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From: paturi@harvard.ARPA (Ramamohan Paturi)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: dowry
Message-ID: <442@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 19-Oct-85 16:34:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: harvard.442
Posted: Sat Oct 19 16:34:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Oct-85 06:20:39 EDT
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Organization: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard
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Deepak >    Raghu Seshdri > >    Ramamohan        (no prefix)
> > 
> > People immune to appeals of decency and ethics are remarkably
> > vulnerable to charges of being not 'modern' or 'fashionable'.
> > Make dowry unfashionable and it will fade away.
> > -- 
 
> It is plain economics that works here, not fashion.
> Besides, simply blaming those who accept dowry is wrong strategy.
> It will not solve any thing.
> As long as there are people who want to give dowry, there
> will be those who will take it.
 
  Deepak is simply taking one side of chicken versus egg argument.
  I feel that all the factors that are responsible for the dowry
  system should be taken into account. Both the "donor" and the
  "recipient" have to modify their attitudes if the dowry has to be eradicated.

> While we are at it, let us look at how this tradition came into
> being. In old days, girls did not have inheritence rights
> in their parents property. Dowry was a father's way of giving
> the daughter her share. It was not *negotiated* with the groom
> or his parents. The groom or his family had no right on
> what ever dowry the bride brought with her. It was her property.
> Under the Indian law girls have had equal inheritence rights
> for several decades now. But the dowry system has stuck around
> in its present degenerated form.
> 
  This story does not even scratch the surface. It is an academician's
  diversion from the essetial point. It is more relevant to know why and 
  how the dowry system has "stuck around in its present degenerated form".
  Hope I can tell something more about it later.

  -Ramamohan Paturi
  paturi@harvard.HARVARD.EDU