sempozyum_bildiri_kitabi

REFLECTIONS ON THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF DOGRA WOMEN
THROUGH A STUDY OF PADMA SACHDEVA’S A DROP IN THE OCEAN:
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Jasbir SINGH *
Sandhya BHARDHWAJ **
Economic emancipation has always contributed to the empowerment of women in any region,
groups and society. Scholars (with proven scholarship in the domain of gender studies) have
suggested that women's empowerment in India can be possible only through economic
enhancement. Economic dependence of women on males in the family and the society has always
relegated them to the margins of social structure where they are kept out of the mainstream
development process. Hence, they are in no position to claim their square in the socio‐cultural space
of a society. In Indian social structure women have been able to find their own room in socio‐cultural
sphere after they were able to attain economic independence.
Women in Jammu and Kashmir have not been different from the women of other states in India.
In particular, Dogra women remained in a very confined and rudimentary society where their status
was nowhere in recognition for their contribution to the economic fields of the society. Dogra society
was ruled by Duggar kings who used their power and dominance to control the women folk.
Historical records and references are good sources to study socio‐economic profile of women during
that period of the history. However, in the contemporary time Dogra women’s life writings coming
from different strata of society play a very pivotal role not only in perceiving women’s self and
identity, but also articulate the economic status of women which give broader insights into the
economic status of women in community, state in particular and the nation in general.
In a conservative Dogra society, where the birth of a daughter is not enthusiastically welcomed
even today, the situation was miserable in the early decades of the twentieth century when the birth
of a girl was considered a bad omen, a curse. People did not hesitate to bury their daughters alive or
kill them indirectly by keeping them undernourished which eventually resulted in their death due to
weakness, hunger and other diseases. This paper based on Padma Sachdeva’s A Drop in the Ocean:
An Autobiography (2011) underscores a bitter journey of a Dogra girl of Jammu who fought against
orthodoxy and patriarchal society. She grew in an era when women did not enjoy freedom, it was not
a practice to hug and kiss daughters, unlike Padma Sachdeva whose entire world revolved around her
father. Though she too faced a number of difficulties in her life but she articulated her self‐identity
(something unacceptable during that time). In the beginning of the autobiography she says, “Well, I
was considered to be confident, fearless and pretty sensible from the very beginning.” 1 This young girl
good in studies wanted to be different. Encouraged by her father she was awarded a double
promotion in school: she was promoted straight from the first to third standard.
Life was not easy for women in those times. Her mother did not get money from her father. It was
uncustomary for the husband to hand over any money to the wife. Under these circumstances,
helpless women would sell some of the grain meant for the kitchen and collect a small amount for
“pocket‐ money.” Women were not even allowed to mourn the death of their daughters. Padma
Sachdeva recollects: “I have a fainted recollection of going to this house and meeting a woman, who
lived in long purdah and who would shower me with affection. This woman had lost her young
daughter just before she was to be married, and still wept and grieved for her child.” 2 The condition
of women was so deplorable that only education could help her and many like her to come out of
this pathetic situation. The Dogra men considered their women to be without brains and intelligence.
Her father would always say, “Ma’s stupid. I did not know then every husband thinks his wife to be a
*
University of Jammu - Jammu, India
**
GDCParade - Jammu, India