The Roles and Identity of the Women of East Champaran District, Bihar

The Roles and Identity of the Women of East Champaran District, Bihar

Anthropology 251

Noelle Tobin

Nov 19, 2010

N o e l l e T o b i n | 2

Table of Contents

I. Figures 2

II. Introduction 3

III. Overview of Bihar, Raxaul, and Duncan 4

IV. Religion 7

V. Dress 8

VI. Women in Public 12

VII. Education 13

VIII. The Self-Identity of Bihari women 14

IX. Family Life 16

X. Conclusion 17

XI. References 19

I. List of Figures


1. Political Map of South Asia 4

2. Political Map of Bihar and North East India 5

3. A Bicycle Rickshaw 6

4. Indian female dress 9

5. Christian Marriage-necklace 10

6. Stereotypical Bihari woman 11

I Introduction

This paper is written as the result of eight weeks of ethnographic study

in North India, six weeks of which was spent in a small mission hospital

called Duncan in the town of Raxaul (East Champaran District, Bihar). This

study is centered on the culture of Bihar with a closer focus on women: the

roles they play, how the world views them, and how they view themselves.

Historically, there has been significantly less research done on women in

conservative, traditional, or Muslim cultures, especially because the gender

of the researcher is problematic when trying to remain culturally appropriate-

a male would find it difficult to communicate with or about women, and a

female would find it difficult to travel freely and safely. The problem of the

male researcher is exemplified by Jha's analysis of family: “The roles

selected for this study ...are ... father, son, brother, relation and house-

servant. Other roles related to female members were not included because in


the villages, generally, people do not like to discuss issues concerning the female members of their

families” (Jha:1991:57 emphasis mine). My problem was that as a white woman, I

was unable to spend time in the villages since my skin color would draw too

much attention to the hospital. I was also unable to extensively explore

Raxaul on my own or visit people’s homes, because it was inappropriate and

unsafe for a woman.

Despite these difficulties, my research included many days and hours of

observation, informal discussions with the doctors, nurses, staff, and

patients at the hospital, and making friends with neighbors on long waits

regarding trains. My 'consultants' were not as formal as they should have

been, nor were my interviews with them as extensive as I had wished.

Nevertheless, I was able to double-check things that I saw and overheard with

my friend Jane who grew up immersed in North India and speaks Hindi fluently,

as well as with several doctors (all Indian) with whom I had good

relationships. Because I was officially there to volunteer at the hospital, my

concentration was not on collecting ethnographic data, but on serving the

people at Duncan. Because of this, people felt freer to talk because they

knew that I was there for a purpose that they understood. Another strong point

of my research is that I came to it with the perspective of many years of

cross-cultural experience in much of Asia (especially Thailand and South

India). Although culture shock was still obviously a factor, I believe that to

an extent this experience allowed me to cut straight to the essentials and be

less burdened by some of the aspects of culture shock which might hit


Westerners on arrival in Bihar.

This paper will include some basic information about Bihar, Raxaul, and

Duncan; and will then dive into cultural aspects like religion, dress, roles

in public, and self-identity. There are some problems with imposing my

categories on their lifestyle, and dissecting into pieces what is a cohesive

whole, but at least it is helpful in getting a grasp of the culture even if it

limits the depth of understanding. Even with this dissection, there will

still be considerable overlap between the different topics, in the same way

that the culture of North India has religion and gender tied into absolutely

every aspect of the culture. Hopefully, the image that emerges at the end of

this paper will reflect something of the richness and diversity that is Bihar.

I II. Bihar, Raxaul, and Duncan: an overview


Figure 1: Political Map of India and its neighbors


In India and elsewhere, Bihar is known as being a backwards state. In 2005,

it was named as the most corrupt state in India, and this year it was

published that Bihar has more poor people in it than the ten poorest nations

in Africa combined. According to the 2001 census, Bihar had the second highest

population density (eight hundred and eighty people per square kilometer) and

the lowest literacy rate (fourty-seven percent) in the country of India.

Within Bihar, the district of East Champaran, where I was, has an even lower

literacy rate of thirty eight percent. The sex ratio in East Champaran

district was eight hundred and ninety-eight females per one thousand males.

Unlike other areas of India or the world where the sex ratio is off, this is

not because of migrant workers or a difference in employment patterns. The sex

ratio discrepancy is seen from infancy through childhood, adulthood and death.


