi-cultural, multi-voice perspectives to develop originals insights and scholarship. The Global Asia Series' emphasis is on studying latest issues, trends and developments in three main areas:

• Culture, Values and Civilization

As a region Asia has a rich heritage constituted by a complex mosaic of religion, values and history that intermesh to define the kaleidoscope of current issues and challenges. These include among others, behaviour and evolution of Asia's people, politics and socio-cultural development.

• Industry, Markets and Economics

Featuring centrally in Asia's arrival on the global stage are the changes taking place in the development of its industries and markets. The patterns and economics underlying these shifts is starting to raise fundamental questions over conventional approaches ascribed and deployed by developed, especially Western, nations. This thematic explores how Asia's nations, industries and markets grapple with evolutionary dynamics in contextually unique ways to develop sustainable pathways to global competitiveness.

• Science, Technology and Society

Advancements in science and technology are having unique positive and negative impacts on Asian society. On the positive side, these forces of change are enablers of empowerment, improving the condition of people living in these societies. On the down side, the advances are encroaching on the traditional values and livelihoods of communities and people, as both global and local actors leverage technology and science to alter economics of production resulting in significant cultural, social and physical displacements. This thematic focuses on the nature and impact of science and technology on society and vice versa, and how these interactions shape future trajectories of development in each of the spheres.

We are looking for interesting and innovative proposals for projects; these might include:

• Research Monographs that make substantial contributions to knowledge.

• Handbooks that define the state of the art in particular areas.

• Textbooks/Casebooks that extend and unify understanding of particular subjects.

• Reports/Proceedings that provide perspectives on emergent themes of interest.

• Focus Practice (In brief series focusing on practice). Concise, succinct works that focus on the pragmatics of practice, or highlight how to turn theory into practice. Each would be a compact volume of appropriately 50-100 pages.

Series Editor:
If you are interested in submitting a proposal or have any questions, please contact the Series Editor:

Professor Pervaiz K. Ahmed
Monash University Malaysia
email: pervaiz.ahmed@monash.edu

Professor Mahendhiran S. Nair
Monash University Malaysia
email: mahendhiran.nair.@monash.edu