2006•Annales Histoire Sciences SocialesRequires access
Modern Indian Marriage: From Brideprice to Dowry
Florence Laroche-Gisserot
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Abstract
Dowry cases and dowry murders (as well as the gender gap) have recently drawn public attention in
India and this has enabled some to think that the dowry in this country is a social evil. In fact, and
despite the recommendations of the Hindu sacred books, practising the dowry is fairly new in India.
Forty years ago the bulk of the population received brideprices. This shift in favour of the dowry is
a major anthropological and historical fact which is not unknown in history. Classical Antiquity and
11th-12th century Western Europe have made similar moves. The Indian experience is thus worth
being surveyed.