ndian woman needs help there are few places to which she can turn, the family of the groom will seek her out because she has dishonored her husband. Her own family will not take her back to their house because she is a difficult woman that may prevent her sisters from being married if the rumor spreads about her family. The increased supply of many luxury items in India has escalated the demands that grooms make for dowry amounts with the sky the limit being the normal attitude. (Mandelbaum) The parents of the groom are looking to get the most for the hand of their son in their society they do not romanticize marriage like we do in America, but look at it as business arrangements. If the groom’s parents are very greedy they may decide that the bride should have an accident that will lead to her death. The son then can take another bride that will give them more gifts and they still get to keep the money from his first marriage, giving his parents a very nice living. If a woman is widowed in Indian society she is expected to mourn for her lost husband not to marry again or participate in life. The act of Sati is an old ritual that involves the widow to throw herself on the open flames of her husband’s funeral fire and burn alive to assure his place in heaven. This was outlawed in India but some of the warrior castes still have cases of this happening today. Deaths that occur in the home make it hard to determine the exact details of the brides’ death. Women that die often fall into accidents with their stove that sometimes explode and other times simply catch their clothing on fire until they burn to death. They do use kerosene stoves which are highly flammable but they also leave very little of the bride behind for the investigators to look at. Major government hospitals in Pune City admit eight women burn victims a day of that only 20% that they see ever live. (Waters p 525) If a man is convicted of a dow...
