Widows: Schipper's eight chapters offer deep insight into grieving, rights

Business Standard

11-07-2025

Widows: A Global History
by Mineke Schipper
Published by Speaking Tiger
272 pages ₹499
The Padma Bhushan awardee and activist Dr V Mohini Giri once remarked that 'widowhood is a state of social death', an observation that succinctly summarises the realities facing widows, including my mother, the world over. Why oppressive measures against widows are followed so reverentially is something that the Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies, University of Leiden, Mineke Schipper, dissects in Widows: A Global History.
The eight chapters of Schipper's magisterial work offers a deep understanding into such issues as the kind of grieving is considered acceptable for a widow, what clothes are appropriate, to what extent she must desexualise herself, and if she can claim any right on the property of her deceased partner.
The author's work in the domain of oral history also informs Widows. In fact, the idea came to her while working on a previous volume titled Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs from Around the World. At the time, Schipper reflected, which she recollects in the Acknowledgments section: 'A widow was associated with death — and a widower was not. There must be more to widowhood, and I promised myself to get back to it later.'
All thanks to her for keeping the promise. The sheer scale of the stories, the range of historical evidence, and the way Schipper articulates the injustices that widows endure make it a worthy successor to the seminal work on widows by Margaret Owen's A World of Widows (1996), chiefly covering 'poorer communities' in Africa and Asia. Schipper's work ties well the customary idioms of widowhood with the neopatriarchal othering they face. Sample this Chechen saying: 'Death of your wife, replacement in bed.' Or this one, which is popular in Europe: 'Grief for a dead wife lasts to the door.'
Schipper notes the role language contributes towards creating the image of a widow. The word vidhua in Sanskrit 'means destitute, and the Latin viduata (made destitute, emptied) is the root of the word for [a] widow in many European languages,' she writes. The image is strongly adhered to by society if a widow happens to be in a patrilocal setup, which 'creates greater inequality between marital partners'.
Schipper also highlights 'traditions [that] force widows to live in isolation for several months', underlining how compulsory isolation in some societies can 'take on more extreme forms' – such as in India because of the caste system. In the chapter titled 'Mourning,' Schipper weaves in famous reflections on grief such as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (2005). Didion's memoir of her husband John Gregory Dunne's death is popular because of the radical way in which she processes grief. Juxtapose this with the complete lack of agency for traditional widows in expressing their loss. Examples include the 'Rudaali' tradition in many parts of India, and the title of 'head mourner' a widow earns in Trobriand Islands.
A widow's grief was closely tied to what ornaments they'd wear. In the book, there's a picture of a Dayak widow in mourning, captured in 1900 in Indonesia. Schipper writes, 'The more rings worn, the heavier the burden, and as a result the greater your prestige.' Then, there was also a practice in the Andaman Islands of today's India to carry the remains of the deceased, say, a skull, as a photograph by SL Hamilton reveals.
Suicide and sati practice are discussed in 'Accompanying Your Husband in Death'. In the chapter titled 'Sex', Schipper notes how South Asia leads in producing the number of child brides (and widows), and in 'Suspect of Witchcraft', she articulates the kind of accusations a widow must brave. 'The most problematic obstacle for the rights of widows in less-well-off regions is the unfortunate combination of illiteracy, fear of witchcraft and covetous in-laws,' she writes. Some revered texts make things worse: Manusmriti, for example. But the way a widow's sexual desire is kept in check is a deeply problematic practice that's most strictly observed to date even in many educated households. For example, in some societies, to maintain the 'bloodline', a widow may be married to her brother-in-law. In others, 'ritual sex' is mandatory. Shockingly, no one labels it for what it is: rape.
Schipper observes that things are changing, but slowly. Some support systems are pushing back against traditions, for example, the Widows Alliance Network (WANE) in Ghana or the Barefoot College in Tilonia, Ajmer where widows from Africa come to upskill themselves. The iconic photograph of widows in Vrindavan celebrating Diwali is a case in point, too. But one must be cautious about rejoicing in these optics, as several detailed interviews from this book reveal. Coupled with accessible storytelling, academic findings and photographic evidence of how widows across centuries and geographies have lived — and continue to do so today — Widows makes for an important read as a reflection of the state of women's rights in 21st century India.