[INDOLOGY] Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cuttural Crime

[Matthew Kapstein]

I haven't read it either, but ShashI Tharoor's recent
Inglorious Empire
would seem to reinforce the general drift of the argument.

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

________________________________________
From: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info] on behalf of Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY [indology at list.indology.info]
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2017 6:59 AM
To: Indology List
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cuttural Crime

I have not read this book, but welcome learned comment on its basic argument.
Howard


>From Amazon

The Hindu custom of dowry has long been blamed for the murder of wives and
female infants in India. In this highly provocative book, Veena Oldenburg
argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian
culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, such
killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era.
In the precolonial period, dowry was an institution managed by women, for
women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in an
emergency. As a consequence of the massive economic and societal upheaval
brought on by British rule, women's entitlements to the precious resources
obtained from land were erased and their control of the system diminished,
ultimately resulting in a devaluing of their very lives. Taking us on a journey
into the colonial Punjab, Veena Oldenburg skillfully follows the paper trail
left by British bureaucrats to indict them for interpreting these crimes
against women as the inherent defects of Hindu caste culture. The British,
Oldenburg claims, publicized their "civilizing mission" and blamed the caste
system in order to cover up the devastation their own agrarian policies had
wrought on the Indian countryside. A forceful demystification of contemporary
bride burning concludes this remarkably original book. Deploying her own
experiences and memories and her research at a women's shelter with "dowry
cases" for almost a year in the mid-eighties, the author looks at the
contemporary violence against wives and daughters-in-law in modern India.
Oldenburg seamlessly weaves the contemporary with the historical, the personal
with the political, and strips the layers of exoticism off an ancient practice
to show how an invaluable safety net was twisted into a deadly noose. She
brings us startlingly close to the worsening treatment of modern Indian women
as she challenges us to rethink basic assumptions about women's human and
economic rights. Combining rigorous research with impassioned analysis and a
nuanced treatment of a complex, deeply controversial subject, this book
critiques colonialism while holding a mirror to gender discrimination in modern
India.

https://www.amazon.com/Dowry-Murder-Imperial-Origins-Cultural/dp/0195150724