Twisting a Safenet into a Noose: Short History of Dowry | Dr. Veena Talwar Oldenburg | #SangamTalks

Dowry, as Dr Veena Talwar Oldenburg contends, began as the only feminist or woman supporting institution in a patriarchal society. In the colonial period, this practice was gradually transformed from a voluntary gift and contribution to a woman's stridhan into an aggressive demand and bargaining chip by the groom's family. How such a transformation came to be is strongly linked to three major factors:
I. The fundamental transformation of rights to a share in the produce of the land to outline proprietorship creating modern property rights for men and marginalized women.
2. The colonial "civilizing mission' that alleged that female infanticide, which was prevalent, was linked to the practice of dowry and
3. The collusion among colonial officers and elite males into reconfiguring the economy and revenue collection.
Dr Veena Talwar Oldenburg will lead us through these changes to see how a safety net for women was twisted into a noose in the modern incarnation of 'dahej'.
Dr Veena Talwar Oldenburg also claims that at the time of her research, that the banning dowry was very detrimental to women since they did not get property from their fathers' estates. This matter has now been addressed in Hindu Family Law and girls will now be considered an integral part of the Hindu family!
This opportunity to discuss dowry, which has been misunderstood by many and is now considered the right of the groom's family to make outrageous demands and then even murder the woman who is unable to cater to their greed.

About the Speaker:
Dr Veena Talwar Oldenburg, a native of Lucknow, is a feminist historian of British Colonialism and Indian History and Culture. She taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University and was professor of History at the City University of New York. She is the author of The Making of Colonia Lucknow,( Princeton University Press, 1984; 2015;) Sham-e-Awadh: Writings on Lucknow (Penguin, 2007); a history of Gurgaon: From Mythic Village to Millennium City (Harper Collins, 2018) and her book on the history of dowry: Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime (NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, Penguin. 2010).Her scholarly articles include writings on the courtesans of Lucknow, Sati, Female Infanticie, and Sita's Epic journey.

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[srilakshmipeddada]

Extraordinary research by this amazing historian. I wish excerpts of her work are included in our history books about British colonial rule.

[viyer]

I agree with the learned Dr. Boys, girls, men and women must be treated equally and with full respect.

[sucheta]

OMG! OMG!! OMG!!!
Dr. Talwar I have been wanting to meet you for so long after reading about your book long way back when it was published in NY 😃🥰

[arnipskumar]

Wonderful lecture. Gender education a must for our children. Judicial and police reforms must go in hand as well. Ancient India was streets ahead than colonial and post colonial India, for sure. Maybe look into atrhrashastras etc for reforms.

[ekoramaradhyahm]

Our government never looked into our past culture... What we last in past never included in the history of true Hinduism🕉️

[adldeeps]

Whatever this lady is saying is 100 percentage true foe 18th century or 19th century woman. But in 21st century both men and women are suffering. There are forums to listen to women but not for men. Today's men should not be punished for things that happened in old centuries.

[sjain]

- bans must be enforced to be of any use, absolutely true

[RR-iekp]

Wow...its totally new info..stridhan..Speaker lady doctor also is so #elegant, #pretty and #beautiful, I thought she is a #model as well. #Inspiring except deracinated thought process!

[s.k.mukgly]

#Justice4SSR Aum

[meerasrinivasan]

We need to stop show casing vulgar marriages. Society needs to take a stand. My grandparents and great grandparents wedding was performed at home. My parents in a simple hall. Mine more grander scale. Is it progress or. Social regression.

[mouriniganguly]

Left minded ideology to some extent in this speech.. In bengalies hardly have dowries and girls get equal share.. many parents love to have single girl child to raise them nicely

[bravenangeli]

Ppl using multiple IDs, r targeting her..don't know why..

Do not worry... after some time child also question rights of mother n father... they will call police... bcoz their mother father beat them....

Do not worry... this mother will realise what they r doing later same things will be done by children...

Broken families.... fatherless society are quality of American society

[dominicayyanikkatt]

Veena Talwar doesn't seem to be familiar with ground realities at present. She is speaking from an elitist and purely academic point of view. Is she living in India?

[meerasrinivasan]

We need to educate boys with more family values. The ideas bad boys are better than girls need to be. Uprooted within the family and it is the job of both the parents. A changed family ans changed villages. Will make nation change.

[vivekpmc]

Our system is completely destroyed by repeated dishonesty to our society. I live at border area of Bihar with regular marriage across the border in Nepal. In our case only movable property is possible to be given to our daughter as land can not be owned in different countries. Like my mother from Nepal, my mother in law ( married in Nepal)from India and my wife from Nepal ( now tell me where we will have women property?)

[shanthsp]

Well, today forget about dowry, even when you don't ask dowry and if a woman is not not willing to live with a man they just file a Dowry harassment case, 498a anything that can put a man and his parents and siblings into trouble. In fact, this started happening so much so that in one case court had to use the word "Legal Terrorism? Instead of these laws being used by real victims, these were used as weapons by women who had a grudge against their husband and his parents, in fact, if that man doesn't separate from their parents even then such cases were filed. One who tries to label such things in INDIA should look at the flip side of the story. Today 75% of the cases are family court cases. feeding lawyers. It became a billion-dollar business.

[meerasrinivasan]

It was Stree dhan that became dowery. Colonization of India. Change it.

[TheAnuragHota]

I SUPPORT DOWRY.
If a penny-pinching sexist father cannot give his daughter inheritance, he should have the decency of giving her dowry.
(Why should sons alone have all the $$ by way of inheritance?)

But if he is giving her inheritance, THEN I SHALL OPPOSE DOWRY.

[kumar.samvad]

लड़का पूरी मेहनत करके घर बनाता है
तब लड़की को बियाह कर लाता है।

किसी को दिक्कत है क्या।