The Social Reality of Divorce for Women in India

ABSTRACT:

In spite of laws for divorce provided for through the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, divorced women in India face an unjust social burden owing to deep-rooted patriarchal traditions and caste structures along with a lack of adequate institutions. In this regard, the present study attempts at analysing the social stigma faced by divorced women in India from a multidisciplinary sociological perspective, focusing on its history, theoretical background, and current status. With the help of Erving Goffman's theory of 'Spoiled Identity', Amartya Sen's active and passive forms of social exclusion, feminist sociology of patriarchy, and Brahmanical patriarchy proposed by Uma Chakravarti, the author will attempt to prove that the stigma faced by divorced women in India is not a cultural leftover. The paper outlines the ideological sources of stigma against divorced women from the classical Indian texts to colonial Indian personal laws to postcolonial reforms. Further, the paper discusses the manner in which caste and class overlap to highlight the experience of stigma, ways in which it is perpetuated through multiple arenas including those of morality, religion, family, and the legal system, and the way in which stigma is further strengthened psychologically by way of representation in popular culture. The paper also highlights the extent to which divorced women have access to various institutions established for their assistance, such as non-government organizations, One Stop Centres, and shelters homes, as well as the deficiencies of these facilities.

Keywords: Divorce stigma, Brahmanical hegemony, social exclusion, Goffman, tarnished identity, Hindu Marriage Act, legal and social rehabilitation, caste and gender.