Start Date

4-9-2021 1:30 PM

End Date

4-9-2021 2:45 PM

Disciplines

History

Subjects

Child marriage -- India -- History, Child marriage -- Law and legislation -- India -- History, Teenage girls -- India -- Social conditions, Women's rights -- India -- History, Age of consent -- India -- History

Description

Abstract: This paper will cover the roots of the tradition of child marriage in India through the British colonial period all the way to the 1980s. This paper will attempt to dissect the economic, social, and philosophical reasonings for child marriage. Particular focus will be placed on the time of British colonial rule because that was a time of both exploitation and reform in child marriage laws. This paper will explore the language that surrounded the discourses on child marriage, from both the British colonists and the Indian detractors. This timeline will follow the legislative action that reformed child marriage laws, and show how active Indian natives, particularly Indian women, were in the changes. This paper will show both how the practice was phased out, yet never completely removed. Citing census figures as late as the 1980s, it will show how child bride deals are/were still occurring. While explaining the psychological and physiological ramifications of marrying off a child at such a young age, a pattern will emerge that shows how gendered the practice was. This will explain were this practice falls into the discussion of gender in history. It will also examine where gender falls into the discussion of subaltern studies.

PART OF SESSION 3B. FAMILY AND GENDER

Comment: Marie Stango, Idaho State University
Chair: Jennifer Kerns, Portland State University

Jordan D. Hallmark, Portland State University, graduate student
“Parody, Performance, and Conspiracy in Early Eighteenth-Century France: The Subversive Court of Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, Daughter-in-Law of the Sun King (1700–1718)”

Richard Merrell, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“The Kings Have Daddy Issues: Masculinity and Generational Kingship of the Plantagenet Dynasty”

Amanda Mills, Western Washington University, undergraduate student
“Before Menstruation: The Upholding and Downfall of Child Marriage in India”

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35233

Included in

History Commons

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Apr 9th, 1:30 PM Apr 9th, 2:45 PM

Before Menstruation: The Upholding and Downfall of Child Marriage in India

Abstract: This paper will cover the roots of the tradition of child marriage in India through the British colonial period all the way to the 1980s. This paper will attempt to dissect the economic, social, and philosophical reasonings for child marriage. Particular focus will be placed on the time of British colonial rule because that was a time of both exploitation and reform in child marriage laws. This paper will explore the language that surrounded the discourses on child marriage, from both the British colonists and the Indian detractors. This timeline will follow the legislative action that reformed child marriage laws, and show how active Indian natives, particularly Indian women, were in the changes. This paper will show both how the practice was phased out, yet never completely removed. Citing census figures as late as the 1980s, it will show how child bride deals are/were still occurring. While explaining the psychological and physiological ramifications of marrying off a child at such a young age, a pattern will emerge that shows how gendered the practice was. This will explain were this practice falls into the discussion of gender in history. It will also examine where gender falls into the discussion of subaltern studies.

PART OF SESSION 3B. FAMILY AND GENDER

Comment: Marie Stango, Idaho State University
Chair: Jennifer Kerns, Portland State University

Jordan D. Hallmark, Portland State University, graduate student
“Parody, Performance, and Conspiracy in Early Eighteenth-Century France: The Subversive Court of Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, Daughter-in-Law of the Sun King (1700–1718)”

Richard Merrell, Seattle University, undergraduate student
“The Kings Have Daddy Issues: Masculinity and Generational Kingship of the Plantagenet Dynasty”

Amanda Mills, Western Washington University, undergraduate student
“Before Menstruation: The Upholding and Downfall of Child Marriage in India”