On the Construction of Gender: Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India Author(s): Leela Dube Source: Economic and Political Weekly,

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On

Gender Construction of the Hindu Girls in Patrilineal India

Leela Dube

What are the mechanisms through which women acquire the cultural ideas and values which-shapetheir 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.
THE 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 does it mean to be a girl? At what age does a girl become conscious of the constraintsunderwhich she will have to live, of the differentialvalue accordedto male and female children,and of the justificationsbehindit? Whenand how does she learnthe contentof rolesappropriate to her? What are the mechanisms through which womenacquirethe culturalideas and values that shape their images of themselves, and inform the visions they have of the future? How do they acquiresensitivitytowardsthe contradictions in values and norms presentedto them and towardsthe limit$within which they have to function, necessitating the adoption of particular strategies? In other words, how are women produced as gendered subjects? This paper' goes a part of the way in answeringsome of these qestions. I do this by focusing on aspects of the process of socialisationof Hindu girls through rituals and ceremonies, the use of language, and practices withinand in relationto the family. I have restrictedmy focus on the socalisation of Hindu girls for two reasons:the firsthand material on rituals and linguistic expressions, customs and practices which I couldgatherfor the papercame mostlyfrom Hinduinformantsor about Hindu girls;and in a Hindu family formmy own upbringing ed a solid base for collecting information and for understandingand interpretingit. The materialused 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/ relates.However, practice the spreadof these rituals, customs, and practices is wider in termsof geographicaland social space; the generalisationsand inferences drawn from them have much wider applicability. It should be keptin mind that genderdifferences that are culturally produced are, almostinvariably, as beingrooted interpreted in biology, as part of 'the natural order of things'. To give one relevant example, in patrilineal India the commonly-held idea the roles of father and mother in regarding procreationis that man providesthe seedEconomic and Political Weekly

the essence-while the woman providesthe field which receivesthe seed and nourishes it. A child shares the father's blood. Thus, while the natal group emphasises woman's transferability or her non-functionalnature from the point of view of perpetuation of the group and continuity of the family, the husband'sgroup emphasisesher instrumentality,her place as a receptacle,a vehiclefor the perpetuation of the group. This social in which men and womenhave arrangement unequalrights, positions, and roles, both as brotherand sister and as husbandand wife, is perceived as corresponding to the arrangement of naturewhich assigns unequalroles to the two sexes in procreation.2 Gender roles are Sonceived, enacted and learntwithin a complexof relationships.To understandthis process it is necessary to keepin mind the implications of the family structureand the wider context of kinship in which it is embedded. There are two major aspects of the implications of family A familystructure, structure. at a givenpoint of time, is not just a function of demography,it also reflects the rules of recruitment and marital residence and the normativeand actual patternsof rearrangement of the family in the process of the replacement of the old generationby the new. Second, there is something beyond the actual compositionof a familyunit-its 'configuration of role relationships'and 'specific'and 'objective'contribution of members to the. businessof living-that goes into the apportionment of family resources,gender-based and age-baseddivisionof work, and the conceptions of, and trainingfor, futureroles of male and female children. Kinship is not merely a moral code but provides the organising principles which governthe recruitmentto and placementof individuals in social groups, formation of the familyand household,residenceat marriage, resource distribution including inheritance, and obligations and responsibilitiesin the businessof living of individual members of the group. The notion of entitlement-to membershipin a family,to food and nutrition,to health care,to education, to authority and decision-makingcannot be understoodand a properanalysis 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

underlyingthe ideas and behaviour of the with religion people.Theirclose relationship as it is livedand practised by the peopledoes not need emphasis.The specificityof a kinthe ship systemis crucial for understanding process of socialisation. This is, of course, not to deny the need to examinethe various inter-linkages between the individual and prohouseholdand the widerstructures cesses of society; the recognitionof the importance of the specificity of kinship is crucial for such examination. Finally, family structureand patternsof kinship are tied to the institution of caste. In the castesystemthe fact that membership of discreteand distinctgroups is defined by birth entails a concern with boundary maintenance throughregulationof marriage and sexualrelations.Although groupplacement in most of Hindu India is governedby 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, impartsa special character to the process of growing up female in Indian society.
THE MALE CHILD

The recognition of the special value accordedto male childrencomes early. While surrounded by affectionateand appreciative parents,grandparents,uncles and aunts, a little girl of three or four may hear a maidservant exclaim: "Oh such a sweet child. How wonderfulit would havebeen if this was a boy?" This incidentwas narrated to me by M K Chanderof the Universityof Mysore. The little girl in question was the seconddaughterof parentswho werehoping for a son. The happiness expressed all aroundat the birth of a son and the waythe parents and the close relatives of the new can hardlyescapethe born arecongratulated attention of little girls. The desirabilityof having sons and undesirabilityof 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 succour in old age. A Teleguexpressionconveys
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this effectively: "Bringingup a daughteris likewatering a plant in another'scourtyard." Elders bless young girls and women by wishing that they have a large number of sons (and just one daughter).The notion of the greatervalue of sons is further strengthenedby the existence,with regionalvariations, of special worshipsand 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 daughteris often described as the fruit of penance and vows undertaken by the mother.A male child is so valuablethat 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 arguingthat a girl is givena feeling of being unwantedall the time. In many regionsthereare some specialdayson which daughters of the familyarehonoured.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" expressesa general feeling of the usefulness of a daughterin the performanceof housework. Manyparentsare proudof their daughters' achievementsat schools and colleges. The messagethat gets communicated is, however, invariablythat of the immutability of the social system and that a daughter'sstay in her parentalhome is short-lived.Moreover, not only is theresomethingunnaturalabout 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 proverbequates a daughterwith ghee: both are valuable but both begin to stink if not disposedof in time.An expressionin Telegu, very often repeated by women in the context of the worry about marrying a girl at the appropriate time, describes a postpubertaldaughter as a boil on the chest.3 At the prematuredeath of her husband a womanis 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 liabilityand the motheris 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 daughtersis the commonly observed fact that in middle class families with meagre resources daughtersare sent to relativelyinexpensive regionallanguageschools whereas boysareeducatedin moreexpensiveEnglish mediumschools. In people's perceptionthe educationof a daughteris essentiallyfor her own benefit; it is not an investmentso far as the natal family is concerned.
TH E NATAL HOM E

Girlsgrow up with a notion of their temporarymembershipwithin the natal home.

