Abstract
The book under review is an attempt to gauge the change in the status of Muslim women in medieval India during the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries. It considers the change in the cultures of Muslims with Islam cutting across various borders within the present day India during an era heralding multiple transitions: religious, civil, political, commercial, military and judicial.
The Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India by Sudha Sharma, firstly, endeavours to highlight various interpretations of the simple early Quranic instructions which got reinterpreted in a given set of already prevailing pattern and practices of society. Secondly, it contains an attempt to view the evolution of status of Muslim women within a framework of analysis based on the concept that the upward or downward changes of status of women occur in relation to changes in the primary economic and social structure of society. Thirdly, the book seems to be an original way of portraying how women have survived across the ages in different types of societies, entailing their existence the saga of their own predicaments and miseries. Fourthly, this piece of work opens up diverse ways of probing into feminist methods and related engagements challenging existing knowledge claims.
At its inception, the book deals with the comparatively exalted status of women in Arab society when women accompanied the warriors to battles which reversed later. Their downfall became glaring by the thirteenth century due to many reasons, foremost being the negative role of the Qazis accompanied by the spread of institutions such as polygamy, the purdah and harems. According to Sharma, ‘The position of Hindu women was not good during the time and the Hindu converts carried with them their general attitude towards women to the Muslim fold’ (p. 35).
The book deals with the significant changes in the social profile of Muslim women during medieval India caused primarily due to variations in the regimes of various rulers. Sharma mentions some social practices such as the favouring a boy over a girl child, early age marriages, unmatched marriages, dowry, divorce, treatment of widows, remarriage, polygamy and also how certain Hindu cultural practices like sati and jauhar continued after the mingling with Muslim cultures thereby aggravating the position of women.
A clear understanding of women’s status in society can be obtained only when we study the role they play in productive processes or examine the economic privilege they have. The book gives due attention to their economic rights and dedicates a full chapter to this. It gives a brief account of the efforts taken up by various Sultans to make women—lower class, higher class as well as widows—economically stable. Allowances were given to women according to their position in the harems alongside madad-i-masihah, mehr, gifts and gratification in a bid to empower them. The chapter also includes a description of lower class Muslim women who were constantly engaged in pursuing various economic activities ranging from spinning, weaving, sewing or engaged in agriculture and other labour along with their menfolk. However on the whole, the chapter portrays the exploitative nature of medieval society which led to an inequality of opportunities between both sexes. Harems and the purdah were always a way of secluding women and another chapter deals extensively with this issue. As Sharma puts it, ‘In the pre-Mughal period, a large harem was a status symbol and the number depended on the fantasy of the harem holder—a big and splendid harem would generate awe and the resultant picture for the king in the minds of the people’. In the set-up of the harem system, society did not seem to have ever felt that women too could have an emotional world of their own.
The discussion on the harem goes on to pave way for a discussion on the role of Muslim women in politics. The section deals with the cases of various rulers and dynasties, whether of royal ladies or even concubines and dancing girls. Different women at different times demonstrated exercise of different types of power. On the one hand, they strengthened the empire by virtue of their intelligence, diplomacy and tact but, on the other hand, they also seem to have created problems and weakened the fabric of the political life by their intrigues and selfishness. The author refers to exemplary women like Razia who heralded a new epoch in the history of Muslim women in India and established a woman’s right to sovereign power through her administrative qualities.
The book also comments on various cultural aspects such as education, dressing, charity and religious piety which influenced the then existing Muslim society. The author argues that although the medieval age did not provide a conducive environment for education generally, royal ladies like Razia, Gulbadan Begum, Mumtaz Mahal, Jahanara Begum were indeed exemplary in this context.
The contemporariness of the book can be seen in the existing evil practices that still continue in India in the form of dowry, rape, child marriage, non-implementation of laws favouring the Muslim women, lack of education and so on. However, another factor, which can be assessed in this context, is that religion has emerged as the most salient factor distorting human relations in India. Though Sharma mentions the influence of Hinduism on Islam and the mass conversion of Hindus as Muslim, she fails to give a detailed, comprehensive comparison between the set of practices followed by them and how these practices of various cults within these religions further deteriorated the status of Muslim women. Also, while the book does concern itself with the medieval period as a time when the growth and consolidation of private property marks the growing control of men over means of production, the author pays little attention to the nature of gendered relationships in the changing domain of feudal society and its impact on Muslim women.
To sum up, this informative piece of work traces the entire course of social, political, economic and cultural changes occurring in the medieval age that creates an intense impact on the status of Muslim women in the given period of time. Ultimately, the book underlines that no matter whatever the time period is the discrimination against women has continued.