Keeping women under subjection: Laws and norms in Mughal India

Abstract

Domestic (and public) violence against women has a long history in India. The present article offers evidence of the perpetration of such violence in medieval times including the norms by which this was justified or partly constrained. The argument is that both Muslim and Hindu laws, as elaborated and interpreted, justified the violence and physical constraints put on women. Note is also taken of attempts at modifying the range of such violence, for example, in respect of sati.