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Ritualsprovideone of the importantmeans through which girls come to realise the inevitability of their transfer from the natal home to that of the husband. Sucheta Mazumdar,talking about the socialisation of Hindu middleclass Bengaliwomen,says: ... Durgapuja does carry one important messagefor young girls. This puja is supin celebration posedly of the goddess's return to her natalhome. The fact that it lasts for fivedaysin thewholeyearforcefully suggests to the girl that, once married,she too cannot expectto visit her family veryoften.4 Durgapuja has a parallelin Karnataka,the Gauri puja. The Gauri puja, celebrated about a month beforethe Durga puja, commemoratesGauri's visit to her natal home. The songs sung by women describe how Gauri entreats Shiva to send her home and Shiva comes out with a series of arguments which spell out the duties of an ideal housewife and mother. An interesting arguent that Shiva puts forward is that Ganesha is young, he is used to comforts and luxuriesin their house, Gauri'sparents are poor; if Ganesha makesdemandswhich her parents cannot fulfil the child will be miserable.It would also be an embarrassment for her parents. Gauri persists in her requestentreatingthat she may be allowed to go at least for three days. Finally Shiva permits.Just as Durgacomes with her four children,Gauri is followedby Ganesha,her youngerson. The visit lasts for threeto five days and is celebratedwith great fanfare. Then comes the hour of farewell.The atmosphere is heavy. Young girls are often moved to tears just as they are at the weddings of their female relatives and friends whenthe transferof the bride fromthe natal family to the husband and his family is dramatisedthroughritualsand ceremonies. The Gauri puja conveys to young girls the truth that they too will have to leave the mother's home. It also underscores a woman'slack of autonomy with respectto her visits to the natal home. In fact, in the processof socialisationof girls thereis considerableemphasis on the possible need to bow before the wishes of the husband and his family, and in general, on the submissiveness and obedience, as feminine ideals.5 Gauri puja is celebratedalso in parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Some other festivals in Andhra Pradeshand Maharashtra contain the same idea of the coming home of a goddess or goddesses; around the same time as Gauri puja many families celebrate the coming home of two devis, known as elder and youngerMahalakshmis (who arebelievedto be sisters) along with their children. The festival lasts for three days. It is customary to invite married daughters of the family, realand classificatory, to the feastin honour of the Mahalakshmis.A popular festivalof married women in Maharashtra in the month of Chaitra (March-April) celebrates the coming home of Gauri: women invite each other for viewing the well-decorated

idol and for an exchangeor distributionof saubhagyachinha or symbols of married state which indicate good fortune and In all these festivalsthe comauspiciousness. ing of daughters to the natalhome is a happy event but always of brief duration. The change in the daughter'srelationship with her natal home after marriage forms the content of many other rituals. In a Bengali wedding, before leaving her natal home with the bridegroom,the bridestands with her back towardsthe house and throws a handful of rice over her shoulder. This signifies that she has returnedthe rice that she has consumeduntil then and has absolved herself of the debt in the natal family. Another custom, also from Bengal, which is a variation of the 'returningof the rice' themeseems to expressa feeling of helplessness and worthlessness on the part of a daughter.The morning after the wedding when the bride is preparing to leave the house she speaks to her father with a handful of dust and says three times, "I have taken from you in handfuls of gold. I am givingback in handfulsof dust" In an Oriya wedding,the bride pours rice into the pallu (end of the sari) of her mother. This gives rise to sighs, mutterings,wailing and weeping all around that now that she has returned the rice she has consumed,the daughter's relationshipwith her natal home is broken for ever. The idea of the accident of birth and the contrastingfortunes of daughterand son is a common theme in wailings and the 'sendoff' of a bride from her natal home and also in subsequent visits and departures of a married daughter.To give one example,in parts of centralIndia, on the eveof the ceremonial departureof a daughterafter the wedding, a mother wails: "My child, had you been a son you would have lived with us and ploughed the field and looked after us. I wouldhaveservedyou hot rice. But now you arebeingsent out of the house likea corpse" The songs sung in the Hindi belt at the time of sending off the bride express feelings of sorrowand resentmentof the bride: O fatheryou broughtmy brotherup to be happy, Youbroughtme up for sheddingtears. Ofather,you havebroughtyour son up to give him your house, And you have left a cage for me. Looking upon the daughter as a temporary member of the family and the son as a permanent member has its consequences:often girls themselves are keen to collect their own dowry without much considerationfor the plight of the parentsand the futureof younger siblings. If they have no right of membershipin the natal family, they also have no obligation to contribute towards its maintenance. Theirmainconcern is to establish themselvesin the new family and acquirea status there.They look upon a a necessarycontribution towards dowry a this process.An Oriyaproverb bringsout the lack of convergencebetweenthe interestsof the daughterand the mother: "motherand
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daughter go into the temple, each to pray for her own happiness'. Just as a daughter's wellbeing is not essential for her mother's happiness, the daughter too need not pray for her mother, for her own happiness is not dependent on her naial 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 wedding of a girl in the family/kin group. This is not surprising since the message of the inescapability 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 bridegroomwill 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 inescapability of marriage is the feeling of uncertainty about moving to a harsh environment. 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 Fearingthe 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 I go? Similarly, songs of Bhulabai, a special collective 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 invariably speak of the contrast between the husband's home and the natal home. An oftrepeated stanza in the songs of Bhulabai goes as follows: Thc 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

and ritualsdo not, howeverremovefeelings of uncertainty and insecurity about the future. It would be interestingto look furtherat the lullabiesand nurseryrhymes.In Bengal, as in many other parts of India, such lullabiesand nurseryrhymes are very common and cut across the rural-urbandivide and, often, across class and social group. Each song has many renderingsin 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 beautifulbaby,I shallbring a wife for you Her skin will be like gold, her lips will be nipplesof red. I shall fill huge drumswith 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 theirtransferability and the possibility of an unfriendlyenvironmentwhich they will have to face in future. A veryeffectivesourceof conveyingthese ideas is everyday language. Take, for instance, the following questions which form part of the conversationamong elders: 'In whichfamilyhaveyou givenyour daughter?' or, as in Oriya, 'Wherehave you sent your to toil?' or, 'Intowhich familyhave daughter you marriedyour daughter?'.These expressions implytransferability or transference of a femalechild as 'givens'of the social reality.
CONSTRUCTION OF FEMINEITY: PRE-PUBERTAL PHASE

