Name – Mirza Shaquib

Sec – A
Roll – 58

3rd Internal Assessment Paper

Q.1. Compare and Contrast the North Indin and South Indian Marriage Prctices.

A. In in India there is no greater event in the family than a wedding in which they gathered
together to make kinship bond, for which they have impassionate sentiment, and traditional value
& importants. Marriage is esssential for everyone in India. For individual, marriage is the pivotal
moment in life, making the transition to adulthood. In India this transition, like everything else in
India, dependes little on individual choice & preference but instead occurs as a result of the
efforts of many people. Even as one is born into a particular family without having a personal
choice & preference, so is one given spouse without any personal will involved. Marriage is a
critical responsiblitiy for parents and the other relative of both side because the marriage
alliances bring some redistribution of wealth as well as building and restructuring social
realignments.
In the past, age of marriage was quiet young and a few small groups, espacially in Rajasthan,
children under five united in marriage. In rural area pre-puberty marriage for girls was very
prevalent. Later the age of marriage raised in village to the level obtain in cities.

Copmarison between North and South Indian marriages: Speaking of comparison India is
divided into two large regions in terms of kinship and marriage practices, the north and the south.
Apart from these diverse regions we have other various ethnics and tribal groups of the central,
mountanious north and eastern region as well. They all varied from one place to another, are
follows:-
 In the north, a family seeks marriage alliances with people to whom it is not already
linked by ties of blood. But in the south, a family seeks to strengthen existing kin ties
through marriage (preferably with blood relatives).
 Kinship terminology reflects this basic pattern. In the north, every kinship term clearly
shows whether the person referred to a blood relation or an affinal relation: all the blood
relations are forbidden as marriage mates to a person or a person’s children.
 In the south, there is no clear-cut distincton between the famliy of birth and the family of
marriage because marriage in the south commonly involves a interchange of daughters
among a few families, for the married couple all relatives are ultimately blood relatives.
 In the north-central regions, marriages are happens outside the village, sometimes even
outside of large groups of villages, with members of same caste far from any affiliation
ties. Even in the areas daughters should not be given into villages where duaghters of the
family have previously been given. These regions are presistently avoided brother-sisters
 exchange marriages (marriage linking a brother and sister of one house to brother and
sister of another).
 Most of the time in North India, the bride goes on to lives with the strangers in a house
she had never visited before. There she is hidden and veiled, an outsider who must learn
to conform to new ways. Her natal family is often distant geographically and her ties to
the relative kin undergo attenuation to varying degrees.
 In South India, a bride moves to her in-laws home which is the home of her grandfather
or aunt and is often comfortable among these familiar faces. Her husband may well be the
cousin she has known all her life. In south India marriage are preferred between cousins
(especially cross-cousin marriage) and even between uncles and neices. The reason
behind this is the family that gives a daughter except a one in return, if is not possible
now then in some near future (the next generation). Another reason of such marriage is to
bind people together in small tight-knit kin groups.
 Sometimes South Indian marraiges also undertake outside of such close kin groups when
no suitable mates exist among close relatives or other option outside the kin appear more
advantageous. On the other hand sophisticated South Indians considers the cross cousin
marriages or marriage within the relatives and uncle-niece marriage to be out-dated.
 In terms of Muslims of both north and south, marriages between cousins is encouraged,
both cross-cousin and parallal cousins (the children of two same-sex siblings). In north,
such cousins grew up calling brother and sister, yet they may marry, when the cousin
marriage does not occur, spouses can often scout between them other kinship linkages.
 In India, especially in north, a marriage establishes a structural opposition between the
kin groups of the bride and groom as “bride givers and bride takers” within this
relationship, bride-givers are considered inferior to bride-takers and are forever expected
to give gifts to the bride-takers. The one way flow of gifts begins at the engagement and
continues for generation to come.
 In general, the basic north Indian pattern prevails, with some modificatons. For example,
in Madhya Pradesh, village exogamy is preferred, but marraiges within a village are not
uncommon. Marraiges between caste-fellows in neighboring villages are frequent.
Brother-sister exchange marraiges are sometimes arranged, and daughters are often given
in marriage to lineages where other daughters of their lineage or village have previously
been married.
Referrences:
 James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden ( India: A Country Study)
 Kinship organization in India: Irawati Karve
 https://www.sociologygroup.com/kinship-india-iravati-karve
 https://mymarriagewebsite.com/wedding-customs-around-the-world-north-and-south-
indian-weddings