Marriage customs and practices in India

9 min read
  • [!] The traditional norms of marriage continue to uphold the structure of patriarchy in Indian society

Source

  • Indian Human Development Survey - II, 2011 - 2012 conducted by National Council of Applied Economic Research in collaboration with Maryland University of England.
  • It is the only nationally representative dataset in India which comprehensively provides the information about marriage practices
  • Analysis included only major 20 states and excluded small states and UTs due to smaller sample size for these states.

Issues

  • Mate selection
  • Dowry
  • Endogamy
    • "marriage within close kin groups, or particularly among cross cousins"
    • Caste endogamy (occur within one's caste)
    • Village endogamy (marriage within one's village)
  • Exogamy
    • "a group of close relatives between whom marriage is forbidden"
    • Village exogamy (outside one's village)
    • Caste exogamy (Outside one's caste) - also known as inter caste marriages
  • Hypergamy
    • female hypergamy - a woman marrying a man of higher social status or caste
    • typically within same caste but occasionally between sub castes.
  • Consanguinity
    • marriages between blood relatives
  • Isogamy
    • "equal status between bride's family and the groom's family"

Intro

  • Marriage is often viewed ass the union between families rather than individuals (Kapadia, 1966)

More stable arranged marriages

  • Families arranged marriages are perceived to offer more stability and security than self choice marriage (Abraham, 2000)

More risks involved in arranged marriages

  • Parent arranged marriages are linked to higher risks of domestic violence, coercive control of husbands and in laws and lack of decision making power for women (Jejeebhoy, 2013)

North Indian marriage customs

In North India, marriages by patrilineal inheritance and patrilocal residence, meaning that inheritance is traced through the father line and women move to their husband's residence after marriage, adhere to norms of exogamy and female hypergamy (Jeffrey, 2014)

South Indian marriages

Southern marriages characterised by shorter marital distances, endogamy , isogamy (Dyson and Moore, 1983, Miller, 1997)

Women's rights recognised in south

Women's land rights are commonly recognised in southern India and they have legal rights to own, inherit and control land and property (Licart, 2004).

Split the costs in south

The families of the bride and groom split the wedding costs, bride prices and payments made by the groom's side to the bride's family are more prevalent (Srinivasan, 2005)

Prevalence of family arranged marriages in 2024

Despite a recent rise in self arranged and semi arranges marriages, family arranges marriages continue to be prevalent in Indian society (Sarkar and Rizzi, 2024).

Semi arranged marriages, where both the bride and her family or relatives jointly make the decision have emerged ass a new form of marriages in recent times (Sen and Ghosh, 2021)

The incidence of love marriages and self arranged marriages has been on rise in some regions. This results in women becoming victims of honour killings.

Love marriages and elopements are more common in relatively gender egalitarian regions like West Bengal, where parents eventually accept the marriage in most cases. (self case…)

Mate selection

Typically decided by the parents or family kin groups.

Only 5% of women choose their husbands independently 22% are selected by both women and their parents or relatives together for 73% are chosen solely by their parents or relatives

One third of women have not met their husbands before marriage Limited interaction can negatively impact their post marital status, like spousal communication, and access to family planning services (Banerji and Deshpande, 2000)

Women's say in spouse selection

  • differs by rural urban settings and socio religious groups

Rural area women have lower saying when compared to their urban counter parts. 55% for rural and 71% for urban women.

Christians, Sikhs, Jain and Adivasi communities have more freedom in rural and urban areas in choosing their partners.

Brahmins (46%) have the lowest say in rural areas OBCs (49%) and Dalit (54%).

Top 4

95% in Tamil Nadu - highest 90% in Assam 87% in Andhra Pradesh 86% in Kerala

Bottom 3

31% - Madhya Pradesh 28% - Uttar Pradesh 22% - Rajasthan

Dowry

The bride's family provides money or gifts to the groom's family, often related to family's prestige (Roulet, 1996)

Traces its origins to the upper caste traditions like (Srinivasan and Lee, 2004) Kanyadan - a gift of the virgin daughter Varadakshina - gifts willingly given by the bride's father to the groom Stridhan - voluntary gifts from relatives and friends to the bride

Historically, this was practiced among upper caste, but over time, it spread to lower castes as they began emulating the customs of upper caste - a process known as Sanskritisation (Srinivasan, 2005)

Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961

Nature of dowry differs regionally in north - movable items in south - property rights

Estimated wedding expenses are relatively higher for girl's marriage than for a boy's marriage.

The average expected wedding costs for girls tend to be highest in northern states like Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. lowest in eastern states like West Bengal and Odisha.

Average wedding gift in cash is highest in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra lowest in Assam and Gujarat

Wedding costs is found to be significantly higher among upper caste families in both rural and urban areas.

Christian, Jain, Sikhs tend to spend large amount on a girl's marriage, while Adivasi and Dalits tend to spend less for both boy's and girl's wedding.