and Maharashtra, at the name-giving ceremonyof an infant a little girl is chosen to act as the mother of an infant which is represented by a stone, usually an elliptical grindingstone. She sits near the mother of the new born on a decoratedseat. 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 infant go through the various rituals before the mother and the new-borndo so; this is to wardoff evil. In some communities a little girl also plays the role of a companion to a pubertalgirl duringthe period of seclusion on her first menstruation. Beginningfrom Kashmir in the north-west the custom of worshipping and the ritual feedingvirgin girls (kanya)on special occasions is widespreadin 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 (conseclated food). TWo points emerge:First, in the instances given above the roles or forms assignedto little girls are essentially feminine ones8 and help in developingtheir consciousnessof femineity. Second, the purity and the consequent privilegedstatus of a girl in the pre-pubertal phase contrasts sharply with puberty and post-pubertal status and helps define the latter phase with tremendous clarity.
CONSTRUCTION OF FEMINEITY: ONSET OF PUBERTY

The construction of femineity,7is a continuous, complex, and occasionally contradictoryprocess.The differentialvalue of sons and daughters and the unshakable associationbetweerr marriageand the departure from the natal home is complemented by the notion of the intrinsic purity of prepubertalgirls. This qualityof purityis given special recognitionin severalrituals. In the marriage ceremony of certain brahmin groupsand a few other communitiesin Karnatakaa littlegirl carriesa pot of auspicious waterdecoratedwith 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 carryinga pot of water decorated with leaves and often covered with a coconut is a necessary feature of marriage ceremony and other rituals among many castegroupsin south Indiaand Maharashtra. Among the brahmins of Andhra Pradesh such a girl has to accompany the bridegroom. In Maharashtra, when Maratha bridegroomis going in a procession to the weddingpandal, a little girl sits behind him on horseback and carries a small pot of water on her head. A pre-pubertalgirl 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,

The onset of pubertyintroducesdramatic 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 appearand expressions such as 'her body is full', 'it is ripe'. and 'it is ready' are common. Referencesto full-grownbody, becoming a 'woman'becoming 'big' becoming 'mature' and 'knowledgeable'all express the fact of her changed status. In south India this change in status is expressed through rituals and ceremonies. Some castesin Maharashtra and Orissaalso sharethe essentialfeaturesof pubertyrituals althoughtheyoften conductthem on a fairly modest scale. My accountof pubertyrituals and specialdietaryprescriptions and restrictions for pubertalgirls is based on observation and informalinterviewing. It was a conscious decision on my part not to depend on the earlier accounts of puberty rituals preparedby anthropologists and administrators and published in volumes on tribes and castesand in monographsand journals; I was keen to know the situation which exists now. Information was collected for differentcastes in various geographicalareas. The common featuresof the celebratfonof the onset of puberty are: confinement or seclusionof the girl for a certain numberof
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days9arti to signify the auspiciousness of the occasion and to ward off evil to which girl is believedto be especiala menstruating ly vulnerable,serving her special food, informingthe relativesand friends,giving the girl a ritual bath, presenting her with new clothes and accessories of beautification such as flowers, jewelleryand bangles, and a feast which also servesthe purposeof announcement of the event.10 In Karnataka,at her first menstruationa girl is fed with dry coconut, milk, ghee, certain fruits,a mixtureof jaggery and sesame seeds and meat and chicken soups among meat-eatinggroups. It is customary for the to the affinal relatives, particularly relatives, bringgifts. In AndhraPradeshjaggery and sesame seeds are ceremoniallypounded by women often to the accompaniment of songs;small balls made out of this mixture are given to the menstruatinggirl and are distributedamong women and girls. There is also an exchangeof turmericpowderand kumkum among married women which is a common feature of most auspicious occasions.Among the vokkaligaof Mysorethe periodof confinementlasts for sixteendays 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 grownbody is communicatedsymbolically through certain gifts. In Andhra pradesh girls customarily wear a long pre-pubertal skirtand a blouse.An importantcomponent of the puberty ceremony is the ritual of wearinga half-sari gifted by the maternal uncle.A half-sariis much shorterthan a full for lengthsari and henceeasily-manageable a young girl. It, however,serves the main functionof a sari: to providean outer cover for the upperportionof her body. The ritual of wearinga half-sari,therefore,symbolises the changed status of the pubertal girl. School-going girls often feel embarrassed whentheyare confined at home for a determinatenumberof days,dependingupon the custom of the particularcaste, and an application for sick leave is sent to school. Certaincustoms such as wearinga half-sari makethe changein statusobviousand in coeducationalinstitutionswhen they returnto the school these girls may have to face some not easy teasingfromthe boys. It is, however, for parentsto discontinue the practice for they may be criticised for being stingy in avoidingthe celebrationof a girl's coming of age. In Marathi,attaining maturity is eupheas 'shehac now acquired mistically expressed a padar' Padar is the upper end of the sari whichis used to coverthe bust and is taken over the shoulder and allowed to hang on the other side. Among the nattati nadar,a maternaluncle brings a sari for the niece whenshe reachespuberty.The implications of a full grownbody will be discusseda little later. It is in the light of her emergentsexuality motherhoodthat the special and prospective diet for the pubertal girl needs to be
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understood. Apart from eating nourishing food, the girl h,s to avoid 'cold' or particularly 'hot' foods. The regulations may continue from a few days to a few months to one or two yearsafter the first menstruation. Indigenous understanding of the qualities of different kinds of food is at the back of these restrictionsand recommendations. They are meant to make up for the loss of blood, regularisethe menstrualcycle organs, and flow,strengthen the reproductive and in general,to contributelowardsfuture fertility, to makethe processof child-bearing smooth, and to restrainthe girl's sexuality. Puberty celebrations and the special diet regulations seem to express the value of restrainedand 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 menstruationis being 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 seemsto be the reactionof at leastsome peo"TheMoors, on the other ple in Karnataka: hand, seem now-a-daysto be more concerned with the liabilitiesand proprieties of having 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 youngersister. As a matterof adherenceto tradition some families perform puberty rituals only for the first daughter, with celebration and invitations, and take ihe n;ore daughters comingof age of subsequent or less as a routine event. A special diet is, girl, and among however, given to a pubertal upper castes observances of purity and pollution relatingto menstruationare practised to a certain extent. Although schoolgoing girls from educated families are able to have their way and may even be helped by the father in avoiding the celebrationof the event, they cannot avoid sharing a part of a common core of ideas and beliefs. Although the celebration and the ingredients of the special diet may vary across regions and caste groups, the message is clear:the girl is now equipped to become a motherand this is a matterof rejoicing,for the main purpose of the female body is to The ceremonialwearingof green reproduce. bangles by a pubertal girl among the Marathacaste group in Maharashtramake this clearsince greenis the colour of fertility and signifies auspiciousness. The girl has, moreover, reached marriageable age and those people (particularlyaffines) who are likely to be interestedin a marital alliance should know about this fact. Does this emphasis on fertility and marriage and special attention which a girl receiveswhen 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