Figure 2: Political Map of Bihar and surroundings

Bihar is in North Eastern India, and Nepal forms its northern border.

Raxaul itself is a small border-town in East Champaran district, and is about

6 hours by car from Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Raxaul is about fifteen

minutes from Birganj, one of the industrial centers of Nepal. The Indian-

Nepali border at Raxaul is the only open border of its type in India, which

means that Indians and Nepalis can cross freely without passports, ID, or

payment. Obviously this is not the case with foreigners, so I did not get more

than a glimpse and a few plates of hot momos from Nepal. Tourists do not go

to Raxaul except on route to Nepal, and even then they rarely stay longer than

a taxi ride or to buy a bottle of water. During my time there, the only

foreigners I saw were affiliated with the hospital in some way, and the town

itself seemed surprisingly 'uncontaminated' from western influence. With a

population of around 45,000, there is one ATM machine, one known cyber cafe

(newly opened), and no reputable restaurants. I have travelled much of India,

but I had never been somewhere that seemed so free from so-called

'development' either socially or economically. I was very excited to enter

what felt to me to be a 'time capsule' of India as it was. I also feel as

though that area was changing rapidly, and likely will not be around for much

longer.


The main type of transportation in Raxaul appears to be walking, bicycle

rickshaw, donkey carts, and jeeps (in increasing levels of cost). During the

monsoon, the donkey carts are the most successful at pulling through the roads

that turn into mud pits when it rains. Raxaul as a city is full of life,

activity, and people. It is also very dirty, and there is not much green.

However, the donkey carts and bicycle rickshaws are lavishly decorated with

streamers, so the city is hardly bleak despite the intense poverty.

Figure 3: A Bicycle Rickshaw, comfortably sits two small people

Duncan Hospital (according to Dr. Gokavi, the Medical Director), is the

only non-government secondary referral center for six million people in India,

and five million people across the border in Nepal. A two hundred-bed

hospital, Duncan sees five hundred to six hundred patients per day in the


outpatient department and delivers four hundred to five hundred babies per

month. During my stay at Duncan, I shadowed doctors on their rounds, watched

several surgeries, sat in for hours in the outpatient department, and joined

in the discussions with the doctors, nurses, patients, and the patients'

relatives. I would quite comfortably call this 'participant observation', as

throughout all of these times I was involved as fully as possible in the

medical and social field of Duncan. Perhaps the most formational times were my

work shifts in the Labor Room, where the varied pace allowed for more

observation, participation, and discussion. Depending on what was going on,

the patients, relatives and nurses were happy to talk about all sorts of

things, and I could learn a lot because I was helping receive babies in the

labor room, so my presence was accepted. When the conversations were in Hindi,

my friend Jane (who grew up in North India and is fluent in Hindi) would

translate the parts I did not understand, and if they were in Bojpuri I would

grab a nurse to translate. Most of the doctors and nurses were fluent in

English, although all were Indian. Although language was a barrier, I am still

familiar with Hindi as a language even if not fluent, and am also used to the

‘Indian Accent’ when English was used. During the time in the labor room I was

also able to collect some data on the mothers, after talking to the head nurse

about my ethnographic research. I therefore had access to patient charts, the

birth register, and the patient register. Altogether, my base of research and

information seems to me to be quite strong.


IV) Religion

There are three primary religions in Bihar, with about eighty percent of

the population being Hindu, fifteen percent Muslim, and about four percent

Christian. As will be shown shortly with respect to dress, religion is the

deterministic aspect of much of their lives, and is much much more than which

church you go to on Sunday. For Bihari women, their religion determines what

they wear every day, and in fact with even just a few days of practice, you

can identify the religion of any Bihari woman you see with a two second

glance. Religion determines what music they listen to (Hindu Bhajaans or Muslim

chants), what they call their family, and what they eat. Hindus are

vegetarian, if they are upper-class enough to care about following all of the

laws. At the very least they will never eat beef because it is sacred. Lower

class Hindus who cannot afford to keep all of the laws might eat eggs, even if

they do not eat any other meat. Muslims can eat beef, and eat it frequently,

but will not touch pork if their lives depended on it. Christians can eat

anything, but might have special fasting days on Sundays. However, out of

practicality and for the health of one’s digestive system, no one eats very

much pork in India. There are also few Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs scattered

in this mix, with their own dietary restrictions and dress laws.

