Cyber-matchmaking among Indians: Re-arranging marriage and doing ‘kin work’

Abstract

This paper provides a sociological analysis of the increasing popularity of internet-based matchmaking services among the urban Indians and Non-resident Indians. The institution of arranged marriage is subject to numerous pressures, such as declining social networks, high geographical mobility and growing complexity in the choice of a marital partner, and is finding a new lease of life via such services that are increasingly replacing and penetrating other commercial matchmaking media. It is argued that while the extended family and kin are now less inclined to directly participate in the process of matchmaking, the use of internet-mediated services itself becomes a means of undertaking such ‘kin work’. The dominant Indian variant of online matchmaking is shown to be combining elements of varied global trends in online matchmaking insofar as it facilitates conventional marriage preferences under conditions that are less than favorable to perpetuation of such preferences. This analysis shows how the new technology is aiding in the sustenance of caste- and community-based identities and networks albeit in new forms.