Marriage in America & in India

In the United States the institution of marriage has felt the repercussions from change. Not only the rituals and traditions surrounding the event, but the intentions and attitudes toward married life are today a reflection of the past thirty years. The purpose of this paper will be to look at marriage in America and its areas of influence when compared to India's views of marriage today, which while considered a world leader, is still for all intents and purposes a developing country. Each nation's approach to marriage is grounded in religious, cultural and societal traditions and experiences.

The union of marriage is a complex of impulses and habits imbedded in man's very nature and is an integral part of every culture (Queen, 1974, p. 6). And, though it shares elements in common, as a way of life, it has no single, uniform pattern and has tremendous variations in structure, life cycle, controls and fu

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would mean having to repay the dowry and since the law is usually willing to rule these deaths as suicides, there is no incentive to make the repayment. In fact, less than five percent of such cases ever result in convictions (India: till death do us part, 1990). In 1969, at least 110 such dowry deaths were reported in New Delhi alone, which is a dramatic increase from the seventeen reported in 1980 (India: till death do us part, 1990). Many of the deaths are actually suicides of which most are by immolation, the most common form of suicide by Hindus, carried out by young women who can no longer tolerate the physical and psychological abuse to which they are rejected by their in-laws (Kluck, 1985, p. 249). In addition, the tradition of dowries has taken on a more commercial aspect today. In attempting to placate a husband's dowry demands, many families will go beyond their means, giving tribute in the form of television sets, refrigerators, VCRs or cars with payments stretching out for years. If a bride cannot meet these demands, however, a husband may kill her so that he is free to remarry and claim another dowry. The ability to escape punishment points to the fact that modernization has not changed the general views on
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Approximate Word count = 2526
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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