vijay wrote:
The pavitra sentiment behind the hindi term kanyadan cannot be captured in simple translation as donating a girl. and then taking shelter in its legal interpretation. In Christian marriages it is said " I take thee as my -----" . By your interpretation one can only take something which belongs to someone. So it is wrong to say that it exists only in India. But times have changed and today it is moving rapidly towards equality between both sexes.
I agree. Also in Christian weddings, usually the father of the bride also says I give away...which can be said to be equivalent of our kanyadan. But to address the topic in question, why should this incident be so surprising? We have now started reading accounts of girls being kidnapped from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and parts of Bihar and sold to men in Haryana and Rajasthan, where in most cases a single girl is wedded to all brothers in the household, all because of skewed girl to boy ratio. When girls can be bought and sold like some commodity, it is hardly surprising when they are traded for money or a means to pay debt.