Courtship, Marriage, Consent and Violence against Women in the Meitei Society: A Feminist Viewpoint

Abstract

The emotive vocabulary woven by the mothers of Meitei society in their voices against the state violence on the female body is substantially effective in highlighting the violence against women by the state forces. The other side of the story is the disturbing trend of the recurrent cases of violence against women particularly rape, betrayal and killing of young girls and women in Meitei society which are evident in the local dailies and reports on crime against women. The paper seeks to nuance the expressions of violence against women in the tradition of “koiba†and “chenba†by employing the Bourdieusian concept of habitus and feminist criticism on its limits.