Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters: Patriarchy and Prostitution among the Bedias of India

264 Pages·2008·3.404 MB·English

by  Anuja Agrawal

ISBN 978-1-138-37678-6
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Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters

Chaste Wives and Prostitute Sisters
Patriarchy and Prostitution among
the Bedias of India
Anuja Agrawal
First published 2008
By Routledge
912 Tolstoy House, 15–17 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi 110 001.
Simultaneously published in UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN.
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
© 2008 Anuja Agrawal
Typeset by
Bukprint India
B-180A Guru Nanak Pura, Laxmi Nagar,
Delhi 110 092.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-415-43077-1
This book is dedicated to
Shri Ramsanehi
Founder of Vimukt Jati Abhyudaya Ashram, Morena

Contents
List of Tables viii
List of Plates ix
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
1. Prostitution as “Tradition” 19
2. The Making of a Bedia Prostitute 34
3. Bedia Women and “Love Marriage” 59
4. Prostitution as Family Economy 76
5. Prostitution and the Indolence of Bedia Men 120
6. Prostitution and the Marriage Economy 141
7. The Morality of the Bedia Economy 186
Conclusion: Patriarchy and Prostitution 210
Appendices 216
References 235
Index 246
List of Tables
4.1 Bedia family size and number of kin women
engaged in prostitution in each unit 83
4.2 Distribution of Bedia families in Category A and B
on the basis of size 85
4.3 Internal composition of Bedia families 88
4.4 Age-based break-up of women engaged in
prostitution in each family unit 91
4.5 Parentage of women engaged in prostitution 106
4.6 Non-kin and distant kin women engaged in
prostitution to support Bedia families 114
5.1 Income possibilities for agricultural
workers/workers in the informal sector/petty
business keeping 129
6.1 Marital and non-marital relationships of
Bedia men and women 142
6.2 Clans and divisions among the Bedias 151
6.3 First category of Bedia wives in Nagla 157
6.4 Second category of Bedia wives in Nagla 160
6.5 Third category of Bedia wives in Nagla 165
6.6 Generation-wise distribution of wives in Nagla 166
6.7 Time-based distribution of marriages in Nagla 166
List of Plates
1. Three generations of unmarried Bedia women
with their brothers’ wives 5
2. Photographs of a Bedia woman and her
long-term patron 73
3. Two Bedia women await clients in their
open-air shed 79
4. A male-centered Bedia family 105
5. A young Bedia man with his new scooter 134
6. Two Bedia women with their brother’s child-wife 178
7. Veiled Bedia women sit in their open-air kitchen 200
8. Ramsanehi 223