Love or money:
Marriage patterns are changing in India. Love (and Money) Conquer Caste Economist vol. 416 no. 8954 September 5, 2015 page 43) The changes are as you might expect. Young women have more say in whom they marry. It’s still rather old fashioned to those of the West. Marriage happens early, and extramarital affairs are few. But formerly it was the parents who chose a possible husband whom the daughter could veto while now the daughter tends to choose one, whom the parents can veto.
Money and education get involved as well. Both are attractive features that might not have been so available before.
Of course the Economist welcomes the change, and indeed it is hard not to. But India has always been my high hope for the future. I can think of no other great power that is tech savvy and has a substantial birth rate with good prospects of keeping it that way. But it seems inescapable that the couples will be far less kin on average, and that will cause the same kind of baby drought we see throughout the rich world.
Still, if I can get the word out somehow or other, they still ought to have ample time to turn things around. As for the rest of us, I feel like Robert Burns in “To a Mouse,” Forward, tho’ I canna see, / I guess an’ fear!
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