Arranged Marriage and Love Marriage in India

On Jan 4, 2017

Arranged Marriage

Arranged marriage or wedding refers to the system where parents or some other persons with authority control the selection of mates.

Arranged by Parents: Marriages are arranged by parents for centuries in India. They often do not know much about the personality or appearances of their partners and in many cases they have never even seen them.

Surrender to Family Pressure: In these societies boys and girls are required to marry and hence the couple usually gives their acquiescence without any question. They may object but they have to surrender ultimately to pressures which are brought to bear on them.

Role of Matrimonial Brokers: In many cases, the marriages are arranged by parents often with the assistance of a matrimonial broker or professional matchmaker.

Convenience: In arrange marriages, the social and economic position of the families to be united. Arranged marriages are usually marriages of convenience, binding families together as coalitions of a common interest.

Felling of Boys and Girls: The wishes of boys and girls and their feelings of affection and of future happiness are almost completely ignored in many cases. It is held that love develops as a part of the marriage.

Love Marriage

Love marriage or Romantic marriage takes place where the choice of mate is the result of personal choice based on association and the development of love and affection.

Emotional attachment: There is a sense of love and emotional attachment among the would be husband and wife.

True bond of marriage: Love marriage or romantic marriage is a modern development. It is progressively regarded as the true bond of marriage.

Freewill: Thus in romantic marriage, an adult male and an adult female are comparatively free of parental and social controls in selecting the life’s partner. Here marriage is the result of the development of love and affection between a man and a woman.

Arranged Marriage vs. Love Marriage

In Love marriage is the result of feeling of love and togetherness between a man and woman. In arranged marriages, love is a consequence of marriage and not the reverse.

It is, however, difficult to judge whether love (romantic) marriage is preferable to arranged marriage or vice versa.

There are many successful examples of both arranged marriages and love marriages. The previous love (romantic) relations between the pair to be married do not necessarily have to take place to assure happy unions. However, in case of arranged marriage, decisions by young boys and girls may be based on limited knowledge and perceptions of prospective mates.

At the same time, the decisions on love marriage in some cases would be based on psychological and emotional reactions that overwhelm sound thinking.

But it’s impossible at the present stage to simply accept the proposition that arranged marriage is superior to love (romantic) marriage.