Child Marriage and Widowhood in the Magazine 'Maathar Marumanam'

Abstract

In the early period, matrilineal society prevailed. Female were considered the foremost in activities. People worked as a group under a woman's leadership. She had the power to attract people. Thus, men are not considered eligible for leadership. Patriarchy started when a man started to feel that a woman is responsible for impregnating a woman. The patriarchy enslaved the woman and relegated the patriarchal society. One justice for a man and one justice for a woman began. If the husband dies, the wife should not remarry. But if the wife dies, the husband can remarry, according to patriarchy. The practice of polygamy, where a man can marry as many women as he wants, and the custom where the wife must also jump into the fire when the husband dies, when he is buried and so on. And the pre-pubertal child marriage and widows are beheaded and forced to wear white cloths all these rules are laid down by patriarchal society. Inorder to wipe out all these customs and rituals social reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Periyar and Dr. Ambedkar fought to root out these deadly practice. Subsequently, the magazine 'Maathar Marumanam' appeared. Magazines were published covering topics such as abstinence, religion, spirituality, women's education, anti-child marriage, widow remarriage, family, child protection, caste inequality, industry, health, sports, agriculture, literature, art and philosophy. Among such published magazines, 'Maathar Marumanam' is the first magazine launched only for widow remarriage and the only magazine in the history of journalism to cover this issue. The purpose of this article is to examine the magazine.