Page 104 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

The Indian Legal System 79

diminished gradually in favour of Shastric ideology. This ideology in-
fluenced the British in their understanding of Indian legal practices, but
in other instances reforms concerning women’s rights were influenced
by Western thought.
Some princes and religious leaders supported the early British.
Together, they supported the ban on practices like child-marriage as
well as legal reforms permitting widow remarriage and sanctioned the
grounds for freedom of religion. With the help of these princes and re-
ligious leaders, the British codified laws on the family. Their model was
the law and customs of the rich, upper castes and landed gentry. How-
ever, some customs among certain poor communities, tribal groups
and low castes were sometimes more favourable towards women. For
example, many poorer communities allowed widow remarriage, some
even recognized women’s right to property (Agarwal 1994). On the
other hand, the customs that were codified and became law were of
the rich who, in their attempt to preserve their property, lineage and
vast wealth, always saw women as a threat to the patriarchal family
(Liddle and Joshi 1986: 30).
The British drew upon the local (upper-caste) elite and village elders
to serve as informants and interpreters regarding local customs, thus
introducing an elite and upper-caste (often Brahmanical) bias in re-
cording and interpreting, as well as a tendency to homogenize exist-
ing diversity. Even in the rare cases when a systematic recording of
customs was attempted, as in the case of Punjab, they were still based
on information provided by village leaders and were not entirely free
from such biases (Agarwal 1994: 92). Additionally, there appears to be
a male respondent bias. For instance, in Punjab, while inquiring about
the widow’s right to seek partition of her husband’s share in his joint
family estate, the British found that in some districts informants denied
the existence of this custom even when such partitions commonly took
place in practice (Rattigan 1953: 316).
On the other hand, under pressure from the more liberal British
colonizers and Indian social reformers, conservative British rulers
were pressured to pass a series of laws limiting various cultural prac-
tices affecting women (Liddle and Joshi 1986: 30). In 1829, sati was
outlawed. Twenty-seven years later, in 1856, widow remarriage was
legalized. Female infanticide was banned in 1870, and two years later
the Special Marriage Act was passed to allow inter-community mar-
riages. In 1891 the age of consent was raised to 12 years. In 1929 the