Dowry Murder
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Veena Talwar Oldenburg
Penguin Books India
304 Pages, R399
Veena Talwar Oldenburg reconstructs the history of dowry to argue that it is not always the motive for the murder of wives and female infants. Nor are these crimes a product of Indian culture or caste system. In the pre-colonial period, dowry, an institution managed by women to enable them to establish their independence, was a safety net. As a consequence of massive economic and social upheaval brought on by British rule, however, women’s control of the system diminished and dowry became extortion.
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