Religion is what you are born into, and is a main part of your identity.

Conversions are frowned upon severely, and only the Christians are actually

looking for converts, although the other religions have nothing against people

converting to their religion. Understandably, everyone gets upset if someone


leaves their own religion, especially if they were born into it as is usually

the case. Conversions often result in complete ostracizing from the families

and communities to which the convert used to belong.

V) Dress

In Bihar and in much of North India, the dress is mostly determined by

religion, wealth, marital status, and age. Men dress in a combination of

western and traditional, with younger age and more wealth generally leaning

towards the western style of a collared cotton shirt and fitted cotton

trousers or jeans. If the men are older or if it is a casual setting like in

the villages or at home, they will usually wear a sleeveless white cotton

undershirt and a loongie- a cotton sarong worn at either knee or ankle length.

Loongies are the most comfortable things to wear in the heat because of the

light, loose fabric, although sometimes formality will cause the men to make

sacrifices of comfort in order to look like they belong to a higher social

class.

The dress of children is based on age, and not so much on religion or

class. Male children run around with long shorts and t-shirts, or possibly

just one or the other. Polo shirts and jeans are the norm for young men of

almost any social class or religion, the differentiating part of class is how

many suits of clothing they own, as most poor people will only have one or two

sets to wear. Female children on the other hand are likely to be decked in

brightly colored dresses, ghagras, or salwars, glittering with small mirrors.


Small babies and toddlers are often naked, or nearly naked, and their eyes are

painted with massive quantities of kajal, enough to make a goth here feel

insecure about the amount of eye makeup that they dare to wear. I cannot tell

you what teenage girls wear, because I do not remember seeing any girls in

that age range that were not already married or else in school. If married,

they wore saris, if in school they wore a salwar kamis.

Figure 4: Female Dress

A salwar kamis is a long dress/top, worn in addition to cotton trousers-

pyjamas. The English word for what we wear to bed actually comes from the Hindi

word for these soft and loose trousers. On top of the salwar and pyjamas, there

is what is called a dupatta. This is a long piece of cloth that is either the


size of a shawl or a scarf or anywhere in between, depending on the age and

modesty of the woman who is wearing it, and how much of her body she wishes to

cover. Sometimes the dupatta is worn like a scarf, and is there in name only.

Most of the time, especially in the North, the dupatta is more like a shawl,

and is used to cover the entire chest area, from neck, upper shoulders and

sleeves, sometimes nearly down to the belly button. I personally love wearing

dupattas, because I find it very useful to wipe sweat from your face, or to

shield yourself from the dust or sun. Once you get used to wearing an orna,

you feel naked in public without it.

It is easy to tell if a woman is married, and also easy to discern what

her religious background is. Married women generally wear a sari, consisting of

a long length of cloth, often silk or cotton, about five to five-and-a-half

meters long, and one meter wide. This is wrapped around the body in a

carefully prescribed fashion, on top of a cotton slip and a tightly fitted

short blouse called a choli. Christian women, or women in the upperclass who

live in the cities, might wear a salwar kamis, but even then it is generally a

long salwar that goes down to at least your knees. Saris are by far the most

common thing for women to wear in North India, probably upwards of ninety-five

percent, as they are comfortable, convenient, and attractive.

Besides the sari, there is the repertoire of bodily adornments which

proclaim the religious identity of the women. Starting with the most simple,

and building to the most complex, the Christians are the least flashy of all

the dressers. Christian women wear no jewelry at all- no rings on their


fingers, nose, or toes. Sometimes they pierce their ears, but even this is

quite rare. Occasionally they could also have a small silver nose stud, but

they don't wear any rings or bangles. This is mostly among the people who have

been Christians for generations, ever since St. Thomas evangelized India.

There is one piece of jewelry they do wear when they get married, however, and

that is a very fine gold chain, with a small gold pendant which is a beaded

cross on a small gold plate.

Figure 5: Christian identifying necklaceMuslims wear more jewelry than the Christians, but are still quite

plain. The Muslim women have their noses pierced, and wear gold in their

noses, either a stud or a ring. They wear no necklaces, but will have two to

three gold bangles on their wrists, which were a part of their dowry. They do

not wear toe rings, and are never meant to show their ankles to anyone except

their husband.

