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husband on matrimonials.com, flew to India
to marry him after “spending four months
and US $8,000 in phone bill courting.”
Then comes the wedding itself. According
to Reuters India, the average cost of a standard
Indian wedding is between Rs 3 lakh
($7500) and Rs 6 lakh ($15,000), which is
the equivalent of up to 15 times the average
Indian salary. However, the growing middle
classes of India often host weddings in the
upper $20,000s and $30,000s, and upper
castes in the millions.
Of course, none of these quotes include
the dowry.
Globalization, Dowry, and the Dalits
“Dowry?” you may ask. “Hasn’t that long
been outlawed?”
Well, yes it has. But social-snobbery and
materialistic greed are just the ingredients
that India’s dowry system needed in order to
come back with a vengeance.
The frequency of dowry-deaths is growing,
thanks to a rise in India’s materialism. In 2001,
TIME magazine reported that dowry-deaths
had grown from 400 a year in the mid-1980s
to nearly 6,000 a year in the mid-1990s.
Ten years later in 2005, India’s National
Crime Record Bureau recorded at least one
reported dowry death every 77 minutes,
equaling c. 7,000 dowry deaths in the year.
However, most dowry deaths are framed as
accidents and are not investigated, so the official
statistics are expected to be much greater.
Abigail Lavin of The Weekly Standard
explains that there is a strong correlation
between the rise in dowry-related violence
and India’s economic boom since India opened
to foreign investment in 1990. According
to Lavin, analysts say that, “The country’s
growing economy exacerbates dowry crimes
by encouraging a culture of materialism.”
“For many in India’s growing middle
class, newfound prosperity has brought with
it the lure of conspicuous consumption.
Lavish dowry payments are seen as a way to
increase a family’s stockpile of luxury items
and brand-name goods,” she says.
In short, dowry is the easy way to ride
India’s wave of the nuvo riche.
So what does dowry have to do with
the Dalits?
John Paulraj, an Indian urban single living
in Delhi, has witnessed again and again the
Putting your daughter up for sale or giving her away?
contemporary usage of dowry, even in the
marriages of his close friends.
He explains that there is a strong
correlation between caste-consciousness
and dowry-related atrocities. “Whenever
I think about caste, it’s a status symbol,” he
says. “It has to do with social status…and the
reason they don’t want to marry a lower caste
person has to do with the low dowry and low
status. Caste matters a lot, but if the Dalit is
wealthy, this could make up for it.”
But even if a Dalit has managed to stay in
school and acquire a good education, to get
hired for a decently-paying job, and to make
enough money to be accepted as eligible for
a decent marriage and dowry, she may not
live past her wedding day.
Wedding Crashers in India
While comedies feature wedding crashing as
a lighthearted topic, this past February the
Times of India reported a shocking case of
wedding crashing in Haryana, where eleven
upper-caste men crashed the wedding of a
Dalit’s daughter.
Not only was the wedding party beaten
and robbed, but the property of the Dalit
family was burned. As their land went up in
flames, caste-based insults condemned them
for their ‘excessive’ display of wealth (the
groom had ridden in on a ghodi or horse).
With the Times of India, Dalit intellectual
Chandrabhan Prasad explained that “Riding
a horse carriage during a wedding [showcases
the couple’s] newfound upward mobility.”
Prasad has sited this trend of castebased
wedding revolts not only in Haryana
but also in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Globalization Hasn’t Changed Caste-
Based Arranged Marriages… Yet
A wise sociologist once mused that we must
choose our mothers carefully. The year 2008
finds us in an increasingly global society.
Yet to a large extent the rung of our birth
still shapes the quality of our education,
careers, medical care, life expectancy, and
choice of spouse.
Talk of India’s economic and technological
advancements certainly reflects truth,
but it does not represent the full picture.
Enchantment with India’s elegant global rise
masks a darkly shadowed backstage, where
injustices still persist in the names of caste
and downright indifference.
But until now, it seems like most of us would
rather keep silent, than to disrupt our lovely
little bubbles of comfort. Our caste-based
identity disorder has yet to be abolished,
even in sophisticated online settings.
As a friend once shared with me over a
chai, “I often wonder, what would I do if I
were growing up in Nazi Germany? Would
I just go along with it all, like all the others
around me, and not trying to figure out what
was really going on behind the scenes? And
assuming I did care enough to find out, what
then? Would I defend the Jews? Or would I
just keep silent...”
She paused and then continued, “Well
I’m not a girl in Nazi Germany, but I am
living today. And there are many atrocities
going on that may or may not end up in
history books, but that I’m held accountable
for, because I can find something to do to
make a difference.”
So we Indians must observe our society
carefully. Speak up diligently. Love
recklessly. Fight (non-violently but) boldly.
Ultimately, what we choose to do today in
preparation for tomorrow, and how we choose
to view – or ignore – a rapidly changing
world, will not only shape our lives, but also
the legacy of India for years to come.
Davita Maharaj grew up in the US, and
Switzerland, and currently works in California.
She loves the arts, international development,
and making frequent visits back to India.
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