Dowry System in India

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India is respected in the world for her traditional culture. The traditional thinking, the deep belief in almighty and religious nature, has made the Indians well cultured. But, sadly there are some of the stained systems such as dowry system in our country which are the black spots in our country's image.Dowry system is one of those much discussed systems. Dowry is a payment of cash or valuable gifts from the bride’s family to the bridegroom upon marriage.Although it is one of the most hated systems surprisingly it is growing day by day. This increasing system is a growing injustice to our society and morals. It should be immediately stopped or banned. Marriage is one of the most sacred and holy ceremonies in our society. But the horror of the dowry system has made this ceremony one of the feared institutions. In ancient Indian society there was no question of the dowry in marriages. It was considered to be a sin. But today Dowry is considered really important. what is the real history of dowry? Did it always exist in indian society? Was women always treated like this? We only hear about Swayamvar in the ancient Hindu marriage traditions where it was the bride who decided whom to marry. There was no Swayamvadhu, the groom could not hold beauty contests to decide which bride to marry. Instead it was the girl who in a Swayamvar, would put all the competing potential bridegrooms to different contests and then select the bridegroom whom she liked. In the Swayamvar of Sita in Ramayana, Rama had to lift the Shiva’s bow to prove that he was eligible to marry Sita. So if this was the importance given to women in our tradition, then when and where did this contradiction of the threat of dowry enter our society? 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

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