*isclear,however,is that the special value accordedto fertility and marriagealso has its other side, the apprehensionof barrenness and of the failure to get married. In most of north Indiathe first menstruation is not marked by rituals. The event is taken care of by,the mother and the female relatives unobstrusively and within the relatingto menstrual home.The observances pollution are introducedquietly, often with the attempt that children and males in the familyand outsidersshouldnot noticethem. A menstruatinggirl is askednot to eat spicy food, pickles and curds, and in general to avoidwhat are consideredvery '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,playingroughgames and ridinga bicycleareconsideredas harmAll these arerelated ful duringmenstruation. to the care which needs to be taken of the girl's reproductiveorgans and of the regularity of the menstrual period and flow. It is interestingto note that to the north of north India, in Nepal, the onset of puberty is marked by confinement and special rituals. As described by Lynn Bennett, among the uppercaste Pabatiyas,it is marked by the immediateremoval of the girl from her natal home and seclusion in a dark windowlessroom knownas 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 seclusioni.At the end of her seclusion she must take a purificatorybath and receive from her father and brothers gifts consisting of a red sari and a blouse and accessories of a marriedwoman signifying 'a complete transference of the daughter'snascent sexuality away from her (p 240). natalgroupand to anotherpatriliRe' A significantpoint madeby Bennettis about the culturalassertion of a girl's sexualityin relationto her natal male kin as symbolised by the severeavoidance of these kin by her during the period of seclusion." In both north and south India the onset of pubertyis a definite point of departure in the life of a girl. She has now crossedthe thresholdof childhoodand enteredthe most critical stage of life when her body has acquired a capacity to reproducebut she has no authority to do so. During the period between puberty and marriage a woman's is at its peak.The post-pubertal vulnerability on by restrictions phasethen is characterised movements and on interaction with males and by the impositionof special safeguards. I shall look into these later. My point here is that the managementof a girl's sexuality is tied to her future as a wife and mother. Motherhood is the highest achievementin a woman's life. Marriageis the gatewayto motherhood. Everythingelse is secondary to these two goals.
AND THE 'Auspicious' THE 'FORTUNATE'

Preoccupation with the desirability of marriageis expressedthrough a numberof

a andvratas forgetting practices. Blessings

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husband like Shiva or Vishnu convey the message forcefully.The purpose of the two popular festivals, specially meant for little girls, Bhulabaiin partsof 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 individual worships and fasts in other regions.12 The commemoration of the peniance performedby Parvatifor obtaining Shivaas a husbandthrougha fast and puja (worship)has a very wide spread. In Karnatakawhen the bride worships Gauri and distributes prasad,youngunmarried girlsare advised to come forwardto get a share so that theytoo become fortunatelikethe bride and soon get married. In Andhra Pradesh, it is believedthat whoeveracts as the bride's companion during thekvwedding ceremony while she is going through the rituals will The same idea informsthe soon get married. 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 termsfor a marriedwoman whose husband is alive are saubhagyavatior suhagan which meansthe fortunateone and sumangali which means the auspicious one. (In wedding invitations, the prefixes to the names of the bridegroomand bride differ: it is ayushmanor chirenfor the bridegroom 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 usedis saubhagyakankshini 'one who aspires for a blissful marriedstate'.) On all kinds of ceremonialoccasions and rituals participation of these 'fortunate' and 'auspicious' women is essential. Thus, it is only a married woman with a living husband who can in diggingthe earth and carrying participate it to the marriagepandal, spl eading oil and turmericpaste on the body of the bride or the bridegroom,and performingan arti on theseauspiciousoccasions.The instancesare innumerable. The saubhagya-good fortune-or auspiciousnesshas to be carefullynurtured. t here are a series of vratasto be observed by marriedwomen for the long life and prosperityof the husband and the accompanying narrativeshaveclear messages. Feeding a 'fortunate' married woman on special occasions increases one's good fortune; so does the distribution and exchange of variousaccessories symbolising good fortune of the marriedstatesuch and auspiciousness as turmeric powderand kumkum,vermilion, glass bangles,fruits, flowers,comb, and mirror.Althoughthereareconsiderable regional variationsthe core appearsto be the same. During the last few decades the age of marriagefor girls has gone up, particularly amongthe middleand uppermiddleclasses, and the numberof unmarried youngwomen in white collar occupations has increased; At the same time, the cultural import of marriagehas changedverylittle. Unmarried
Economic and Political Weekly

women are-excluaed trom the 'auspicious' activi'ties of the 'fortunate'women and are made to feel that there is something wron, with them. Those who remain unmarried, by choice or throughthe compulsion of circumstances, often preferto live in largecities where it is possible for them to exist in relativeanonymity,and wherethe normsare
less stringent. 13

