Running head: ARRANGED MARRIAGES 1

ARRANGED MARRIAGES

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Arranged marriage is a marital union where the engaging individuals are selected by a

third party, mostly by relatives, rather than each other. Arranged marriages are popular in South

Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of East Asia (Batabyal, 2016). However, arranged

marriages are still practiced in some developed countries especially by the royal families and

some ethnic minority groups. In discussions concerning marriage and family, people and cultures

that support arranged marriages argue that it assists in reinforcing kinship relationships. They

further explain that it builds strong ties between the involved families by bringing them closer

especially after a child is born. The marriage institution makes it possible for other members of

the extended family to take care of newborns alongside their parents. One of the fascinating

aspect of arranged marriages is the way they come into existence. For instance, in love

marriages, the partners get to know each other for a long time through dating and possibly live

together before marrying a case that is in contrast to arranged marriages (Batabyal, 2016).

Arranged marriages involve strangers who have not spent time together to grow love which leads

to marriage. This paper will thus analyze research on establishing how arranged marriages come

into being.

The objectives of the research were; collecting views about arranged marriages, the

preference of type of marriage, and what people think are the motives behind arranged

marriages. For the study to succeed, a research methodology is of vital importance. The

methodology includes the research design used, data collection method, area and mode of data

collection.

A research design is merely the blueprint that devices the steps in which a study will take

(Miller, 1982). Therefore, a survey on arranged marriages is best suited by a descriptive research

design. Descriptive research is appropriate for this type of research as it provides the researcher
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with an opportunity to cover a broad field aspect that necessitates a variety of proper outcomes.

Besides, the descriptive analysis includes a range of surveys. Descriptive research aims at

describing a particular phenomenon as it is in real-time (Miller, 1982). Therefore, descriptive

study is the most appropriate to apply in determining the current state of arranged marriages with

the least bias from the researcher. As it is impossible to interview everybody, sampling proves to

be an essential technique of data collection as it creates an accurate generalization of the whole

population (Miller, 1982). For this research, the sample is well defined. The sample size is

ninety-two individuals within the range of twenty-eight years and forty-three years living in

Bikaner city (Kanak, 2017). The reason for that age range is because it has a higher number of

learned individuals at the marrying age. The mode of data collection utilized both primary and

secondary sources. The research heavily relied on primary data sources as views were mainly

collected from the people through interviews. However, it also made use of secondary data

sources such as the internet.

The research question on the view of respondents to the issue of arranged marriages

sparked mixed opinions. For instance, 42% percent of the respondents neither considered

arranged marriage as neither good nor bad while 33.3% of the respondents deemed arranged

marriage to be good (Kanak, 2017). However, when asked to select between arranged marriages

or love marriages, a majority of the respondents preferred arranged marriages over love

marriages. 56.7% of the respondents preferred arranged marriages while 47.8% of the

respondents preferred love marriages (Kanak, 2017). On a respondent rate, arranged marriages

rated higher than love marriages. When asked on the view about arranged marriages

disappearing, most of the respondents were unsure if it was quickly fading from society. The rest

of the respondents shared their opinions between yes and no. The research also noted that a
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substantial sect of the respondents attributed arranged marriages to parents. A high percentage of

the respondents also mentioned relatives as influencers of arranged marriages. Most of the

respondents think that parents influence arranged marriages for their satisfaction. 42% of the

respondents agreed to this statement while 39.1 of the respondents believe that arranged

marriages result from the belief that they last longer than love marriages (Kanak, 2017).

Fig. 1: 42% percent of the respondents neither considered arranged marriage as neither good

nor bad while 33.3% of the respondents deemed arranged marriage to be good.
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Fig. 2: 56.7% of the respondents preferred arranged marriages while 47.8% of the respondents

preferred love marriages.

Fig. 3: Most of the respondents think that parents influence arranged marriages for their

satisfaction

The research concluded that arranged marriages result from the consent of the entire

family. Both arranged marriages and love marriages have flaws, and it is an overstatement to say
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that arranged marriages are the safest in terms of longevity. Therefore, all forms of unions have

their advantages and disadvantages and it all depends on the parties involved. People’s choice,

situations, and perspective differ which makes it harder to analyze one common decision of a

group of people. However, it is still safe to say that arranged marriage is the most predominant

marriage in India as evidenced by the research.

The research attempted to be as authentic and reliable as possible. However, it faced

several challenges the most prevalent being the sample size. Due to the factor of time, the study

only engaged ninety-two respondents who are a small sample to derive generalizations from

considering the population of the city. The research can thus be made better in the future by

involving a larger sample.

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References

Batabyal, A. (2016). Making an arranged marriage work: A game-theoretic analysis.

Kanak Binakayika. (2017). "Arrange Marriage." Share and Discover Knowledge on LinkedIn

SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/kbinayakiya/arrange-marriage.

Miller, B. C., Rollins, B. C., & Thomas, D. L. (1982). On methods of studying marriages and

families. Journal of Marriage and the Family.