Issues of marriage and Inheritance in contemporary time reference to sense and sensibility

Paper No. - 1

  Romantic Literature.  

Name :- Dharti makwana 
Batch :- 2019-2021

Semester :- M.A. Sem-2
Roll No. :- 5
Enrollment No. :- 2069108420200024 
Submitted  :- Smt. S.B.Gardi Department      of English, M.K.Bhavnagar University 
Email :- dharteemakwana789@gmail.com 
Paper No. :- Romantic Literature 
Topic :- Issue of Inheritance and Marriage in contemporary time reference to Sense and Sensibility

 

Issues of Inheritance and marriage 

👉 Introduction:-

Jane Austen focuses on the legal situation of the English woman and marriage women in particular at a time when debate on Reform of the 'lady's law' was just beginning for the demand for 'reform of marital  and the property law' in the 1850s. There were substantial changes to English family law. Afterward still in the early nineteenth century patriarchal marriage and property law still controlled women's lives in concert ways.

It has never been a good time to be a woman. Shackled at home, deprived of rights in society, and subjected to gender bias at the workplace, women have borne the brunt of being the weaker sex all through history. Though the skew in rights and treatment hasn’t quite corrected itself, women are possibly in a better place today than ever before because in contemporary  time woman related laws are developed and stronger than ever in the past.

This is because rising awareness, availability of global forums and social media to voice their anguish and against, changes in laws to empower them, and proactive governments to implement gender neutral laws have all converged to give women a hearing and heft. Still, there are many areas that can do with a nudge to empower them, one being the succession and inheritance laws. For years, women in India have been discriminated against and denied the right to ancestral property due to various reasons. 

■ Marriage and Inheritance issues in Sense and Sensibility:-

One, there is no uniformity in inheritance laws, with various religious communities governed by their own personal laws and different state tribals by their customary laws.

However, Jane Austen in her work "Sense and 

Sensibility" is closer to the injustices of women. 

Especially the rejection of marriage for money rather than love, Austen also did not agree that women depend on economically-financial protection of man, so as not to look kindly on patriarchy and the merging of interests of the aristocratic and middle class.We know from chapter one that Henry Dashwood is the legal inheritor of the estate of Norland from his uncle, who was without issue. 

The day food family settled in Sussex and their state was large and they have all the residential facilities in North Land Park. Afterward the death of Mr. Dashwood and his son got all the property in inheritance. Because of it they had been left from that house. 

"Mr. Dashwood had wished for it more for the sake of his wife and daughters than for himself or his son; but to his son, and his son’s son, a child of four years old, it was secured, in such a way, as to leave to himself no power of providing for those who were most dear to him, and who most needed a provision, by any charge on the estate, or by any sale of its valuable woods. The whole was tied up for the benefit of this child.."

Much has been said of the power of attraction of the work of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility especially. The eighteenth century is a fascinating period of a gradually changing climate in political, cultural and social spheres of life. As David Cecil suggests, 

“Her books express a general view of life. It is the view of that eighteenth-century civilisation of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call it the moral-realistic view” (Cecil 1942: 115).

fictional representations of inheritance often perpetuate the image of unequal distribution. Many of Austen’s heroines, dependent upon marriage because their father’s homes and wealth are entailed upon a brother or male cousin, have typified this plight. Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility

■ Inheritance and marriage issues of Ancient Time:-

The early Rig Vedic period society appears to be almost egalitarian—gender-wise. In this period, there was no individual ownership, but only community ownership of property and wealth, among the tribals. Women then would enjoy equal positions in the fields of education and were free to choose their life partners too. Women observed a high standard of morality and they were permitted to own jewelry and clothing. 

Also, after the death of a mother, property was passed on to daughters. Many women made a mark as renowned scholars and philosophers. A patriarchal system was followed in ancient India where, male domination was prevalent. Here, women were respected, revered and participated in religious ceremonies.

They were free to select their conjugal partner and exercised free-will in entering into the matrimonial bondage; in fact they even married at a mature age. Therefore women enjoyed a sense of justice in the sphere in public and private spheres. 

On the other hand, studies exhibit that a debate revolves around the status and position of women in the Vedic period. What is revealed is that, though women participated in the hymns, they were deprived from political rights and property inheritance rights. 

Their status was counted at the level of Shudra. Despite the other privileges they enjoyed, women in the Vedic period, could not own or inherit property. Only those who had the power to defend themselves from the enemies from the enemies could hold land as property. 

