Dropping Surname for Gender Equality and Caste System Eradication

 

Seema, Jagdeep Singh*, Deepak

Maharishi Dyanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

 

ABSTRACT:

The surname is the last name which is usually placed at the end of person’s first name. The dropping of woman’s surname after marriage and adopting husband’s surname is a gender-biased tradition which has no real utility at all, other than a sense of family identity that can be created in so many other more significant ways. Being women, we feel our surnames as temporary or not really ours. Even it is like being a woman is just subsuming our own identity into our husband’s, which impacts our perception of ourselves and our role in the world. A girl is not simply carries her own identity, in fact; she is defined by her role as someone’s wife or mother or daughter or sister. The problems with the Surnames are that these are the easiest way to identify roots of a person. In a matter of seconds you can know to what community or caste the person belongs. And we all know that casteism is the root of most of the socio-economic problems in India. Caste politics and caste related violence are one of the key reasons which had put a hold on development of India. So one question arises here is that how to eradicate this problem; how to bring equality to the woman along with caste abolishment in this case? We need to bring permanent solution to this problem as it is becoming a challenge; not only to India; to the whole world. So, we could suggest one important move to drop the surname not only by women but men should also be a part of revolution of this gender equality and caste close down. The fact that the husband’s surname is no longer a requirement should be celebrated; it was aggravating reminders that the state believes wives are the property of husbands. It should be appreciated for being as much a romantic leap of faith as marriage. The primary goal of this article is to provide proper sense that dropping surname could be the main consideration for gender equality as well caste system abolishment. By our own case study and on the basis of ground level social experiments conclusion of our study makes us to write this work in the form article.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

In the India, U.S.A., and Canada and in many other countries, it is usual practice for a woman who marries; to change her surname to that of her husband. But why do women continue to participate in this custom? Specifically, this article reviews why should only women leave their surname after marriage? Why not men with women participate in making a casteless society as surname is the first identity to reveal your caste.

 

Our ultimate intention is to explain why the practice of women’s marital surname change exists, in terms of what evolutionary advantage it confers.

 

 

The circumstances of its origin, as well as the circumstances under which the practice tends to be retained/not retained, are included in order to support this explanation.

 

Women may very well be aware that using husband’s surnames as their own and of their children after the marriage; sharing such surname is something husbands feel strongly about. To the extent their future in-laws will be pleased if these women’s husbands are pleased, these women may choose to please both their husbands and in-laws, by signaling fidelity to their husband’s (and therefore in-laws’) line and the intention to add their future children to it or they could just choose to not engage in marital surname change that existed for more than one generation (1).

 

There used to be legal reasons too where women were forbid to keep their last names a couple of decades ago, under the premise that the married couple was viewed as “one person” by the law. That one person was the husband, whose identity superseded the wife’s identity. He was the sole person who could vote, hold property, go to law, etc. In Japan, under a 19th-century law upheld last year by the country’s Supreme Court, all married couples must use the same surname, and by overwhelming custom-in 96 percent of couples -women take their husband’s name. Even in the United States, where feminism has influenced attitudes for decades, the rate is about 80 percent (4). In fact, it was only in 1972 that every United State legally allowed a woman to use her maiden name if she asked for it. It’s time for both men and women to stop being so offended at the question of choosing an alternative practice, given that most of us agree with the idea of women having identities. If we’re offended by a woman not taking a man’s last name, why is it not offensive for a man not to take a woman’s name? A marriage should be a sign of a democratic partnership, not a succession of one party behind the other (2, 4). Your name should reflect that. Find a way to represent yourself. Build an identity that is unique to you, and at the end of the day, make a decision that is truly empowering to both of you. We are living in a caste society. Everybody has a caste here. A person’s caste identity is inherent in the shape of their surnames (maximum times, but not always). The consequence of this is that a person’s caste can be recognized just by looking at their surnames. Many people came up with this noble concept of dropping caste identity (surname) from names. This can be a small but revolutionary step towards building a caste-less society (4).

 

There could be many reasons of giving up surnames but dropping this is definitely helping us in building a caste-less society, where people are identified by themselves and not by their hereditary identity. Even it is more important to do this when we are living in a society which judges you on the basis of the caste you have behind your names, so everyone might want to avoid the presumptions that people will make about you even before meeting you. This is very sensitive in case of married women where use of husband’s surname is an irritating reminder as the state believes that wives are the property of husbands (2). Changing her surname for a woman should be entirely a matter of her choice, not compulsion or expectation that usually happens in Indian families (3). It should be appreciated for being as much a romantic leap of faith as marriage. It’s not about feminism but about something that’s been fundamental to your existence for over 20 years, your identity-which you’re suddenly taking a huge chance on for no conceivable benefit, unless you’re marrying a Gandhi or Kapoor etc.

 

In India, however, taking on a spouse’s name is not seen as retro or old fashioned but as a sign that you’re making more of an effort to be a couple. Even the most liberated men don’t wonder about this gender-based tradition which has no real utility at all, other than a sense of family identity that can be created in so many other more significant ways. Even it is not the guarantee that giving up your own surname with your wife will ensure that everything will be alright. But we can see some changes coming in the society in many ways. Even some of government resolutions are strengthening the law of equality. Recently according to a Government Resolution issued by the Women and Child Welfare Department (WCWD), women in Maharashtra will now have the option of using either their fathers’ or husbands’ surnames in all official documents. Children can now mention surnames of both parents, or remove the father’s completely if they want to. “It highlights that, despite the advancements that women have made, there still is an expectation that women should put their families ahead of themselves,” Shafer says. “And low educated men see not taking a husband’s last name in marriage as going against this cultural expectation and think a woman should be punished for it.” And while a woman’s surname remains a personal choice in the U.S. and most of Canada, there are places in the world where women are not forced to take the man’s name. Quebec is Canada’s example of such a practice.

