Condition of Women in the 16th and 17th Centuries | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Family Life

Joint Family System in India:

• Patriarchal Structure: The family system in India has been predominantly patriarchal, with the senior male member serving as the head of the family.
• Property Rights: There was no concept of individual property within the family. Members had only a right to maintenance from the family property.
• Gender Preference: The family system displayed a clear preference for males over females. Sons were preferred to daughters, and among sons, the first-born was given special preference.
• Mutual Dependence: The family structure fostered a sense of mutual dependence and joint relationships, creating a consciousness that life would be challenging without each other’s support.
• Women’s Role: Women were generally subject to the authority of the male members of the family. They faced common issues such as dependence on their father, husband, or son, and the effects of the male-dominated patriarchal system.
• Upper-Class Women: Upper-class women were typically educated and lived a life of luxury, although their lives were confined within the harem. They often shared their husband with multiple wives and mistresses.
• Working Women: The lives of working women were significantly different from those of upper-class women, facing unique challenges and circumstances within the patriarchal family system.

Role in Politics

Women in Mughal Politics:

• Some women, like Rani Durgawati of Gondwana and Chand Bibi of Ahmadnagar, actively ruled and participated in politics.
• Others, such as Nur Jahan, wielded political power through their husbands.
• Jahanara, the daughter of Shah Jahan, was involved in political affairs during her father's reign and under Aurangzeb after Shah Jahan's death.
• During the decline of the Mughal Empire, women like Zuhra, a vegetable seller during Muhammad Shah's reign, and Udham Bai, a former dancing girl and queen, also played significant roles in politics.

Cultural Patronage

• Women played a crucial role in shaping the moral and cultural tone of society from behind the scenes.
• They influenced royal taste and patronage, and also extended patronage to artists and singers themselves.
• Many women were accomplished writers, contributing significantly to literature.
• Jahanara, writing under the pen-name “Makhfi”(meaning "concealed"), produced notable literary works.
• Roshanara established a literary workshop, bait-ul-ulum, in Delhi, despite being banished there by Aurangzeb.

Social Problems

• Child marriage
• Forced marriages
• Denial of a share in parental property

Akbar's Reforms:

• Akbar attempted to set a legal age for marriage for both boys and girls.
• He also aimed to give girls the freedom to choose their own partners without parental pressure.

However, these reforms were largely ignored and not effectively implemented.

Sati

• The Mughal attempts to regulate sati had little effect because the prominent Rajput rulers continued the practice.
• When Maharaja Man Singh Kachhwaha died in 1614, four ranis committed sati with him, and another five did so at Amber.
• However, the fact that many ranis, whose names and lineages are recorded in contemporary Rajasthani sources, lived on as widows after their husbands' deaths indicates that there was no overwhelming pressure for them to commit sati.
• To enhance the sacred honor associated with a ruler from the women who committed sati, the number of such women was inflated by including common law wives and maids who had been given special status by the ruler. These women often came from non-Rajput and lower-caste backgrounds.
• For instance, when Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner died in 1698, in addition to 2 ranis, 9 common law wives (kkawas, patar, khalsa) and 7 maids (sahelis) committed sati.

Marriage

Marriage in Rural India:

• Social Institution: Marriage was a significant social institution in rural India.
• Parental Responsibility: Parents were primarily responsible for arranging the marriages of their sons and daughters. Early marriage was a common practice.
• Minimum Age for Marriage: Historically, Akbar tried to set a minimum marriage age of sixteen for males and fourteen for females, as noted by Abul Fazl in the Ain-i Akbari. However, it is unclear how effectively this was enforced.
• Marriage Customs: Different customs were followed among Muslims and non-Muslims. For Hindus, marriage was considered a sacrament, while for Muslims, it was viewed as a contract.
• Lack of Choice: In both communities, girls had little to no say in the choice of their marriage partners.
• Dowry: Dowry was a common issue faced by both Hindu and Muslim families.

Divorce

• Divorce was not commonly supported by Muslim nobles.
• However, there were a few instances where it did occur.

Property

• After escheat, the ruler would distribute the property of a deceased noble among his sons according to his preferences.
• There are no records of daughters of nobles receiving a share of the property. However, such laws might have been applied by the courts for other Muslims.
• In some cases among the landed gentry, women had the right to inherit property.
• Examples from the Punjab region indicate that women, including widows, actively participated in the rural land market by selling property they inherited.
• Hindu and Muslim women were entitled to inherit zamindaris, which they could sell or mortgage at their discretion.
• Women zamindars existed in eighteenth-century Bengal. Notably, one of the largest and most renowned zamindaris of that time, Rajshahi, was managed by a woman.

Life of Common Women

Life was difficult for ordinary women.

• Paintings show women engaged in construction work with their babies.
• Working women earned less than men for the same jobs.
• In Kota, official records indicate that women in agriculture were paid lower wages than their male counterparts.

Women’s Appeals to Village Councils:

• Historical documents from Western India regions like Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra reveal that women submitted petitions to village councils (panchayats) in search of justice and support.
• Women challenged their husbands for being unfaithful or for neglecting their duties towards the wife and children.
• While men’s infidelity was often overlooked, the government and higher caste groups did step in to ensure that families received necessary support.
• When women filed complaints with the panchayat, their identities were usually omitted from official records. Instead, they were identified by their relationships to male family members, such as mother, sister, or wife.

Women specialized in some vocations

• Artisanal tasks like spinning yarn, sifting and kneading clay for pottery, and embroidery relied heavily on female labor.
• Spinning was a common practice among women of nearly all social classes.
• In Bengal, women, often from upper castes, prepared the fine thread used for the renowned muslin of Dacca. These women, known for their nimble fingers and sharp eyesight, earned wages comparable to skilled workers, up to Rs. 3 per month.
• The famous chikan work of Awadh was also a specialty of women. However, these women typically worked under the strict supervision of a merchant or master craftsman.
• As products became more commercialized, the demand for women’s labor in their production increased.
• Women, both peasant and artisan, not only worked in the fields but also traveled to the homes of their employers or to markets when necessary.

References of women workers in paintings

• References to women workers are also evident in paintings, such as scenes depicting:
• Women carrying loads, often seen at construction sites where migrant women from neighboring villages worked.
• The construction of Fatehpur Sikri, with women crushing stones.
• A woman spinning thread, illustrating the production process where men and women had specific roles.
• In the fields, men and women worked side by side, with men responsible for tilling and ploughing, while women handled tasks like sowing, weeding, threshing, and winnowing.
• As nucleated villages grew and individuated peasant farming expanded in medieval India, the basis of production relied on the labour and resources of the entire household.
• In this context, a rigid separation between the home (for women) and the outside world (for men) was not feasible.
• However, biases related to women’s biological functions persisted. For example, menstruating women were restricted from touching the plough or the potter’s wheel in western India, or entering betel-leaf groves in Bengal.
• Women were valued in agrarian society not only for their labour but also for their role as child bearers in a society reliant on labour.
• High mortality rates among women due to malnutrition, frequent pregnancies, and childbirth-related deaths often resulted in a shortage of wives.
• This led to the development of social customs in peasant and artisan communities that differed from those of elite groups.
• In many rural communities, marriages involved the payment of bride-price instead of dowry, and remarriage was accepted for both divorced and widowed women.
• The emphasis on women as a reproductive force also brought about the fear of losing control over them. Social norms dictated that households were headed by males.
• Consequently, women were kept under strict control by male family members and the community, with severe punishments for suspected infidelity.