Indian baby suffers horrendous burns in shocking dowry dispute

[Type Username Here]

The case has shocked India, a country where people have become use to reports of bride burnings and dowry murders - there are more than 8,000 women killed every year because their husbands' and in-laws' demands for lavish dowry payments are not met.
What is particularly alarming is the attempted murder of a daughter and grand-daughter whose first birthday they had celebrated just weeks earlier.
In Delhi's Safdarjung hospital, 13-month-old Idika's eyes peer fearfully out from her heavily bandaged face as she fights for her life, after suffering 55 per cent burns.
Her mother Pravartika Gupta, a 25 year-old technology graduate, died in the hospital on Sunday shortly after making a statement to a magistrate.
She told the magistrate that as they were sleeping in their room on October 6, a fire broke out just in front of their bedroom door and no-one came to their rescue.

Her father-in-law suffered minor burns in the fire, but ran away from the hospital before police could arrest him. Both he and Pravartika's husband are now on the run after police said they would be charged with murder, attempted murder and making illegal dowry demands.
Her uncles claimed Idika's father Ashutosh Gupta, a media event planner, and his father, a local government engineer, had been angry with Pravartika not only because their dowry demands had not been met, but also because they had wanted their first child to be a son.
Idika's uncles kept a vigil outside the hospital last night as nurses treated her in an intensive care burns unit where she is being kept heavily swaddled in bandages and cooling gels inside a protective tube.
Her uncle Rajesh Gupta said Pravartika had married Ashutosh Gupta in 2010 after the families had agreed a dowry payment of 1,200,000 Rupees (£15,000) and a Honda City car to the groom's parents. They had spent £15,000 on the wedding ceremonies, had paid 1,000,000 rupees (£11,700) in cash and were about to pay the remaining balance when the in-laws demanded a new apartment too.

"They said they had given a flat to their daughter's in-laws in dowry and we should do the same. They are economically well-off but greedy," he said.
"We bought gold and clothes for them on the baby's first birthday but they were not satisfied. A flat would cost between 30 lakhs rupees (£35,000) and a crore (£117,000). They said you got our royal family, you are not as good as we are. You must be proud to be our relatives and you must pay."
Women's rights campaigners said the attack on a baby girl as well as a mother was "extreme" even in a country where people have become "desensititised" because of the high number of dowry deaths.
"They were going to kill the mother and they didn't want the daughter. Then the man will marry again and get another dowry. With a child, someone has to look after it, and no-one wants the responsibility of a girl if it had a boy this would not have happened. It is appalling," said Ranjana Kumari of the Council for Social Research.
Outside the hospital, Idika's shocked surviving relatives were trying to grasp how such barbarity could have been committed for money.
"Why did he do this? He had everything, a beautiful wife, a beautiful girl, a prosperous house. What was in his mind we don't understand," said Rajesh Gupta.

Indian baby suffers horrendous burns in shocking dowry dispute - Telegraph

 

[Type Username Here]

Women's rights campaigners said the attack on a baby girl as well as a mother was "extreme" even in a country where people have become "desensititised" because of the high number of dowry deaths.

ZeroZero, is this a matter of culture or religion, or is it so infused that it can't be separated when it comes to Hinduism. I'm trying to line up a paper focusing on Hinduism and religious intolerance/violence for a final essay and I would appreciate your help.

 

[The Real]

Seems to be a lot of info here: Dowry law in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dowry system in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turns out it's illegal, but many people do it anyway. From what I understand it has religious origins but is now a universal cultural practice that can be found in every part of society. I'd bet that Capitalism has helped maintain and spread it as a modern custom, too.

 

[zerozero]

yeah it's not just hindus it's a common thing here

but yes the financial burden of marrying women off and the financial come up via marrying is completely pervasive

the other thing is the connected family system creates this family vs family dynamic.. I mean if the woman and man were just going off and living on their own there wouldn't be such a strong idea of getting more from the woman's family

 

[Type Username Here]

yeah it's not just hindus it's a common thing here

but yes the financial burden of marrying women off and the financial come up via marrying is completely pervasive

the other thing is the connected family system creates this family vs family dynamic.. I mean if the woman and man were just going off and living on their own there wouldn't be such a strong idea of getting more from the woman's family

I need some non wiki sources to dive into. I want to mainly deal with the Hindu side of the equation.

 

[zerozero]

sorry not sure of anything like that... try hitting dowry + religion in peer reviewed journal article searches

i'm afraid you'll find most of the analysis will be sociocultural though.. for example I did a search on open access journals here

http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=searchArticles&uiLanguage=en&q1=dowry&f1=all&b1=and&q2=&f2=all

and you can see there's little that's theologically or religiously focused in the research

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

at the obsession Indians have with money. this is what it yields

 

[zerozero]

I just read through the article, it's disgusting

 

[88m3]

8,000 women murdered a year?

 

[the cac mamba]

savage shyt