Women Are Not For Burning The Anti-Dowry Movement in Delhi 1

1989

Women's Studies International Forum, 1995

Synopsis-An increasing number of bride-burnings or dowry murders have been reported from India. These am cases of married women being murdered, usually burned to death, by husbands or in-laws whose demands for more dowry from the bride's family remain unmet. Using published accounts of these incidents along with interview material from one woman who escaped burning, this article examines the problem in terms of recent changes in women's roles and sources of female power. It is tentatively suggested that bride-burnings not only reflect women's relative lack of economic power in modem India, but might also reflect a diminishing of the power Indian women traditionally exercised through their fertility.

In Indian socio-economical milieu, the incident of 'bride burning' as well as 'dowry death' is a vicious violence which degrades the position of Indian daughterhood into a perilous situation. Dowry is a transfer of property from bride's family to that of the bridegroom, at the time of marriage. In ancient Indian religious scripts, the mention of 'stree dhana' proves that it is a traditional custom in matrimony. An overview of Indian feminist movement clarifies the fact that, it is only in the last half of 80s when the concept of bride burning or dowry death as a social crime drew the public attention. The campaign against dowry murders in Delhi in 1979, the first time dowry deaths, hitherto regarded as suicide, were dubbed as 'murder'. Terminologically, dowry deaths refer to the deaths of young brides who were being harassed by their in-laws for more dowries, perhaps better known as 'bride burning'. The upsurge marital violence against women due to dowry has already crossed the demarcation and transforms the marital family into a danger zone. But irony lays in the fact that the most of the cases are unrecorded and so, no question of punishment. The sociospatial strategies of both natal and conjugal families of the wretched daughter carry the same responsibility for this tragedy. Thus, concurrently dowry death not only exemplifies as domestic violence but also reflects the filthy power politics of patriarchy.

Political action and social activism against the practice of dowry has varied in scope, form and language over the centuries in the Indian subcontinent. There is evidence from Chola inscriptions in Tamil Nadu and from 18th century edicts from the Maharajah of Jaipur (following petitions from 'respectable' families to control prestations around marriage) that dowry and related marriage expenses were viewed as pernicious as they pauperised such families. It is only in the last century, however, that political action on the issue mobilised people beyond the court and elite 1 and a discourse emerged linking dowry and women's emancipation. During the social reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the national movement and the pre-Independence women's movements, dowry did not attract the attention that the issues of child marriage, widow remarriage, women's property rights, and women's right to modern education and employment did. With the faith in legislation held by the leaders of the newly independent nation and their aversion to radical measures, the 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act and other 'women-friendly laws' were considered sufficient to the purpose.

countercurrents.org, 2023

Considering the current practices and the violent mechanisms through which the discriminatory practice of dowry operates, this work contends that more than a social or moral evil, dowry, as it is practiced today, critically involves gruesome economic violence, including extortion, blackmail, and brutal exploitation of women and their families, besides physical and other forms of violence that at times lead to their murder or compel women to commit suicide. Moreover, the scope of the practice of dowry is being widened to include not only the demands for cash and valuables but also the large expenditures incurred in organizing the `big, fat, lavish wedding’. These expenses in no way add to the bride’s wealth or her stridhan or support brides in cases of emergency or otherwise. The way dowry is practiced in contemporary times involves the triad of oppression consisting of compulsive, arbitrary dowry demands, coercion, and dowry-related violence, all of which began before or at the time of marriage and continued thereafter and therefore need to be dealt with accordingly. The laws that prohibit and criminalize dowry have dismally failed to deter or stop terrible crimes. Besides, the current legal framework pertaining to dowry blatantly ignores the critical elements of coercion, extortion, blackmail, and ruthless exploitation of women and therefore, the need is to rethink the socio-legal discourse surrounding dowry in India. The neoliberal economy is bringing in a new set of challenges, and therefore innovative ideas are required to address those emerging issues. What is required is a pro-active feminist approach, globally as well as nationally, which includes the inter-country and intra-country coordination and above all a commitment by the state governments at the national as well as the international level to prevent violence, to protect women and children and to provide immediate relief and justice to those affected. Rather an international consortium may be established to specifically address such issues pertaining to women and children is essential.

