Page 79 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes Why was hypergamy advocated at all? According to Kapadia (Ibid: 104), it sought to fix permanently
a social hierarchy in which the ascendancy of the Brahmin over the Kshatriya was categorically
asserted. He has further said that hypergamy helped considerably the endogamous tendency of
the Brahmins which found expression during their stay in the Gangetic valley. Thus, Kapadia
(Ibid: 104) concludes that the rule of anuloma and pratiloma marriages has greater significance for
the caste structure of Hindu society than for the marriage pattern of the Hindus.

Party to Mate Selection
Who selects the partner for the marriage of a boy and/or a girl? Is selection left to an individual
acquring a mate and parents remain indifferent to the attributes of the mate selected, or is it the
parents who have a dominant voice in the matter, or do parents and children together select the
spouse keeping in mind the needs of the family as well as the interests of the person acquiring a
spouse?
In the man-woman relationship based on marriage, the personalities of individuals involved are
significant because it is the personality that makes or mars the process of adjustment. This requires
full freedom in selecting one’s mate. But in India, this freedom was denied till recently. Margaret
Cormack’s study in 1959 of 500 students from different states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala and the
union territory of Delhi revealed that in 92 per cent cases, ego’s parents’ marriage was arranged by
their parents while only in 8 per cent cases it was a self-arranged marriage. Since last three to four
decades, however, we find that parents have started cosulting their children in mate selection. Initially,
they consulted only sons but later on even daughters also came to be consulted. In a few cases,
children select their own partners and settle their marriages without consulting their parents. It could
thus be said that change in the process of mate selection is from ‘parental’ to ‘joint’ selection.
Children do not want complete freedom of selecting the partners by themselves. They want that
parents and children should jointly select the partners. B.V. Shah’s study (1964) of 200 students of
Baroda University showed that 66.5 per cent students wanted to select their brides in consultation
with their parents, 32.5 per cent wanted to give more importance to their own voice, and only 1.0 per
cent would go exclusively by parents’ choice. Students of the first category wanted to associate their
parents in mate selection to avoid unnecessarily inviting tensions in their life by marrying against the
wishes of their parents; students of the second category were in favour of giving more voice to
themselves because they thought that it is the children and not the parents who are to bear the
consequences of marriage—good or bad—throughout the rest of their life; and the students of the
third category wanted to depend completely on their parents for selecting their mates because they
thought their parents are old and more experienced and therefore are in a better position to view
things properly for them. Margaret Cormack also found in her study that in 78 per cent cases, students
wanted that marriages should be arranged by parents with the consent of their children, in 3 per cent
cases, they wanted the arrangement of marriages by parents without the consent of the children, and
in 32 per cent cases, students said that marriages should be by one’s own choice. But when asked,
how would their partners be selected, 48 per cent students told that they would have an arranged
marriage, and 46 per cent said that thev would be allowed to do as they wished.
In a two-generational sociological study on mate selection conducted in 1984 in Jaipur, 120 males and
females (sixty each) of 18-35 years age-group belonging to different classes, linguistic communities
and educational level were studied. Of these, sixty (thirty each) were married and sixty (thirty each)
unmarried. The study revealed that in ego’s parents’ generation, in 98.3 per cent cases, interviewees’
parents’ marriages were arranged without their approval and only in 1.7 per cent cases, it was self-
arranged marriage with parents’ approval. In the ego’s generation, in 80 per cent cases, marriages
were arranged by parents and in 20 per cent cases, they were self-arranged marriages. This shows
that though the modern youth clamour for a right to select their brides/grooms themselves, yet left
to themselves, they view the selection of a partner as a family concern.
Vimal Shah (1975) also studied 281 Hindu graduate students (boys and girls of high, intermediate
and low castes) of Gujarat University durjng 1960-61 to analyze students’ attitudes towards arranged
marriage and whether they would select their mate through parents or through self-choice. With

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