BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, March 30, 2002: In Indian culture, societal and family pressures to find someone of similar backgrounds and sometimes caste often produce quick nuptials, reports the Boston Daily Globe in this insightful article. Arranged marriages, in which teenagers are introduced on their wedding day, are declining among a new generation of Indians. But the alternative is hardly easier: How can young, single Indians living in a Western world satisfy parents espousing Eastern values, including a desire to get married to people with the perfect pedigrees? And be quick about it? “The pressure starts right out of college,” said Sonali Ganti, 32, of Newton, who got married in 1999. “No one’s mother wants them to be over 29, …But most of my friends went to grad school, medical school; their careers came first. And all of a sudden they realize that they’re pushing 30.” Recent films like “Monsoon Wedding” and the forthcoming “American Chai,” explore these issues. But for real-life young Indians, Vijay Prashad, director of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, sees more at work: modern interpretations of an ancient culture that emphasizes ancestry, class, and marriage as an improvement of parents’ social status. It creates what Prashad calls an “anxiety soup” for Indians raising their children in the United States. Their forebears might have sought members of the priestly Brahmin caste for their daughter’s hand; today, they’ll ask for doctors or lawyers. “Arranged relationships are not something new or old,” said Prashad, author of “The Karma of Brown Folk.” “They just take on different forms.”
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