Download or read book Dowry Murder: Reinvestigating A Cultural written by Veena Talwar Oldenburg and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2010 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dowry in India has long been blamed for the murder of wives and female infants. Reconstructing the history of dowry in this highly provocative book, Veena Talwar Oldenburg argues that dowry is not always the motive for these killings as is widely believed; nor are these crimes a product of Indian culture or caste system. In the pre-colonial period, dowry, an institution managed by women to enable them to establish their independence, was a safety net. As a consequence of massive economic and societal upheaval brought on by British rule, however, women's control of the system diminished and dowry became extortion." -- Page 4 of cover.