The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c14.s2.77

c14.s2.77

Should we now change the law and invest the widow with full powers over the immoveable property inherited by her? This is a question on which opinion is divided at present. Dr. Deshmukh's bill, introduced in 1936 in the Imperial Assembly, sought to invest the widow with this power, but the effort failed. The educated woman naturally feels it an insult that she should not have a power over her inheritance, which is conceded to the most illiterate and inexperienced villager. We must, however, note that even at present the widow can sell or mortgage her property for genuine necessities. The disability is that her powers in this connection are not unrestricted. This is of course a disability from one point of view, but also a protection from another. In the Punjab and Palestine, for instance, male peasants had unrestricted powers of alienation; the result was that many of them sold away their valuable lands and eventually became paupers, as they could not properly utilise or invest the sale proceeds. Eventually the governments of these provinces had to restrict these powers in the interests of the peasants themselves. We should not forget that 95 percent. widows are still uneducated, inexperienced and altogether innocent of the provisions of law. If they are given the right to dispose of their landed property, many of them will be induced by interested parties to enter into unwise transactions. The money realised from sale will not last long, and the majority of widows disposing of their property will eventually find that they have lost both the lands and their sale proceeds. Their condition will then become very pitiable. In the present circumstances, therefore, it is not in the interests of the widows as a class that they should have unrestricted power of alienation. A beginning, however, should be made by giving it to those widows, who possess certain minimum educational qualifications. This of course will often adversely affect the prospective rights of reversioners, but they have been already annihilated by the ruling of the Privy Council, which has given the widow in many parts of the country an unrestricted power of adoption. If coparceners cultivate friendly and cordial relations with the widow, there is no reason why she should wantonly defeat their expectations. She would then take as much interest in her husband's family as her coparceners, and would not normally stand in the way of its continued prosperity after her death by selling or willing away her share.