Welll this ppt gives a brief input on Uma Chakravarti's essay: the ideological and material structure of widowhood which is casted as an institution created by the patriarchal vedic society.

1. A Brief
Analysis
Uma Chakravarti’s essay on “Ideological and
Material Structure of Widowhood” from her book
‘Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens’.
Presented By:-
Abhishek.S

2. About the Author: Uma Chakravarti
 DOB: 20th August 1941
 Birth Place: Palaghat in Kerala
 Studied Law and History
 Married to Anand Chakravarti
 Currently working at Miranda House college, DU.
Works-
• The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai (1998)
• Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens
(2004)
• Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism (1987)
• 2 Short Films: Fragments of a past and
Fragments of a life.

3. The Essay
 At first the writer gives us an account of
caste hierarchy.
Cultural Codes Ideological
Caste
Hierarchy
Materia
l
 Highest Rank of the caste non
labouring+ stringent control of female
sexuality+ permanent enforced widowhood.
 Lowest Rank of the caste labouring+
widow remarriage.

4. Formation of widow
 Men always feared the women(Esp.
Havik Brahmins)
 Men see woman as an obstacle in the
path of their goal.
“ At a more general level all women are inherently dangerous because
they are sexually passionate and demanding: as temptresses of the
flesh they sap male vitality and stand b/w brahman men and their
salvation goals.”
 So, men looked upon woman as a
lower subordinate and authorized
complete power on them.
 Widow
To form a separate non sexual community like female
aPslacceeti chse r at the margin of the society and
institutionalize that marginality

5. Characterization of the widow
 Not a wife, neither a daughter nor a daughter-in-
law “Not a Person”
 Deprived of the use of “Haldi, Kumkuma, and
Sindoora”, bangles and mangalasutra.
 Forehead marked by ash or vibhuti
 Dress code- white or ochre sari in contrast to
the red sari of a married wife.
 Branded as INAUSPICIOUS.
 As a social death:-
1. Alienation from the reproduction and
sexuality
2. Exclusion from the functional unit of the
family( decision making)

6. Definition of widowhood
‘A concept of the patriarchal society
where the women is a member of an
institutionalized marginality who
strives to live in a liminal state
between being physically alive and
being socially dead.’

7. Widowhood
 Respective of the natal and affinal family
there are two modes of representing the
social death Intrusive
of widow
Emxotdruesive
 Ideological mode
and materiality of the formation
of the widow:-
• Ideological in the sense that what was once
held as precious to husband is turned into a
potential of threat to the society(purity,
pollution, inauspicious)
• Material in the sense that the widow is
excluded from the social functioning of the
family matters but she is kept to perform
certain household chores.
Thus, through the ideological and material structure of the widowhood, a
widow is forced to live like a sheep and work like a donkey.

8. Symbolical Motif of the
‘Tonsure’
 By referring to Meyer Fortes and R.Firth who says
symbols form a major instrument of power.
 In the symbolic structure of the widowhood Uma
gives a brief explanation of the symbolic
importance of the hair where she proposes that the
sexual behaviour and hair behaviour are closely
associated. 1. Hair denotes the sexuality of a person.(moustache, long lock of hair)
2. There is a notion that sin and pollution resides in the hair.(so we sacrifice
our hair in the funeral rites and in the shrines.)
3. The profundity of the importance of the hair can be seen it the tuft hairstlye
of the brahmin, matted hair of the hindu saint, shaven head of the budhhist
monk which shows the restraint from active sexual life.
4. Similarly the widow who is banned from sexual life is forced to have a
tonsure head which symbolically means the castration of the genital organs
i.e to deprive her of her femininity.

9. Hence Uma quotes Obeyesekere who
concludes that the primary psychogenetic
meaning of the shaven head is castration, its
further cultural meaning is chastity and its
extended interpersonal meaning is
renunciation.
Uma quotes tonsure as the most humiliating
and traumatic ritual.

10.  Then Uma gives an account of the low caste
women where a widows remarriage works in the
following ways.
1. Marriage by pheras
2. Secondary marriage to husbands brother
3. Secondary marriage to husband patrilateral parallel cousin
4. Sold to the matrilateral cross-cousin of the husband
5. Being sold to a stranger
 Though the lower caste widow aren’t forced to
follow the rituals of the upper caste but still she is
bound to suffer.
 Through Pauline Kolenda, Uma says that the
differences between high caste and low caste
women is caused by ‘production’ reasons where
a low caste widow can be remarried and can give
birth to child and can work as a agricultural
labourer.

11. Conclusion
 A woman is never considered as a co-gender nor
as a subordinate being but as a ‘living thing’.
 Women are prized possessions where beauty
and virginity are the trump card to indirectly sell
them through the institution of marriage(so now
we can see in the commercial adds where having
a beautiful lady will manifold ones status and the
same notion worked for waging wars where the
king fought not on the account of love for his lady
but to keep his status.)
 Now the patriarchal society turns this prized
woman who lost her man into a threat for the
society.
‘Ideologically widow is a socially dead mute being
who is materially a free bonded labourer.’
So, the vedic society through their rituals, do
establish their complete authorization to preserve
and use the widow.

12. Any Questions!!

13. REFERENCES:-
 An article: ‘Uma Chakravarthi, a larger than life
picture’ from Dignity Dialogue Magazine, November
issue-2013.
 www.womenswritings.com
 Julia Dutta’s blog.
 The text of the essay: ‘Gender, Caste and Labour;
Ideological and Material Structure of Widowhood’
downloaded from JSTOR.