Marriage Is The Highlight Of Many Peoples Lives Both Women

Indian marriages are deemed almost necessary in the Indian society. Arranging a marriage is the responsibility of Indian parents and other relatives of both bride and groom. In India there is no greater event in a family than a wedding. Some parents begin marriage arrangements on the birth of a child, but most wait until later. The brides family usually hosts most of the ceremonies and pays for all the arrangements for large numbers of guests for several days, including accommodation, feasting, decorations, and gifts for the groom’s party. These arrangements are often extremely elaborate and expensive and are intended to enhance the status of the

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

The parents of a bride and groom made the decision as to who their child would marry with no consideration of their child’s wishes or needs. These arranged marriages were created more like business decisions than romantic unions of men and women. These marriages were usually arranged between a bride and groom who came from families with like economic backgrounds. (Tamura, E., 1997) Additionally, these arranged marriages were not harmonious unions.

We live in a time when, for the most part, men and women are equal to each other. No longer is a woman coerced to marry another solely for the purpose of surviving. Thank goodness for the fact that people are paid equally in the majority of careers. So when a woman’s parents are expecting some form of premature bond between her and a stranger, it is only natural that she decline and continue living her life. Marrying later has become a staple of the twenty-first century so people can further their careers and have a stable income before becoming committed to another. And thus ends the appeal of marriage for some people. In Disney Princess movies, an unrealistic expectation of marriage is created, so people are disappointed when they realize that the union has its ups and downs; it is not just a fairytale where problems are negligible and day-to-day life is rainbows and butterflies. In locations such as India and most of the Eastern Hemisphere, arranged

Most girls in these circumstances are younger than me. If I had to have my parents choose my lifelong partner, I would change my name and move to Mexico. If our society was like India’s people, there would be no way I could settle for that conformity. There is no law saying the girls must follow through with marriage; however, whether they would like to or not, girls still do it for their parents and tradition. Indians do not see arranged marriages as being wrong. They think that “brides are the embodiment of that family's honor and pride” (“Arranged Marriages and Dowry”). But, us in the West see this tradition as an unnecessary custom. Rejection from your own blood, your own friends, and your own people, is not right. No dowry in the world could pay for love. Love is an emotion worth more than all of the money in the

In America today, one of our main life goals is to marry the person we fall in love with, live happily ever after, and skip gleefully away to live the American dream. In most cases, after marriage then comes children which starts a family. This has been a part of human nature since the beginning. Marriage and family are the backbone of our culture. Families need each other for support, dependence, learning, love, encouragement, and ultimately survival. Parents are the ones that supply these needs, meanwhile supplying their own needs by depending on each other for love and support. Only the two of them can give this support because of what they are to each other, husband and wife. When two people get married, they are obviously in

Certain critics claim that it originated with “the second millennium B.C. a host of Aryans possessing a different language, culture, and physiognomy … migrated to India.” The caste system is critical because it has a significant effect on the daily lives of Hindus. The caste system is somewhat rigid, and Hindus have followed that practice since its beginning although some would argue that it did not become rigid until the influence of Islam and subsequent invasion of the British. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of the system, and there are four distinct groups: “seers, administrators, producers, and followers.” One does not usually break away from a caste system, and the caste system dictates your social status within a given region with corresponding level of education and economy. The Elite caste, the Brahmins, has the most benefit holding the position of power. Although some people in India are trying to fight the caste system, many people adhere to the caste system where it is still uncommon to marry outside your caste or even ascend to a higher caste

The caste systems prohibits the movement between classes. This is viewed as a disgrace to marry someone below your station, just like in Europe in the pre-industrial era. This can also be seen in India and Japan, where marriage is the combining of two houses, thus marrying into a lower house would lower the status of the family. This is why a family would rather disown a child marrying beneath them than drag the whole family into poverty. The worst of these examples are the untouchables from both societies. In India, the caste system buried the untouchables so much that they were only able to be beggars on the side of the street. They were thought of as dirty, lazy, and all around disgusting. These people were out-casted completely from the

Caste can also help an individual to make a selection of his occupation. This is because the person is offered with the right occupation he should follow from birth. He is then guided to see that he achieves what is required in that occupation. With the use of the caste, an individual can be in a position to select a life partner. This is because it has set the guidelines of endogamy thus the individual has to join in matrimony within his personal class or the sub caste. This is because the selection of the mates is based on the caste rules. The caste system as well determines the actions of an individual. This is because it operates on a set of codes ad guidelines which guide each individual. The use of the status structure governs the way people

