Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2010
While historians of South Asia have examined in elaborate detail critiques of sati and child marriage in the Hindu community, a similar approach to Muslim familial reform also needs serious attention. By investigating discourses on the question of polygyny1, this paper is an attempt in this direction. In the light of these discourses, the paper argues that polygyny, influenced by modern sensibilities of reform and social change, underwent different interpretations during the colonial period. The debate on polygyny was not homogenous and uniform and research reveals a plurality of viewpoints on the subject. The argument was often based on an assumption of sexual difference which, in some cases, emphasized the infertility and reproductive incapacity of the first wife, and in others, presented an idealization of domestic ideology where the second wife made the ‘perfect’ home. Simultaneously, there were also strong critiques of polygyny by women writers who underscored the misery of the first wife. These debates do not necessarily settle the question in favour of a particular position, but reflect a conversation held on marriage, children and family, and express how love, conjugality and affection were narrated in the public sphere.
In the preparation of this paper, Yasmin Saikia, David Gilmartin and Sarah Shields assisted me in early versions of the draft. Gail Minault, Rochona Majumdar and Indrani Chatterjee suggested significant improvements in the revisions. Sughra Mehdi helped me with relevant Urdu literature. I sincerely acknowledge their help.
1 In South Asian analysis, the practice of one man having more than one wife has been referred to as ‘polygamy’, a residue of colonial terminology. I will use ‘polygyny’ instead which has also been employed in the historical study of other Muslim societies. See Baron, Beth ‘The Making and Breaking of Marital Bonds in Modern Egypt’ in Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, ed. Keddie, Nikki R. and Baron, Beth (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 275–293Google Scholar; Najmabadi, Afsaneh, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), pp. 161–162, 170, 174–5, 177Google Scholar.
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4 The opinions expressed by the ashraf activists and writers in this paper are not ‘representative’ of Indian Islam or ‘Muslimness’. There was never a uniformity of views on Muslims about their ‘identity’ and their ideas were always informed by regional, ethnic and linguistic differences.
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19 Sayyid Ahmad, Life of Muhammad, v; in Al-khutbat, see pp. 19–20.
20 Ibid., p. v.
21 Ibid., p. 147.
22 Ibid., p. 148.
23 Ibid., p. 148.
24 Ibid., p. 148.
25 Ibid., pp. 148–149.
26 Ahmad, Sayyid, ‘Auratoon ke Huqooq’ in Maqalat-i Sir Sayyid, Panipati, Muhammad Ismail (ed.), Vol. 5 (reprint) (Lahore: Majlis-i Taraqqi-yi Adab, 1962), pp. 194–199Google Scholar.
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39 In her excellent book, Francesca Orsini describes the process through which Hindi developed a ‘publicness’ which ensured that it was appropriate for discussing public matters, literature and representing the ‘jati’. Orsini, Francesca. The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–40: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.
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42 Mir'at al-arus by Nazir Ahmad Dehlavi (1836–1912) was published in 1869, followed by Fasane Mubtala in 1885 and Ayyama in 1891. Similar to Nazir Ahmad's Mira't al-urus, Altaf Husain Hali (1837–1914) wrote Majalis un-Nisa, first published in 1874. For an extensive discussion of Nazir Ahmad's life and work, see Siddiqi, Iftikhar Ahmad, Maulavi Nazir Ahmad Dehlavi: Ahval-o-Asar (Lahore: Majlis Taraqqi Pasand, 1971)Google Scholar. Also see Gail Minault Secluded Scholars, pp. 31–38; Hasan, Mushirul, A Moral Reckoning: Muslim Intellectuals in Nineteenth-century Delhi (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 132–184Google Scholar and Naim, C. M., ‘Prize-winning Adab: A Study of Five Urdu Books Written in Response to the Allahabad Government Gazette Notification’, in Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Islam, ed., Metcalf, Barbara D. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. 290–314Google Scholar. For a discussion of Hali's novels, see Minault, Gail, Secluded Scholars (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 39–57Google Scholar; Russell, Ralph, The Pursuit of Urdu Literature (N.J.: Zed Books, 1992)Google Scholar; Sadiq, M., History of Urdu Literature, 2nd edn. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 210–219Google Scholar; Husain, Saliha Abid, Yadgar-i Hali, 4th edn., (New Delhi: Anjuman-i Taraqqi-e Urdu Hind, 1975)Google Scholar.
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55 Ibid., pp. 149–150.
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60 Bashiruddin Ahmad, Iqbal Dulhan, p. 82.
61 Ibid., p. 83.
62 Ibid., p. 85.
63 Ibid., p. 85.
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80 Ibid., p. 283. Phool was started by Mumtaz Ali in 1910 and edited by Nazr Sajjad Hyder, whereas Sharif bibi, founded in 1910, was edited by Fatima Begum, daughter of Mahbub Alam, editor of Paisa Akhbar. Gail Minault, Secluded Scholars, pp. 120, 148–149, 180, 269, 290.
81 Ibid., pp. 303, 305.
82 Ibid., p. 347.
83 Ibid., pp. 576–581.
84 Akbari Begum did not support polygyny outside the boundaries of ashraf community. In one instance in Gudar ka Lal, Khair Ali, the male patriarch, has an affair with the domestic help of the household. He marries her much to the dismay and sadness of his first wife, Khairunnissa. His actions are treated by contempt by everyone in the family, in particular Yusuf. Eventually, his second wife runs away with jewellery and clothes. Khair Ali realizes his mistake and discovers the ‘difference between sharif (respectable) and khandani (high ancestry) wives and awara (vagabond) and zaleel (low/contemptible) women’, Gudar ka Lal, p. 255. For details of the whole affair, see pp. 244–255.
85 For a discussion of her novels, see Shaista Suhrawardy, Critical Survey, pp. 103–106.
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88 Nazr Sajjad Hyder, Hawa-e Chaman mein Khema-e Gul, p. 3.
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91 Ibid., pp. 393–396.
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100 Margrit Pernau has argued that from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Muslim public opinion shifted concern towards the personal, and emphasized the regeneration of the individual through the exemplary life of the individual Muslim, in particular of the wife and the daughter. Pernau, Margrit, ‘From a ‘Private’ Public to a ‘Public’ Private Sphere: Old Delhi and the North Indian Muslims in Comparative Perspective’, in The Public and the Private: Issues of Democratic Citizenship, ed., Mahajan, Gurpreet and Reifeld, Helmut (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 103–129CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
101 Hyder, Nazr Sajjad, ‘Islah-e Rasoom ke Mashware’ in Guzeshta Barso ki Baraf (The Snows of Yesteryears), ed., Hyder, Qurratulain (Delhi: Educational Publishing House, 2007), p. 381Google Scholar.
102 Saliha Abid Husain, Silsala-e Roz-o Shab, pp. 149–151.
103 Ibid., p. 115.
104 Ibid., p. 118.
105 Ibid., p. 218.
106 Sarkar, Tanika, ‘Strishiksha or Education for Women’, in John, Mary E. ed., Women's Studies in India: A Reader (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2008), p. 321Google Scholar.