Hindu women have a long list of things to wear. Traditionally this

involves sixteen items, and all sixteen will be worn at a special occasion

like a wedding. But for every day purposes, Hindu women will have a black or


red beaded necklace, black, red, or gold glass bangles, with other colors in

addition to these at times. They wear a bindi on their forehead, and keep a

smear of red paint/powder in their hair parting. They also have large gold

nose rings, which are a part of the dowry, and are therefore generally

incredibly ornate. Besides these, Hindu women will have gold hoops in their

ears, since Hindu girls have their ears pierced from infancy. They also wear

silver anklets on both feet, and silver toe rings on the second toe of each

foot. If they have been to the temple recently, they also have red paint on

the soles of their feet, from walking through a vat of red dye on leaving the

puja ceremony. They also keep jasmine flowers in their hair, which is kept

long and in a loose plait.

Figure 6: Stereotypical Hindu woman


I myself dressed in long, loose salwars, complete with pyjamas and a large

dupatta. I have long braided hair and a pierced nose with a silver stud. My one

mistake was that I had a toe ring, so that I was regularly asked whether or

not I was married, as this was an ambiguous signal as usually the rule is

either two toe rings or no toe rings. At the hospital, I was identified as the

white person who looked Indian. Dressing 'native' in this area is unbelievably

important, especially in this area as to dress in western clothing also brings

connotations of Western Culture. Unfortunately for us, Western Culture in

North India sense means the culture of Hollywood and Baywatch, where all women

are immoral. Therefore I wore Indian clothes even if theoretically there are a

few Indian women who wear jeans themselves. As a white woman, I had to go to

further extremes to be modest, in order to draw the distinction between myself

and my passport country.

VI) Women in public

In Bihar, the streets belonged to men. There would be a few women

walking on those dusty roads and dodging the sweeping tails of the cows that

stand, chewing placidly at street corners. But in general, those women would

be walking in pairs or with their husbands and very few women walked the

streets by themselves. This was especially obvious after dark, at which point

the numbers of women became even lower. I remember one ride in a jeep, at

about 7:30 pm where we drove through the city at a crawl due to the traffic.

By traffic, I mean bicycle rickshaws, donkey carts, and pedestrians. Men and


animals were milling everywhere, conducting business, standing and talking,

and eating on verandahs. During the entire forty-five minute long ride, I

counted around thirty six women. In fact, I started counting because I

realized they were countable, unlike the men. And of those women, only about

four or five of them were alone. Some of the women were actually in rickshaws

or vehicles, and others were in the doorways of their houses, but visible from

the street. I was awed that I could see so many people, and so few women.

There are also not many women in shops or selling things, although there were

a few. I think out of the twelve to fifteen shopkeepers that I had interaction

with in Raxaul, two of them were women, and both of them were likely widowers

or at least grandmothers.

When shopping for groceries, and in all activity, eye contact between

men and women (and therefore between myself and the shopkeeper giving me my

change) had to be avoided whenever possible. Likewise, there should be no

discussion outside of the business at hand. Only immoral men engage in

conversation with women who are not their relatives that is their sisters or

wives. During train rides, Jane taught me about how women in North India must

behave in public. The old adage ‘children should be seen and not heard’ is a

useful one in this scenario, except that first of all, the word ‘children’

needs to be exchanged for ‘women’. The second point is that women should also

be not seen. This does not mean that they have to cover up every possible

millimeter of exposed skin like in conservative Islam, but instead that they

should blend into the background. The jewelry and beauty of a Bihari woman is


meant to be enjoyed by her husband, and secondarily by her family who can

appreciate that her husband enjoys her beauty. Besides that, they should

capture the attention of no-one else, or they might lure an unsuspecting man

into lust. Because of this, on train rides and in public arenas, women sit

silent in the corner, and speak only when spoken to, and even then only when

spoken to by someone she can address (like her husband or in-laws). Even then,

husbands rarely address or acknowledge their wives in public. Women do not

initiate conversation unless it is absolutely inescapable, for example if the

ticket man or chai wallah they happen to come when her husband is gone, then she

may interact with men who are not her relatives. In reality, this boundary is

not out of disrespect for women, but from a desire to respect and protect

women from harmful and unchaste men.

