Kicking A Fuss

I thought saas-bahu TV soaps with all the intrigues pitting brides and mothers-in-law against each other were so over the top.

All those loud, resounding slaps that echo through the corridors of havelis, making every aunty and cousin in each room come skittering out batting their false eyelashes and biting their lips in spiteful smirks. All that pushing of sobbing brides/heartbroken mothers out of the carved teak doors of the house as the gonad-lacking husband/son stands by silently. All the suffering mothers crying their hearts out because they can no longer diaper their grown sons (okay, some mild exaggeration here). All the thunderclap sound effects (there’s just one canned sound repeated in every soap, again and again) reverberating da-dan… da-dan… da-dan…that are supposed to signal, in case you still didn’t get it, that a great outrage to family, society and civilization has just been perpetrated, for the fifth time in seven minutes.

But living in India, I’m often reminded that the most outrageous and unbelievable things aren’t what you see enacted on TV shows. They happen in real life.

The Supreme Court of India has just ruled that a woman who was kicked by her mother-in-law and other members of her husband’s family cannot charge her husband’s family with cruelty.

The mother-in-law allegedly called the bride's mother a liar, threatened to break up her son's marriage, gave the bride old clothes to wear and poisoned her son's mind against his wife. The court said all these were offences that could be classified under some other category, but not cruelty.

Cruelty to a wife, covered by Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, can punish a husband or his relatives with up to three years in prison and a fine.

The case was filed by Monica Sharma, who married Vikas Sharma, an Indian businessman residing in South Africa. Apparently, this is Mr. Sharma’s second marriage. The first also ended on the grounds of cruelty and breach of trust. Monica alleged that her husband’s family did not disclose this crucial information from her before their wedding.

The court did concede, though, that appropriating the couple’s wedding gifts constituted breach of trust and that a case against the mother-in-law could proceed on those grounds.

Ab tera kya hoga, saas-ji?