The Supreme Court has ruled that daughters have equal rights as sons in Hindu coparcenary property. This ends the last vestige of discrimination in Hindu succession laws. While the Hindu Succession Act originally aimed to give women inheritance rights, it was still discriminatory by not giving daughters equal rights as coparceners. The 2005 amendment aimed to fix this by giving daughters equal rights, but conflicting court rulings created ambiguity. The SC has now clarified that the 2005 amendment applies retrospectively to ensure daughters cannot be deprived of equal right to property irrespective of birth date. This upholds the constitutional principle of equality. [END SUMMARY]

1. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Navleen Multani
SULTANA'S DREAM

2. • Pairaband,Rangpur,British Indian Empire in 1880
• Elite family; Father, Zahiruddin Mohammad Abu Ali Saber,
well-educated, landowner, four wives
• Rahatunnessa Sabera Chowdhurani, Rokeya's mother;
influences her writings
• Two sisters and two brothers; educated brothers
• Limited Education to girls: reciting Quran and etiquette
lessons
• Gender roles, strictly defined

3. • Muslim Community, Social Reformer
• Bengal Renaissance
• Indian Womanhood; Women's Right to Education,Position
in Government, Employment opportunities
• Feminist, Science Fiction,Ecocritical Writings
• Women Oppression in Patriarchy
• Literary Works: Motichur Vol.1(1904),Sultana's Dream
(1905), Motichur Vol.2 (1922),Padmarag (1924)

4. Rokeya's Life and Intellectual Pursuits
• Elder brother, Ibrahim Saber tutored Rokeya at night
when family was asleep; women were discouraged from
seeking knowledge; girls were married early and
conformed to the strictly defined gender roles
• Rokeya learnt Bangla and English from her brother.
• Khan Bahadar Syed Sakhawat Hossain, Deputy
Magistrate in Bengal Civil Service (Bhagalpur), husband
of Rokeya, supported her intellectual pursuits.

5. Rokeya's Contribution
• Sakhawat Memorial Girls' School in Calcutta (1911)
• Bengali Muslim Women's Association - discussion of
important issues
• Financial assistance to poor widows; shelter for victims of
domestic violence
• Educational Services
• Vocational Training for girls
• Gender Equality

6. Background/Context
• Purdah System - Veiled Victims
• Denial of Right to Education
• Female Seclusion
• Gender Roles
• Patriarchy
• Colonization
• Nationalism
• Religious Rules

7. Sultana's Dream
• The Indian Ladies' Magazine,Madras(1905)
• Feminist Utopia
• Utopian Vision
• Defies Dominant Structures
• Reversal of Gender Roles
• Dream - Advanced Society - Ladyland - Ideal Land
• Women in Power; Men in Seclusion

8. • Speculative Science Fiction : Scientific - Aesthetic
Intervention,'accomodates narratives of minority' and
'alternative perspective' (Oziewicz)
• Social Dream : combines social and imaginative
experimentation; anticipates better living conditions; equal
rights ; dream of possibilities for social change
• Feminist Utopia by Rokeya, defender of women's rights
• Roushan Jahan calls Rokeya ' feminist foremother'

9. The Dream Sequence
• Mobility, Movement, Walk
• Intellectual and Physical Progression
• Sense of Order and Regulation
• Sense of Freedom; Self-Reliance
• Rediscovery of Self and Agency
• Equality, Peace and Virtue
• Green Earth, Ecofeminist Vision

10. Ladyland - Utopia
• Law and Order maintained by women
• Women Education is encouraged
• Child Marriage is banned
• Humanity and Truth reigns
• Developed Sustainable place
• No Purdah System
• Devoid of Violence, Corruption and Crime
• New Laws; no place for senseless rituals

11. • Real World vs. Imagined World
• Interplay of Social and Structural Existence
• Critique of Imperalism and Colonialism; Present way of
living
• Gendered Intellect and Cerebral Capabilities of men and
women; Women Empowerment
• Assessment of Social,Political and Economic conditions
• Appreciation of Nature
• Different kind of 'seeing', vision