Even so, this was difficult for me as I was raised in a family full of

girls, and have been brought up to make the most of every interaction to build

relationships and connections. The idea that this socializing was suddenly

culturally inappropriate was surprising to me. For the sake of my ethnography,

I could not disappear and be completely silent, nor could I talk to strange

men, since that is culturally inappropriate. I resolved to initiate

conversation with the wives and daughters, when their gadjaans were not around,

basically entering the cultural grey area between what was and was not

appropriate. This worked quite well, and often times once the connection as

made, they would keep the conversation going, and that could later become

culturally more ok for them to talk to me as a family and not as individuals.


These women were generally very eager to talk, especially as they were curious

that we were dressed appropriately and behaving like respectful women so that

it was appropriate for them to talk to us. However, in other situations this

unspoken rule of women’s silence was even more bothersome, because it remained

in play even when men behaved inappropriately toward us. Since they were

strange men, we could not make eye contact, initiate conversation, or respond

to them in conversation, even if that ‘conversation’ would be to blow them off

that they were treating us as foreigners and whores. In such instances the

best plan of action is to ignore the world and build a protective wall of

prickly disinterest in everything around you.

VII) Education

Officially, girls and boys have equal access to education, and there are

schools in Bihar that most children can attend. With this, the literacy rates

are improving dramatically across both genders. In 1951, the literacy rate was

thirteen percent (twenty two percent for males, and four percent for females).

Now the rate is forty seven percent (fifty nine percent for men, and thirty

three percent for women). But the gender gap is still quite clear. Even if in

another ten years the gender gap continues to drop, often times girls will

drop out of school now at around age 14, while boys can continue on to finish

high school and maybe go even further. This is assuming that the children are

even able to go to school.

While in the labor room, I collected data to come to my own estimate of


the literacy rates of the patients, by noticing whether the mothers signed the

birth record of their children, or were unable to write their own names and

therefore requested a fingerprint. This was compared to the fingerprint versus

signing of their accompanying male relative. Out of one hundred and thirty-

five women surveyed, fifty-four percent of them requested to fingerprint the

birth record, while among one hundred and forty-seven men surveyed, only

eleven point four percent requested the ink pad. Obviously these numbers are

far better than the official values for literacy (thirty-three percent for

women and fifty-nine percent for men), but this makes sense, because being

able to write your own name hardly counts as being literate. To give the women

some credit, it is possible that some women fingerprint because it is easier

after they have given birth than signing, but in general the signature was

always asked for, and when they said that they did not know how to write their

names, then the ink pad would be provided. In literacy surveys done by Duncan

Hospital’s Community Health program, the literacy rate overall was twenty one

percent, but only six to eight percent among women ages twenty one through to

thirty seven. Overall, these numbers show that the stereotype of ignorant

Bihari women might be placed directly in the fact that women are uneducated in

Bihar.

VIII) The Self-Identity of Bihari women

In the hospital itself, it became very clear very quickly that women

were not trusted or respected. Although I was at a Christian hospital, even


the nurses (and occasionally the doctors) treated the women with scorn, and

expected little of them. I watched nurses slap and pinch their female

patients, yell at them not to be stupid, and hurl verbal abuse at the women

while checking cannulas or taking vital signs. At first I was horrified, and

wondered what I was misunderstanding. As time continued, however, I saw that

to a degree the women had earned their stereotype of ignorance.

While doing rounds with a young female pediatrician from the south, we

frequently had discussions with mothers where the mothers would make excuses

for their poor behavior, saying, “It's not our fault you know, we are only

women. We don't know anything.” This was not an apologetic explanation, but a

sneering excuse. The women could not be blamed for anything at all, because

they reveled in and accepted ignorance as an identity. This was upsetting to

the pediatrician and me, as we too are women, only we are educated and have

self-respect. We told the mothers that women were not inferior, and that we

are only as ignorant as we let ourselves be. They did not pay us much

attention.

Jane and I gave one mother her baby to transfer the two of them to the

next ward and the mother declared, “What are you bringing me this girl baby

for? I don't want her! Give her to her grandmother.” Sometimes it got so bad

that we as staff felt great relief, and called it a “good” shift when there

was a string of male babies born in a row. I personally know that girls are

just as valuable as boys are, but it is easier to be happy when you think the

baby will be loved, and have a good life with self-respect. I hated that I


started to fall into the trap of joy at the birth of the boys, and fear and

worry at the birth of the girls. At the hospital, if something is wrong with

the baby or the baby is sick or premature, the families will pay for the boys

to stay in the nursery, ICU, or pediatric wards for almost twice as long as

the girl babies. Male lives are valued more in Bihar, and that is all it comes

down to. This is the cause for the skewed gender ratio in my district, where

there is a girl missing out of every ten.

