The Social and Legal Regulation of Domestic Violence in The Kesarwani Community: Kolkata, India and Beyond

202 Pages·2022·11.952 MB·English

by  Amrita Mukhopadhyay

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Amrita Mukhopadhyay
The Social and Legal Regulation of
Domestic Violence in The Kesarwani
Community
This book examines the social and legal regulation of domestic violence
(DV)within the Kesarwani business community following the enactment of
the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. It analyses the
existence of the formal law in Kolkata and the relevance of the law in the
familial lives of the Kesarwani community.
The book offers a new conceptualisation of examining the relationship
between formal law and social life. It provides a deep insight into how living
with violence becomes a way of living and how the disposition to familial
violence exists with social advantage and privilege. Explaining the function-
ing of the formal DV framework in non-legal terms as it exists on the paper,
the book shows the ways in which this one law sought to democratise the
family unit and overhaul the legal process in favour of DV victims in India.
Most of all it hopes to show through the Kolkata study that caste and class,
social structures that regulate and define social life globally must remain
critical to discussions of the social and legal regulation of DV in Kolkata,
India, or anywhere in the world. The book uses ethnography as a research
methodology and traverses different locations in the Kesarwani commu-
nity, and outside the community in Kolkata, to examine the relevance of the
formal law in the lives of Kesarwani women. While the study is in India (and
in a non-western context), the theme of the study – the social and legal
regulation – remains relevant to contemporary debates on the efficacy of
formal law in addressing coercive control in the western world. Notably,
the book makes the formal DV law legible for non-legal professionals by
explaining the formal legal framework of DV envisaged in the PWDVA.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of law, criminal
justice, sociology, anthropology, women’s studies, and political science. It
will also appeal to social service providers and practitioners working in the
area of DV, legal regulation, social control of women, gender, caste, class,
and family business.
Amrita Mukhopadhyay received her PhD from the School of Social Sciences
at Western Sydney University in June 2021. She currently works in a profes-
sional role at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Directions and Developments in Criminal Justice and Law
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The ways in which crime is constructed in society is of time-honored
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without a transparent legal system, strong enforcement structures, and an
independent judiciary to protect against the arbitrary use of power. Critical
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policymakers, legal researchers, and practitioners.
5. Beyond Transitional Justice
Transformative Justice and the State of the Field (or non-field)
Edited by Matthew Evans
6. The Social and Legal Regulation of Domestic Violence in The
Kesarwani Community
Kolkata, India, and Beyond
Amrita Mukhopadhyay
7. Biosecurity, Economic Collapse, the State to Come
Political Power in the Pandemic and Beyond
Christos Boukalas
The Social and Legal Regulation
of Domestic Violence in The
Kesarwani Community
Kolkata, India and Beyond
Amrita Mukhopadhyay
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Amrita Mukhopadhyay
The right of Amrita Mukhopadhyay to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised 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.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-25434-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-25436-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28317-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003283171
Typeset in Times New Roman
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Contents
List of Figures vi
List of Images vii
List of Tables ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Gendered Violence in India 40
3 The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 62
4 Symbolic Violence and Kesarwani Women in Kolkata 85
5 Physical Violence within the Kesarwani Community 116
6 The Domestic Violence Framework in Kolkata 133
7 Conclusion: Whither the PWDVA? 160
Glossary 167
References 170
Index 186
Figures
2.1 The life-course perspective and violence against women 42
3.1 DV victims in the context of marriage: specific needs
and forms of institutional support in pre-PWDVA era 67
3.2 Victims of gendered violence, specific needs, and forms
of institutional support 67
3.3 The PWDVA victim-centred framework 77
4.1 A growing Kesarwani house 87
4.2 A typical Kesarwani joint family (living together within
one building) 87
4.3 Kesarwani annual calendar of religious customs 90
4.4 Kesarwani matrimonial application form in Hindi 94
6.1 The skeletal bus at entrance of a government office 141
Images
1.1 An image of New Market, Kolkata – a market where members
of the Kesarwani Community own shops 34
1.2 Another image of New Market, Kolkata – a market where
members of the Kesarwani Community own shops 34
1.3 Image of a conference ticket and a visiting card given to
the author by a Kesarwani member. A conference ticket to an
event on ‘Journey from Middle Class to Millionaire’. The
ticket was for a special presentation titles as ‘From Ordinary
to Extraordinary Personality’ to be presented by a person with
the title of a ‘Dr’ (note that the Dr does not stand for the award
of a Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded by an educational
institution) 35
1.4 Image of a Kesarwani joint family business enterprise taken
from a community journal 36
1.5 Image of the cover of the West Bengal Kesarwani Vaishy
Sabha Constitution in Kolkata titled as ‘Commemorative
Publication and Constitution’ 37
4.1 A Kesarwani Neighbourhood 109
4.2 Entrance to a Kesarwani home. A common site to the entrance
of Kesarwani houses. It shows the two Hindu Gods – Saraswati
and Ganesh – on the two sides of the door with the words
‘Shubh Labh’ which means ‘Auspicious Profit’ 109
4.3 A Kesarwani woman’s clothing shop. The space is legally
owned by the marital family of the woman. She has been
provided the space to run her business and manages the
conduct of the shop every day 110
4.4 The entrance to a Kesarwani woman’s clothing shop in
New Market. The lime and chilli is another common
denominator to the entrance of shops and home in Kesarwani
businesses and households 111
4.5 A vegetarian meal served to me on one of my visits to a
Kesarwani interviewee. This is an everyday meal consisting
of rice, chapatti, dal, sabzi, salad, and raita 111
viii Images
4.6 Product of a Kesarwani Businesswomen – Handmade
Entrance Decorations that are known as bandhanwars
are popular among the community 112
4.7 Image of a textile shop owned by a Kesarwani woman in
one of the main markets of Kolkata. The shop sells what is
known as ‘western wear’ 112
6.1 Posters in English explaining ‘what is domestic violence’ in
English to a gathering at a public rally (gathering) on DV
where people predominantly communicate in Bengali 156
6.2 Image of a public rally (gathering) on domestic violence
organised by a network of 21 non-government organisations
in Kolkata 157
6.3 Entrance to a West Bengal government office in Kolkata 157
6.4 Information displayed at a women’s ward in a super-speciality
hospital in Kolkata with no reference to DV or the PWDVA 158
Tables
2.1 Individual, Family and Community Factors Contributing to
Domestic Violence in India 49
2.2 Social Practices and Legal Regulation of Violence
Against Women 54
2.3 System of Family Laws Based on Religious Identity and
Secular Identity 57
3.1 Legal Definitions of Domestic Violence 75
3.2 Types of legal relief for victims under the PWDVA 79
6.1 PWDVA Cases for January–December 2010 143