Women, Land and Moral Justice in Late Colonial India Peasant Voices from the Himalayas

<p><b>This book, set in Kumaon and Garhwal in late colonial India, reconstructs the moral world of peasant women who transmitted ancestral property in defiance of a legal regime that only recognised patrilineal inheritance</b>. Appealing to the concept of <i>parvarish</i> (‘providing for’) in Hindu law, these women invoked a moral economy and norms of obligation, reciprocity and loyalty to reconfigure their household structure and ensure care and labour in exchange for property from the late 19th century onwards.<br><br>Arguing that this historical practice clearly demonstrates non-elite women’s agency during this period, the book taps into hitherto untapped regional archival material such as gift deeds, community-brokered agreements and litigant depositions to highlight the importance of familial obligations in peasant culture. In doing so, <i>Women, Land and Moral Justice in Late Colonial India</i> brings together colonial, gender and legal histories to provide a story of women creating a third way, one that allowed them to reject patriarchal norms in practice, defy colonial law and reclaim control of their households.</p>