Preview

Marriage and Dowry

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2869 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marriage and Dowry
SEMINAR REPORT
DOWRY SYSTEM

Submitted by,

1. Introduction 2. What is Dowry? 3. History 4. Arranged Marriages and Dowry 5. The dowry system 6. Dowry System in India 7. What is Bride burning? 8. Dowry law in India 9. Dowry death new ruling India 10. Rising number of dowry deaths in India 11. Marriage as a financial transaction 12. Conclusion

Introduction
Today, Indian society is surrounded with many problems such as unemployment, illiteracy, population growth, terrorism, etc. Among these problems, a problem which is deep rooted in Indian society is the problem of dowry system. It has become the every day news item, no day passes away when we don't hear news relating to dowry death or dowry harassment. The irony lies in the fact that women in India are worshipped in the form of shakti, she is burned and harassed by her in-laws every day in one part of the nation or the other. Dowry, in ordinary sense, refers to money, gifts, goods or estate that wife brings to her husband in marriage
The dowry has a long history in Europe, South Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. The system of dowry is deep rooted in the Indian society since the early days of the history. This system prevailed in ancient Indian society, in ancient period dowry was the part of the ritual of kanyadan which was very different from modern- dowry. Among the eight types of marriages recognized by smritis, it was only in the Brahma marriage that father gave away his daughter, with such gifts and presents as he could afford, to a man of superior character .In the medieval period, the dowry, which was earlier regarded as dakshina (gift offered willingly), became an evil, father in order to marry her daughter had to offer money demanded by groom's family. In medieval times, the dowry system had engulfed the society at alarming rate, though it was practiced in the aristocratic and royal families.
The extra ordinary pride which rich people took

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    How has the cultural practice of dowry endowment affected women’s rights and health in India?…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chapter nine, Marriage and Family, had the most upsetting section dealing with Indian dowries. It is hard to imagine that a culture practices such a brutal and violent tradition. Blackmailing women and their families for financial gain was quite disturbing to me, but then I read about dowry deaths and bride burning; a bride burned every ninety minutes in 2010. What kind of person/culture would think this was ok? I read the practice was banned in 1961, but it sounds like the tradition…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The next factor to cause conflict in Marjane’s identity is the opposing views she faces during school. In the chapter “The Dowry”, Marjane has transferred to a new school after being expelled, but still faces issues at her new school. Her teachers states that since the Islamic Republic, there are no longer any political prisoners, but Marjane argues by stating that infact the amount has increased. Consequently, Marjane gets in trouble and when she comes home from school her parents both treat her differently. Her father was content that she defended her beliefs and even said, “she gets that from her uncle,”(145) and while her father doesn’t seem upset, her mother is upset and even rebuttals his comment by saying, “maybe you’d like her to end…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women's Role In America

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Women and men have always had opposing differences since the beginning of time. In this paper I am going to discuss the role of the women of India verses the role of women in America and I am going to tell you why I think the women of India are treated disgracefully. Female feticide, dowry deaths and domestic abuse offer a gruesome background of basic cruelty in India. In a typical society in India a person will find that there are still beliefs and traditions about women that are not relevant to the American woman, but instead are an inheritance from their brutal past. This is the case in traditional women, women of rural societies, and women of urban societies (Vidyut , 2007).…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Medieval times marriages were done by arrangement. Women were not allowed to choose who they wanted to marry. However, sometimes men were able to choose their bride. Marriage was not based on love as it is today. Husbands and wives were generally strangers until they first met. If love was involved at all, it came only after the couple had been married. The arrangement of marriage was done by the parents. Children were married at a very young age. Girls were as young as 12 and boys as young as 14 when they were married. The arrangement of marriage was based on monetary worth. The family of the girl gives a dowry, or donation, to the boy she is to marry. A dowry is money, property, or goods that a woman brings as a gift to her husband upon marriage. The dowry goes with her at the time of the marriage and stays with the boy forever.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    We are all familiar with the story : boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl gets married. For the majority of the western world, this is our ideal of a great beginning to a perfect marriage. It is important to realize that while India is very modernized in some aspects (i.e.. they lead the world in student's math and science scores and produce the largest amount of engineers in the world) they still keep to the tradition of arranged marriages. Marriages formed out of love AKA "love marriages" do happen in India but it is not the norm. It is an accepted fact that a person's family will play a role in picking the marriage partner.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assaults, harassments and chain-snatchings no longer alarm us. It is indeed a slur on the modern Indian society that the cult of violence has grown to such proportions in free India. Dowry deaths are the culminating point of violence. All the social, political, economic and cultural progress made by us is nullified by the simultaneous increase in violence against…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, a girl’s family can end up deep in dept paying a dowry to secure her marriage, not to mention arranging for all the wedding expenses and purchasing the gold jewellery she is expected to wear on her wedding day. Although outlawed in India since the early sixties, the dowry system is still common and takes different forms where some families give away money and gold, while others give land, motor vehicles and sometimes even fully furnished houses. This contributes to the cultural preference for boys.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Third, culture, parents could not rely on financial support from daughters after they are married and they would have to pay a dowry to the bride groom’ss parents.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Victorian Attitudes

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A dowry is any form of goods (i.e. money, property etc.) that a bride may bring to her husband as a gift. It was believed that the dowry would help prevent suffering or abuse towards the bride. Also, should the bride become a widow, she can inherit the dowry back .…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The dowry ceremony which was known as Ayie (which means I agree). The man’s family would visit the woman’s homestead. It is on the Ayie ceremony that a groom officially meets the parents of the bride for the first time; all other visits that could have taken place prior to the Ayie ceremony are unofficial and in some cases may attract disciplinary action on the groom. If a groom visits the parents of the bride but without the intention to pay Ayie during the visit, he may be considered undisciplined, as his action may be interpreted as arrogance or prematurely show off his relationship with the bride to…

    • 593 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Downside to Dowry

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Dowry system in India was never intended to lead to the abuse of women. It was traditionally employed as a way of showing love to the daughter who was entering a new phase of her life as a married woman. It qualified her to become a full member of the new family system and she wasn't seen as a hindrance or drain on the new family's resources. It was only after British Colonial rule that this standard within Hinduism mutated into what it is today.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tradition vs Modernism

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the modern context, dowry is an evil that forces ambitious girls, whose parents are poor, to remain unwed. The practice needs to be done away with entirely. Another evil practice of the same magnitude is the child marriage.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dowry Crimes

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Culture is the enduring behavior ideas attitudes and tradition shared by a large group of people transmitted from one generation to the next. India is one of those countries that has strong influences on cultures. The custom of Dowry long entrenched in India’s male dominant. Society has attained alarming proportions during the last few decades. There is hardly a day when the cries of Dowry victim echoes throughout the town. Brides are still being harassed physically and mentally for bringing sufficient Dowry. Violent crimes against women have ensured that they minimally participate in the economic social arena. It is not a secret that throughout the history women suffered an unprivileged social status. Many people are confused as to what Dowry is, where Dowry crimes occur, and why they occur.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    dowry and bridewealth

    • 2196 Words
    • 7 Pages

    What are the key anthropological issues in the relationship between humans and animals used for testing and utility? Why do some people support this practice while others are against it?…

    • 2196 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics