New Delhi: In India, dowry is considered to be a practice whereby parental property is distributed to a daughter at her marriage, establishing some variety of conjugal fund, the nature of which may vary widely. This fund ensures her support or endowment in widowhood and eventually goes to provide for her sons and daughters.
Contrasting with the related concepts such as brideprice and dower, dowry is an ancient Indian custom, and its existence may well predate records of it. Dowry continues to be expected in some parts of India, mainly north, with disputes related to it often resulting in domestic violence, such as dowry deaths.
The practice of dowry in India continues to be a controversial subject. Some scholars believe dowry was practised in the ancient Indian subcontinent, some do not. Historical reports suggest dowry in ancient India was significant and daughters also had inheritance rights, which by custom were exercised at the time of their marriage. The Code of Manu also sanctioned dowry and bridewealth in ancient India, but dowry was the more prestigious form and associated with the Brahmanic (priestly) caste.
Dowries originally started as “love gifts” for the marriages of upper caste individuals, but during the medieval period the demands for dowries became a precursor for marriage. The demand for dowries spread to the lower caste, and became a prestige issue, with the system becoming rigid and expensive. The dowry system became a tool for enhancing family social status and economic worth.
Dowry got more pronounced after the country achieved independence in 1947. Prior to 1956, including during the British Raj, daughters had no rights to inheritance to their family’s wealth. In 1956, India gave equal legal status to daughters and sons among Hindu, Sikh and Jain families, under the Hindu Succession Act. For its Muslim population, India granted Sharia derived personal status laws. Ancient vedic scholar Manu described dowry as essentially a payment of cash or gifts from the bride’s family to the bridegroom’s family upon marriage. These days it would include cash, jewellery, electrical appliances, furniture, bedding, crockery, utensils and other household items that helped the newly-weds set up their home.
In the recent decades, the expected value of the dowry has risen in northern parts of India such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. This phenomenon has led to a sharp increase in “dowry deaths” since the 1980s. A “dowry killing” occurs when a new wife is murdered by her husband or in-laws if they are unhappy with her, rather than sending her back to her parents, which would force the in-laws to return the dowry to the bride’s parents.
