Book Review On Shobhan Bantwal’s novel The Dowry Bride, by Anuppa Caleekal, B.A., M.Sc. Digitalism Magazine www.digitalism.ca © Copyright 2009
Shobhan Bantwal’s first novel ,The Dowry Bride is a gripping tale of a young woman’s struggles within the realities of an arranged marriage. The novel is set in India, picturesque in its description of the Hindu moral code, culture and marriage.
The internal contradictions of India’s dichotomous standards in gender roles within a highly diverse ancient civilization is cast by hidden shadows. The novel depicts shameful exploits of human dignity, the caste system, dowry and womens’ rights seen through the veil of Hinduism. Megha, the young protagonist bride in the novel is stripped from her life as a loving daughter, devoted wife and sister into the harsh desperation of a fugitive within her own culture.
The balancing act underlying truth and lies within the dynamics of a Hindu joint family reveals the overpowering wicked claw of the despotic mother-in-law. Her evil clutch grips on to her spineless son and husband preventing them from acting upon any moral conscience to protect the bride from grounds of infertility and the absence of the promised dowry.
The Gods and Demons of Hindu moral conduct wrap around Megha,” the lotus growing in a swamp”. The twisted fate of a dowry bride ruled by astrologers and money reveals the saga of the human condition throttled by antiquated customs. Only the wings of hope and self -regulated righteous human conduct save the ill-fated plight of the young bride in her struggle against the evil emitted from another woman, her mother-in-law. The irony of the social injustice of bride burning mounts down to the enemy being women thrust against each other comprimising sisterhood for the price of cultural gluttonous greed to sustain a blind, cowardly, spoon-fed deceptive male bravado.
Author Shobhan Bantwal’s, The Dowry Bride weaves fiction into the realities of non-fiction horrors of the bride burning practice in Indian society. At the sametime, the novel is able to entertain the reader with the delights of romance, page-turning suspense and curiosity and feel the triumph of a fictitious life drama bring justice to a real social cause.
Shobhan Bantwal’s second book is entitled The Forbidden Daughter.
Both these books are available from amazon.com
Bridal Jewellery and Dowry in India :
In India dowry was originally designed to safeguard the woman and it was the provision of ” Sthreedhan” (”Sthree” meaning woman and “dhan” wealth) in the form of money, property , jewellery,household gifts given solely to the woman by her parents at the time of her marriage. “Sthreedhan”, an inheritance was meant to exclusively belong to the woman at the time of her marriage.Unfortunately,the abuse of this custom eroded and aborted the original meaningful function of dowry as a safety net for the woman. The evolution of Sthreedhan’s metamorphosis into the act of dowry death was a gruesome reflection of greed and the lack of “value”for women in indian society.
Weddings and arranged marriages are engrained in Indian culture as major events and the jewellery industry revolves around this phenomenon with the importance of jewellery as almost synonymous to bridal jewellery. Elaborate and inticrate gold bridal jewellery has been for generations intrinsically a part of the Indian bride’s wedding trousseau. The birth of a daughter also meant buying pieces of gold jewellery enhancing the long term investment in jewellery as part of her dowry.
The ‘mangalasutra’ is a traditional piece of gold jewellery worn by the bride and it may be in the form of a simple chain with two strings of black beads with a gold pendant to an highly ornate piece with gemstones and diamonds.The strings of black beads signify protection of the the marriage from the evil eye. The Mangalasutra is only one of the pieces of a bridal trousseau which is completed by ornamental earrings, bangels, rings, nose rings and so forth. The amount of gold jewellery a bride wears is a reflection of her wealth and her parent’s wealth. The jewellery is symbolically the property of the bride but with the invasive dowry mentality, in some instances it has become part of the demands of the groom’s family to be a portion of the groom’s wealth.
Indian Bridal Jewellery:
Some beautiful pieces of , indian bridal jewellery including the “mangalasutra”as shown below can be seen at
http://www.tangrijewellers.com
Photo Source: www.tangrijewellers.com
Contact Tangri Jewellers
Tangri Jewellers
#, 20 Middle Bazar,
The Mall, Shimla
Himachal Pradesh ( India ) Phone : +91-177-2811413,2808052,2652925
E-mail : jewellers_tangri@yahoo.com
Website :
www.tangrijewellers.com