WHAT IS AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE?
A marriage that is arranged by family members or relatives. Arranged marriages vary in every case there is no set time and duration, each case varies from the other depending on the situation. Arranged marriages date back to ancient times, but they are still practised in today's world. Factors such as religion, caste and culture, profession, reputation, wealth, physical fitness and horoscopes were taken into account during the process of matchmaking. In many cases children gave their full consent, out of respect for their parents. Parents hoped that the love between the couple developed after marriage as a result of various post- marriage experiences. The Catholic church started to see problems in the concept of arranged marriages as the time passed. The church believed that love was a important ingredient for a successful marriage. This was to promote individuals more involvement within the society, rather than only within ones family and circle of friends. This gave the individuals oppurtunity to find someone who shared similar interests and ambitions as them. Arranged marriages were a part of the western culture for a long time. Even after the intervention of the catholic church, many upper class western families were hesitant to abandon this practise. The wealthy families saw free-choice marriages as that for the lower class. Most societies in the west moved away from the practise of arranged marriages, and began accepting free-choice marriages or “love marriages”. This was due to the rebellious acts of children and the expansion of the middle class, where most people belonged to the same class. Eventually this became the norm to marry and the idea of arranged marriage became rarer and rarer in the western society. In today's society most people in the western culture don't practice the idea of arranged marriage. However, immigrant families in particular of Asian decent or religions such as hinduism, still have arranged marriages within society. Most arranged marriages have been successful. There are still a lot of controversies on the topic of arranged marriages and most people remain divided on the idea.