Female Infanticide In China And India
Female infanticide was a major social problem faced by Chinese and Indian women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but how did British colonialism help to bring about important changes for women in these two great nations?
The arrival of British colonialism in China and India provided a major catalyst of change for women and their roles in society which helped to change the viewpoint of many parents during the time. Before the time of colonialism in the nineteenth century social issues for women were dealt with very poorly, and in some cases lethally. Being born a female in China or India was a very hazardous affair due to the common practice of female infanticide where ...
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other, but when they bear a daughter they kill her. Both children come from the parent's love, but they congratulate each other when it is a boy and kill it if it is a girl because they are considering their later convenience and calculating their long-term interests. It is impossible to draw a full and accurate picture of what happened to baby girls in China at any given time; all that is certain is that this form of discrimination against women, carried out at childbirth or in very early childhood, persisted in varying degrees over hundreds of years, using techniques that were equally unchanging, whether by drowning in "baby-ponds," immersion in cold or boiling water, suffocation, strangulation, burying alive, or more commonly, abandonment or exposure.
The preference for sons and the disfavor for daughters was also a phenomenon that impacted India as well, and is best exemplified in North India. Sons, especially in rural North Indian context were economic, political and ritual ...
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indirectly had an affect on this deadly social problem. As for China there were many factors that helped to shift the practice of female infanticide from commonplace to unlawful and unpractical. Through the avenues of government, religion, and the workplace the lives of Chinese women became much safer. One of the first mentions of government involvement in this issue was on February 19, 1838, when the lieutenant-governor of Guangdong issued a proclamation which stated that he had found the frowning of female children common, and that even the wealthy practiced it. For the poor, he claimed, poverty was reason enough. Girls were simply a source of increasing expenditure, which they ...
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Female Infanticide In China And India. (2008, December 10). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Female-Infanticide-In-China-And-India/94425
"Female Infanticide In China And India." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Female-Infanticide-In-China-And-India/94425>
"Female Infanticide In China And India." Essayworld.com. December 10, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Female-Infanticide-In-China-And-India/94425.
"Female Infanticide In China And India." Essayworld.com. December 10, 2008. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Female-Infanticide-In-China-And-India/94425.
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