4. The Dowry System

Malankara Syrian Chrsitian Community lived among the Brahmins and the Nairs who followed the Marumakka thaaym. In this system all property belong to the women and are tranferred through the mother. However mother is not the head of the family - the mother's eldest brother is. It was the maternal uncle (the Karanavar) who lived with the nephews. His own children were taken care of by their maternal uncle. Even though most of the early powerful Christians came from the Namboodiri Brahmins, they followed the Patriarchial system, where the headship and properties were transferred from father to children and the children were brought up by both the parents living together. This indcates that the conversion of the early christians were a drastic change and the preservation of faith could not have been possible without a change. Since the leadership to the conversions and the leadership of the early churches were by men, Patriarchial System was their only choice. In this system women got married and moved away from their home (instead of the Hindu custom of men visitng the women) to raise their families in the faith. Initally the property of the family was divided among the children - both boys and girls equally. However it became difficult for the girls' husbands to come back and take care of the land and properties. They often lived very far from the girls' family. This must have also led to disputes and problems between the borthers and sisters over boudaries etc. The best solution was to pay the girls the value of the properties for which they have the right. Thus dowry was the share of the women from their family. She took it with her into the family to which she entered.

Like any other sytem of property transanctions, dowry systems were also grossly misused. It became a criteria to determine the social level and the grooms and their parents looked for girls who would bring more money into their family. This has led to horse trading and dowry (originaly the girl's portion) became more than the real value of the girl's share for poor and much less for the very rich. As a result the poor christian parents found it difficult to find boys to marry their daughters and the rich christians cheated their daughters by giving little to their daughters. In every generation there had been young men and women who stood against the misuse of dowry. But in a sinful society it avails very little. As a result of these struggles several court cases arose and the supreme court of India has made several rulings in this regard. Accordig tot he law of the country the girls are entitled to their share and dowry is not counted as a substitute.