Kamala Markandaya's book Nectar in a Sieve takes place in rural India as the narrator, Rukmani, recounts the events of her marriage. Throughout history and even today, the dowry has been an important part of marriage in India. A dowry is money or gifts which accompany a bride to her new home, where she will live with her husband's family. In many ways, the dowry is a form of payment to the family of the...
Kamala Markandaya's book Nectar in a Sieve takes place in rural India as the narrator, Rukmani, recounts the events of her marriage. Throughout history and even today, the dowry has been an important part of marriage in India. A dowry is money or gifts which accompany a bride to her new home, where she will live with her husband's family. In many ways, the dowry is a form of payment to the family of the husband. In India, daughters must leave their parents' homes when they are married, and are integrated into another household. For this reason, they are not considered as contributing to their parents' home or responsible for "carrying on" the family. Many people are of the attitude that daughters are a financial burden on their families because they must marry into another family and are often restricted from working outside of the home. The dowry is intended to provide for the bride in her new home but also to ease some of the financial burden placed on her husband's family by her arrival.
In the book Nectar in a Sieve, dowry would play an important role in the marriage of Rukmani to Nathan, as well as for their daughter Irawaddy.
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