The Rupee Knot

The advertisement in last week's issue of the New Delhi Hindustan Times was clearly designed to catch the eye of marriage-minded Indian males: MATCH FOR TALL, CONVENT-EDUCATED, LEGALLY DIVORCED 27-YEAR-OLD GIRL DRAWING FOUR-FIGURE SALARY, FOREIGN FIRM. FATHER SENIOR OFFICIAL. FAMILY RESPECTABLE AND HIGHLY CONNECTED. If the "legally divorced" line discouraged bachelor readers, they could scan hundreds of other announcements in the Times's nine columns of "matrimonial" ads. The ads discreetly avoided the subject of dowries. Yet the real nuptial knot in India--where 90% of marriages are still arranged--is not love but rupees.

Cash Payments. The dowry system, which crosses all caste lines, is now a major target of government reform. Technically, dowries were outlawed under a 1961 law that proved impossible to enforce. Now the reformers are relying on social pressure. The 5 million-member Youth Congress is urging its male members to sign a pledge that they will not accept a dowry when they marry; female members are asked to have their families turn down requests for dowry payments. Plans are under way for sit-ins and picketing at ostentatious weddings where parents brag about their daughter's dowry. Sanjay Gandhi, the politically ambitious younger son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (TIME, Feb. 2) argues against dowries at every rally he attends as a spokesman for the Youth Congress executive committee. His mother has also spoken out against the practice, calling dowries a "burden on families and on society."

The burden hits hard at every level. Upper-class families in the cities demand steep cash payments from a bride's family in return for a well-educated, well-connected bridegroom. A young man who holds a job in the prestigious Indian administrative service or the Indian foreign service, for example, can command $10,000 or more in dowry payment. Valuable consumer goods such as refrigerators, television sets and automobiles are commonly tossed in as part of the deal.

Lower-class families, in turn, demand that their son's new in-laws hand over transistor radios, motor scooters and sewing machines as well as cash. Fathers of the bride quickly learn that the local moneylender is their best friend. In rural areas, farmers frequently borrow bank money for "agricultural development," then spend it on their daughter's dowry. For generations, family savings have been wiped out by the dowry payments.

The brides themselves are often the most unfortunate victims of the system. Says Margaret Cormack, an American sociologist who has made an extensive study of the dowry practice: "Indian women well know the humiliation of being exhibited to scouting parties like a prize heifer." Young wives are frequently mistreated by in-laws who later decide that the dowry was inadequate. In New Delhi alone last year, 89 women committed suicide because they could not stand the persecution of their husbands and in-laws who wanted additional dowry payments.

Getting It Back. Despite the reform campaign, even some well-educated young Indians defend the system. "Why should I sacrifice what is my due?" asks one 24-year-old engineer in New Delhi. "I am a qualified engineer, and my family spent a fortune educating me. Now that I have made it, we have the right to get some of it back." Says Usha Malik, 21, a stenographer in New Delhi: "Personally. I am opposed to dowries. But unless we pay them, we will never be married. On the other side, there is pressure from our parents to get married, because if we don't, we and they will be socially ostracized."

Feelings are even stronger in rural areas. Explains Ram Dhan, 28, a peasant farmer from Uttar Pradesh: "The reason villagers aspire to father sons is because, apart from being able to help us in the fields, they will bring the family dowry. It is one way of improving our lot." With sentiments like these, even reformists concede that completely eliminating dowries is impossible. Hence, families throughout India will continue to greet the birth of a daughter as a sign of bad luck.

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