Disinheritance of Daughters: Saving Tradition or Rejecting Modernity

Abstract

Disinheritances of daughters from ancestral property is a well-established social fact as strong as the recognition of their legal right to inheritance; constitutionally and legally. Law, seen as potent tool for social change, attempt to provide equal and dignified claim to daughters Vis a Vis sons, but law does not operate in vacuum. The socio-cultural space regulates it functioning and nature and extent of delivery. However the explicit as well as implicit performance of Hindu Succession Act 1956 (as amended in 2005) within the Indian social space questions the underlining patriarchal structures of Indian society in particular and the larger goal of women emancipation in general. To this end, disinheritance of daughters at once disclose the intricately enmeshed issues of law, society and gender rights to fore front. The present paper is theoretical and attempts to conceptualize the larger issue of disinheritance of daughters within the contrast of tradition and modernity. The paper revolves around how socially non-invocation of inheritance rights confirms to traditional social structure while claiming these rights seems to be a modern phenomenon. The analysis revealed that the process of social change in India has been dominantly gendered and legally backed gender rights have few takers socially. Gendered Socialization, stigmas attached to independence of women and above all the overarching illusion of saving tradition and rejecting modernity emerges out to be the root causes for disinheritance of daughters from ancestral property.