tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13001834.post113736785635934357..comments2024-01-13T18:08:41.591+05:30Comments on drisyadrisya: Why am I not surprised ?!drisyadrisyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03210422252612711325noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13001834.post-1138143706191842052006-01-25T04:31:00.000+05:302006-01-25T04:31:00.000+05:30Sarayu Thanks for the comments.. It has actually b...Sarayu <BR/><BR/>Thanks for the comments.. It has actually brought out some interesting points <BR/><BR/>1) Yeah, the boy paying the girls family isn't going to help either for the kind of reasons you pointed out.. and also I guess in some parts of North east this custom is there, but the wives are made to work even harder as the husbands family shows a "look, we paid for you attitude" <BR/><BR/>2) Though slightly off topic, I feel that lots and lots of things that we see today has been influenced by the islamic and the Brtish periods, and we are yet to know indepth how they changed many things for the worst. For example, I remember reading in Gandhi's autobio that the custom of child marriage came into being because of islamic invasions, in an attempt to protect girls from being abducted etc <BR/><BR/>After all, in Hindu scriptures "Brahmacharya" for both girls and boys is prescribed for 21 years .... <BR/><BR/>3) To the question of dowry, well seems like there is atleast one book related to it.. <BR/><BR/>(eventhough I am not so sure if she what the place of Manusmrithi has in Hinduism, for her to be equating that with Hinduism) <BR/><BR/>Author : <BR/><BR/>http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/departments/history/faculty/oldenburg.html<BR/><BR/>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195150724/002-3340495-0548050?v=glance&n=283155<BR/><BR/>Book Description<BR/>The Hindu custom of dowry has long been blamed for the murder of wives and female infants in India. In this highly provocative book, Veena Oldenburg argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, such killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era. In the precolonial period, dowry was an institution managed by women, for women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in an emergency. As a consequence of the massive economic and societal upheaval brought on by British rule, womens entitlements to the precious resources obtained from land were erased and their control of the system diminished, ultimately resulting in a devaluing of their very lives. Taking us on a journey into the colonial Punjab, Veena Oldenburg skillfully follows the paper trail left by British bureaucrats to indict them for interpreting these crimes against women as the inherent defects of Hindu caste culture. The British, Oldenburg claims, publicized their "civilizing mission" and blamed the caste system in order to cover up the devastation their own agrarian policies had wrought on the Indian countryside. A forceful demystification of contemporary bride burning concludes this remarkably original book. Deploying her own experiences and memories and her research at a women's shelter with "dowry cases" for almost a year in the mid-eighties, the author looks at the contemporary violence against wives and daughters-in-law in modern India. Oldenburg seamlessly weaves the contemporary with the historical, the personal with the political, and strips the layers of exoticism off an ancient practice to show how an invaluable safety net was twisted into a deadly noose. She brings us startlingly close to the worsening treatment of modern Indian women as she challenges us to rethink basic assumptions about womens human and economic rights. Combining rigorous research with impassioned analysis and a nuanced treatment of a complex, deeply controversial subject, this book critiques colonialism while holding a mirror to gender discrimination in modern India.drisyadrisyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03210422252612711325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13001834.post-1138127160506141332006-01-24T23:56:00.000+05:302006-01-24T23:56:00.000+05:30"Was dowry deaths only a few centuries old phenome..."Was dowry deaths only a few centuries old phenomenon ?"<BR/><BR/>shox, I know for sure, atleast in AP( one if the highest dowry deaths recorded states), That dowry death is just a century old. (definetly not more than that.) <BR/><BR/>because it was during independece time or may be little before that there existed a system called "kanyasulkam" where the bridegroom would give "kanya"= the girl , "sulkam" = money/ property.<BR/><BR/>But since the richest are usually the oldest , Old men started wedding very young girls at alarming age differences of 60 : 2 too... so invariably the girl got widowed sooner....hence many of freedom fighters from AP also who were reformers.. abolished this sysytem and remaried all the widows.. but donno from when on this " dowry" system started. Definetly doesnt age more than 80-90 yrs.. in my place..S.Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10414588068850101291noreply@blogger.com