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Dying for a Dowry (Free verse) by Blue Magpie

Twenty-five thousand brides are burned to death in India each year, a million more young woman live in fear; beauty deprived of breath; society made sick by what it hides. This putrid smell, a burnt offering from hell made for the dubious benefit their dowries gain Is quite illegal ... yet their bodies fall like rain. poisoning the country with their pain. The murders ... husbands and relatives, people ... who care for Tvs more than human lives, go unpunished, uncondemned, set free by other people, men, who quietly think, if these be thoughts amid such moral stink. "I'll take his cash, the truths is hard to see" How can humanity be sunk so fearful low? If they could just perceive, then they would know. They curse themselves, more than they can believe. Life teaches us ourselves and so I say. "See all the truth and weep. Too deep the well and too bitter all the world for those who sell... humanity so cheap."

Nicholas Jones 14-Oct-02/1:27 AM
The problem is its easy to disapprove of other people's cultural practices. When Britain conquered india, they declared the practice of suttee illegal, and in some ways it became a way of resisting imperial rule. It clearly is barbaric, but attacking it from outside raises comples moral issues.

There's a well-known article by the post-colonial theorist Gayatri Spivak called 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' which addresses this issue, and is very good, if hard going.




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