This document summarizes research on marriage expectations of young women in Mumbai. The researcher interviewed 21 women aged 18-33 from middle-upper class backgrounds. While arranged marriage is still valued, the lines between arranged and self-arranged are blurry. Caste is no longer openly discussed in marriage negotiations but still influences family networks. Changes in marriage are attributed to the rise of an urban salaried middle class and higher education levels, especially for women, rather than just modernization or urbanization alone. Further research is suggested on how education, employment, and modern institutions shape evolving marriage customs over time.

1. Re-Arranging
Marriage in Mumbai
Laura Tubelle de González
San Diego Miramar College
SACC Annual Meeting
April 2013
Photo credit: “Ordinary Lives” film (2005)

2. Primary goal:
 To understand the marriage
expectations of girls around
marrying age today in
Mumbai
Research Goals

3. 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

4. Background on marriage
in India

5.  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

6.  Through the community
(religious leader, relatives, family friends)
Marriage bureau registration
Marriage “meets”
Common Forms of Arranged
Marriage Today in Mumbai

7.  Newspaper ads
“Sunday Matrimonials”
in the Times of India

9.  Sample size: 21 respondents
 Women between 18-33 yrs old
Mumbai data:  Middle-Upper middle class
Quantitative  18 Mumbai 10 yrs +
 Snowball sample

10. Married
Unmarried
29%
Unmarried
71% Married
Study Participants:
Marital Status (15/6)

11. Arranged
17% Arranged
Self-Initiated
83% Self-
Initiated
Married Women: Arranged
or Self-Initiated Match (1/5)

12. 5% Hindu
5%
5% Roman Catholic
9%
Christian
43%
Sikh
Buddhist
33%
Parsi/Christian
Religion of respondents

13. Wedding Reception, Marine Drive, Mumbai
Caste

14. ETHNIC GROUP RELIGIOUS + REGION
 Sindhi community  Hindu-Gujarati-Vaishnav
 Sindhi Hindu  Hindu-Balasinor
 Mangalorean  Christian-Catholic from Kerala
 Hindu-caste; Kutchi-community
RELIGIOUS
 Hindu Vaishnav REGION
 Hindu/Buddhist  Goan
 Hindu by marriage  Maharashtrian
(Parsi/Christian family)  "East Indian, Kulbi community, the
 Roman Catholic (2) highest class of East Indians”
 Christian
 Sardar (Sikh)  None
(3 - 2 Roman Catholics, 1 Hindu)
CASTE
 Koknastha Brahmin
What is your caste/community?

15. 25
No. of respondents
20
20
19
15 18
17
10
9
5 7
2 2 1 0 3
0
No
No
No
No
Maybe
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
A foreigner? An Indian of Of different From a A divorcée or
another caste? different widower?
religion? native place
or state?
If/when you have children, would
you accept them marrying…?

16. All same
1 Same religion; Different regions
1
2
Same religion, caste, region;
2 Different subcaste
Same religion, region; Different
14 religious practice, different natal
towns
Same religion, region; Different
natal towns
Religion, Caste/Community, Region
:
Girl’s parents (all respondents)

17. 1
All same
Different
religion;
5 Different regions
Religion, Caste/Community, Region
:
Husband and Wife
(married respondents)

18. Returning
to basic
research
questions

19. 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.

20. 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.

21.  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.)

22.  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

23. 1
Postgraduate/Mast
4
ers
Still an undergrad
15 "Graduated
privately"
Education

24. 25
No. of respondents
20
Parents/Relat
15
ives
10
5
Friends/Clas
smates
0
What language do you
speak most often with…?

25.  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

26. Questions for
further study

27.  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