Canadian Woman Studies, 1986

The 1975 Report from the Indian Com-mission on the Status of Women identified dowry as one of the greatest problems affecting women. In "Towards Equality: Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India" (1973), the following statement was made: From the point of ...

This collection of essays edited by Bradley, Tomalin, and Subramaniam explores the experiences of South Asian women, primarily Indian and Bangladeshi women, with dowry-based violence. The anthology fills a critical gap in feminist critiques of dowry by providing current accounts using an ethnographic method. The essays collectively address issues related to the production of gender-based violence and successfully merge the viewpoints of academics, practitioners, and activists, making it a truly feminist endeavor. While the larger purpose of the collection is to raise the visibility of issues relating to dowry, the research considers an alternate vantage point in examining dowry-Kandiyoti's notion of "bargaining with patriarchy," as described in her 1988 Gender & Society article of the same name. The authors consider the possibility that dowry may serve as an avenue for women to negotiate the transition into married life and nicely address representations of dowry as well as the personal narratives of those who have experienced it. Although the chapters cover diverse regions, disciplines, and audiences, they work well together to offer a critical vantage onto dowry, bride burning, and son preference in South Asia.

Issues in Legal Scholarship, 2017

Increasing globalization means that some actions or events transcend national boundaries and often require harmonization of responses. This is increas ingly apparent in the context of violence against women and girls as movement of people and culture creates new challenges. News of accusations of dowry harass ment against actress Smita Bansal caused a sensation in December 2015. The alle gations arose during her brother's divorce in London. It was suggested that her family had taken away jewelry and money from her sisterinlaw during marriage to her brother. The allegations were refuted. True or otherwise, the issue of dowry has been catapulted onto the world stage. Whilst the demanding and giving of dowry has been effectively illegal in India since 1961 (The Dowry prohibition Act, 1961), the practice continues and has been exported globally with migration. No similar pro visions appear outside India to protect extra territorial dowry demands or harass ment. Research is scant but news reports suggest that women are burned, poisoned, beaten and forced to commit suicide. Female children suffer infanticide and foeti cide when dowry is unpaid or deemed insufficient. This paper explores these issues.

SHS Web of Conferences, 2014

In India, the custom of dowry [payment of cash /gifts from the bride family to the bridegroom's family at marriage] not only encouraged parents to be sex selective and abort female embryos [causing skewed sex ratio] and greedy husbands and in-laws to torture and burn brides if their demands were not satiated, it also lowered women status/equality drastically. As a political positive corrective and feminist intervention the government not only banned dowry, it also introduced section 498-A in the Indian Penal Code-a non-bail able, non-compoundable and cognizable offence, against husband or relative, on cruelty to a married woman. But the law is dysfunctional due to lack of awareness, illiteracy, socio-cultural factors & joint family system. Sometimes all the adults of the family are put in jail along with infants, just on complaint, without investigations with school going children left alone to fend for themselves. On the basis of data of four districts of Bundelkhand in India where more than 40% of women jail inmates are under trials for s498A, the paper questions the criminology and impact of reforms/laws alone to curtail gender-based violence, when the basic values within the family, community and state remain patriarchal and against women.

Human Nature-an Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective, 2007

In modern Indian political discourse the custom of dowry is often represented as the cause of serious social problems, including the neglect of daughters, sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, and the harassment, abuse, and murder of brides. Attempts to deal with these problems through legislative prohibition of dowry, however, have resulted in virtually no diminution of either dowry or violence against women. In contrast, radically different interpretations of dowry can be found in the literatures of structural-functionalist anthropology, economics, and human behavioral ecology which muster wide-ranging forms of qualitative and quantitative evidence to support functional models of dowry as a form of inheritance or investment in daughters and/or their children. This paper argues that a functionalist perspective on dowry could lead to improved dowry policy, and that an approach based in human behavioral ecology (HBE) is uniquely suited to this task. After reviewing the relevant...