IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON WIDOWS

India is a country with the highest widow population of about 40 million – 10% of the country’s female population. If on one hand, a woman is at the peak of the ladder of success in many spheres of public life, on the other hand, when she is a widow, she suffers a silent social death every day which is bound by the customs and traditions in the orthodox Indian Society this condition has changed a bit since 1991 when India adopted - LPG policy - accepted Globalization. The low status of widows can be traced back to since post-Vedic era when widows were restricted to contribute towards socio-religious values of the society.  Widows were culturally, socially, economically, and politically excluded from the mainstream of society. The Globalization and modernization of society have led to changes in economic structure, a decline in societal values. Globalization encourages the spread of Western values around the globe. Globalization began with the earliest human development in the history of the world. In India specifically, it can be said that a significant spread of Western values – those values that are widely accepted in Western society, including divorce and remarriage – began in the 16th century, when the British first colonized India. The earliest law in the favour of widows in India was in 1829 – Sati Abolition and many more such laws were made thereafter. However, more recently, trends across India are showing that society is changing its stance on the remarriage of widows, and the acceptability of divorce. These concepts were once considered ‘Taboo’ in Indian society; however, these issues are now being discussed and change has occurred at a legal level. I will explore whether globalization – as the spread of Western values – has influenced this change in societal sentiment in India?