Bride Burning

In South Asia, “bride burning” refers to the murder of a newly married woman by her husband or in-laws over what they regard as her inadequate dowry. Reports of bride burnings, also called “dowry murders,” began in India in the 1970s, and incidents have increased over the last three decades. Typically, a bride burning follows a period of “dowry harassment,” where inlaws severely criticize a bride for her paltry dowry and demand that she persuade her parents to give more. Often, the bride's parents will contribute more dowry, hoping this will secure better treatment for their daughter. However, at some point, the bride's family may cease to meet new demands for more dowry. Bride burnings tend to occur at this point.

The perpetrators of dowry murder most often kill the victim by burning—soaking her in kerosene and setting it aflame. Her husband's family reports the incident as a suicide or an accident, claiming, for example, that the woman's clothing caught fire as she was cooking over a kerosene stove. It is very difficult to know how widespread bride burnings are. Conservative estimates place them at 2,000 women per year within India.

Although most bride burnings have occurred in India, there have been cases reported from neighboring countries, such as Nepal and Bangladesh. Dowry murders occur most often in cases of arranged marriages (the most common form of marriage in India) but have also taken place in “love match” marriages. Overridingly, they have occurred in urban areas among middle-class families.

In all contexts, bride burnings focus on dowry. Dowry in India is wealth that a family bestows on a daughter at marriage and that accompanies her to the home of the husband's family. Ultimate control over dowry wealth has always been in the hands of the bride's in-laws. In earlier times, dowry usually consisted of household items (furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils, and so on), jewelry, and clothing. A woman's in-laws could permit her to retain some jewelry and clothing as her personal possessions, but a bride did not have rights over the use and distribution of her dowry.

The situation today has worsened due to severe dowry inflation, especially in north India. Urban middle-class families more often demand and expect televisions, refrigerators, motor scooters, and large sums of cash as dowry. Many observers relate India's rapid shift to a market economy and the rise of a new consumerism and wealth-based status seeking in the [Page 134]urban middle classes to the social tensions that sometimes end in dowry murder.

Dowry has been illegal in India since 1961, before reports of dowry murders began. The government prohibited it in an effort to prevent families from bankrupting themselves to secure dowry for their daughters. Contemporary women's organizations have worked to strengthen laws against dowry and dowry harassment. These laws are, however, very difficult to enforce.