Hi all, may be I can shed some light on this.
This has always been a bone of contention and always opens up a can of worms. Certainly doesn’t make me happy.
Firstly I’d just like to say that women should not be allowed to conceive once the menopause sets in because their body is entering into another stage in life.
Secondly, and to quote Blade “Why ARE males regarded so much better?”. Several reasons really:
They are not given away or leave the family once married. The sons and their families always live with their parents till their dying days and as such act as their pension providers, providing for them till they die. The sons are supposedly the earners. However, having said that I’ve never once seen one Indian guy working when visiting India, it’s always been the women and they work on farms and fields.
To carry on the name
Depending on which cast, women are not allowed to be educated as this will give will allow them to think for themselves and go against the culture for want of better things. Of the casts which do allow women to be educated, they are still classed as second class citizens and have to obey their parents/brothers etc if they do not want to be disowned and thus regarded as a loose woman.
The Dowry still exists in India for certain religions and there are too many to mention here, although the government has tried to ban this. The dowry is important to them because it reflects how much wealth the daughter-in-law has. Some parents even refuse to have their sons marry women whose parents promise the other side one thing at the beginning but may not be able to deliver on the actual day, and the future son-in-law walks away.
There have been cases that even after marriage and with so much dowry brought in by the daughter-in-law, she is treated extremely badly by the in-laws and murdered/set alight etc. These cases go on but hard to prove because the in-laws say that the daughter-in-law committed suicide!
All these reasons are inter-connected. Basically, to the Indian male, the women are a burden and only on earth to have kids who will then provide for their retirement.
Also, marrying into a different cast is a different case altogether, at least that’s my opinion. Lots of young people marry into different casts in India and most probably disowned by both sides of their families because they married for love rather than what they were told to do.
As for my case, well, luckily none of the above relate to my family or my religion. We don’t have dowries in our religion, it’s viewed upon quite badly. In case you’re wondering, my religion is ‘Jain’. Mahatma Ghandi was Jain and he was a very peace loving man and valued all creatures great and small. I love both East and West cultures and take the best bits from each. I’ve seen lots of interrelated marriages in this country. Most of my cousins are married to English men. My sister’s married to one! The cast system is slightly different here too or at least it is in my religion, it’s a little more relaxed. Another biggy is that Indian women are now equally as educated as their Indian male counterparts and both have a voice in how they should live. Parents know they will be the losers if they object. Luckily for me my parents are pretty open-minded.
It’s not just India which is guilty of this. China is another biggy.
I hope this answers some if not all of your questions.