The message of the value of the married state is also transmittedin negative terms. If a marriedwoman 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 with the mangalsutra,a necklaceof 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 rubbedoff a marriedwoman'sforehead;it 'increasesin size'.The same care in language is taken in regardto the vermilionin the partingof the hair-a mark which signifies the married state of a woman in central, northern, and easternIndia. These euphemismsare a part of several Indianlanguagessuch as, Marathi, Kannada,Telugu,Gujarati,Bengali, Hindi, and Oriya.The underlyingidea is the same: everything happensas though spokenwords have a capacity to act or to come true and hence their utterancemust be avoided. At the husband'sdeath, a woman'sbanglesare ceremonially broken, her vermilion mark/kumkum is rubbed off and her mangalsutra/taliand toe rings are removed. Evenamongthose communitieswhichtraditionally allow remarriageof widows these practices are followed: at the second marriage the insignia are restored. All over India, depending on the kind of attirethat 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 womanshould not sleep at night onIan empty stomach, without eating at least a little on certainauspicious -bitof rice,particularly days, for such practices of self-denial are associated with widowhood. And even though the practice of shaving off hair of widowshas almost died out, thereis still an associationof scissorsand razorswith widowhood. In manyhousesgirlsare discouraged from letting scissors, blade or any sharpinstrument touch their hair. There still exist considerable reservatiorsabout girls cutting the ends of their hair in orderto makethem even. Many women in south India are very particular about wearing flowers in their hair:flowerssignify an auspiciousstateand a right to beauty which a widow is denied. Among the iyer brahminsof TamilNadu when the husband dies the wife continues to wearthe insigniaof marriedstate for tendays. At midnight of the tenth day all these are removed. This job has to be done by womenlwho have already become widows.
Sumnangali

avoid being anywherenear the unfortunate and inauspicious woman on this occasion. The atmosphereis consideredchargedwith misfortune and in order to protect herself from inauspiciousness,.asumangaliwoman must clench a piece of turmericin her first. The other opposition which serves to define the value of the married state, particularly for unmarriedpost-pubertalgirls, is the image of the prostitute.The ways of :he fallen, wanton, provocative, immoral woman must be avoided. This takes us into the question of the managementof a girl's sexuality.
FEMINITYAND SEXUALITY:BODY, SPACEAND TIME A girl is, we have seen, at her most

vulnerable betweenthe onset of pubertyand marriage.Marriagehas to be carefullycontrolledin a caste society concernedwith the maintenanceof boundaries. I hope my emphasis on significance of caste in the concern for managementof sexualityof young unmarried girls does not give an impression of a changeless Hindu society nor of impenetrable boundaries of castes. The phenomenon of caste is too complex, and subsumestoo baffling a variety of patterns to yield to simple explanations. It may be mentioned,however, that due to a varietyof factors contributing towards social change the boundaries of endogamy are widening: distinctions between'sub-castes' arenot considered relevant by many. There is also greater tolerance of inter-caste marriages, provided the ritual distance between concerned 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 maintenanceis a crucialelementin the definition of the culturalapprehensionof the vulnerability of young girls and the emphasis on their purityand restraintin behaviour.This is expressed in the constructionof'legitimate' and 'proper'modes of speech, demeanour and behaviour for young girls and in the organisationof theirspaceand time. 'A Girl is Born', a contemporary street play in Marathiby a group of feminists which has attained considerable popularity, sums up the do's and don'ts administeredto a postpubertal girl:
Do not abandon the vow of womanhood taken by you You have to follow your mother, grandmother, 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 abandon the vow of womanhood. Do not speak with your face up, Be inside the house Wash clothes, clean the utensils, Cooc and serve food Clear the leavings and remove the soiled plates WS-15

women have to scrupulously

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Sweepand drawdesigns Sewandembroider, on the floor the Water the Tulsiplant, Circumambulate sacredtree Observefasts and performvratas Look down Bend your neck downwards, wards lookingup,do not letyoureyes Walk without wander 14 Do not abandonthe vowof womanhood. Considerable importance is attached to the waya girlcarriesherself,the wayshe sits, stands and talks, and interactswith others. A girl should walk with soft steps: so soft that they arebarelyaudibleto others.Taking long strides denotes masculinity. Girls are for jumping,running,rushing often rebuked to a place and hopping. These movements are considered a part of masculine to a female;however, unbecoming behaviour, the logic of the managementof a girl's sexualityalso defines them as unfeminine;they can bring the contours of the body into greaterprominenceand attract people'sattention. A girl has to be careful about her posture.She should not sit cross-leggedor one'sknees withherlegs wide apart.Keeping close together while sitting, standing, or sleepingis 'decent';and indicatesa sense of shameand modesty.'Don'tstand likea man' is a common rebuketo make a girl awareof the demands of femininity.

it is alwaysthe petal which runs the risk of getting hurt and disfigured!The same idea is expressedin centralIndia: "Whatever can happen to butter-milk?It is the milk which gets bad", and "It is the earthen pot which gets polluted and defiled easily and permanently;a metal one can be rubbed,washed off and cleaned to purity; nothing happens to it" Likening woman to an earthenvessel and man to a vessel made of brass is widespreadin India and is even used in the deliberations of villagecouncils in adjudication of cases of elopement,molestation,and sexual aggression.

