Literature & Language Essay: Arranged Marriages: Changing Gender Roles

Arranged Marriages: Changing Gender Roles
Name
Institution
Arranged Marriages
Arranged marriages and gender roles have undergone some slight changes in India over the past 28 years. While traditionally the marriages were based on matters of caste and individuals’ reputation, modern changes such as education have made the issue of love quite important too.
In India, the idea of arranged marriages has not changed very much even though significant changes are observed in terms of the elements that these marriages are based on. Notably, the practice is still very common in some parts in India and particularly dominant in North India (pg3). Traditionally, Indian arranged marriages were based on the caste, family reputation and the behavior of the couples. However, with increased modernization in form of education and access to mass media, the traditional practice of partners being selected for each other based on caste and reputation has been replaced with “the espousal of new modern values of love and choice,” (Allendorf & Pandian, 2017, pg.3). Today, most young people work together with their parents in looking for a spouse unlike before where the decision was made by parents alone. Modernization has also caused changes in the age of marriage whereby traditionally, Indians married young while today there are many late marriages.
Gender roles in India have also changed significantly. In the past, only boys were expected to receive good education in India and any educated girl was mostly considered inappropriate for marriage. For instance, we are old of the case whereby a mother rejected a girl for her son because the girl was “too educated,” (Haviland, 2017, pg.6). This notion has however changed today where a girl being educated incr...