Supply-and-demand demographics: dowry, daughter aversion and marriage markets in contemporary north India

Abstract

The gendered character of India's fertility decline has attracted considerable academic attention. In this paper, I offer a critique of the arguments of some demographers about the linkages between dowry, daughter aversion and the marriage squeeze that predict that increasing shortages of marriageable women will result in declines in dowry. I argue that such economistic readings seriously oversimplify the complexities of marriage arrangement ‘on the ground’ in contemporary India. Further, whilst one aspect of dowry might relate to the supply and demand of brides and grooms, dowry and daughter aversion are not simply outcomes of demographics alone. First, marriage migration is crucial in understanding daughter aversion. Second, dowry is not just a matter of marriage and kinship practices. Dowry is a polyvalent institution that also connects with conspicuous display in status competition in a hierarchical society and with people's rising aspirations to possess consumer goods within the wider context of contemporary India's rapidly changing political economy. Crucially, marriage migration, status competition and consumerism do not necessarily push in the same direction as the demographics of the marriage squeeze might imply when it comes to dowry and daughter aversion.

Keywords:

• dowry
• consumerism
• marriage migration
• marriage squeeze
• status competition

Acknowledgements

The sole responsibility for what I have written here is mine. I am grateful to colleagues for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, and especially to Minna Säävälä, Sirpa Tenhunen and two anonymous reviewers. This paper was made possible by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship and a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2009–2010). I am grateful for their support.

Notes

1 It is important to note here that quantifying the potential ‘surplus’ of marriageable men depends on the parameters used and other demographers have arrived at different conclusions on this score. See, for instance, Neelakantan and Tertilt (2008) as well as Guilmoto (2012).

2 Demographers of India usually express sex ratios such as SRB and CSR in terms of the number of females per 1000 males, whilst the international convention is for sex ratios to express the number of males in relation to females.

3 Jeffrey and Doron (2013), however, indicate how mobile phones may be moderating this.