Field of one's own gender and land rights in South Asia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Land rights for women: making the case. I. The backdrop. II. Gender, property, and land: some conceptual links. III. Why do women need independent rights in land? IV. Questions addressed, information base, and the book's structure -- 2. Conceptualizing gender relations. I. Gender relations within the household/family. II. Gender relations outside the household/family: the market, the community, and the State. III. Interactions: the household/family: the community, and the State -- 3. Customary rights and associated practices. I. Which communities customarily recognized women's rights in land? II. Women's land rights in traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities. III. Women's land rights, structural conditionalities, and gender relations -- 4. Erosion and disinheritance: traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities. I. India. II. Sri Lanka -- 5. Contemporary laws: contestation and content. I. India. II. Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Muslims in India. III. Sri Lanka. IV. Nepal.

V. Summary comments on women's legal rights in landed property in South Asia -- 6. Whose share? Who claims? The gap between law and practice. I. The gap between law and practice in traditionally patrilineal communities. II. Barriers to women inheriting land in traditionally patrilineal communities. III. Glimmer of change: women claim inheritance shares in some traditionally patrilineal communities. IV. A look at traditionally matrilineal and bilateral communities. V. Some hypotheses -- 7. Whose land? Who commands? The gap between ownership and control. I. Women's ability to retain their land. II. Control over the transfer and use of land. III. Barriers to women self-managing land -- 8. Tracing cross-regional diversities. I. Some hypotheses. II. Information sources. III. The cross-regional patterns. IV. An overview of regional patterns -- 9. Struggles over resources, struggles over meanings. I. On women's consciousness and individual resistance. II. Group resistance: struggles over privatized land.

III. Group resistance: claiming rights in public land. IV. Further observations on gender construction and group contestation -- 10. The long march ahead. I. Recapitulation. II. Some suggestions, some dilemmas. III. The macro-scenario.