The views of young South- Asian males and females have changed around Essay

The views of young South- Asian males and females have changed around the issue of marriage - Essay Example The marriages in general can essentially be conducted following two norms, arranged marriage and love marriage. There is another type of marriage, known as love-arranged marriage, the type beyond the scope of this pilot study. Arranged marriage refers to the kind of marriage in which parents select prospective spouse for their children with the consideration of the family values, culture, education, occupation and social compatibility (Nanda, 1995). On the other hand, love marriages can be seen as a means in which the prospective spouses themselves take the decision to stay together irrespective of their corresponding family concern. In South-Asian context, the last decades of the twentieth century has brought an increasing radical shift in changing the perspective of marriage pattern and corresponding decision-making policy. The aim of the study is to find out the views of young South-Asian males and females on marriage, to find out whether there are any gender differences in approa ch and to find out reasons accounting for the differences. In Asian context, especially in South-Asia, the arrangement in the changes of socio-cultural and socioeconomic pattern have facilitated the increasing acceptance of â€Å"freedom of choice† among young individuals in terms of changing from arranged marriage to self-selected or love marriage (Tsuya, 2001). The current study is focusing on finding out to what extent self-selected marriage or love marriage is desirable and the changing pattern of attitude for the selection of partner by the candidate himself or herself or still left for the parents to settle on for the children to follow. However, the radical shift from arranged marriage to love marriage being observed especially during last decades suggests the possible link between dowry system and arrangement of marriage system. The change in the attitude governing the dowry system, central to the arranged marriage, may act to be responsible for, or