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The paper is a survey and an analysis of Hindu women's rights to property
(stridhana) in India. The first part deals with the connection
between the Indian dowry and property. In fact, for centuries, dowry has been
the only property of Hindu women. The second part is a diachronic study of the
law according to the traditional Hindu law-books, the
dharmasastras.
The interdependence between dowry, considered for
centuries as a substitute for inheritance, and inheritance itself has also been
investigated. The most authoritative Indian books of law from the
Manavadharmasastra (2nd-3rd A.D.) until the Hindu Succession Act
of 1956, and some major commentaries and digests on them, have been considered.
The third part of the study focuses on the legal fracture between the concepts
of property and stridhana under the British rule. The British
misinterpretation of the traditional law allowed women to have full property
rights only with certain restrictions and only when still alive. The third and
fourth part of the paper analyze the Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act
(1937) and the Hindu Succession Act (1956). In the last part there is an
attempt to answer a few questions arising from the study.
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