Even though dowry is illegal in India, it is heartbreaking how the evil practice is still so widely prevalent in various parts of the country. It is disgusting how so many women are harassed, abused and killed in the name of dowry. And while many may believe that only the people belonging to rural India will practice it, there are many ‘modern’ people who still demand dowry.
Recently, we stumbled over some of the heartbreaking stories of how educated Indian men shamelessly ask for dowry and attempt to justify it in name of parents’ love.
Recently, woman took took to Reddit to reveal how her boyfriend of 6 years believed in dowry and justified it by saying that the money would help his parents during their retirement. But, hardly, people knew it would open the cans of worm and many more India women would come forward to share how the well-educated Indian men justified dowry to them in name of parents’ love!
Sharing the details of how her 6 years of boyfriend asked for dowry, the woman wrote:
“I recently had a discussion with my BF of 6 years that left me very concerned. Our marriage discussion was brought up and I told him I was not comfortable with the concept of dowry as it feels like the bride is being given away in a business transaction. His take on the whole thing was that the given dowry would help his parents with the wedding arrangements and also with their retirement.”
People online responded to the post by warning the woman of a massive red flag. While some emphasized that dowry is illegal, others said that the guy and his family would keep asking for financial favours even after marriage.
But, what shook us when many women shared how even well educated Indian men shamelessly ask for dowry and justify it in the name of parents’ love. To the reaction to the above story, many people wrote on fb:
Even in the past, a man shared how his US educated, successful friend shamelessly asked for dowry! In the thread titled, Dear Indian men, please teach your friends to say no to dowry, the Redditor mentioned:
“A friend of mine had been looking for a bride… Typical arranged marriage stuff… Shaadi.com, Bharatmatrimony.com, parents friends and relatives, etc., Eventually, he liked a girl… She was pretty, well educated, had a job and was willing to relocate to the US to be with this guy… And then, the “negotiations” started…After a lot of back and forth, the negotiations broke down because the bride’s parents weren’t ready to “write” their house over to the groom’s name which was the groom’s demand, although the bride was an only daughter and would eventually inherit the house…
Mind you, this guy studied engineering with me in a big city, worked in an MNC with me, went on to study MS in a decently reputed American University and now works for one of the larger American firms, easily making six figures. When I discussed this with him and said why the house we so important, he said “what will the society think if I settled for less than a house? I’m this successful. The minimum I should be given is a decent house”. I tried talking him out of it but it was useless and he ended up not marrying that girl, which turned out to be a blessing for that girl.
After another 3-4 years of frustrating search, he eventually married a girl who was a lot less accomplished or pretty than the previous girl because by this time he’d become older and had to “settle” and often complains about the fact that his wife is nowhere near as pretty as the previous girl but he’s “satisfied” that he got plenty of dowry…”
It is heartbreaking how even our so-called educated Indian men still promote the regressive and illegal practice of dowry without any shame! We wonder if shameless and hypocrite Indian men would ever get better! What do you think!