Violence against Women in Colonial India - Essay Example

?Violence Against Women In Colonial India Despite the colonialist promoting the life of women in India during colonial period, they contributed to violence to some extent. The promotion of women was mainly done by the missionaries where they allowed girls to attend school. Girls attended schools to learn different subjects and get a chance to appear in public, promote good behaviours such as good eating habits. India is characterised by the high population, in fact it is the second highest populated country after China. Additionally, India has the highest number of poor people most of them in the rural areas. poverty has been seen to be increasing as the population increases. In india, the act of infanticide of girls is high, which is an act whereby the girl child is killed after realization that it is a female. There is also high number of abortion cases of girl foetuses. India is currently marred by high number of cases relating to abuse of women. This can be evidenced by the recent case whereby a female student was gang raped. Other cases which are common are forced marriages, wife battering and other women related violence. The cases mentioned above are common in India and they happen frequently because few of them are reported to the authorities. The treatment of the Indian people by the colonialist is what has contributed highly to the current situation where women are abused in the society. The colonisers made Indians work in bad situations. The treatment they got from the coloniser made them hate themselves. This hatred they got from the abuse from the colonialism is what is currently prevailing in the society. The colony violated women for some reasons, one of the main reason for violation was that women are part of recreation in the society, that is they give birth. The colonizers allowed the massacre of the native women and children so that they stop the continuation of Indian people through child birth. Additionally, the colonizers pointed out that control of the growing population will only be done by killing of native women and children in large numbers. Furthermore the massacre of the native women was a way of destroying the local tribes. The coloniser further encouraged abuse against women as a way of controlling the sexuality to destruct the continuation of giving birth. Control of woman's ability to reproduce continued even after the country became independent. Women have been subjected to various controls of their reproduction so as to control the ability to give birth and control the growing population (Anagol 2005). Colonialists took over India and massacred a lot of people, most of the people died as a result of hunger because they were subjected to hard tasks with limited food. Before the arrival of the colonialist to India, Indians had their own system of governances, this where they could solve their domestic issues by use of court. Due to the British expansion to the whole country after the takeover which was characterized by high number of deaths, they changed the system of governance by introduction of their own and destruction of Indian governance. For example, the common courts which the Indians use to solve their issues such as caste Panchayats were abolished. This act by the British made the Indian women vulnerable. This is because the traditional system use by the Indian courts had full knowledge of the Indian women. Because of the abolition of the Indian traditional courts, the colonialist defined new ways of crime. This saw the emergence of various ways of female crimes. Infanticide is of the crime activities identified by the colonialism, infanticide as explained above is killing of the female child after birth. Other criminal activities according to the colonialist are window marriages, husband poisoning and wife beating. Those activities were common before the colonialist governance took over. Colonialists identified criminal activities based of the tribal groups. This affected certain group of women which the colonialist had classified them as the criminal tribes. The effect of the women in those tribes was because the colonialist viewed that the act of crimes is not only perpetrated by a single person but the whole community. Additionally, women of such communities were seen by the British as the main pillars of the crimes committed by their men. For example, they received and benefited from the property stolen by their counterparts. Conversely, women of the colonialist who have were found to have committed crime like native women were never prosecuted. This explained the large number of native women who were often prosecuted while the British women were found before the courts facing any criminal charges. However some acts committed by the native women are found to be true. For example, tribes such as Kaikadis and Kaddi Korva engage most of the time on criminal activities. The above tribes were doing basket weaving to raise the standard of living but due to the hardship, they resorted to other streets activities such as acrobatics. The tribes are blamed because of crime activities such as burglary, gang robbery and pick pocketing. Even though men were the main participants in the crime activities on the above mentioned tribes, colonialist put women as engineers of the above mentioned crimes mainly committed in town centres. The involvement of women in crime activities as mentioned by the colonialist is evidence by the high number of female prisoners. Most of them were prosecuted after being found with stole goods, they showed that they were getting the stolen items from the husbands (Anagol 2005). The leniencies of traditional courts were different as compared to the colonial courts which were later introduced after the colonies took over India. There were cases whereby women took risks so as to cure one of the family members or husband. They did so by giving them traditional medicine. Accident happens sometimes which could lead to death. The fact is most of the herbs which were used to cure were mainly taken orally. Because of this nature and people getting used to, some herbs if taken orally causes death. This had happened frequently but according to the Indian traditions they saw it as an accident and accomplish is not prosecuted. The arrival of the colonialist changed the story. Women who participated in giving traditional medicine to one of the family member causing death in case of accidents were prosecuted. The fact is some of the local herbs were supposed to be used externally but because of the common nature of taking it orally, they can take herbs meant for external use orally. This can poison them causing death. Additionally, the act taken by the colonialist to prosecute and imprison women who commits such acts is seen as different design as to the traditional counsels and courts. The Indian traditional counsels and courts use a fair means such organizing educational programs to minimize the incidents relating to traditional herbs (Anagol 2005). There are other cases whereby women have to undergo hardships in their life especially the married women. Some of the married women are beaten by their husbands when there is a misunderstanding. Some women take action by poisoning their husbands if they can’t undergo such experience. They also give their husband potions to stop the harassment. This is because the traditional courts allowed divorce but when the colonial laws took over women were rendered powerless. They continued suffering and the only solution is to poison their husbands to stop the suffering. According to colonial rules, divorce only happens only if the husband agrees (Anagol 2005). There were cases of infanticide as mentioned above on the paper. Women were being blamed for carrying out abortion and killing of the young child. Women were prosecuted despite the fact that they were not the only one who participated in creation of a child. This led to complain by women that they were the targets despite participation of two people in reproduction. Infanticide mainly target girl child in some parts of India. Additionally, the act could also happen when the child is born out of wed-lock, the target here does not matter. Infanticide was practiced by the Rajput clans in the northern and the western parts of India. The act was treated as a murder case of which the participants were imprisoned or hanged. Based on the prosecution of the person who had committed the act of infanticide, mothers were seen as the main engineers of this act by the colonialist. Therefore, they were the only one to face law other than the whole family (Anagol 2005). Conclusion Female violation is common in most parts of India right from the start of colonialism to date. The arrival of the colonialist to India made life women worse after the abolition of Indian counsel and courts. More crime activities were identified, such criminal activities mainly targeted women. For example, infanticide is seen as an act done by only women excluding other participants such as community. Additionally, women suffered in the hands of both the spouse and the colonies, in case the spouse participates in criminal activities, women were taken into custody and prosecuted when they are found with stolen items. References Anagol Padma, The Emergence of Feminism in India1850-1920. Great Britain: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2005. Read More