Legislation & Social Change Henry Maine’s Approach to Progressive Society & Widow’s Right to Re-Marriage

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, legislation has been considered the desired route to achieve social changes in society. In the course of progressing as a welfare society, laws & policies have been formulated to achieve desirable social conditions, i.e., for the amelioration of vulnerable sections, the realisation of human rights, and abolition of detrimental age-old customs & traditions. Sir Henry Maine, too in his theory of the Movement of society from status to contract, has also formulated that legislation is one of a few mechanisms incorporated by progressive societies to move ahead from the stage of codification and to usher in radical changes. In the Indian scenario it has been believed that with legislation, substantial changes have been bought to the institution of property rights, inheritance & marriage for women in the State of Punjab. Therefore in this paper, the author shall reflect upon Sir Henry Maine’s theory concerning the relevance of legislation as an agency for social change and shall try to decipher whether legislation of widow remarriage has actually helped in improving the status of women in the State of Punjab.