The Pre-study Analysis

The pre-study data was deduced into various concepts, which later assisted the researcher to form the main study research design. These concepts are later integrated into the codes and categories of emerged grounded theory. The concepts which are formed by deducing the pre-study data method, EI and BNI are discussed as follows:

A Violence is omnipresent: Various experts revealed that violence can be seen at every level.

Indians subconsciously accept patriarchy. women of all castes and classes are victims of violence, though there is considerably less reporting of violence by upper caste/class women due to dreaded social stigma. According to experts, upper caste/class women are victims of subtle violence. Subtle violence such as mental violence due to passing negative judgements about women’s capabilities, distrusting their capabilities are some forms of subtle violence in everyday lives. As Swanand said in the EI:

Every woman faces some kind of violence in her lifetime and … reasons are quite structured.

My understanding about a cause of violence is, it has a lot to do with patriarchy and privileges.

A man thinks, she has to be under his control. The educated man being aware, about the perceived idea of being empowered, and knowing consciously where that power works…

nothing has changed⁶⁵.

Swanand, an expert working on women’s issues with males, discussed his journey from being socialized into patriarchy to being transformed into a person who is striving for gender equality, explained how unconsciously a man accepts women’s subjugation as an idea of masculinity. Men from all castes/classes associate an ideal man as a patriarchal man. From experts and BNI, the researcher agrees that an Indian woman tolerate different forms of subjugation be it in a private space or public space. Women from all castes/classes experienced violence throughout their lives in different settings (Bohra et al. 2015). At every stage of their life Indian women are victim of one or other type of violence.

65 Swanand, 16; 4-7. Original interview in Marathi and English. The above excerpt is originally in English language.

But regarding forms of violence, various experts analysed that, in contemporary Indian society, domestic violence is on the rise whereas, at the same time severe physical abuse has reduced over the time. While talking about the pattern of complaints they receive they find more people are coming up with emotional negligence and verbal abuse. The expert narratives are illustrated with BNI where the researcher analysed that there is violence on a subtle-psychological level in all Indian women’s lives. From data collection at the pre-study fieldwork, the researcher concluded that gender-based violence is omnipresent in India but the forms of violence certainly have changed. Due to an increase in educational levels over a period of time, women experienced more emotional or mental violence. A respondent of BNI who a victim of dowry harassment is shared: “When I used to come back from work, my parent in-law did not open the door for me to harass me for dowry. I used to sit outside the house or often would go to my mother’s home”. जेव्हामीबाहेरूनघरीपरतजायचे, तेव्हामाज्यासासरकडचानेघराचा

दरवाजाउघडलाचानाही. तेमला हुंडासाठी छळत होते. मी घराचाबाहेर बसायचेिकंवामाहेरीपरत जायचे. (Chitra, in conversation with the researcher. Audio: 18:13, second oral interview)

This was further supported by various other pre-study experts⁶⁶. Various incidents shared by the respondents of BNI and EI confirmed that violence is an every-day phenomenon in Indian women’s lives and gender-based violence has increased at an alarming rate. Thus, the next analysis explains more violence or registration of violence. Which explains that rise in violence is because more and more women are conscious about the violence and they are coming out to register gender-based violence.

B More violence or registration: Various experts interpreted that women have now started registering violence with the police and dealing with it, though the number of reporting is still quite low. Such as an expert working as a Psychiatric counsellor in an NGO said: “I

66 EISWMO 10, EIARMO 8, EIMIMO 10

won’t claim that it [violence] is on [the] rise, I think it is more, the fact, that people are bringing this out, and they are refusing to just let it be,... tolerating it, that is why we see more cases” (Khyati. 5, 7-8. Original expert interview in Marathi/English. The above excerpt is originally in English language).

The researcher agrees to the expert due to the fact that the availability of resources such as support systems, various legal provisions and non-governmental organizations to empower victims have increased over the time. They have provided women with a support system to deal with violence effectively. Due to which, as claimed by experts, the registration of violence is on the rise and women are conscious of gender-based violence. Consciousness about patriarchy and about violence among women are due to various mediums such as experts’

awareness efforts, formal education and media. However, experts also claim that the registration of violence is just the tip of an iceberg, most violence goes un-reported in the country. While discussing various sources of knowledge, experts critically evaluate how effective mediums of knowledge (for example formal education) are and due to these knowledge women deal with violence, which is explained in the following subsection.

C Education but not knowledge: Most of the BNI respondents in interviews shared that they came to know about the dowry and other forms of violence through media. But experienced dowry’s first hand meaning during wedding ceremonies. They never discussed violence in schools. The school curricula have not taught women how to deal with violence. But they are learning about various forms of violence through media.

The researcher analysed that electronic media, especially Bollywood movies and television serials which have great impact on Indian audiences. Media as part of informal education, do show dowry and female protagonists who dealt with dowry in the movie.

