Re-Arranging Marriage in Mumbai

Laura Tubelle de GonzálezSan Diego Miramar CollegeSACC Annual MeetingApril 2013

Photo credit: “Ordinary Lives” film (2005)

Primary goal: To understand the marriage expectations of girls around marrying age today in Mumbai

Research Goals

Research questions:

Is arranged marriage still valued? If so, by whom and in what form?

Does caste still play a role in young women’s minds regarding marriage?

If there are changes taking place, to what might we ascribe the changes?

Three Research Goals

Background on marriage in India

No one type of “marriage” in India due to its incredible complexity of “communities”: i.e. religions/castes/regions of origin, languages and socio-economic levels.

Studying “marriage” in India

Through the community(religious leader, relatives, family friends)Marriage bureau registration

Marriage “meets”

Common Forms of Arranged Marriage Today in Mumbai

Newspaper ads

“Sunday Matrimonials” in the Times of India

Sample size: 21 respondents

Women between 18-33 yrs old

Middle-Upper middle class

18 Mumbai 10 yrs + Snowball sample

Mumbai data: Quantitative

Study Participants: Marital Status (15/6)

Unmarried 71%

Married29%

Unmarried Married

Married Women: Arranged or Self-Initiated Match (1/5)

Arranged17%

Self-Ini-tiated83%

Arranged

Self-Ini-tiated

43%

33%

10%

5%5%

5%

Hindu Roman Catholic

Christian Sikh

Buddhist Parsi/Christian

Religion of respondents

Caste

Wedding Reception, Marine Drive, Mumbai

ETHNIC GROUP Sindhi community Sindhi Hindu Mangalorean

RELIGIOUS Hindu Vaishnav Hindu/Buddhist Hindu by marriage

(Parsi/Christian family) Roman Catholic (2) Christian Sardar (Sikh)

CASTE Koknastha Brahmin

RELIGIOUS + REGION Hindu-Gujarati-Vaishnav Hindu-Balasinor Christian-Catholic from Kerala Hindu-caste; Kutchi-community

REGION Goan Maharashtrian "East Indian, Kulbi community,

the highest class of East Indians”

None (3 - 2 Roman Catholics, 1 Hindu)

What is your caste/community?

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Maybe

A for-eigner?

An Indian of another religion?

Of differ-ent caste?

From a different native

place or state?

A divorcée or widower?

0

5

10

15

20

25

17

2

18

2

19

1

20

0

97

3

No. of

resp

on

den

ts

If/when you have children, would you accept them marrying…?

14

2

2

1 1

All same

Same religion; Different regions

Same religion, caste, region; Different subcaste

Same religion, region; Dif-ferent religious practice, dif-ferent natal towns

Same religion, region; Dif-ferent natal towns

Religion, Caste/Community, Region:Girl’s parents (all respondents)

5

1

All same

Different reli-gion; Different regions

Religion, Caste/Community, Region:Husband and Wife

(married respondents)

Returning to basic research questions

Is arranged marriage still valued?

Yes, it is still valued by most girls in some form, although lines are blurry between self-arranged and other-arranged matches.

My data correlate with Puri’s (2007) research showing that girls seek an understanding and supportive match. The language of “companionship” is used no matter how marriage is initiated.

Does caste still play a role in young women’s minds regarding marriage?

My study data correlate with Beteille (1991) in that most people are unwilling to disclose caste, defend it, or use it openly as a factor in marriage negotiations.

However, it seems correct to say, as Shah (1988; 1998), that family reproduces caste norms as simply a function of the family’s roles in an individual’s life.

A person’s network of family relations – as the core of their social world – is the most concrete representation of caste. “So many intra-caste marriages are arranged through informal inquiries among members of kin groups.” (Robinson n.d.)

To what might we attribute the changes? Seymour (1999) found changes in

marriage and family (40 year study) after girls had begun to pursue higher education

English-medium schooling correlates to middle class urban women’s experience, both married and unmarried; English is main language of middle class families (Robinson n.d.)

Education, Employment and Class

Education

15

4

1

Postgraduate/Masters

Still an un-dergrad

"Graduated privately"

What language do you speak most often with…?

Englis

h

Hin

di

Guj

arat

i

Mar

athi

Sindh

i

Kutch

i

Mal

ay...

Punja

bi

Konka

ni0

5

10

15

20

25

Parents/Relatives

Friends/Classmates

No. of

resp

on

den

ts

Seymour (1999) challenges the notion that modernization alone shifts values -because of collectivist cultures that are fully modern, such as Japan.

My data correlates with Uberoi’s (1993) conclusion that change seems to follow the rise and stabilization of a salaried middle class, not simply urbanization, since lower economic classes have not experienced this kind of change.Urban salaried middle

class

Questions for further study

Longitudinal: Follow women as their children grow and marry

Study differences between English- and Hindi- (or other-) medium schooling

Examine the Indian university and modern workplace for processes of change as they are negotiated (Robinson n.d.)

How does the arranged marriage system contribute to a “rape culture?”

Future Research