Culture

The aspect of the Indian culture that this reflection would be reviewing is the practice of giving a dowry to the groom and his family. This is probably one of the many cultural practices that over time has lost its colour and real definition as it has been both misused by the Indian himself and viewed through marred lenses of the western world.

What are the parameters of modern culture? Due to globalisation the world has become flat through the assimilation and universalism of cultures and thoughts. The parameters that define modern culture are based on the Western world view, as they are the economic power houses of today’s world.

Dowry is an age old practice, which remains though it has evolved in many cultures, Eastern, Western and even African. Dowry or Dower is the money, goods or estate a woman brings to her husband in marriage, it is also a gift of money or property by a man to or for his bride. From this very definition it can be noted that dowry is not a culture that demeans a woman, but is equal for both man and woman, the only difference being the exchange takes place differently in different cultures. For example in the Thai culture, the groom pays the brides family either in cash or in kind. This however is not viewed as inferior in the modern world or even as demeaning. The only reason being, that women for time immemorial have been seen as the weaker sex, thanks to our western lobbying feminists, so adding the burden of a dowry only weakens the position of a woman.

Dowry as it was practiced in traditional India, was a gift in cash or/ and in kind to the grooms family along with the giving away of the bride. The reasons behind the gifts were to help the bride and her new family for their needs. In India man was the sole bread winner of the family, and a marriage meant an extra burden, thus the dowry was a form of payout to the groom’s family. The Indian Dowry practice also required that the dowry be paid back to the bride’s family in the circumstance of her childless death.

The Indian dowry system, as it was initially formulated was to ensure that no one in society was economically disadvantaged because of a wedding, the women were well taken care off in the circumstance of the untimely deaths of their husbands, as they would have been required to stay at home and take care of the children. The equivalent of the dowry system in the modern world is the notion of Insurance coverage. The dowry system then is not a whimsical, inferior cultural practice, but rather a well thought through practice by the social thinkers of traditional India. The beauty and economic viability of the dowry system should not be demeaned as something inferior due to the misuse and misunderstanding of it by some Indians and western thinkers.