Conjugality, sexuality and shastras

Yogesh Snehi
Additional contact information
Yogesh Snehi: Department of History, Panjab University

The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 2006, vol. 43, issue 2, 163-197

Abstract: Himachal's interaction with colonialism led to the creation of a complex socio-political milieu. Administrative necessities triggered migrations to this region from other parts of Punjab, and brought local customs like reet in contact with the people from the plains. In the 1920s a con-certed campaign began for the abolition of reet. Reet was regarded lewd and an immoral form of marriage, remarriage and divorce. Motivated by the reformist zeal of emulated social reformers, conjugal relations of the locals became a site for contestation. Reformism sought to counter this custom through shastric invalidation, which led to the development of a situation where native hills states and the British government debated, and some of the former enacted rules to abolish this custom. This article tries to evolve a critical understanding of the origins and nature of the debate on the abolition of reet.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946460604300202 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indeco:v:43:y:2006:i:2:p:163-197

DOI: 10.1177/001946460604300202

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Indian Economic & Social History Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().