Give an account of the recent trends of marriage in the Indian context. How are these different from traditional practices? (Answer in 350 words)

- Give an account of the recent trends of marriage in the Indian context. How are these different from traditional practices? (Answer in 350 words)
Introduction
Indian marriage is changing in who decides, when, and how long it lasts, while the boundary it polices has hardly moved.

Body

1. The recent trends themselves: Age at marriage is rising, and the National Family Health Survey records under-18 marriage continuing to fall. Choice has shifted towards the couple: the arranged marriage survives as a negotiated introduction, with the veto passing to the young, and matrimonial websites and apps have taken over the broker's work. Marriage is becoming optional and postponed, especially for educated urban women, and fertility has fallen below replacement level. Conjugality is judged by companionship, so dissatisfaction is now a ground for exit: separation and divorce, though still uncommon, are rising, and remarriage is easier. Live-in relationships have acquired legal standing through the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and Uttarakhand now requires them to be registered. Dowry persists and has monetised. Queer couples have claimed recognition, refused in Supriyo in 2023. Regulation has passed from caste council to court and statute.

2. What traditional practice held: Marriage was a sanskara and a dharmic obligation rather than a contract, arranged by elders, universal and early, with kanyadan transferring the daughter to her husband's lineage. It was governed by caste endogamy and gotra exogamy, and by region: Karve described northern village exogamy against southern cross-cousin and uncle-niece marriage. It was indissoluble for the twice-born, though divorce and widow remarriage were permitted among many lower castes and tribes, and residence was patrilocal.

3. The difference, trend by trend: Consent has moved from the lineage to the couple, but inside the caste circle, and inter-caste marriage remains a small minority. Marriage has moved from sacrament to terminable relationship, from an alliance between families to a bond judged by its quality, from early and universal to later and elective, from community sanction to state regulation. Dowry is the exception where the change ran the other way: Srinivas noted it spreading down the hierarchy as lower castes Sanskritised.

4. What the direction amounts to: The form is being individualised; the caste boundary it enforces is not.

Conclusion
The couple has gained authority over the wedding; caste has not lost authority over the marriage.