Dial D for Murder

In the late 8217;70s and early 8217;80s, feminist groups across India were confounded by a relatively 8216;new8217; phenomenon: the incr...

In the late 8217;70s and early 8217;80s, feminist groups across India were confounded by a relatively 8216;new8217; phenomenon: the increasing demands for dowry, and the deaths, usually by fire, of young women whose families were unable to meet the in-laws8217; demands. Where, activists asked themselves, were these demands coming from? What had changed in recent years to give rise to this 8216;evil8217;? Was this a phenomenon particular to Punjab or Punjabis where dowry first seemed to have reared its ugly head? Was it, as they learned more about it, a middle-class phenomenon? Did it have anything to do with urban migration? Or with Partition refugeeism-related greed?

Later, the questions changed to include the anomalies and paradoxes that surrounded the deaths of these young women. The burns wards of hospitals were 8212; and even today are 8212; full of 8216;brides8217; with burns that will see no cure. Why were so many being killed? Was dowry, and dowry murder, just the flip side of female infanticide? Why were there so few convictions? And why did women almost always deny their husbands8217; involvement even if it was clear that they were centrally implicated?

Given the speed with which dowry spread across class, caste, religion and region, and the fact that it has been such a major concern of women8217;s groups, it is surprising how little literature there is on it. A small range of academic works jostled with the more activist analyses 8212; both in short supply 8212; each trying to explain the phenomenon from its particular point of view. Oldenburg8217;s book attempts, perhaps for the first time with the exception of Srimati Basu8217;s book on law, to bring the two together. Whether or not one agrees with the conclusions, this is a work that deserves to be read.

Tracing the 8216;origins8217; of dowry from the scriptures, marriage rituals and Manu8217;s law books, Oldenburg looks at how it changed shape under the British. Gender relationships in Punjab the main focus of her study were transformed as a result of colonial land and revenue policies. This, and not some inherent cultural lack, was what led to the worsening of the status of women in the Punjab.

Oldenburg shows how dowry is a catchall term that covers a multitude of sins. The actual malaise lies much deeper, in the many silences, particularly around the area of sexuality, that surround women8217;s lives. As her own story 8212; an integral part of her text 8212; shows, the violation of the young bride8217;s body not only by her husband but also by other male members of the marital family, can lead to situations where young women are killed if they represent a threat to this privilege, or they kill themselves. A telling encounter with an American journalist recounted at the end of the book shows the woman8217;s surprise that the 8216;dowry cases8217; she has examined are really different kinds of violent deaths of women, no more or less exotic than domestic violence in New York or London. This comment goes some way towards clearing the fog that has surrounded this issue, for the question is often asked why mothers-in-law are so central in dowry killings, why women, in fact, turn against women. Implicit in this story is the truth that in making the mother-in-law the 8216;fall guy8217;, so to speak, patriarchy has once again found a way of protecting its own.