Amazingly, the Caste System in India has been around for thousands of years. The caste system places you in a social class with specific duties you must perform. Secondly, the system places you in the social class of your parents. In the Caste System, it is expected of individuals to fulfill their Dharma. Dharma is the religious and moral law

Depending on the parents, qualifications can consist of areas such as age, physical features, beliefs, occupation and much more. For example, in one situation, a sister and brother-in-law invited correspondences from North Indian professionals only and preferred that the man be an immigrant doctor who was between 26-29 years, for their relative. (Nanda 623). Sometimes the bride and groom will meet one time for a brief conversation, but in most cases the bride and groom’s first appearance of each other is at their wedding (Nanda 624). However, some parents are becoming more lenient in this area and allowing their son or daughter to meet at least one time before making any final marital arrangements to see if the two individuals are in agreement to get married to one another. This is not like a date in the United States where a couple goes out to dinner and to a movie and hangs out. This is more like a formal meeting, chaperoned by a guardian. It is sometimes classified as “having tea” together. As Americans, we probably think this is an absurd way of getting married but those in India find arranged marriages by their parents very satisfying and a better way to choose a spouse.

For many people, arranged marriage is not a great choice to choose a life partner, but it is highly recommended in Hindu culture. In the speech “Finding Love in Arranged Marriages” on Tedx Talks, Omar Durrani shared, like other people who have Hindu religion, he was put under pressure to have arranged marriage by his mother. She believed in arranged marriage which marriage comes first and love comes after marriage. She contacted matchmaker service to find a suitable woman for him. The matchmaker found many women who were interested in Omar, but Omar was not interested in any of them until he saw one women that her mother found for him. Although he did not believe that arrange married would work for him, he still agreed to start talking on the phone with the woman. Surprisingly, he found that they shared many common interests. Finally, they decided to meet each other, so Omar took a flight from Miami to Chicago for the meeting. The first feeling they had for each other was that they made for each other. They engaged in the next day after the first meeting and married one year later. Like Omar’s family, most Indian people prefer arranged marriage since they believe that will be the best to start their marriage life. Arranged married may be a short or a long process that depends on each situation. While love marriage is found when people love each other and get married, arranged marriages happens when parents decide who will be their children’s life partner. People with Hindu

Arranged marriages are set up by friends and family, and sometimes by a matchmaker that sets up the marriage. But the bride’s father has the most responsibility in arranging marriage for his daughter, and is the one who approaches the father of a potential bridegroom. Important aspects when considering a possible match are financial status, caste, and the bride and bridegrooms horoscopes matching. The role of astrology is important, and if a Hindu priest finds that the horoscopes of the potential spouses do not match, they will not marry, and must begin the search all over again (Livermore, 2009). India’s view of marriage first and then love is very different from the Western view where love comes before marriage, seems to be successful. The

According to Prasad and Ramesh (2007), Indians believe that a son is an asset that can bring wealth to a family. Arranged marriage is accepted and marriage is an important institution in Indian culture. A girl is seen as a burden to her family and will leave the family in debt of a dowry. Wedlock creates inequality that women’s

In addition to the decrement status of women, women also lose self-esteem due to this evil rooted custom “Dowry”. Dowry doesn’t only affect the bride alone, but it extends to the family members because they have to arrange and fulfill the demands of groom’s family including all the responsibility of ceremony expenses. In her article “Marriage and Family - South Asia” Pauline Kolenda adds, “Most brides' families in the north bore the greater part of the expenses of the feasting and the household goods and gifts, the most onerous expense being that for the bride's jewelry” (72). When the bride’s parents are forced to provide unexpected amount or gift as a dowry by a groom’s family, it is obvious that a woman will feel the burden on her family. In their article “Dowry System a Curse” Roshan Kumar Jha and Barsha Jha explain, “Earlier the system was prevalent only among the wealthier families, but now, unfortunately, the greed for dowry has struck even the most ordinary families and has become an unspoken requirement during marriages. As a result, the family members are in debt and the bride filled with guilt as a misfortune to the family. Moreover, some cultures represent dowry as a right to demand as a compensate for a groom’s education and liability even if the bride is more qualified than the groom. This questions on a woman's self-respect of not being able to stand against the man based society. For an example, in his article “Dowry System in India - Causes, Effects &