Female Infanticide in India is a theoretical and discursive intervention in the field of postcolonial feminist theory. It focuses on the devaluation of women through an examination of the practice of female infanticide in colonial India and the reemergence of this practice in the form of femicide (selective killing of female fetuses) in postcolonial India. The authors argue that femicide is seen as part of the continuum of violence on, and devaluation of, the postcolonial girl-child and woman. In order to fully understand the material and discursive practices through which the limited and localized crime of female infanticide in colonial India became a generalized practice of femicide in postcolonial India, the authors closely examine the progressivist British-colonial history of the discovery, reform, and eradication of the practice of female infanticide. Contemporary tactics of resistance are offered in the closing chapters.

Before a crowd of several thousand people, mostly men, a young woman dressed in her bridal finery was burned alive on her husband's funeral pyre. The apparent revival of an ancient tradition opened old wounds in Indian society and focused world attention on the status and treatment of women in modern India.".

Articles with reference to India.

Study with special reference to Rajasthan, India.

The status and position of Indian women have undergone many changes since the high status they enjoyed in the Vedic era yielded to forced suicide during the dark ages, female infanticide, purdah, child marriages and the denial of property and political rights. This book, first published in 1985, provides a comprehensive annotated bibliography to hose years, and the years that followed of the relentless liberation struggle by women on the socio-political and legal fronts.

An inside look into patterns and potential prevention plans for one of the most hotly sensationalized crimes A special kind of horror is reserved for mothers who kill their children. Cases such as those of Susan Smith, who drowned her two young sons by driving her car into a lake, and Melissa Drexler, who disposed of her newborn baby in a restroom at her prom, become media sensations. Unfortunately, in addition to these high-profile cases, hundreds of mothers kill their children in the United States each year. The question most often asked is, why? What would drive a mother to kill her own child? Those who work with such cases, whether in clinical psychology, social services, law enforcement or academia, often lack basic understandings about the types of circumstances and patterns which might lead to these tragic deaths, and the social constructions of motherhood which may affect women's actions. These mothers oftentimes defy the myths and media exploitation of them as evil, insane, or lacking moral principles, and they are not a homogenous group. In obvious ways, intervention strategies should differ for a teenager who denies her pregnancy and then kills her newborn and a mother who kills her two toddlers out of mental illness or to further a relationship. A typology is needed to help us to understand the different cases that commonly occur and the patterns they follow in order to make possible more effective prevention plans. Mothers Who Kill Their Children draws on extensive research to identify clear patterns among the cases of women who kill their children, shedding light on why some women commit these acts. The characteristics the authors establish will be helpful in creating more meaningful policies, more targeted intervention strategies, and more knowledgeable evaluations of these cases when they arise.

The preponderance of males over females in the population of India has been a subject of concern and controversy since the late eighteenth century. This book addresses the fact of, and the reasons for, unbalanced sex ratios among children in present-day rural India and considers some of the cultural links between the present and the past. Barbara Miller examines sex ratios throughout the world to explore how culture affects these ratios, specially among juveniles, and then focuses on India to demonstrate how the practice of female infanticide has altered the proportions of the sexes. A regional and social pattern of infanticide is then uncovered to show that this practice is most prevalent in north-west India and among the higher castes there. The book illustrates the powerful relationship between culture and mortality. Culture often plays an important role in determining those targeted for death; in this case the target group is north Indian girls.

Oldenburg argues that dowry murder is not about dowry per se nor is it rooted in an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, dowry murder can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era.