"Wife killed by Husband", "In-Laws Beat the Bride Up", "Wife Bruised and Sent to Her Father's Home", "X's Business is Marriage"— such headlines are not uncommon in today's dailies. Being interested in the message, as we read the first paragraph of the report, we discover that it all has happened because of the existence of the dowry tradition in society. The monster of dowry has so far killed hundreds of innocents, helpless brides dissolved thousands of households, tormented and bereaved innumerable children.
The accursed practice of dowry has characterized marriage as rather a commercial transaction, a dirty source of income. Nowadays bridegrooms are auctioned in the open market. The shameless hands of the bridegroom as well as of his parents are eagerly longing for more and more unearned income from the helpless parents of the bride to satiate their indomitable avarice.
Its consequences, no doubt, have been seen to be worse than those of bribery. Nowadays the most helpless man on earth is a poor father with one or more daughters, especially ones who do not look nice enough.
With the passage of time, however, laws have been enacted and enforced prohibiting the practice of dowry. Yet nothing has been satisfactorily effective. After all, laws can only restrict people's behavior but cannot influence their intention. Again, there is nothing more pleasurable to a daughter- burdened father than to be able to get his daughter a husband. Thus, both partiethe givers and the takers—have kept this perilous practice in vogue.
But how did this barbarian demon get introduced into our society? As far as our country is concerned, the root cause dates back to centuries to be found in the Hindu tradition of marriage and inheritance. Traditionally, girls in Hindu families do not deserve to inherit any paternal property.
The whole share of a father's wealth goes to his son or sons, Consequently, the daughters are compensated by being granted a lump sum of money and other assets, known as dowry, at the time of their marriage. The intention behind this system was noble, after all, but its aftermath has proved to be destructive.
Since there was in the very beginning no specification as to how much each daughter should be given, the real beneficiaries of the daughters' wealthier their husbands or would-be husbands, had an opportunity to bargain about their wives' shares. This eventually created the present-day connotation that we give to the word "dowry".