Dowry is not Indian in origin

By Rm Lingam
Recently a television channel reported the horrific story of a young Indian woman who
has claimed to be a victim of the ghastly practice of dowry. The evil of dowry has no
place in any society but this happened right here in New Zealand. Given that the menace
of dowry raises its hood now and then in India and in overseas Indian settlements, one
would be surprised to know that there was no such thing called dowry till about the 19th
century. Dowry as we know it today was not part of the Indian ethos only until the city of
Mumbai was given to King Charles II of England in dowry on his marriage to Portuguese
Princess Catherine of Braganza in 1662 presented as part of the dowry when Princess
Catherine de Braganza of Portugal was married to in 1661.
It is well know that Dowry was not a part of the Indian marriage before European influence crept
into the society.
There was a similar but fair practice of wealth distribution called 'sthree-dhan' on a girl's
marriage which when demanded became dowry, especially during the colonization of India
according to new research findings.
A recent television programme reported the horrific story of terrible violence to a young woman
el A dowry is understood to be the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to a marriage
What was originally a daughter's share from her father's ancestral property took the ugly turn
and became a ransom demand by some greedy people who deserve to be condemned,
punished and ultimately educated about the culture deficit they create.

What is very important to be noted here is that, the valuables or the wealth was given to the
bride, and NOT to the groom or his family. In other words, the dowry wealth continued to be
owned by the wife and not by the husband or his family. This gave the required financial
independence to women who would even manage the income from their agricultural land , etc.
So in the original system of dowry prevalent in India, women were gifted wealth from their
parents during marriage and this served as a tool of financial independence for the bride even
after marriage.

Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime, a well researched book by Veena
Talwar Oldenburg tries to answer this question. In this book, the author follows the paper trail
left by British bureaucrats during the British Colonial rule of India. And then there are personal
accounts from women in India including authors own personal account on the system of Dowry.
And what gets revealed after all this path breaking research and analysis, gives a huge blow to
the very theory of Dowry being directly responsible for the status of women in the Indian society
and goes on to prove how a system meant to actually benefit the married woman got converted
during the British Rule into a system which ended up harming the very woman who was
supposed to benefit from it.
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www.indiasutra.co.nz ~ A blog by Ram Lingam

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Ram Lingam blogs his insights on India and Indian culture at www.indiasutra.co.nz

254201817.doc

www.indiasutra.co.nz ~ A blog by Ram Lingam

2012 indiasutra.co.nz. All Rights Reserved

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