ABSTRACT
The Hindu Succession Act (HAS) lays out the framework within which Hindu women's claim to land is constructed. This construction is addressed to Hindu women, where the claim is to property within the family through succession. This chapter examines the specific contours of this construction within law and its effect upon Hindu women's claim to land. In order to evaluate women's ability to own land independently, conceptualizing women's access to land as an aspect of bargaining allows people to analyse both internal factors such as ideological persuasions, as well as external factors such as their role in work and contribution. The chapter addresses the issue of how this ideological framework operates to affect Hindu women's claim to land constituted within HSA. It draws out certain concepts and parameters of women's self-interest underlying and pervasive within Hindu law, and the extent to which this does or does not strengthen Hindu women's ability to contest for land through succession.