 

 

Figure 1: Representation of positive impact of dropping surname on the society

 

The province enacted a law in 1981 that forbids women from using her husband’s surname after marriage. Greece has also enforced a law since 1983 that requires women to keep their own names, Time reports (2). And in the Netherlands, women are only allowed to change their maiden names under special circumstances. In Malaysia and Korea, there is no law enforcing the name change, however it is custom for women to keep them. Many feminist movements are working towards keeping women their own surname but if we want to eradicate the whole caste based system from the root then women must prefer to drop both, their father’s and husband’s surnames and may choose a new or random one. Instead of using any caste showing surname; they should create other options which must not be related to any caste and those could be common suffix like profession or nation’s name behind their own name (Figure 2). Dropping surname is like “Abolish many problems with one shot” which could be a great idea to eradicate many of gender biased and inequality problems from the society (Figure 1). The change of surname or use of alternative surname must be like short, swift and convenient, best and changes should be going through the effort of changing surname on social sites as well as passport, driving license, credit cards and so on (1).

 

 

Figure 2: Graphical representation of alternative suffixes for the replacement of surnames

 

Development of Casteless society:

Casteless society i.e. society where there is no discrimination on the basis of birth mark. The Indian Constitution guarantees equality to all citizens and thus establishes a rule of Non-discrimination by the state in any manner. It ensures and inures the state to treat all citizens equally and allow equality of status and opportunity to all and specifically provides that discrimination on the basis of religion, sex, color, caste, race or the place of birth etc are impermissible. The pious objectives with which our fore-fathers decided and embarked upon the framing of the Constitution-Secularism was one of the guiding principles (6, 7). Secularism entails not just religious but also casteless egalitarian society. The high objective and the final goal was to convert a society fragmented on the lines of religion, caste, economic status etc into a homogenous society where identification of a person was not on the basis of the religion he professes or caste he belongs to but was on the basis of what he is or what he has made himself into. This is aptly clear from the statement of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru made by him on the floor of the Lok Sabha on 13.6.1951. He said " After all the whole purpose of the Constitution as proclaimed in the Directive principles is to move towards what I may say a casteless and classless society"-(Lok Sabha Debates Vol XII-XIII (Part II) Page 9830-31). The caste system is the greatest hindrance in the way of our progress towards an egalitarian society and a strong nationhood. On 25th November, 1949, in Constituent Assembly, Dr Ambedkar spoke."In India there are castes. The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint".

 

One Caste India Mission:

To erdicate this gender-biased traditon, sensible people are doing such experiments of leaving surname. Ours is very recent case where we both husband and wife decided to leave our surname forever which was reported by some of promonenet news chanels and news papers (8). “One caste india movement” is also one important mission working over social experiments like dropping surname towards the gender equility and caste eradication run by some of us research scholar from Maharishi Dyanand University, Rohtak. Our movement is inflencing many others to leave their surname and standby with gender equility; soon we will collect data of such experiment to be published. We need to change the steriotype judging people based on tradional customs; for example, a 2010 study published in Basic and Applied Psychology showed that women who change their names after marriage are more typically viewed as more "caring and emotional," while women who kept their last names were viewed as "smarter and more ambitious." Based on this one decision, many people decide that they know everything about who you are and what you're about.

 

CONCLUSION:

The gender-biased tradition without any real utility at all, can be eradicated by replacing the family surname with other alternative identity of individuals. We all should overcome this biggest scam of history called as scam of gender biasing and inequality by doing such social experiments.

 

REFERENCES:

1.     “IITians Drop Surnames Because They Indicate Caste-Times of India.” 2017. Accessed February 16. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/IITians-drop-surnames-because-they-indicate-caste/articleshow/1783938.cms.

2.     “Should Women Drop Their Last Name?-Times of India.” 2017. Accessed February 16. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/love-sex/Should-women-drop-their-last-name/articleshow/10665207.cms.

3.     “The Tricky Issue of Women’s Surnames|The Indian Express.” 2017. Accessed February 16. http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/the-tricky-issue-of-womens-surnames/.

4.     “Why Do Most Women Still Take Their Husband’s Last Name?” 2017. Accessed February 16. http://jezebel.com/5989279/why-do-most-women-still-take-their-husbands-last-name.

5.     “Why Should Married Women Change Their Names? Let Men Change Theirs | Jill Filipovic | Opinion | The Guardian.” 2017. Accessed February 16. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/07/women-stop-changing-your-name-when-married.

6.     https://www.india.gov.in/sites/upload_files/npi/files/coi_preface.pdf

7.     https://www.india.gov.in/sites/upload_files/npi/files/coi_contents.pdf

8.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l9CdNP_8YE&t=32s

 

 

Received on 13.05.2018          Modified on 08.06.2018

Accepted on 21.07.2018       ©A&V Publications All right reserved