Coming from an Indian family, I never see anything wrong in the dowry system practiced in Indian weddings. It has become a tradition among us. However, it is being said that dowry system is not practiced as how it was initially. In other words, dowry system is not fairly treated in these recent days. I came to this opinion after reading two short stories; A Question of Dowry and Everything’s Arranged.
Looking at the first story (A Question of Dowry), it is clear that dowry system is not something new in the society. “My father gave us four for my dowry, and our second son received three as his wife’s dowry.” It is not left there; in fact, they train the next generation to be prepared with dowry for their daughters in future. “…he’s got to realize that his sons must have a good education, and that his daughters must have enough dowry.” This statement shows that dowry system has become a must as it is well planned at early stages. The reason I say dowry system is not fairly treated is because the dowry which is supposed to be a gift has now become a certain fixed amount or material from the bridegroom’s in-laws. If the groom’s expectations are not fulfilled, either the marriage will be stopped or the bride will be ill-treated as they look down at her. “…that’s more than I can say for what Thangathurai gave his daughter when our son married her-and she had only passed her form IV too!” From here, I claim that it is no more a question of expectation but a question of status. “Do you want people to think that we have no money for our daughter?” From this story, not is clear that dowry system is not fairly treated because Thiruchelvam and Sivasothi never got married because Mr. Ramachandran did not afford to pay for the high dowry set for a doctor bridegroom. “Well, a man had to have a wife, so why not have one with a reasonable dowry?
Everything’s Arranged is another story that made some tuning in my mind as the first one. As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of dowry is to ease newly married couple and it is a gift but in this story, the parents set amount of dowry by looking at education level and profession. At the beginning, Devanayagam’s family set $80,000 cash, a house with a plot land. ..his mother managed to let him know that he was getting $80,000 as well as a house and a plot of land, in spite of the fact that his bride would be a BA by the time they got married.” But later, after some problem, Rukumani failed to continue her studies and that made Devanayagam’s family increase the dowry amount. “There would be no final term for Rukumani. It was decided that the increase of $20,000 in dowry as worth the risk of family disgrace.” So, here, the dowry is set by the parents based on education level and profession as Devanayagam is to be a ‘At least Civil Service Super-scale.’
In conclusion, dowry has created a barrier among the rich and poor and the educated and uneducated. Therefore, it is crystal clear that dowry system is not fairly treated.
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