Random Things Tours: The Newlyweds by Mansi Choksi

People in Western society are sometimes so inebriated with their own definition of freedom that can hardly fathom that in fact in most of the places on this strange planet, people in fact marry for any other reason than love. They marry to survive, to increase the income of a household, to follow the family and religious rules. They marry because they are told so, with matches they are told to marry. Some may not even meet their potential spouses more than a couple of minutes before getting married. 

I am particularly interested in exploring the concept of arranged marriage in non-Western society and I am well familiar with life situations when the choice of the spouse is dictated or rejected based on criteria other than the free decision of two individuals looking for a love-based commitment. What may sound surprising for some is the fact that in societies with a high degree of digitalisation and exposure to social media, with a young population, the pressure of traditional marriage remains the same.

In The Newlyweds. Fighting for Love in the New India journalist Mansi Choksi pursues three young Indian couples as they are rejecting the arranged marriages their families prepared for them, embarking on a lonely yet love-filled life, far away from the family pressures and even life threats. In many respects, India fits the description of the country I mentioned in the previous paragraph: a highly educated and young population, with exposure to social media and global technologies. However, families prefer arranged marriages for their highly qualified young sons and daughters, following the centuries-long social and cultural patterns. 

The book, whose big cast of characters is introduced from the very beginning of the book, follows three particular stories: one Lesbian couple, one Hindu woman in love with a Muslim man, and one inter-caste couple whose transgression may risk them having to be burn alive (as horrific as it sounds, but a reality).

Documented, written with literary grace, those three stories outline the tectonic layers where love is violently rejected for tradition, where individual lives can be aimlessly neglected for the sake of the traditional society representations. It is a pleasure for the mind, while it reveals a tragic reality that cannot be avoided in most cases. However, the power of individual examples is always inspiring and may create the potential for change.

In addition to being an anthropological testimony, The Newlyweds is a professional journalistic investigation with a literary twist into how far fighting for love in India can go and how powerful love is, in general, against all odds and dangers. An example to follow for any other approach dealing with a similar topic, but in different cultural, religious and geographical contexts as well. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own