Author Description

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Preface to the Revised Edition -- Glossary -- 1. Mapping the Debate on Marriage -- From Formal Marriage Rules to Everyday Practices -- Marriage, Love, Caste and Kinship Support: Framing the Debate -- Globalization, Gender Equality, and Radical Shifts -- Women-led Informal Courts and their Transformatory Potential -- Structure of the Book -- Representation and Lived Experience: The Journey -- Translation and the Case Study Method -- The Setting -- Caste, Region, and Religion: Heterogeneity and Differentiation -- 2. Revisiting Arranged Marriages Marital Roles, Conflict, and Kinship Support -- Marital Arrangements in Mohini Nagar -- The Male Breadwinner Ideology -- Problematizing Marital Relationships -- Kinship Support: The Role of Parental Refuge -- Mother-Daughter Bonds and Married Women's Labour -- Durable Support Structures: A Double-edged Sword -- 3. Courtships and Love Marriages -- Subversive Practices in Love and Marriage -- Premarital Romance in Urban Neighbourhoods -- Theatre of Courtship -- 'Love Marriage' and its Many Connotations -- Between Courtship and Marriage: Caste, Community, and Religion -- Inter-caste Matches: The Balmiki Conundrum -- Inter-regional Matches: Place, Gender, and Culture -- Inter-religious Love Marriages -- Hindu-Muslim Love Marriages -- Married Love: The Post-marriage Phase -- The Parental Role and Kinship Support -- Conjugal Stability in Love Marriages -- Dominant Discourses and the Right to Love -- 4. Secondary Unions and Other Conjugal Arrangements -- Mapping the Terrain of Post-marital Consensuality -- Secondary Unions in a Metropolis -- Consensuality and Commitment: Customary Processes -- The Love Stories of Radha and Her Sisters -- Generational Shifts: Marriage, Consensuality, Cohabitation