Perhaps the most telling aspect was the reactions of mothers to the sex of

their baby. When the babies are born, the first thing we do is hold them up to

the mother and ask them (weary and incoherent as they are) to verbally

identify the sex of the baby. This is normal hospital protocol, because

otherwise mothers will later deny that they gave birth to a baby girl, and

will refuse to take their baby. They will claim that they gave birth to a boy

instead. Having the mothers announce it in public with all the other women and

nurses there helps to make sure the mothers claim their babies, even if they

are female. It is an extremely sad thing to watch. These mothers, who have

literally 'labored' so long and hard for the birth of their baby- to watch

their shoulders sag and their mouths twitch with disappointment as they

sullenly declare “Bobi”. In contrast, there is a joyful declaration of “Babu!”

for a boy. Sometimes the fathers are happier to see their newborn daughters

than the mothers are, but other times the whole family is disappointed. The

grandmother will mutter something about “three girls in a row, what is the

family going to do with another useless girl.”


IX) Family Life

Most people know that India is a patriarchal society, and most even know

something of the dowry system, where the woman's family brings a gift/price to

the family of the husband, as an incentive for the husband to treat his wife

well. These dowries can be the relative value of a small car or even a house.

The result in India of this system is that daughters are a financial burden on

the family they are born into, while sons who get married each bring a dowry

into the household. The dowry is no longer legal in India, but it is still

widely practiced, and since it is difficult to pin down (it is easily

disguised as the cost of the wedding or wedding presents), and the government

does nothing to stop it. Even if the dowry is not practiced, Bihar (and much

of India) is also patrilineal and patrilocal, and so women move to the

villages and households of their husband’s family when they get married. This

means that in their own families, daughters are considered temporary. They

will only be a part of their birth-family until they are married, and that

usually happens between the ages of fifteen to twenty. Women therefore have

less stability, and depend heavily on their husband’s family for respect and

support.

The women are startlingly young, which I discovered when I collected

statistical data in the labor room. The hypothetical Bihari woman in the labor

room is either on her second or third pregnancy at age twenty-three. Out of

the hundred and fifty-one women whose data I collected, there were three


sixteen-year olds, one of whom was on her third pregnancy. Numerous mothers

were seventeen and eighteen. The surprising thing here was that all of their

husbands are just outside the door to see the baby when it is born. These were

not unwanted teenage pregnancies, but mothers with families who were full

adults. The community health program workers I talked to said “Girls are

usually married immediately after menarche (ages thirteen to fifteen), and

have no say in career or family affairs… sixty percent of women are married

before the age of eighteen”.

There most disturbing part of family life in the Bihari world view are the

words for husband. There are multiple words for husband, including pati in

Hindi and balma in Bhojpuri. However, in Bihar the women call their husbands

either gadjaan or malik. Gadjaan is a word adopted from the English, and means

'guardian', and this is generally the word that the hospital staff use when

referring to a patient’s husband. But the patients themselves more commonly

used the word malik, and when Jane and I first heard this, we were confused,

because malik is what you call your landlord. Indeed, malik is the Hindi word

for Lord, and is sometimes even translated as God or Master. Jha defines malik

as “Land-owner” in his ethnography Social Stuctures of Indian Villages (137. Jha, 1991).

The best (or worst) example of this was when a nineteen-year-old girl came

into the hospital, seven months pregnant and with eighty-five percent burns,

claiming that her sari caught on fire while she was home alone, cooking. The

unusual thing was that her relatives seemed skeptical about her story, saying,

“We weren't there to see it, but she says her sari caught on fire”. Jane later


heard the sister in law whispering to the burns patient in Hindi, thinking

that Jane did not understand, and said: “Tell them what actually happened...

just tell them” and the woman refused. The other strange thing was that

although all her relatives came with her to the hospital (as was perfectly

normal), one person was very conspicuous by his absence: her husband was not

present. We talked this over with one of my consultants, who concluded that

the culprit was the burns patient’s husband. The reason for this was that the

woman cannot make any sort of accusation against him because she is scared

that she is going to die. In Hinduism, her husband is her malik and therefore

literally her lord and god. She will not and cannot be reborn in a better

situation in the next life if she insults her god or speaks against him in any

way whatsoever.

