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Another aspect of traditional indian family practice that relates to dowries is how a family's wealth itself flows in estate planning. When the parents die thei
by throwaw2023612 3y ago
Another aspect of traditional indian family practice that relates to dowries is how a family's wealth itself flows in estate planning. When the parents die their wealth and land are inherited only by their sons (none given to daughters). The dowry in that respect, also functions as a pre-payment of a share of the family's inheritance to the bride (and her new family,) as she's moving on to a different family.
In middle class and higher families, there is also a large amount of gold and jewelry gifted to the bride during marriage, by everyone in both the bride and husband's extended family. This is generally done in public and can be considered a pre-payment of her divorce settlement. This gold is owned by her and because this transfer is documented and done in public, if the couple breaks up, it would be known in the village whom the gold belongs to.
It's important to keep in mind that these traditions vary greatly within different Indian sub-cultures and even family to family. You can't paint everyone with the same brush of this article. The broader culture is also changing slowly as generations tick by, and women's education and their own capacity generate a salary grows rapidly.
I can imagine in 20 years there will be significant change to all these practices.
- questime 3y agoThis inheritance discrimination is blatantly illegal but like many things in India the laws are fine and the justice system nonexistant.
- screye 3y agoI am not so sure about that. In India, the eldest son is also expected to take care of their parents through their old age, and there fore inherits the family house. After watching a good dozen families take care of aging parents, I can say with confidence, that inheritance is an insufficient payment for the human cost of being a carer to your in-laws for 40+ years. I know quite a lot of family feuds that have broken up in the last decade, where the brother finds it hypocritical that the sister never contributed to taking care of the parents but showed up at their death's door for inheritance. Remember, divorce is non-existent in India. So, any money paid to the the son-in-law or the daughter, can be considered to be going to the same joint account. Again, Dowry is terrible, and fortunately my region does not practice it. But even in cases where it does exist, the monetary exchange is surprisingly even when all the responsibilities are tallied up. Social systems around the world develop in their own context. Taking them out of that context often leads to head scratchers and blatantly incorrect conclusion.