This cost difference is not that significant in urban areas across social spectrums when compared to their rural counterparts.

A study in south Indian village found that a large dowry reduce marital violence, serving as a source of household wealth over which woman enjoys a relatively more authority (Srinivasan, Bedi, 2007)

Dowry demands tends to increase when women marry at later ages.

In some cases, the groom's family continue to demand dowry even after the marriage, failing which leads to domestic abuse by the husbands and in-laws.

National Crime Records Bureau data, cases under the DPA, 1961, dowry related deaths, increased in India in the past decade, with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh reporting the highest rates of dowry deaths (2022)

Village endogamy is predominant in south India and other parts of India while Village exogamy in north India.

Factors associated with village exogamy (Gould, 1960)

  1. caste endogamy
  2. gotra exogamy
  3. tendency to view affinal (in-law) and consanguineal (blood) kinship ties as mutually exclusive
  4. linked to the patrilineal family system in North India

Village endogamy and Exogamy

Village exogamy is virtually non existent in the central pahari region of North India, now Uttarakhand, although other factors associated with village exogamy are feasible.

Census data estimates the crude endogamy rate findings a higher rate in south India, compared to northern regions (Libbee, 1980)

Village endogamy is generally forbidden in north west India, more common in north east India and southern India.

In south and north east India, marriages occur close to natal home, whereas in north west India, post marital residence is usually much farther from the natal home. The ability of women to claim inheritance in the north west India, the greater the distance from the natal home, makes it more difficult for women to claim inherited land.

Kinship division of India into four zones (Karve, 1965)

  1. northern
  2. southern
  3. central
  4. eastern

Endogamy prevalence is only 11.6% at the national level. More common in southern zone.

  1. Tamil Nadu - 30.3%
  2. Kerala - 26.2%
  3. Assam - 25.6% Lowest
  4. Bihar - 3.2%
  5. Haryana - 3.3%
  6. Punjab - 3.8%

Endogamy is less prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas, less common among Brahmins in rural areas, when compared to OBCs and other caste groups in rural areas. More common among Muslims (17.1%) in rural areas.

Hindu girls typically married outside their natal villages, with village endogamy largely prohibited by most caste groups especially upper caste. (Agarwal, 1994). This can stem from prohibition against same caste, same gotra or between cross cousins.

Caste exogamy and endogamy

5% of women report being in inter caste marriages.

In north India, hindus strongly discourage this due to caste hierarchy and to maintain purity in the caste hierarchy and uphold patriarchal structures. It is less accepted when the couples comes from different social strata, as it brings shame to the groom's family if an upper caste boy marries a lower caste girl and vice versa for the bride's family. (Chakravarty, 2021)

This results in honour killings, particularly targeting women.

Jammu and Kashmir has the highest rate of inter caste marriages, 31.4%, due to inter sect marriages among muslims.

Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat follows Jammu and Kashmir, on the top 4.

It is strictly prohibited in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Chattisgarh, filling the bottom three positions.

In rural areas, forward caste have the highest rate of inter caste marriage, followed by muslims. Dalits and OBCs have the lowest rates.

In urban areas, Christian, Sikhs, and Jain communities have the highest rate, OBCs, Dalits and forward caste shows the lowest rate.

Consanguineous Marriages

Strict restrictions on marriages between the individuals sharing a common male ancestor going back up to seven generations on the male side and five generations on the female side (Kapadia, 1966)

Dravidian south and in parts of western India, have a long standing traditions of intra familial marriages, including cross cousin and uncle niece union. (Kapadia, 1966)

This is legitimised by the - Hindu Marriage Act,1955 and - Hindu Code Bill, 1984

Consanguineous marriages declines from 14.4% in 1992 - 1993 to 11.9% in 2015 - 2016.

8.4% of women reported marrying within blood relatives in 2011 - 2012.

First cousin marriages are common among muslims, generally forbidden among hindus in northern India.

Uncle - Niece marriages are permitted in south India, higher among muslims than Hindus.

Largely forbidden among brahmins in both regions, but observed among dalits and OBCs.

Mechanisms for consolidating family resources or reinforcing community ties.

Karnataka (25.6%) tops the list, followed by Andhra Pradesh (22.6%) and Tamil Nadu (20.9%).

Chattisgarh (0.2%) , Himachal Pradesh (0.4%) , Assam (0.4%), Punjab (0.8%), Madhya Pradesh (0.9%) forms the bottom of the table.

This trend is now declining in south India too, due to rising demand for dowry, increase in village exogamy, wealth and education making more challenging to find a suitable match, potential health risks.

Hypergamy

This types of marriages is prevalent among Brahmins and upper castes. Over time, it is being practiced among lower caste groups.

Families believe that their social standing can be elevated if their daughters marry into higher status families.

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