A girl has to be carefullyguardedagainst even a remote semblance to a woman of loose character, a womanof the street,a prostitute,someone who uses her charmsto attractmen. For a post-pubertal girl whistling is not merely to be a tomboy; it signifies amorousinclination.This is also true of the jingling of bangles. Smiling without purpose, glancing 'furtively',looking through the corners of one's eyes do not become a well-bredgirl. Shynessand modesty are approvedand consideredas 'natural'feminine qualities. While on the theme of development of femininity,it is necessary to make one point: the importance given to the physicalappearanceof a girl. The value accorded to various components of physical appearance is conveyed not only through Girls are encouragedto speak softly, and lullabies,songs, and sayingsbut also through to avoidabrasive 'male-language. Boys,of open praise or criticism of individual girls course, learn all kinds of abuses; however, within their hearing. A girl's fortune (mareven the milder abuses used by women are riage being its most salient component) is frownedupon if used by young girls. A girl tied up with her_ppearance;good looks are must demonstrate her capacity for self- considered as an important 'qualification' restraint:talking and laughing loudly is of a female.No wonderthat many girlstend disapprovedof; a girl should not be argu- to develop an excessive interest in their mentative. In Andhra Pradesh, a loud- appearance-often at the cost of otherqualimouthed girl may receive the epithet of fications-and in clothes, jewellery, and 'Marn'which refers to the malevolent god- cosmetics. Such an interestis interpreted as dess who brings pests and destruction. an expression of femininity and thus Sucheta Mazumdar'sstatement that being 'natural'. soft-spokenand demurequalifies a Bengali In north India the associationof a curved of herbeing likeLaxmi, girl for a description the goddess of wealth, while a loud and posturewith a dancinggirl is so strongthat noisy girl is rebuked as Alokkhi (the op- evenan unconsciousact on the partof a girl posite of Laxmi) seems to capture a com- of leaning against a wall or a pillar brings for girls.The actualepithets, forth rebuke from elders. Chewing betels mon experience makes the lips red, loose unplaited hair however,vary. speak of abandon; these are sources of atToestablishher feminineidentity,a young traction. In many parts of India girls were irl shouldavoid masculinedemeanourand traditionally forbiddento look into a mirror ehaviour.This identity also demands that or to comb their hairaftersunset sincethese he should be circumspectwith men. A girl acts were associated with a prostitute getho has come of age has to be protectednot ting readyfor her customers.Thesepractices nly from men but also from herself. The still continue in many families. Restrictions eed to control female sexuality is often ex- on the wearingof bright and gaudy clothes ressed Emphasising the by unmarried throughmetaphors. girls arealso rooted in similar ecessityof not allowingyoung women and associations.A girl standingin the doorway en to come close it is said that unless a of the house, particularlyat dusk, may be hysicaldistanceis maintainedbetweenhay rebukedeven by brotherswith a mention of nd fire, it is impossible to protect the hay the prostitute.In the process of trainingfor romcatchingfire.Anothersayingprevalent properbehaviour,certain assumptions and mong the matrilineal but caste-bound indications can seriously offend the senconveysthe fact of vulnera- sibilitiesof growinggirls. For instance,there ayarpowerfully of younggirls:'Whether the thornfalls is a commonly held notion that the debility 3nthe petal or the petal faIls on the thorn, meanour of a girl is itself responsible for

what is known as 'eve-teasing' in India. The presenceof this notion can be sensed, if not clearly expressed, in the manner in which particularinstances of young men making passes at young women are analysed. Prescriptionsregarding the waysin which a girl should act and behave that we have' discussed are, it should be clear, set out in the context of specific notions of space and time. The injunctions about physical segregationand control of contact with males makecertaindemands on a girl outside her home: with downcast eyes, silent and unobtrusivemovements,and her body almost shrinking, a girl is expected to create a separatespace for herself in places full of strangers. More often, however, a girl prefers to move with other girls in a group. This is well brought out by Krishna Kumar: ... Weboys used the streetfor so manydifferentthings-as a place to stand around watching, to runaround and play,tryout the manoeuvrability of our bikes. Not so for girls.As we noticedall the time,for girlsthe street was simply a means to get straight homefromschool.And evenforthislimited use of the streettheyalwayswentin clusters, becausebehindtheirpurposeful perhaps demeanour the worstfearsof bethey carried ing assaulted. Krishna Kumar goes on: Watching thesesilentclusters foryears eroded mybasicsenseof endowingindividuality to everyhumanbeing. I got used to believing that girls are not individuals. Krishna Kumar is describing, what he calls, ' tragicpatternof socialisation': his experiences of boyhood in a small town in MadhyaPradesh, central India. His article is a reminder that to understand the socialisationof girls it is im'perative to look into socialisation of male children.'5 It is not only molestationbut also the fear of being malignedas a girl of bad character which a girl tries to avoid in following a strategy that Johanna Lessinger while describing the activities of women petty traders in Madras has called 'public 16 chaperoning'. If the space outside the house has to be negotiatedin determinateways by girls, this is also true of spatial divisions within the house. Pre-pubertal girls can generallypla) with both boys and othergirls on streetsanc in parks,courtyardsand other open spaces With the onset of pubertythe compulsions of safeguard on female modesty push hei into the interior of the house which is the secluded 'private'domain of the family. In poorer sections of the population, withdrawalof young girls, between the onset of puberty and marriage, from the labour marketinlcudingdomesticservicein private homes in a well-known phenomenon. In rural areas and among certain sections in urbanareasdropoutratesfor girlsat the age of puberty increase substantially. There are similar restrictions that are

