Write a comment about the pros and cons of arranged marriages. Transfer the issue to
India, but also mention the problems which appear by transferring it to our western
society.

Arranged marriages have been an issue of discussion for centuries, as they do not correspond

to the values, norms and traditions of our western society. But what about India? In India 95%

of young Indian couples still get married this way. Do the Indians have to suffer from those

arranged marriages or do they even support them?

In the following comment I will try to find out about the advantages and disadvantages of

arranged marriages in India. Doing so, I will also incorporate western values, in order to

clarify whether arranged marriages may also work in our western society.

First of all, I will begin with presenting the positive aspects of arranged marriages.

The first argument supporting them is that the Indian custom of arranged marriages is simply

part of the Indian tradition. For centuries they have been the common way of getting married

in India and generally this way was rarely questioned in history.

In addition, arranged marriages offer parents the possibility of choosing an appropriate

partner for their daughter. This way, future conflicts between parents and their son-in-law are

prevented. Furthermore, it is ensured that the woman will have an unproblematic life

concerning financial issues, as her family can just choose a wealthy person as her bridegroom.

Due to an arranged marriage the bride may have an unproblematic life in contrast to the

poverty she might have suffered from in her old family.

The last argument stressing the advantages are statistics proving that the divorce rate of

arranged marriages is much lower than the one in our western society, where marriages out of

love are common. Nevertheless, it has to be added that this argument includes a certain

ambivalence, too. The reason is that research also shows that the pressure a married couple

encounters from both society and respective families results in the fact that a divorce is often

not an option anymore. Thus, the low divorce rate can also be considered as a proof for the

pressure a married couple has to suffer from.

Now, I will present the disadvantages of arranged marriages.

First, it has to be said that there is a lack of freedom, as the woman can not freely choose on

her own, although she has some kind of veto right allowing her to deny the marriage if the

bridegroom completely displeases her. However, a certain limitation of the women′s rights

cannot be accepted in our contemporary advanced society. Men and women should be treated

equally.

Another argument against arranged marriages is that the marriage does not take place due to

real love. Of course it is also possible that love grows out of an arranged marriage, because

love at first sight is as possible as love developing after a long period of time. Nevertheless, it

must be criticized that family relationships are predominantly more important than love.

Finally, the dowry is a very important disadvantage of arranged marriages. High dowries for

the girls can often not be paid due to the extreme poverty in India. This leads to difficult

problems: First, there are often dowry murders when the bride′s family is not able to pay the

negotiated price. Secondly, the Indian people are often not able to pay the dowry due to the

poverty, so that numerous female fetuses are aborted and female babies are frequently killed.

This way, India has to suffer from a deficit of about 30 million females which will definitely

be a fatal problem for India′s future. Although, there was a Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961

which forbid the paying of a dowry, the dowry is still a daily occurance especially in rural and

less educated areas.

To put it all in a nutshell you can conclude that arranged marriages may work for Indians,

although they do not work for the people of our western society.

Indians have adapted to them and it cannot be denied that arranged marriages have various

advantages, though it may not seem this way at first glance. For the Indians tradition is very

important and it has to be added that the Indian way of thinking perfectly fits to the custom of

arranged marriages. As a result of the belief in a concept called dharma which says that every

human soul is just a small part of the universal soul the Indians have an ego less differentiated

than the people of our western society and do not hold individuality so dear as we do. Thus,

while the individual is considered being marginal, the family matters all the more.

Furthermore, you can add that history really proves that this way of getting married really

works. When it worked for the last centuries, why should it not work for the upcoming ones,

either? Nevertheless, some serious problems such as the dowry have to be solved in the

future.

Concerning the western society arranged marriages will not work, as we believe in romance

and true love. We want freedom of decision, equal treatment of men and women, flexibility

and independence.

For us the arranged marriages taking place in India may seem strange, but our values and

ways of living can just not be compared that easily.