India, Sept. 1 -- In a country where 17 women are killed every day because of dowry, this one might have been completely unremarkable except for the fact that it happened, allegedly, in the presence of her six-year-old son. In the face of mounting outrage, it was hard to tell what generated the greater public anger: The violence with which she died or her child's exposure to it.

The death of 28-year-old Nikki Bhati on August 21 was the culmination of a series of events that began soon after her marriage. Her father had married Nikki and her sister, Kanchan into the same family, assuming that would give them an extra patina of protection.

He was wrong. Neither the marriage nor their dowry guaranteed their safety. There was a grand weddin...