Announc: 5th Dowry Conference in India

[Yashwant Malaiya]

Hearing about Swami Agnivesh, term "publicity seeker" comes
to mind first before "activist". I hope he is actually
making a difference.

His various activities are located very close to Delhi,
making it convenient for the Delhi based reporters
(most educated in English medium schools) to cover them.
Their reports mesh nicely with some popular (or
popularized) perceptions about India in the west, thus
they get good exposure outside of India.

For many decades we have seen discussions against
dowry. There have been dramas, novels, movies, laws
etc. Yet  dowry is getting more common spreading
to communities where it was unheard of a few decades
ago.

I have, in my collection, a book giving extensive
data about a certain trading community, published
around 1915. Its editor complains about a major social
problem. A lot of young men remain unmarried because
they can not afford to pay the bride price. Rich
older men can get brides very easily. If the editor
were alive today, he would be happy to see that the
problem has ceased to exist.

Yashwant

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    FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DOWRY, BRIDE-BURNING AND
                   SON-PREFERENCE IN INDIA

Sponsored jointly by
Arya Samaj of India, New Delhi, India, ...