Feminist Conflict Theory Through the Movie Water

Deepa Mehta’s Water focuses on widows in India in the year 1938, which was a time when men dominated society and did not accept women’s rights. Women were not allowed to make their own decisions. Many were married off at a young age to older men through arranged marriages. In Hindu Culture at that time, if women were widowed at a young age, the women were expected to throw their bodies on their husband’s funeral pyre and burn to death. This custom is known as sati. However, sati did not happen all the time. Sometimes women were given a choice, they were still outcasts but were allowed to live in very unfortunate circumstances. This alternative was a decision made by the in-laws and the parents to put their daughters in the Ashram (widow house). In this paper, it will be argued that feminist conflict theory can be used to understand changing attitudes toward widows in India, through the lens of Deepa Mehta’s, Water. Through feminist conflict theory, we can understand that the widows’ major problems are due to the patriarchal society. The goal of the feminist view is to eliminate male domination, so women can have equal attention in a patriarchal society. Things have slowly changed in India regarding widows, as women became more equal and less subordinate.
Background on Sati: Deepa Mehta’s Water briefly mentions the ritual of sati, in which women were burnt on pyres at their husband’s funeral. The word sati originated from Hindi Sanskrit religion. A goddess named Sati sacrificed her life because her parents did not accept Sati’s marriage to god Siva. Sati was not a victim. Her suicide was an act of rebellion and anger towards her controlling parents. Since the body portrays the relationship with her parents who created resentment, this caused her to sacrifice her body in order to take that pain away (Lashmi 2003: 84-85). This religious belief has transformed throughout time and people now have a different view of the sati. In pre-colonial days, India was a male