However, most of the respondents only learn that taking a dowry is against the law but do not learn the skills to deal with dowry demand through any medium. The reason is due to social

sanctions given to tradition. The question regarding how education impacts violence answered by Kirti as: “The trend of violence is definitely changing, more girls are educated, but education is not teaching them how to say ‘no’ to violence, because they have seen violence at their parents’ place, so violence at the place of their parent-in-law is not new, it is a normal pattern of behaviour”. आिणट्रेंडऑफ violence definitely बदलतआहे. मुलीिशकतआहे. पणमुलीचाकडेमी

मगाशी म्हण्टलंतसं , िकमुलींना काहीअशापद्धती ना िशक्षणिदलेला नाही, िकतुमचावर violence होत असेलतरत्यालानाहीम्हणा. कारणतोच violence त्यांनीस्वतःचामाहेरचयाघरापासूनचालूहोतोमगसासरी

सुरुअसेलतरनाहीकसेम्हणतील. तेत्याचासाठीरोजचआहे. (Kirti, 10, 8-16. Original expert interview in Marathi).

Kirti’s argument is further supported by Chitra, a BNI respondent. She also has seen violence at her parent place. So, dowry and other forms of violence are not new, they are normal for her.

Experts discussed normalization of tradition and subjugation as the obstacle to deal with violence. Due to the impact of formal education, the forms of violence have changed. Due to an increase in education, women are empowered, and men have retained-or would like to retain- their power in patriarchy. Thus, this struggle has changed the shape and nature of violence in society today. Swanand explained,

So, the forms have changed, by education. It has empowered women, but at the same time it has brought vulnerability. Because women are getting empowered, men are not taught to live with women who are empowered. Their ideas of manhood are the same... I see this in this generations, learned, educated, people, you know. So, education has really not changed the notions of power, so the more empowered the women, the more controlled they are from men, or lower the reporting of violence, as they are made to tolerate violence⁶⁷.

A BNI respondent, Chitra, who is highly educated and economically independent, shared her experience of domestic violence by her parents-in-law. Her husband wanted to

67 Swanand 23; 6-10. Original interview in Marathi. Above mentioned excerpt is in English language.

divorce her and despite of domestic violence, the respondent filed a law-suit against the divorce filed by her husband. The reasons for tolerance of violence is stigma attached to a divorcee woman in Indian society and she sees tolerance as a mark of higher status and respect. For her, a good and honourable woman is one who tolerates violence.

On the one hand experts analysed increasing registration of violence but have not analysed whether educated women report more violence. Previous literature shows that with the increasing education of men and women reported domestic violence decreases (Simister and Makowiec, 2008, P 509; Visaria 1999, P12). The authors argue that with an increase in women’s education, women experienced less domestic violence resulting in the empowerment of women. However, the researcher noted from BNI data analysis that the registration by educated women has decreased due to re-establishment of normalization of violence among educated women. The Researcher’s rationale is further supported by the previous literature.

Decreasing the registration of domestic violence is due to the fact that patriarchal norms are reproduced and re-iterated through school curricula (Bhog et al. 2010). Therefore, school curricula are largely responsible for establishing patriarchy more intensely and decreasing registration of violence. Increasing female education and decreasing registration of violence are due to institutionalization of gender norms through education and not due to a decrease in the incidences of violence per se. The point is discussed in-depth in other related categories emerged due to the main-study fieldwork.

Being brought up in the same society, the researcher experienced the concept of good and ideal Indian women embedded deeply among Indian educated women. A woman is said to be ideal or good when she tolerates violence, especially this ideal women concept is popular among upper caste women. On the contrary, the researcher noted that, BNI respondents of lower castes/classes, seem to be more active in dealing with violence and more empowered.

Thus, this analysis raised few new questions, namely, are Dalit women passive and mute

recipients of violence? If not, and Dalit women are empowered then, how does formal education empower or impact women?

Many BNI respondents discussed how media awakened them on dowry issues. Various incidents shared by the respondents of BNI and EI demonstrate the media as a powerful medium of awakening and knowledge spreading. Due to the discussion with respondents, the researcher decided to gather data on the theme ‘media and violence’. This assisted in the representation of illiterate women as the researcher faced this as a limitation during the pre-study field work. So, the role of non-formal education was taken into consideration for the representation of Muslim women due to illiteracy among the community (as already discussed lower literacy level among Muslim women). The researcher collected the role of coaching institutes, which later on changed to the role of religious preachers to assess the impact of religious education on the empowerment process as many NGO experts discussed the role of preachers in the institutionalization of gender norms in Indian society. Thus, the research themes formulated are discussed in detail in methodology chapter of the current thesis.

The researcher collected the main study data with the help of Expert Interview method (Bogner, Littig and Menz 2009) and the research area chosen for the main study was Pune, city of Maharashtra state, for reasons stated in the methodology chapter.