Hindu Succession and Adoption

Introduction
The Hindu religion has one the oldest written set of laws governing personal and public life
compared to any other religion. The basis for all laws is derived from the earliest and the
most sacred texts, called the Vedas: said to have been uttered by Lord Brahama himself.
During the course of time, ancient saints added other texts, which gradually became
authorities secondary to the vedas and were in many ways, an extension to the vedic ideas of
governance: including succession to property.
This paper aims to analyse the course of development of Hindu laws and analyse the changes
which have been propelled into it by the constitutional frameworks. The position of women
in different eras regarding their rights to property is another important aspect this paper aims
to address.
Book review:
Hindu Women's Property Rights in Rural India : Law, Labour and Culture in Action
by Reena Patel
Ashgate Publishing Ltd
28-09-2007
This book is adopts a unique approach in analysing the position of women in India
concerning succession. It assumes that historically, majority of the population in India was
rural and draws parallels in the position of rural women before and after India had
constitutionally codified laws concerning succession. Before the Hindu Succession Act 1956,
women in India had extremely oppressive laws against them, under the Mitakshara school of
thought which was followed everywhere in India except the North East. Women were
considered a property of their male guardian and thus had no absolute ownership of any
property to themselves.
This strong patriarchal notion was overturned by the succession act which majorly gives
equal rights to men and women. The condition has thus progressed but the psychological
inferiority in the minds of women as being subordinate to men has not changed much.
Article review
PROPERTY RIGHTS OF HINDU WOMEN: A FEMINIST REVIEW OF SUCCESSION
LAWS OFANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, AND MODERN INDIA
Author(s): Debarati Halder and K. Jaishankar
Source: Journal of Law and Religion, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2008-2009), pp. 663-687
Published by: Cambridge University Press
This article traces the social conditions of women regarding succession the three distinctly
divided time periods: ancient, medieval and modern. It focusses extensively on the concept of
stridhan – which is a certain property (movable or immovable) given as gift to a woman.
Stridhan could not retain its original meaning and due to strong patriarchal control of societal
norms, got converted into dowry. The Manusmriti, which is considered the most important
ancient law source for Hindus, is blatantly patriarchal and dismisses the notion that women
can be absolute owners of property. In the medieval period, there was a systematic change in
for hindu women: they were made caretakers of property of deceased husband, essentially to
protect the land from being away by the Muslim rulers. The barbaric practice of Sati was
another means by which a woman’s share of property was taken by the family members by
ending the life of the woman by setting her on fire.