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Journalism of Courage
On January 29 Snehalata Mukhopadhyay went about her daily chores, her routine unchanged. That fateful afternoon, while her family members rested or were away, she climbed to the terrace. Draped in a simple white saree, her feet marked with alta, the vibrant red of tradition and ceremony, she made her choice. She doused herself in kerosene and struck a match, surrendering to the consuming flames. The blaze was first spotted by neighbours who rushed to her aid and took her to the Medical College Hospital. But the fire had claimed too much—Snehalata’s life slipped away. The year was 1914, and the city Calcutta.
Snehalata, aged 14 or 15, was the daughter of Harendrachandra Mukhopadhyay, who had moved to Calcutta in 1911 from Balichara village in Faridpur, now part of modern-day Bangladesh. Harendrachandra, a salaried employee with no ties to landed wealth, struggled to gather the money demanded for Snehalata’s dowry. Desperate to meet societal expectations, he had resolved to mortgage their modest home. Witnessing her father’s plight, Snehalata chose to end her life, believing it would spare him financial ruin for her marriage.
Their story, like that of countless lower-middle-class families in 20th-century colonial Bengal, reflected the crushing burden imposed by the dowry system.
“But even if the proper name that was Snehalata has little meaning for the historian today, her act indisputably remains one of the most discussed suicides in Bengali or even Indian history,” observes historian Rochona Majumdar in her book Marriage and Modernity: Family Values in Colonial Bengal.
Dowry, as it is understood today, is a relatively recent phenomenon in Bengal. Majumdar traces its origins to the 1870s, identifying it as a historically specific development. Prior to this, modest gift exchanges between families, known as barpan or dowry, held ritual significance but lacked scriptural sanction. Over time, however, this practice evolved into a coercive economic system that imposed heavy financial burdens on the bride’s family.
This shift was driven by the rise of a ‘marriage market’ in colonial Bengal. In this market, grooms from the educated and salaried bhadralok class, a group that valued education and stable employment as markers of respectability, became commodities, each carrying a price tag. Matrimonial advertisements from the period underscore the increasingly transactional nature of marriage. One advertisement from 1911, cited by Majumdar, read: “Brides wanted: Mitra, Passed Entrance, salary 30 rupees, demands 1,000 rupees. 24 Parganas.”
At the same time, census reports and government inquiries painted a stark picture of economic hardship. Between 1870 and 1940, Calcutta faced rising unemployment, soaring prices, and an escalating cost of living. The 1914 Report on the Enquiry into the Rise of Prices in India noted that salaried middle-class families, like the bhadralok, were particularly hard-hit. In this context, dowry money helped alleviate some of the financial strain.
By the late 19th century, dowry had become a potent social tool in Bengal, intricately linked to the respectability of the bride’s father. Failure to meet increasing dowry demands often led to severe consequences, not only for the father, who risked losing his social standing, but also for the daughter, who could face abuse in her marital home.
The media of the time reflected these social shifts. Literary works such as Durgacharan Roy’s Pash Kora Chhele (A Boy with a Pass, 1879) and Radhabinod Haldar’s Pash Kora Jamai (A Son-in-Law with a Pass, 1880) satirised the commodification of education and respectability in the marriage market.
As Majumdar concludes, the dowry system was not merely a traditional practice but the product of a new social order shaped by economic pressures, cultural expectations, and a market-driven view of marriage.
Snehalata’s tragic suicide became a turning point for Bengali society, exposing the oppressive dowry system. In its wake, other young women followed suit, highlighting the pervasive nature of this societal issue.
Although dowry practices remained deeply rooted in Bengali culture, they began to draw widespread condemnation as a source of collective shame. As Majumdar observes, this criticism transcended individual dishonour, casting a shadow over Bengal’s reputation both within the colonial state and across the rest of India.
The outcry sparked unprecedented social unrest, especially among the middle class, almost igniting a movement against dowry that reached even rural Bengal. The tragedy deeply moved Bengali poets, including Satyendranath Datta, Pramatha Chaudhuri and Govindachandra Das, who wrote poignant poems in her memory.
In the same year, 1914, Rabindranath Tagore penned three influential short stories—Haimanti, Strir Patra (Letter from a Wife), and Aparichita (An Unknown Woman)—which not only championed women’s freedom but also offered a scathing critique of the dowry system. According to Sandip Bandhopadhyay, in his essay Seven Decades Ago for Manushi magazine, Tagore’s works were, in part, shaped by the public outcry following Snehalata’s death.
Bandhopadhyay further notes that in the wake of Snehalata’s death, the Bengali press consistently painted the bridegroom’s father as a “vile creature” or “mercenary.” Periodicals such as Prabasi (edited by Ramananda Chatterjee) and Bharati (edited by Swarnakumari Devi, Tagore’s sister) ardently advocated for women’s education and argued that eliminating early marriages would allow young girls greater access to learning.
An anti-dowry marriage league was formed, and even traditionally conservative caste-based organisations, such as the Brahman Sabha and the Kayastha Sabha, criticised dowry as harmful to Hindu society. The Kayastha Sabha’s journal for March-April 1914, as cited by Bandhopadhyay, even published a list of non-dowry marriages that had taken place the previous month.
One of the most significant events in the anti-dowry movement was a large gathering on February 21, 1914, at College Square where attendees sought ways to eliminate the “social evil” of dowry extortion. At these meetings, young men took solemn vows around sacred flames to boycott the practice.
Majumdar argues that while Snehalata’s case was not unique in terms of the widespread suicides among young women due to dowry pressures, it holds a pivotal place in Indian history. “The significance of Snehalata’s suicide lies in the fact that it opened up a discursive space wherein the question of women’s agency was vigorously debated in contemporary society,” she notes.
