Back to Basics: Article 497 and the new paradigms

I am a woman and the most that I can get to expect is a husband a good one if I am lucky and look after his children.

                                                                      Harriet a character in ‘’ Less than equals’’ by VL Beath

The recent judgement on article 497 as unconstitutional brings in a lot of thought processes which need to be analyzed. The constitutional bunch unanimously agreed that this provision should go and did not even agree for upkeeping the policy on a gender-neutral basis. Unlike the earlier masterstroke of the supreme court which scrapped article 377, this judgement has brought resentment from a section of the society. The judgement has looked into the primacy of civil rights enshrined in the constitution which is paramount to any issues of morality. However, the subtility or the impact the judgement is manifold and opens up a lot of issues for debate. Let us look into this.

Many sociological studies have been done on the institution of marriage in terms of its historicity and subsequent evolution. Frederic Engel in his magnum opus ‘’Origin of the family ‘’, cites that ancient society was predominantly matrilineal. For Engels,  primitive communism existed in an ancient society where women held the power with an enormous sexual right. However, the rise of the alienable property and men accumulating land through wars created a patrilocal residence. This led to men controlling wealth leading to control of women and thus leading to the overthrow of the mother right.

This transformation is vividly seen in the history of matrilineal families in India in particularly among the Nairs. Kathleen Gough in a paper published in 1952, in the International Archives of Ethnography mentions the decline of the mother right among the  Nairs of Kerala and young Nair males declining to be ''visiting husbands'' and seeking legal status as an husband . This later resulted in the Malabar marriage Act dissolving the matrilineal sambandham system to a patrilineal marriage system in Kerala

Patriarchic control on women’s sexual rights was stratified into a strict legal frame work by the British who were influence by the missionary seal and Victorian Christian values of female chastity and male control.  Brahmanic Kanyadan system prevailed in its own ugly form of female suppression, the custom called smarthavicharam in Kerala for instance . The adulterous brahmin women in a family was questioned by self-proclaimed caste judges called smarthans who banished the women and her cohort which further made her life worth not living. It may be recalled that the famous MG Ramachandran erstwhile Chief minister of Tamil Nadu  was the son of a Melakath Gopal Menon who was banished from the region based on a smartha vicharam conducted in 1903. His lover’s - a brahmin women-  plight is not even known but imaginable.

Article 497 evolves from such an archaic Brahmanical and patriarchal mindset evolved  in   the 19^th century and structured into a  legal framework by white men grown in the cubicle of a Victorian mindset. India’s post Victorian executive and legal luminaries always favored the majoritarian mind set. By the end of the 20^th century, this Victorian and Brahmanical mindset later formed the basis of what was then called as the middle class value system. A middle-class Indian man was somebody who kept his wife in control through economic subordination. While women need to educated and presentable she was not supposed to go to work and be independent . Even in todays middle class , men prefers a women who does not work or having less salaries than him. His ego is bruised if his wife go places and deal with men and earned more money. 

Data from divorce cases among married women prove that expression of a women’s freedom in her house hold has been the cause of acrimony where the husband expected her to be a sati Savitri making food at home raising the kids and looking after his parents. Female sexual dysfunction, boredom and maltreatment have made married women seek paramours which in fact is the failure of the man but not of his woman. A study conducted by the online health magazine lancet says half of the married women who commit suicides in India has sexual violence, dissatisfaction and sexual incompatibility with the husband as reasons. We need to see the looming issue of marital rape  in this background.  Abolition of article 497 thus gives the right message to married men.

The issue of morality and sacredness of the institution of marriage has been set aside by the courts and individual rights have been made paramount in this judgement. Indian marriage system had  never accepted this equality and the  fact that  love depletes if not loved and cared was ignored by men by the support of this law. Further, the institutionalized nature , patriarchal backing  and the support of the law ( read 497 ) undermined the plight of the caged women. Conjugal loyalty is to be earned not demanded is what this judgement speaks about, in fact, this will lead our society into a new paradigm of marital life.

Development of technology and access to the social media has paved way for men and women to seek solace in platonic friendships which leads to emotive relationships later. As per the India today ’s sex survey such extra marital relationships are rampant and common at least in middle-class urban India . Will this lead to a destruction of the sacred marital system and chaos in the society . I would say no. this in fact will make couples feel more responsible and caring to each other. A realization among men that there is always a sperm in waiting to fertilize the egg will make him make him more possessive and caring. If he realizes it is good or the natures law will prevail. 

Sanyasi