Social Change and Women
Sudha Pai
CONTENTIOUS MARRIAGES, ELOPING COUPLES: GENDER, CASTE, AND PATRIARCHY IN NORTHERN INDIA by Prem Chowdhry Oxford University Press, 2007, 347 pp., 695
March 2007, volume 31, No 3

This is an important book that captures in detail and great finesse through a study of ‘contentious marriages’ the ongoing processes of social change in northern Indian society. By focusing on the central institution of marriage it weaves together the inter-relationship between caste, class and gender and its impact on women in Haryanvi society. The study shows that the traditional system of marriage arranged by senior male or female relatives continues in Haryana as patriarchal forces retain control over the individual women’s sexuality, production and reproduction as well as the political economy of the entire community. Yet at the same time these deeply embedded social norms are now being questioned as new ideas, values and cultural norms are emerging among the younger generation. But any attempt by a woman to select her life partner is viewed as very threatening and immediately put down by the caste elders.

It is this clash – often violent and life threatening—between older norms and new emerging ideas around marriage and the reasons underlying it that form the central theme of this work.

Chowdhry argues through an analysis of popular culture particularly cinema that in the 1970s for a time romantic love among young people triumphed and family pride and izzat (honour) had to bow before it.

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