Serena Nanda's Arranging A Marriage In India

Serena Nanda fails to write an impartial argument for arranged marriages versus "love match" marriages like those in the United States. She neglects to present the positive aspects of choosing a partner for marriage opting instead to keep the focus on the negatives. Her argument for arranged marriages is weak and unfocused leaving the reader to doubt her logic. In her attempt to persuade the reader to supporting arranged marriages, she actually emphasizes the negative effects of them. Reading Arranging A Marriage in India, strengthens the idealistic values of romantic love and exposes the flaws of arranged marriage including the extreme limitation of potential partners, inexperience and ignorance of the people, excessively traditional and sexist
A man who has a career in the military is not considered for marriage. A girl can be considered too educated or too independent for marriage. However, she can also be considered too dependent if she expresses an interest in visiting her family. One with too many siblings, pride in one-self, or unfortunate looks will be rejected for marriage. Even Nanda expresses doubt for the tradition of arranging marriages. She states that she "began to believe that between my friend’s desire for a girl who was modest enough to fit into her joint family, yet attractive and educated enough to be an acceptable partner for her son, she would not find anyone suitable" (629). Nanda "learned that young men and women in India do not date and have very little social life involving members of the opposite sex," which results in years of inexperience and loneliness (624). In the example in the story, the process of finding a suitable bride takes several years and the man is over thirty years old before he is married. That is thirty years without knowing the thrill and excitement of intimacy, thirty years without emotional closeness to a female outside of his