South Asian Business news and information

I like Hindi movies. I watch movies whenever I can. One of the great things I like about these movies is the way they show the “Shaadi” or the marriage ceremony. The Dulha (bride groom) and Dulhan (bride) looks very gorgeous and the Shaadi songs are really cool. The whole thing is like a Cinderella story. However, in reality it is not so beautiful. Many traditional and religious practices turn marriage into a nightmare for Indian people. Indian society has a deep rooted tradition. Many people, even the educated ones, still hold up these traditions. In addition, illiteracy and poverty are two other major reasons behind the existence and continuation of such practices.

If you want to get a good idea about the marriage system of India, then the best thing for you is to see the movie “Hum Aapke Hai Kaun” by Suraj Barjatia. Though not entirely real, you can get a general idea about the traditional marriage system of India. The movie highlights arranged marriage. After becoming adult and getting a full time job, the parents of a son look for a suitable bride inside their religious community. After finding a suitable girl, they talk with the parents of the girl and fix every thing. The boy and the girl who may never have seen each other do not get much scope to know each other. The whole process of arranged marriage takes place under the watchful eyes of the guardians of the boy and the girl. Now days, the process has become a bit flexible. The boy and the girl may talk with each other for some time, may be a month or two or three, but they have to decide about themselves within that time. Compared to the marriage system in the west, this arranged marriage is totally the opposite. For more information about arranged marriage, you can visit the following web pages:

Non residential Indians' (NRI) dilemma :

The following is a message posted in a forum called Islam online.net :

“Yes, I am facing tremendous problems while thinking of marriage,I am of Indian origin living since childhood in the UK , but my parents are insisting that I travel with them next summer to our origiinal village to marriage a cousin. Someone I never saw, and have no idea about.
Now what shall I do , I am so frustrated and am thinking of leaving the house before summer, or shall I Commit suicide????”

The main reason of my using this message is to give you readers an idea of the problem the second generation non-residential-Indians (NRI) are facing today. Like this young man, many other second generation NRI youths, who are born and brought up in abroad, do not like the idea of arranged marriage. Being born and brought up in a western culture, they accept the western norms and views. Such views are contradictory to that of their parents’. This clash of the ideals between  East and West has created tension among the Indian communities abroad. Not only the Indian community, such clash of ideals can be found in other communities as well. At an extreme level, the whole thing can result into a forced marriage, where the young man or woman is married against his or her will.     

Below is given some of the major traditional ideas about women and their roles in the Indian society:

Indian social system is male dominated. Males are considered superior to the females. It is men who are supposed to do all the hard works and women should look after the children and do all the household works. Wives are supposed to obey their husbands silently without any question.

A wife should be calm and quiet and should follow the orders of her husband and elders after she is married.

At present, there have been lots of changes among the women of India. The number of women in higher studies has increased. According to a report published in WebIndia123, in 2004-2005, 68 women in 100 men are pursuing higher studies. In the 1950’s, only 40,000 women enrolled in universities and now it has become 4.2 million. This growth in education has brought a huge change in the mentality of women. Now, many Indian women do not like to see themselves in traditional roles. They are working along with men in government and private organizations. Educated women do not want to follow their husbands’ order blindly. They are independent minded and demand respect from their life partners. This has created a serious problem. Many Indian men, though highly educated, can not accept this.

“Thirty-two percent of men with zero years of education and 42 percent men with one-to-five years of education reported sexual violence. Among men with six-to-10 years of education--as well as those with high-school education and higher--this figure increased to 57 percent.”

I got this information from a report published in 2003, in Women’s e news. The report may be old but my main intention is to show that the Indian social traditions are very deep rooted. They can not be changed so easily with education. Thus, a long period of struggle and suffering lies ahead of the Indian women. 

People say, you have two girl children, you have done some sins in your past life:

I found this quotation in a BBC report of 2003. Sons are more welcomed than daughters. Sons will carry on the tradition of the family. Under the Hindu law, women do not inherit anything from her family. Sons are supposed to inherit the assets of his parents. Many Indian families consider female child as a burden. Female feticide is a very old custom and still now it is practiced by many Indian families. The result is very alarming. Now, India is facing shortage of women. Prenatal selection and selective abortion have been declared illegal by the Indian government but they are practiced by all the major religious groups of India: Hindu, Muslim, Sheikh, and Christians. The most surprising thing is that feticide is mostly practiced by the educated women.  

In Hindi, it is known as “Dahej”. This custom originated in the upper class Hindu families. The bride’s family gives huge amount of gifts to the groom’s family. It was legally banned in 1961 but its practice still continues in the Indian society. Many women have died because of dowry. When the groom’s family does not get the promised amount of money and other gifts, they harass the wife. This results in serious physical abuses which can cause death to the wife. One of the most common practices is burning the wife with kerosene. The worst part is that after the woman is taken to the hospital, the officials record them as accidental injuries. For this reason, the real number of women suffered from burning has remained unknown.

Child marriage-- another dark side of tradition and social norm:

Like dowry, the child marriage was banned by the Indian government in 1978; under the Child Marriage Restraint Act. Unfortunately, the law failed to combat with the deep rooted tradition and superstition of Indian people. At present, there are 6.4 million married Indians under the age of 18 and 1, 30,000 widows under the age of 18. Extreme poverty is also another major reason behind the existence of child marriage. Child marriage is cheaper. It is widely observed in northern Indian provinces: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. The total population of these areas is 420 million.    

Sati:

‘Sati’ is a ritual where the wife of a dead man is burnt alive along with her husband. This practice also has a historical background. Originally practiced by the Rajput women after their husbands death in battle, sati was banned by the Indian government long time ago. The latest incident of Sati took place in a village named Tulsipur of Madhya Pradesh. Here a woman named Janakrani killed herself. The most popular incident happened in 1987 in Rajasthan. An eighteen year old girl named Roop Kanwar, sat on her husband’s funeral pyre and was burnt alive.