X) Conclusion

The culture in Bihar (as in the rest of India) is very rich and full of

vibrant life and color, as multi-faceted and overwhelming as a full Indian

meal with the fabulous flavors that burst in your mouth. Sometimes the food

gets spicy enough to cry, and likewise the intensity of Indian culture is not

always welcome, although it is always memorable. An ethnography of this size

cannot begin to grasp the depth of all there could be to talk about with

reference to Bihar (or any other full culture, for that matter). Nevertheless,

hopefully some things have been learned, and accurately portrayed. I do not

think that I have exaggerated the sexism in Bihar, and that women are


oppressed and disdained as useless and ignorant by their communities. More

importantly, it is crucial to realize that this sexism is hardly imposed on

the women from the outside- the women themselves have accepted the stereotype

and believe it to be true. The worst part of all is that they believe it so

strongly that they are passing on the inferiority complex to their daughters,

and giving their sons an undue sense of entitlement. There are a number of

factors that contribute to this cycle of sexism, but the cycle is also not

being stopped.

Hinduism and Islam also do not help the sexism, but serve to fix the

traditions even more firmly in place as the ordained natural world-order. In

Hinduism especially, since your husband is your malik, you have no rights or

ability to speak out against him if he happened to treat you badly. Your malik

must be respected despite everything, and worshipped as your personal deity,

since he controls your afterlife. Hinduism as a religion has never countered

the idea that women are inferior to men, and since Bihar is over eighty

percent Hindu (and then fifteen percent Muslim) this concept is not

challenged. Traditionally, the state of Bihar has had a history of devaluing

women from the beginning of civilization, seen in the ancient practice of

suttee. In suttee, women were burnt alive on their husband’s funeral pyre.

It is possible that education would change these things, but it is slow due

to the prevailing mindset and the poverty of the community. Women are not

educated, and therefore appear ignorant. Ignorance increases the stereotype

that Bihari women are ignorant and worthless. Men have a higher value, in


work, in religion, as children, as adults, in marriage and in communities.

Because it is a part of their worldview, most women seem to accept this as the

way things are. Not only this, but as with any culture and the enculturation

of children, Bihari women pass on the traditions and assumptions of their

culture, including the lie that Bihari women are good for nothing. Girls grow

up believing themselves to be ignorant and useless, and is it therefore no

wonder that this is how they sometimes begin to act?

Why are women socially oppressed in Bihar? The answer to this is a

number of factors, including the religion, poverty, education, the dowry

system, and the fact that the society is patrilineal and patrilocal. But in

essence, the reason that these are still factors (while the rest of India is

changing) is that the women of Bihar have believed the concept of their

inferiority, and therefore value their sons over their daughters. The

daughters are disrespected by their parents and not considered worth

educating, and therefore the cycle continues on to the next generation.

XI) References

Anand, Sudhir. The Essence of the Hindu Religion. Los Angeles: ASK Publications,

2000

Bihar Govt. Web Site. "State Profile.”


http://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/default.htm (23 October 2010)

Central Intelligence Agency. "The World Factbook."

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

(23 October 2010)

Jha, Hetukar. Social Stuctures of Indian Villages-A study of Rural Bihar. New Delhi:

Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, 1991

National Portal of India. "Census - Profile - Know India: National

Portal of India." http://india.gov.in/knowindia/census.php (23 October

2010).

Official Website of Office of The Registrar General & Census

Commissioner, India”. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/ (23 October 2010).

Peoples, James G., and Garrick A. Bailey. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural

Anthropology. 8th ed. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009.

U.S. Department of State. “India.”

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3454.htm (23 October 2010).

XII) Afterward


Bihar is a state that wastes nothing. For this reason, out of respect

for the culture I have studied, I have not fully adhered to the

formatting guidelines of this paper, e.g. a separate page for figures,

four lines after the introduction, etc. This action saved two sheets of

paper, while losing nothing for readability and clarity.

The Roles and Identity of the Women of East Champaran District, Bihar

Documents

Transcript of The Roles and Identity of the Women of East Champaran District, Bihar