Cultural Rethinking - Marriages

For centuries, arranged marriages have been the tradition in Indian society. Even today, the majority of Indians have their marriages planned by their parents and other respected family-members. In the past, the age of marriage was young, especially in Rajasthan, but this is rising with modernization and there are now laws which govern the age of marriage.

Traditionally, the dowry was considered a woman's share of the family wealth, since a daughter had no legal claim on her natal family's real estate. It also typically included portable valuables such as jewellery and household goods that a bride could control throughout her life. Historically, in most families the inheritance of family estates passed down the male line. Since 1956, Indian laws treat males and females as equal in matters of inheritance without a legal will.



The culture has changed over the years and improved. But It changed more drastically, with the rise of Media presenting with daily serials like  "Kya Hua Tera Vaada" which is the story of Pradeep and Mona Singh, a young couple who live in Mumbai with their three children. The wedge between the couple is defined when Pradeep starts an affair with Anushka, his old college friend whom he had been in love with before agreeing to an arranged marriage with Mona. When the affair is revealed, Pradeep leaves Mona and moves in with Anushka, filing for divorce from Mona.

In India, the divorce rate is low — 1% compared with about 40% in the United States. These statistics do not reflect a complete picture, though. There is a dearth of scientific surveys or studies on Indian marriages where the perspectives of both husbands and wives were solicited in-depth. Sample surveys suggest the issues with marriages in India are similar to trends observed elsewhere in the world. The divorce rates are rising in India. Recent studies suggest that Indian culture is trending away from traditional arranged marriages. They find that the marriage trends in India are similar to trends observed over last 40 years in other foreign nations. The study found that fewer marriages are purely arranged without consent and  that the majority of surveyed Indian marriages are arranged with consent.

For generations, India has had a prevailing tradition of the Arranged Marriages. The eldest member of the Family made all important decisions regarding Marriage n family Members used to abide by them blindly. But nowadays, The percentage of self-arranged marriages (called love marriages in India) were also increasing, particularly in the urban parts of India. In these Marriages, the decision of getting together is mostly made by the two individuals not the whole family. Because of which also there is more likely upscale rate of divorces in such cases.