Arranged cum Love Marriage

Along with time, the Indian society has witnessed substantial changes in the social and marital set up. Though most of the parents still remain staunch about their kind of arrange marriage, a wave of change have been brought by few parents who whole heartedly welcome the choice of their kids in their family. Unlike west where every kind of marriage is a love marriage, Indian society on a verge of transformation has three different kinds of marriages- the arrange marriage, which is perfectly arranged by the family of the bride and the groom, the love marriage, solemnized by the choice of the life partners themselves and the third- love cum arrange marriage where the life partner is selected by the boy or girl himself/herself but rest of the formalities of arranging it is done by their parents.

From the very beginning in the country it has almost been an understood fact that parents have to find a suitable bride and groom for their son and daughter and solemnize the entire marriage according to their wishes. As the custom of child marriage was very prevalent in the Indian society earlier and the child were married much before they were aware of the feeling of love and attraction, it is very clear that why parents were the one to find a perfect match for their kids. Though the trend of child marriage have gradually faded from the Indian society, the fashion of arrange marriage is still very much prevalent due to its deep rooted existence in our culture.

The strong wave of changes were introduced in the Indian society in 1970s when the education and literacy spread to the urban society of India and people started the realization of individuality. This realization made people more aware of their choices and necessities. The same rational though came to be applicable in regard of marriage where people stood against the staunch system of caste, creed or social status based marriage and asked for the freedom of choosing their life partner themselves. At that time this step was considered to be revolutionary and rebellious. However, with time people have understood the importance of marrying with the person of one’s choice. As the realization of individuality have increased parents have also agreed to accept the choices of their kids shedding the old tradition of fixing and arranging marriage.

In the Urban society, People have widened their choices, when it comes to their life partner. Love cum arranged marriages has traversed the boundaries of a single community. Today, inter-caste and inter-religion marriages are a common sight in the country, which otherwise were considered strictly against the Indian culture. This brings out the fact that the outlook of people regarding marriages has been revolutionized due to the modernization of the Indian society. However, this acceptance is yet only limited to the urban and educated Indian society. Though this favorable change has paved the way for a revolutionary change in the rural society also, any substantial change is yet to be observed.