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many ways. A girl who does not like 'feminine' tasks is reminded that if she thinks that she can become a male, she is mistakenand that she may as well learn to do the workassignedto her,for, havingbeen born a female how can she escape it. A boy who likesto work in and aroundthe kitchen PROCESS OF TRAINING: TASKS AND and is interested in doing what are conIDEOLOGY sideredas femininetasks,-for instance,emI turn now to another aspect of the pro- broideryor drawingdesigns on the floorcess of socialisation: training for feminine becomes the target for derision and teasing. At any rate, it appears that home and tasks. It is, of course, difficult to speak of The most common termsused for sucha boy school reinforceeach other in the processof describehim as a womanish male, one who socialisation. My experienceat a school in a single patternof gender-baseddivision of is neither male nor female, effeminate, unwork since it is characterised by considerable one of the villages in Kolhapurdistrict of manly, and even impotent. Maharashtra brings this out clearly.During diversityacross regions and social groups. An importantcomponentof this 'natural' my visit to the school along with a group At the same time, work around the kitchen, of post-graduatestudents we weretaken to menial and dirty household work and child division of work is the notion of a sense of variousclassroomsand, as is the practicein care generally fall in the feminine sphere. service (sewa) as the necessary quality for such schools, students sang songs. In the The notions of appropriateness or inap- girls. I shall examine this notion as part of of particular kindsof workfor the training of girls through the ideas, juniormostclass boys and girls sat together; propriateness the song in which both joined was about adult femalesand males get reflected,if not values, and practicesassociated with food. Chandamama (the moon addressed as replicated,in the work assigned to girls and A necessary feature of the organisation maternal uncle), a popular theme for boys.The distinctionbetweenfemininework of the serving and distribution of food nursery rhymes and songs for children of and masculine work comes early in within the household is that the left-overs this age. In a somewhat senior class, childhoodand becomessharperas the child should be eaten by female and not by male certainshiftshad occurred: however, girlssat grows up. membersof the family. Little girls have to in one half portion of the room and boys The responses of 100 randomly selected learn this: an expressionof resentmenton in the other half. They sang two separate parentsof studentsadmittedto SardarPatel theirpartmay bringin concessionsbut often songs. The song whichthe girls sang was ac- Vidyalaya, a high class school in New Delhi, with a remark that a capacity to adjust is companied by a dance and was about the to the questionwhethertheywould havegirls of prime importancefor girls. If a girl conflowers in the rainy season. Both the boys or boys to do certain chores are revealing. tinuesto cry and shout for food becauseshe and the girls were reasonably confident. Twenty-five per cent of the parents did not is hungryshe is consideredfussy and is teasdistinguish betweentheirsons and daughters ed about her lack of self-restraint.In many In the classroomof seventhstandard,the for any of the ten chores mentioned in the middle class houses girls are instructedto girls who were all sari-clad not only sat in list but among the rest,therewas a clearbias take care that the rice at the bottom of the a portion of the room separated from the towardsasking the girls to work in the kit- pan (whichrunsthe riskof gettingburntand boys, but they sat on the floor by the side chen, sweep the floor, wash tea cups, put of containing tiny pebbles) is not servedto of the planks. The boys were cocky: they washedclothes on the line, and dust the fur- a male member of the family. Similar care stood up on the wooden planks and in fullniture,and the boys to fetch eggs and bread is taken regardingthe first dosa. throated voices sang confidently-a song from the.market,help change the tyreof the describing the valour of Shivaji, the well- scooter Girls should learn to bear pain and or car, and so on. These responses knownMarathahero. Wetried very hardto point towards deep rooted ideas regarding deprivation,to eat anythingthat is given to persuadethe girls to sing but they sat coyly the gender-based division of work in the them and to acquire the quality of selfand did not open their mouths. The teacher denial. This is a part of the training for the 17 society. who was a male did ask the girls to sing but realitythat they are likely to confront in the seemed to appreciateand understandtheir The naturalnessof the work supposed to house of the mother-in-law. reticenceand shyness. When we questioned be appropriate for girlsis conveyedeffectiveThe notions of toleranceand self-restraint the girls as to why they did not sit on the ly, without necessarilygeneratinga feeling. are also rooted in a consciously-cultivated planksit was the boys who answered:"They of discrimination, to little girls by encouragthemselveschoose to sit on the floor. What ing them in various games which involve feminine role which is embedded in and legitimisedby cultureand culturalideology. can others do?" 'dolls','household'; 'kitchenwork', 'marriage, The cooking, serving and distribution of It is important that the most prominent 'baby',and 'visiting neighbours. Beginning food are importantconstituentsof a presticaste group in Kolhapurdistrict is that of with assistance in cooking and other kit- gious and valued role for Hindu women. the Marathaswho emphasise their martial chenwork, serving of food, caring for This rolecontributesto women's self-esteem, past,follow a patternof hypergamousmar- youngersiblings, preparingfor the worship offers them a genuine sense of fulfilment kiages, observe a kind of seclusion of of family deities, and looking after the ag- and is central to the definition of many women, and talk of sexual asymmetryas a ed, girls learn to take over some of the female kinship roles. The ideal of Annathefmfselves. Washingclothes part of the naturalorderof things. A ques- responsibilities purna, the unfailing supplier of food, is tion emerges:Can we really think of refor- is a femininetask to be shared by the girls; accepted across different regions of India. where their men wash own clothes, children's ming the educationalsystemor of a reformThis ideal which has an aestheticappealand ed system of formal education to bring clothes are still left to women and girls. which-sets out privation and sacrifice as about a more 'enlightened'relationshipbet- Sweepingand moppingthe floor is women's defining characteristicsof feminine moral ween the sexes as loig as the larger struc- work. According to my informants in Kar- character generates a set of dispositions tures which provide the context for this nataka and Andhra Pradesh it is, in fact, wherea woman has to thinkof othersbefore educational system continue to reproduce consideredthe height of improprietyif the oneself and ought not to care about what gender-basedrelationships of domination broom touches any male of the family.'8 is beingleft for her.Finallypracticesrelating and subordination? The point which needs emphasis, then, is to food are associated with notions of the I have touched upon only a few issues in the naturalness which imbues the gender- male and female body. Tall and hefty boys the way the organisation of space and time based division of work. This is expressedin are a matterof pride for the family;special defined by the dimension of time. There is a certain familiarity which girls have with "Returnbefore it gets dark" and "Who is going with you?" These constraintsof space and time create problems for middle class girls in terms of choite of schools/colleges and courses-co-education and stayingout till late which certain courses demand are frownedupon-and, consequently,in their choice of careers.

for a girl is implicated in the management of her sexuality. It would be interestingto explore these questions further keeping in mind the variations across caste, class, and social groups.

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careis takento give boys such food as would makethem strong. On the contraryit is said that a girl growslike a refuseheap. It is best, therefore,if her intake of food is controlled, particularly just before and after the onset of puberty.Girls should look younger than their age: a girl with a developedbody raises questions about containment of her sexualityand remindspeople that marriage is imminentfor her;she, it is believed,is-also morelikelyto become a victim of sexualaggression.Women'sconcernthat girls should internaliseproper attitudes and modes of behaviour as a part of their training to become women and the different notions regardingrequirements 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 ambiguitythat characterisesthe trainingof girls. While they are being trained for present and future roles, the fact that they will eventuallybe going into another family is neverforgotten. Familiesdiffer. 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 acquireany power of decision-makingor any autonomyin that new home. Thereare also many 'ifs' in the process. Socialisation for an unfamiliar settingand an uncertainfuture impartsa degree of tentativenessand provisionalityto the process.This, [ feel affects the developmentof self-confidence and initiativein girls. Ambiguityalso characterises the presenceof contradictoryvaluesand expectationswhich essentiallyreflect the contradictions inherent in the patrilineal patrivirilocal kinshipsystem.To give one example,the tie betweena brotherand a sister is supposedto be life-long;throughouttheir 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 hearthat a womanshould 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 does it retain any markon it. Or, that a woman should be like pliablemud-to be cast into a shape of his ,choiceby the potter. A woman should thus be able to discardall the earlierloyaltiesand habits and get absorbed in the husband's family.
CONCLUSION

practices set certain limits in terms of the dispositions they inculcate among women and the different kinship roles within varying status which they assign to them within the family.The ritualsand practicesand the social system are, moreover,imbued with a certaingivennessand appearas a partof 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 deprivationand self-denial into sources of power, and attempt to carve out a living space.

