Dowry: An Inveterate Socio-Cultural Menace

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 26 August 2025 Recent Noida dowry death case of a 28-yr-old woman Nikki Bhati, who was set on fire by her husband Vipin Bhati, has jolted the conscience of the entire country. Prior to this horrific incident, one young bride Vaishnavi died in an alleged dowry case that shocked Maharashtra and sparked public outrage. The dubious circumstances of her death endangered many questions. Traditionally, dowry served as the inheritance for the daughter, as her relationship was seen as severed with her parents at the time of marriage and is sometimes negotiated as consideration or a 'status equalizer' between the marrying families, often as a means of upward mobility. However, the system can put a great financial burden on the bride's family. In some cases, asking for dowry has led to crimes against women, ranging from emotional abuse and injury to even deaths. The payment of dowry has long been prohibited under specific Indian laws including the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 and Sections 304B and 498A of the Indian Penal Code. These laws have long been criticized as being ineffective, as well as prone to misuse. Despite the law and its legalities, we must remember that India is a country steeped in a host of traditions. So, the dowry system is widely recognized as a social menace; in fact, a socio-cultural menace. It is a deeply rooted practice in many parts of the world, particularly in India, that leads to various forms of exploitation and violence against women. The practice is condemned by legal frameworks and social reformers alike, and its eradication is a key step towards achieving gender equality and a more just society. Ethnologists Risley, Blunt, and Hutton explain dowry as a means of upward mobility, or hypergamy. Among upper castes in India, marriages tend to be hypergamous, and thus, they explain dowry payments as a product of hypergamous marriages, in which family prestige is associated with marrying a daughter to someone within the higher social status. Some suggestions point to economics and weak legal institutions on inheritance place women in disadvantage, with inheritances being left only to sons. This leaves women dependent upon their husbands and in-laws, who keep the dowry when she marries. Prior to 1956, including during the British Raj, daughters had no rights of inheritance to their family's wealth. In 1956, India gave equal legal status to daughters and sons among Hindu, Sikh and Jain families, under the Hindu Succession Act (India grants its Muslim population the Sharia derived personal status laws). Despite the new inheritance law, dowry has continued as a process whereby parental property is distributed to a daughter at her marriage by a social process, rather than after parents death by a slow court supervised process under Hindu Succession Act (1956). Dowry gave, at least in theory, women economic and financial security in their marriage in the form of movable goods. This helped prevent family wealth break-up and provided security to the bride at the same time. This system can also be used as a premortem inheritance, as once a woman is presented with movable gifts, she may be cut off from the family estate. Cruelty in the form of torture or harassment of a woman with the objective of forcing her to meet a demand for property or valuable security is a form of dowry crime. The cruelty could be in the form of verbal attacks or may be accompanied by beating or harassment in order to force the woman or her family to yield to dowry demands. In many instances, the cruelty may even force the woman to commit suicide and it has been specifically criminalized by the anti-dowry laws in India. In a nutshell, dowry is a “demanded gift” by the groom’s family with the compliance by the bride’s family who give it in an effort to ensure that their daughter is taken care of in her new home. This abolished custom is only leeway to extracting more dowries after marriage, resulting in mental and physical harassment and even suicide or murder of the bride. Dowry has become a burden on not only the bride but also her parents who often go out of their way to arrange for it. Statistics show that in 2019 alone, 7100 reported dowry death cases were recorded. And this is an improvement from 2014, when nearly 8000 deaths were reported. Socio-cultural ramifications of Dowry System: While parents of a bride give dowry in good faith and their love for the daughter, her in-laws often have sinister motives. Greed and avarice have no end. If dowry demands are continuously met and entertained by the parents of a bride, the other party will go on demanding. The solution to it could be putting the foot down once parents give dowry during the marriage of their daughter. Bridegroom and his family should also realise that a girl/bride cannot be milked relentlessly. She's not an object or a commodity. Society should also understand that dowry degrades those who ask for it. But evolutionary and revolutionary thinking is something that has always bypassed most of us. Further, many women are afraid to implicate their husbands in a dowry crime simply because the Indian society is viewed as having conditioned women to anticipate or expect abuse and in some sense eventually, endure it. While the laws give great powers, they are not effectively enforced by the police or by courts. It can take up to 10 years for a case to go to court and even once in court, husbands and in-laws end up getting away with extortion or even murder because the women and their families cannot prove 'beyond reasonable doubt' that they are the victims of such crimes, as there are rarely any outside witnesses. In a patriarchal society like ours, a girl or a bride is forever at the receiving end of the menace of dowry. We've condemned and cried over dowry (crimes/deaths) but we've not yet been able to abolish it completely. Lastly, in a recent landmark judgment on dowry death, The Supreme Court of India held that “Mere death of the deceased being unnatural in the matrimonial home within seven years of marriage will not be sufficient to convict the accused under Section 304B and 498A IPC. Never forget that the law ignores the complexities of dowry-related violence and overlooks the element of coercion, and arbitrary compulsive demands. Ergo, society will have to be more understanding and compassionate on this count. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/dowry-inveterate-socio-cultural-menace/d/136606 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism