Paper short abstract:

Based on ethnographic research in Tiruppur, a booming garment centre in Tamil Nadu, this paper explores contemporary practices and discourses of love marriages. It analyses moral discourses that surround such marriages and considers 'money' as a key trope through which moral evaluations are made.

Paper long abstract:

The post-liberalisation era in India has produced a wealth of opportunities for large sections of the rural and urban population. Developing industries and rapidly growing urban regions have enriched many urban groups and attracted rural migrants to town. Rapidly developing urban centres, however, are replete with moral evaluations of the changes that their populations are undergoing. Many such evaluations dwell on the changing sphere of the intimate, the family, and not in the least changing marriage patterns and conjugal relationships.

Based on long-term ethnographic research in Tiruppur, a booming garment export centre in Tamil Nadu, south India, this paper explores how love marriages and the weakening of the extended family among workers are deplored by locals as a sign of a more general degeneration of society and loss of morality. The paper considers love marriages and changing marriage practices, the ways in which these are talked about and evaluated, and the negotiations and compromises that surround them. Moral discourses surrounding love marriages are mobilised by local and high caste communities to distinguish themselves from both poorer fellow caste members and working-class migrants. Money, it appears, is central to marriage discourses, especially in terms of financial support. Whether in relation to dowry in arranged marriages or financial hardship in love marriages, financial considerations are the very trope through which moral evaluations are made and expressed. In the neo-liberal era, love marriages are denounced as irresponsible as they risk undermining 'family support', which remains much needed to increase chances of doing well in post-liberalisation India.