Dowry, Sati and Child Marriage

Dowry and Bride-Price:

Dowry is one of the social practices that are not educated Indian would own it with pride, although many of us still stick to this deplorable practice. Dowry continues to be given and taken. Even among the educated sections of society, dowry continues to constitute a substantial part of the negotiations taking place in an arranged marriage. During the ceremony, the articles contain THC dowry are proudly displayed in the wedding hall. Dowry is still very much a status symbol. A number of marriage negotiations break down if there is no consensus between the bride and groom 's family. Dowry death of a newly married fracture is still regularly in the news.

Although the practice of dowry is found in many countries, it is assumed that the proportion of a challenge to the forces of modernity and change only in India. Many reasons are put forward to explain this practice. It is said that a dowry is designed to help the newlyweds to set up their own home.

Dowry is given as compensation to the groom's parents for the amount they have spent in education and upbringing of their son. These explanations may seem logical today context, but they can not explain how this practice originated. A search for the origin of dowry would have to move backwards into antiquity. Talk about dowry has to take account of the less prevalent practice of bride price, which is merely a reversal or a dowry. Although it would not be possible to determine when and where this practice comes, it can be assumed that dowry and bride price is posterior to the institution of monogamy. This is the same as saying that dowry and bride price came out after the practice monogamous marriage had become prevalent.

However, monogamous marriage is itself a culmination of the human adaptation of animal promiscuity. Humans are the only species practicing monogamy, all other species are promiscuous. Thus, it is a logical consequence that an institution monogamy came about at a time during the long development of its kind. The practice monogamy itself evolved in stages, as shown by historical anecdotes as in the Mahabharata where the five Pandava brothers has a wife.

Promiscuity gave way to Polygamy / polyandry, and the various permutations and combinations that monogamy is the established system. As long as promiscuity existed there was no dowry or bride price. The origin of these two practices could be linked up with the discarding of promiscuity in favor of polygamy and Polyandry. These two forms of marriage are even mutual antagonisms. While in polygamy is mating between a man and But the existence of the diametrically opposite practices in dowry and bride price, possibly owe their origin to polygamy and polyandry. The formation of polygamous and polyandrous forms of marriage could have been required because of changes in the demographic balance between the sexes. An increase in the number of women compared to men, is a nice situation for the emergence of polygamy. More chances for more female members of society is marriage to a male member more.

In the absence of polygamy in a society that has a greater number of women than men, many female members will be deprived of conjugal life. The obligation to get more female members in marriage to a male member may have been the situation that gave birth to dowry as a price imposed by the man and his family from the woman's family. The origin of the break-price could have been made in the opposite case, where the sex ratio favored women, and there were a large number of men for each woman, polyandry and bride-price could have been the result.

Along with this general hypothesis, there were many factors that are specific to different situations which gave birth to dowry and bride-price. These factors can be identified with greater certainty. In India's context, this practice seems to be a result of the dialectics of our caste system. The conflict of opposing tendencies in the caste hierarchy, which we know has resulted in Endogamy, prevention of inter-marriage between members of different throws. One reason for the origin of dowry and bride-price, he can also be seen in the same conflict. Therefore, discussion of these two practices should be together.

Sati (Self-Immolation by a widow):

Sati ie self-Immolation by a widow would normally be considered a negative aspect of culture. When confronted with questions about why such a practice should have existed, a student of history with misplaced national pride would try to explain away such practices.

According to Hindu mythology, Sati Dakhsha wife was so overwhelmed by the closure of her husband that she immolated herself on his funeral pyre and burnt himself to ashes. Since then her name 'Sati' has come to be symptomatic of self-Immolation by a widow. Today Sati is illegal, it is also generally looked down upon, but it continues to exist in rural corners of our country. A still not hear of stray incidents woman be forced or attempt to commit Sati. The country owes the abolition of this deplorable practice of crusading efforts Raja Rammohan Roy the 18th century social reform.

CHILD-marriage (Bal Vivaha):

Child-marriage is another "blessing" of medieaval age and was born of the same compulsion to; not immortalized Sati.Child-marriage was not prevalent in ancient India. The most popular form of marriage was Swayamvara where grooms assembled at the bride's house, and the bride selected her spouse. Svayam-vara can be translated as self selection of one 's husband, Svayam = self, Vara = male. Presence of Swayamvara ceremony is in our national epic, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Different types of Marra was prevalant in ancient India Gandharva Vivaha (love marriage), Asura Viviha (marriage by abduction) etc., but among these Bal-Viviha conspicuous by its absence.
There are many reasons to believe that this custom originated in the Middle Ages. As mentioned earlier in the turbulent atmosphere medieavel ages, law and order was not yet a universal phenomenon, and arbitrary was concentrated in the hands of a hierarchy headed by a despotic monarch. In India the Sultans of Delhi, which took place at the despotic monarch, came from a different type of culture. They were orthodox in their beliefs with a fanatical commitment to their religion and a ruthless method in its propagation. Intolerant as they were for all forms of worship other than their own, they also exercised contempt for members of other faiths.

Women who are receiving and in any war, arson, plunder, etc. During the reign of the Delhi Sultans these were endemic and the most affected were Hindu women. In these dark days was hatched customs as child marriage and selection of women from the rest of society to bear the Ghungat (blurred). This age also perpetuated customs like Sati and looking for the birth of a female baby as a jinx, even killing newborn girls by drowning them in a bowl with milk. In the middle of the feeling of uncertainty was the presence of young unmarried girls, a potential invitation for disaster.

The predatory Sarasenic feudal princes and distribution of Sarasenic origin haunted throughout India in medieval times was a source of constant threat. Therefore, parents are trying to get over with the responsibilities of their daughters by getting them married off before they reached the marriage age. The custom of child marriages with 'bride' and 'groom' still in their cradles was a culmination of this trend. In this way the risk of a growing girl's virginity was somewhat reduced.