Marriage: A Knotty Milieu

Every now and then, we hear that India is on its way ahead, it is rising and becoming stronger. But, what is the definition of this strength- is it merely signing a nuke deal with U.S. or the IMF

pegging the growth rate of India at 9%. Probably not.

The biggest strength that India has is the strong “social fabric”, whose weaving thread is family ethics and moral values which are gradually eroding. This is evident from the fact that the divorce rate in India, at present, is on its all-time high. Reasons are many- some justified and some not so justified..And here, I want to clear my stance that I am not the orthodox hindu from the 1930’s, who considers divorce to be a taboo and divorcees to be social ogres. But I am
definitely against divorces on trivial grounds, like, snoring and pimples…! Yes! This is the “now” of this holy sacrament.

A Times of India report says that every two out of five marriages are officially breaking up in Mumbai, let’s not consider ourselves with the unofficial ones…! And Mumbai, more than anything else is a trendsetter for the rest of India. The aftermath is conveniently
foreseeable.

There are n number of circumstances, that one can blame, for this drastic increase in divorce rates. One very important factor is the hyper-urban lifestyles that result in time-starved relationships. With both the spouses working for 8+2 hours, they are left with too little time to nurture their marriage, which results in discontentment. Another reason again, has much to do with loosening morals- extra marital affairs, which is a fair enough reason to get divorced. Some
people even blame it on Bollywood culture that is invading the Indian masses.

An interesting study by a Malay board- National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) says that amongst Indians the most popular reason for divorce is “Mother-in-law” or broadly the “in-laws”. This depicts the lack of tolerance amongst Indian couples regarding family
ethics.

Some sociologists believe that Indians are aping the western culture and this westernization has led to this swelling number of divorces, but here, something that is left unheeded is that U.S., the
pall-bearer of western culture, is declining in divorce rates and our India is trekking up.

Romans had an interesting concept-“matrimonia debent esse liberia” meaning that marriages shall be free; centuries later Victorian England had an starkly opposite view that one should stay in his or her marriage for better or for worse. I believe that, the concept should hang between the two- one should try to save a marriage to the maximum possible extent, but, when it affects you so much so that it corrupts your soul, one should get out of it.

Family is considered as the most important and fundamental element of Indian society, which when breaks, weakens the social fabric. This weak social fabric is sure to show up in the national character. The strength of a country is not only determined by its military and economic strength, it depends equally so on the moral strength of its people. So, lets be rational and morally courageous and make and keep India strong and healthy in its soul.

- Shivangi Tripathi, Student, RML National Law University, Lucknow