Arranged Marriages in India- Jain Vows in Mombai

By आर्या जोशी - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57808266

Here are two terrific essays that will fit into the curriculum on religion.

Moni Basu, a CNN reporter, writes about the popularity of arranged marriages among many Indian millennials.

And Vatsala Chhibber, writing for LiveMint, reviews a recent ‘diksha’ ceremony in Mumbai in which sixteen young men and women took the Jain vow of renunciation.

One of the young Jain women who took the vow explained that “becoming a nun is a sensible alternative to the uncertainties of marriage, which remains a deeply patriarchal institution among most Jains.” She said that “renunciation allows a woman to carve out a zone of autonomy and agency..."

Exploring arranged marriages in India, Basu talks to one young woman who says that the idea of an arranged marriage had been instilled in her from a young age.