12. Characters
• Sultana
• Sister Sara
• The Queen
Gender Role Reversal - 'Zenana' 'Mardana'
Satirical Inversion of Society - Men in the 'mardanas' mind
babies, cook food and do all sorts of domestic work

13. Purpose of Utopia
• Punctures Patriarchal Practices
• Validates Self-Expression, recognises self, Self as centre
of knowledge and understanding
• Analyzes limitations of system and wrong practices in
cultures
• Encourages innovative thinking and transforms traditional
world view
• Fosters critical awareness
• Testifies Creative Powers of Women

14. Function of Utopia
• Utopia Defamiliarization Estrangement
• Estrangement - Reflections, Contemplation
• Contemplation - Understanding - Change - Reform
• Old Ways of Living to New Ways of Being
• Optimism, Self-Reliance, Will-to-do
• Regression to Progression
• Utopia - Vision of a Better World

19. Forcing a woman to adhere to purdah system is
unconstitutional, so is dragging one out of it
• “To my husband who took me out of purdah and spent the rest of his life regretting it”. This is how the dedication
page reads in a Muslim woman author’s autobiography published a century ago. It speaks volumes about the
age-old tradition of keeping women in purdah. Having originated in early Islamic history, the controversy as to
which of a wide range of outfits — from the burqa (tip to toe gown covering entire body) to hijab (scarf covering
head and shoulders) — answers the Quranic injunction on women’s dress code remains unabated till this day.
• The burqa and hijab have been part of religious and social debates across the world and its total or partial ban
anywhere makes international news. In recent days, the Indian media has given prominent coverage to three
related developments — the ban on face-covering hijab in Sri Lanka after the devilish dance of terrorism on the
island, the Shiv Sena’s demand for a similar state action in India, and a Kerala educational organisation’s circular
to its schools directing that no girl student should cover her face on its campuses across the state.
• In India, purdah has had a local variant called ghoonghat (long veil covering head and face) and both have
generated legislation and case law. Since the days of British rule, there have been special provisions for
pardanashin (literally, sitting in purdah) women in the laws of evidence and civil procedure, irrespective of their
religion. In a Kolkata election case, two women voters — a Hindu and a Muslim — approached the High Court
seeking exemption from the requirement of a photo identity card on religious ground (Nirmal Sakdar 1961). The
court dismissed the Hindu woman’s plea: “The system of purdah is alien to our soil and never existed during the
period of the Hindu civilisation. It may be that amongst very orthodox families women are not readily
photographed. That however is not an inexorable social practice and in modern days it is neither widespread nor
popular.”

20. • The claim of her Muslim sister was also dismissed. Referring to the Quranic verses on the hijab, the court said: “There is no express
injunction about keeping purdah. Moderation of social intercourse is advocated and it has been laid down that women should cast
down their looks and not display their ornament in public. Annotators hold that there is no absolute injunction against uncovering of
the face or the hands. What have been laid down are questions of prudence and general deportment. The matter therefore rests not
on religion but on social practice.”
• In a similar case of a Muslim woman in Hyderabad, the judge deciding the matter however thought otherwise. “A citizen professing
Islam cannot be put to election to act contrary to religious injunctions to be able to exercise his franchise or to observe the religious
practice and forgo the right to vote,” the court said in Peeran Saheb (AP 1988).
• In 2015, a purdah-related case reached the Supreme Court. The Central Board of Secondary Education conducting the AIPMT (All
India Pre-Medical Test), in a bid to prevent copying in examination, announced a dress code that prohibited full-sleeve shirts and
headscarves. Some Muslim women sought exemption from it on religious grounds and obtained relief from the Kerala High Court,
subject to a direction to submit to necessary frisking by women invigilators. An appeal to a larger bench of the court by the CBSE was
dismissed. A Muslim students’ organisation tried to outsmart the board and in a bid to preempt further appeal approached the
Supreme Court with a PIL. It requested the court to direct the CBSE to not apply its dress restrictions to Muslim girls in general. The
organisation claimed that the code was repugnant to Islam and hence violated its members’ fundamental right to freedom of religion.
But the apex court issued a reprimand: “Faith is not connected to the clothes you wear, your faith will not disappear if you go to the
examination centre without headscarf.” The PIL was eventually withdrawn.
• I am nobody — despite my command over Arabic and lifelong study of Islamic tenets through their original sources — to explain what
the Quran actually says in respect of women’s dress code, as I do not belong to the clan that has monopolised the task of
understanding Islam’s holy book. I would just draw attention of all concerned to the recent news items from two Muslim countries,
both of which recognise Islam as their state religion and hold the sharia as their main source of legislation. In February this year,
Saudi Arabia — the seat of Islam’s holiest places — appointed a woman member of the royal family as its new ambassador to the
US. And early this month, Malaysia appointed a woman judge of its federal court as the country’s chief justice. Both these women are
seen in public wearing hijab but faces fully uncovered. Will those who claim that face-covering by women is an essential Islamic
practice take notice?

