purdah

purdah literally means curtain or veil, and refers to the various modes of shielding women from the sight primarily of men (other than their husbands or men of their natal family) in the South Asian subcontinent. Purdah can refer to the veiling or covering of the entire body or of parts of the head and face through the manipulation of womens' attire. It can also refer to the practice of the seclusion of women inside their homes. In the sense of attire, purdah can denote the practice of completely covering a woman's body by wearing a loose, body-covering robe called the burqa. Among sari wearers, the end part of the sari called the palla is used to cover all or part of the head and face. In those parts of the subcontinent where women wear the shalwar-kameez (long, loose tunic worn over trousers) or long skirts (lehenga/ghaghra), a scarf (dopatta) is used to cover the upper part of the body as well as part of the head and face. Purdah in its many variations is still used by both Hindu and Muslim women, although the burqa is almost always exclusively associated with Muslim women.

Purdah, in the sense of seclusion, means restrictions on women's movements outside the home. Thus, a woman could be unveiled and yet observe purdah by remaining in seclusion within the home. Purdah has further connotations for living arrangements within the home in the sense of separate living spaces for men and women — a feature that is often manifest in the architecture of family residences. As Cora Vreede-De Stuers has pointed out, in its most extended sense purdah refers to approved norms of modest and circumspect feminine behaviour, as for instance in downcast eyes, the bowing of the head, the complete silence a woman observes in the presence of a man, or by the hasty gesture of veiling her head with a corner of her sari or dupatta if she is caught unawares. The degree and kind (the actual veiling or seclusion) of purdah observed by women has varied across time and place and from family to family and is also related to class status. Purdah in the form of seclusion is almost exclusively a characteristic feature of upper-class status, but one that is frequently emulated by lower-class aspirants to it.

The practice of purdah derives from a concern to control female sexuality and to shield women from being the objects of the sexual desire of men other than their husbands. Secondly, in its association with circumspect feminine behaviour (which in turn was associated with female subordination), it is critical for preserving hierarchy within the patriarchal family. Thus, women observe purdah usually with male and often with senior female members of their husbands' families. Purdah is observed much more loosely and sometimes not at all by women when they are with their natal families.

The belief that the custom of purdah was introduced into the Indian subcontinent through Muslim conquests of northern India in about ad 1200 is of limited validity. The purdah, as veiling, was possibly influenced by Islamic custom, and the practice of covering the head and face is more prevalent in those parts of India believed to be more heavily influenced by Islam than others. But, in the sense of seclusion and the segregation of men and women, purdah predates the Islamic invasions of India. In the nineteenth century, the custom of purdah, specially in the sense of the seclusion of upper-class women, was increasingly viewed by British colonial rulers of India as an indication of the degraded condition of Indian women and, even more broadly, as a symptom of the overall primitiveness of Indian society. Indian social reformers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attempted to eradicate purdah as part of a program to ‘improve’ the social conditions of women. The long-term results of this, as well as other factors, led to a reduction (but not elimination) in the observance of purdah in South Asia throughout the twentieth century. However, efforts to create Islamic theocratic states in certain parts of South Asia in recent times led to government directives ordering women to wear ‘Islamic dress’ — that is to observe purdah by covering their bodies with a garment (now called chador) and to cover their heads as well.

Kumkum Chatterjee

Bibliography

Mumtaz, K. and Shaheed, F. (ed.) (1987). Women of Pakistan. Zed Books, London and New Jersey.
Papanek, H. and Minault, G. (ed.) (1982). Separate worlds. Studies of purdah in South Asia. South Asia Books, Columbia, Missouri.
Vreede-De Stuers, C. (1968). Purdah: a study of Muslim women's life in Northern India. Humanities Press, New York.

See also Hinduism and the body; Islam and the body; veil.