A new academic study has found that dowry-related killings in India — in which women are murdered or driven to suicide following disputes over the traditional transfer of wealth from a bride's family to a groom's — have largely disappeared from public debate and political protest, even as the number of cases has grown. Recorded dowry deaths rose from 1,841 in 1988 to 6,516 in 2022, yet incidents that once prompted mass street demonstrations now generate only fleeting online reaction. Dr Kriti Kapila of the King's India Institute (part of King's College London) attributes the silence partly to a shift in methods — as kerosene-fuelled staged kitchen fires gave way to psychological abuse that drives brides to suicide — transforming what was once a visible public crime into what she describes as "private shame and sorrow" that is harder to mobilise around, compounded by tightening controls on political protest across India.