21. • The ban on face-covering in Sri Lanka is a precautionary security measure and the Kerala
educational organisation’s circular prohibiting the practice — notably, issued before the Sri
Lanka incident — is an admirable attempt to put the record straight on the Quranic injunction
concerning women’s dress. The Shiv Sena mouthpiece jumping into the fray may not
measure up to the legal test of locus standi but the argument of religious freedom to justify
face-covering — always and everywhere with no exceptions — will not stand the
constitutional touchstone of such a freedom.
• Commenting on some judicial decisions relating to purdah, I had once written: “Forcing a
woman to strictly adhere to the purdah system against her wish is grossly unconstitutional,
but so is dragging one out of it against her own personal decision.” Alas, I cannot invoke the
Constitution anymore — in this or indeed in any other matter whatsoever — as we are now
sadly living in an age when “Constitution? Who cares” is the order of the day.
• This article first appeared in the print edition on May 9, 2019, The Indian Express,
under the title ‘In the garb of religion’(Tahir Mahmood)

22. Equal rights for daughters
SC ends last vestige of discriminatory practice
• The Supreme Court verdict acknowledging equal rights to daughters on a par with sons as coparceners or equal inheritors in a Hindu
family is welcome. The verdict does away with the last vestige of a discriminatory practice that continued despite the 2005 amendment
to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. There are two main schools of law followed by Hindus — Mitakshara and Dayabhaga.
While Mitakshara School is followed in most parts of India, Dayabhaga School is confined to Bengal. Certain areas in South India are
governed by Marumakkatayam, Aliyasantana, and Nambudiri systems of law. Notwithstanding its discriminatory nature, the original
Section 6 of the Act was, in fact, a progressive provision to start with, given the fact that women did not have a share in the
coparcenary property in the 1950s, and on the demise of an inheritor, the share of the deceased was passed on to his male heirs.
• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, made inroads into the male-dominated system. Though women didn’t get equal rights in property, the
law made it possible for them to inherit property. While the rest of India continued with the discriminatory practice, some states such as
Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka amended the law, giving equal rights to daughters. It was in this light that Parliament amended
the Act in 2005 to give equal rights to daughters. But due to conflicting verdicts delivered by courts on retrospectivity of the
amendment, daughters continued to be discriminated against.
• Maintaining that daughters cannot be deprived of their right to equality, the Supreme Court has now ruled that the 2005 amendment
would be applicable to them, irrespective of whether they were born before or after it. Most of these laws are from the pre-Constitution
era, when right to equality was not a fundamental right. Post-Constitution India must strive to achieve the constitutional objective of
equality. While Hindu personal laws have been amended several times to make them compatible with constitutional provisions and
principles, there is a need for similar changes in personal laws of all other communities. This calls for legislative intervention.
The Tribune 13 August 2020