Obviously, women were lacking in such areas, which further deprived them of ownership. In Vedic society the birth of a son would be followed by rituals and prayers: even the pantheon consisted of only men. So, patriarchal was the society then that the birth of male child was believed to bring nirvana in the family. Agricultural practices were absent in the early Vedic period and land was not considered as an important asset. 

What was counted valuable was mostly pastoral: like cattle. It has been argued that if inter-tribal conflict for cattle, then the king would supposedly be the protector of cattle and not the land. The seed of private ownership of property emerged only in the post-Vedic period, with a pattern of patrilineal inheritance system. Vedas a sacred Hindu text in the Vedic period, later became the main source of Hindu law, along with customs and traditions of the tribal people. 

■ The idea of Inheritance in Dharmasastras :-

This Hindu ideology carries the ethos of patriarchal system. It likely exhibits women as a subservient and a dependent. This gives her very little scope for inheritance of property rights, in male-dominated society.Women were not entitled to inheritance and their position also get deteriorated due to the injunctions of religious texts such as Dharmasastras, Manusmiriti and other work of law-givers such as Jimutavahana along with Vijnanesvara. 

The introduction of Dharma Sutras and Sastras 

explicitly favoured male inheritance. If there was an absence of a son in the family, then property would be given to the male descendents. While dealing with Dharmasastra, Manu identified, two contradictory principles with regard to women’s property rights, because

• On the one hand, women’s exclusive ownership of the property was obtained as gifts from relatives.

• On the other side, only men were sole inheritors and women had no right to inherit parental property.

The tradition of men as sole inheritors further sidelined women's property rights. stridhana refers to property that women obtained from her relations, gifted to her at the time of marriage, by both sides of the family. It is also known as a bridal price. Sometimes unmarried daughters were given maternal property as stridhana, but they were not granted a direct inheritance share in the family.

🔷️ Marriage Act 

What will help power these is the increase in awareness 

among women and quick implementation of the laws. To 

help with the former, we list the inheritance and succession rights of women, be it a wife, daughter, mother or sister for the main religious groups in India.

• Hindu Succession Act, 1956

Laws of succession apply to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists for the non testamentary or intestate succession and inheritance.

• Indian Succession Act, 1925

Applicable to Parsis for intestate succession, specifically under Sections 50 to 56.

• Indian Succession Act, 1925

Laws of succession applicable to Christians and Jews, specifically under Sections 31 to 49.

• Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937

Laws of succession governing Muslims for non-testamentary succession. Where a Muslim has died with a will, the issue is governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925, where a will relates to immovable property within the states of West Bengal, and that of Madras and Mumbai jurisdiction.

• Special Marriage Act, 1954

Laws of succession in case of interfaith marriages hindus

• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956

It governs the succession and inheritance laws for Hindus, along with Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. This is applicable to both women and men. The Act makes no distinction between movable and immovable property. It only applies to intestate succession (where there is no will) and to anyone who converts to Hinduism. It has no application in case of testamentary succession. 

🔷️ Conclusion 

All of these complicated connections established by Jane Austen spring from wills and entailments governed by the inheritance laws of Regency England. It is obvious that wealth and inheritance weigh heavily on Jane Austen’s plots and characters; – its importance deeply shadowing each of her novels and the climate of the times.

Dashwood women have no money, they cannot inherit money because they are women, and they cannot earn a living. Since the girls have no money, money becomes an important factor when it comes to what men they may want to marry. Elinor Dashwood demonstrates her sense through what she says and thinks, her actions, and what Jane Austen says of Elinor. One way Elinor shows sense in what she says and thinks.

Citations 

• Nirosha Hewa Wellalage, Stuart Locke, Helen Samujh. (2019) Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs. Journal of Business Ethics 159:1, pages 267-280.

• DE Smith, India as a Secular State, London: Oxford University Press, p 84.
• HL Moore, A Passion for Difference: Essays in Anthropology and Gender, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.
• Regan, Milton C. “Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW.” Site, Mar. 2010,
• Ablow, Rachel. The Marriage of Minds: Reading Sympathy in the Victorian Marriage Plot. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2007. Print.
• Cornwallis, Cornelia Frances, “The Property of Married Women.” Westminster Review 66 old ser. (Oct. 1856): 181-97. Print.
• Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”
• Rapport, Jill. “‘Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women's Property.’” BRANCH, July 2012,
• Nattress, Laurel Ann. “Puzzling Legal Nonsense in Austen's Sense and Sensibility.”Google, 2008,