1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782312203321

Autore

Oldenburg Veena Talwar

Titolo

Dowry murder [[electronic resource] ] : the imperial origins of a cultural crime / / Veena Talwar Oldenburg

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Delhi ; Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2002

ISBN

1-280-56113-0

9786610561131

0-19-803434-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (280 p.)

Disciplina

364.15/23/0820954

Soggetti

Caste - Political aspects - India

Dowry - India - Criminal provisions

Hindu women - Crimes against - India

Hindu women - India - Economic conditions

Uxoricide - Economic aspects - India

Wives - Crimes against - India

Great Britain Colonies India

India History British occupation, 1765-1947

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-255) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Introduction; Chapter 1 Conundrums and Contexts; Chapter 2 The Just-So Stories about Female Infanticide; Chapter 3 The Tangled Tale of Twisting a Safety Net into a Noose; Chapter 4 Engineering a Masculine World; Chapter 5 Local Customs and the Economy Grow Mustaches; Chapter 6 Writing Lives, Underwriting Silences: Understanding Dowry Death in Contemporary India; Epilogue; Notes; References; Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Hindu custom of dowry has long been blamed for the murder of wives and female infants in India. In this highly provocative book, Veena Oldenburg argues that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, such killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era. In the precolonial period, dowry



was an institution managed by women, for women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in an emergency. As a consequence of the massive economic and societal uphea