Notes
rrhis is a somewhat alteredversion 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 Socialisation, Women and Education at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. I am grateful to RavinderKumar for his sensitive reception of the paper and for the facilities at the library during the period of its revision. I would like to expressmy appreciationto 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. ] I 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 country-their observations, accounts of rituals and festivals, and counter-questions have helped shape this paper. Very often these people also acted as mediators and interpretersbetween other informants and me. I shall acknowledge here, among many others, Ahalya, Annapurna, M K Chander,Suzanne Daniel, Suresh Patil, Rati Rao, D Vijaya, and Robert Zaedenbos from-Mysore;Abhilasha Tiwari-a'nd'Pramila 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,Alaka Sharma and Sanjay Sharma from Delhi. Yashodhara Misra, a sensitive story writerin Oriya, generously allowed me to borrow proverbsand sayings used by her in her stories 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 Reproduction and Sexual Relations of Production' in Visibility and Power: Essays on Women in Society and Development, (eds) Leela Dube, Eleanor Leacock and ShirleyArdener (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986), 22-53.

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 discussions 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 separatereality of femininity which is loaded with notions of secondary sexual characteristics and man's appreciation of these" (p 55); Ardener adds: "Femineity is not merely an eqpivalent of femininity, since it is locat&dat a different level of abstractionand 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 association with Oxford University Women's Studies Committee, 1978); 49-65. 8 The rituals show that a pre-pubertal girl is nevervisualised as someone who can engage in the pursuit of knowledge or in the learning 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 occupational groups a little boy may be ceremoniously initiated into the craft of the family and the community. 9 Confinement or seclusion can take various forms. The menstruating girl may be confined 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 symbol 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 underneaththe 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 protectedfrom the possible effect of evil eye, and to be out of sight of men, away from-

The structuring of women as gendered subjects throughHindu ritualsand practices is fundamentallyimplicatedin the constitution and reproduction of a social system characterised by genderasymmetryand the overallsubordinationof women.19To state is not to arguethat womenare this,however, passive,unquestioning victimsof these practices and the representationof these practices. It is to suggest that Hindu ritualsand

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April 30, 1988

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their gaze. 10 I have benefited greatly from some recent articlesdealing with puberty rituals. Pauline Kolenda 'Women as Tribute Woman as Flower: Images of Woman in Weddings in North and S outhl India', A merican Ethnologist, Vol 11, No 3, (1984); Denis McGilvray, 'Sexual Power and Fertility in Sri Lanka: Batticaloa Tlmils and Moors' in Ethnography of Fertility and Birth, (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 Womenin Nepal (New York: -Columbia University Press, 1983), 234-242. 12 For Bengal see Mazumdar (Note No 5!. 13 My emphasis on the inescapability of marriage 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 boundaries 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 unmarried status runs the risk of tarnishing the reputation of the family. The proportion of unmarried, married, and widowed males and females in the population is indicative of different norms for girls and boys. 14 See Jyoti Mhapasekar, Mulagi Jhali Ho (A Girl is Born) in Marathi (Bombay: Granthali, 1984). The translation is mine. 15 Krishna Kumar, 'Growing up Male', Seminar 318 (February 1986), 21-23. 16 See Johanna Lessinger, 'Work and Modesty: The Dilemma of Women MarketTraders in South India', paper presented at the Regional Conference for Asia on Women and the Household, New Delhi 1985. Forthcoming 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:Explorations 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 with SaurabhDube 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.

RALLIS INDIALIMITED
of the public that RALLIS INDIALIMITED Itis hereby notified for the information proposes to make an application to the CentralGovernment in the Department of Company Affairs, New Delhi, under Sub-Section (2) of Section 22 of the Monopolies and RestrictiveTrade PracticesAct, 1969, for establishment of a New Undertaking.Briefparticularsof the proposal are as under: RallisIndia Limited 1. Name and address of the applicant RalliHouse, 21, D.S. Marg, Bombay 400 001. Capital structure as on 2. Capital structure of the applicant organisation 1st November, 1987: AUTHORISED: Ordinary Shares of Rs. 10/- each Rs 10,00,00,000 ISSUEDAND SUBSCRIBED: Ordinary Shares of Rs. 9,52,30,700 Rs. 10/- each 3. Management structure of the applicant organisation indicating the names of the Directors, including Managing/Wholetime Directors and Manager, if any -Chairman Mr. D.S. Seth -Director Dr. F.A. Mehta -Director Mr. Y.N.Mafatlal -Director, Mr. V.N. Nadkarni -Director Mr. S. Parthasarathy -Director Mr. D.R.Peters -Director Mr. H.J. Silverston -Director Mr. J.K.Setna -Director Mr. V.J. Sheth -Director Dr. Ram. S. Tarneja -Director Mr. R.D.Thomas The proposal relates to the 4. Indicate whether the proposal relates to the establishment of a new establishment of a New Undertaking or a New undertaking. Unit/Division. 5. Location of the New Undertaking/Unit/Division: The new undertaking is proposed to be set up at: Village Pithampur, Dist Dhar, (M.P) Same as in (2) above. 6. Capital structure of the Unit/Division/ Undertaking 7. In case the proposal relates to the production, storage, supply, distribution or marketing or control of any goods/articles, indicate: Domestic Washing Machines of (i) Names of goods/articles Programable type not reserved for small scale units 50,000 Nos. per annum (ii) Proposed Licensed Capacity 30,000 n'os per annum aggre(iii) Estimated annual Turnover gating to Rs. 1800 lacs In case the proposal relates to the provisions of any services, state the volume of activity in terms of usual measures such as value, income, turnover. 9. Cost of the project 10. Scheme of finance, indicating the amounts to be raised from each source 8. Not applicable

Rs. 342 lacs Rs. lacs. Debentures FinancialInstitutions (rupee loans) Internal resources 190 152 342

Any person interested in the matter may make a representation in quadruplicate to the Secretary,Departmentof Company Affairs,Governmentof India,ShastriBhavan,New Delhi, within 14 days from the date of publication of this notice, intimating his views on the proposal and indicating the nature of his interest thereon. Dated this 20th day of April, 1988. RALLISINDIA LIMITED B. K. LASKARI SECRETAW COMPANY

Economic and Political Weekly

April 30, 1988

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