Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how a changing social situation in the late colonial northern India influenced issues related to marriage. The most controversial matters were: proper age at marriage, ritual concerns, marriage expenses as well as side effects of child marriages and immature widow problem.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present how a changing social situation in the late colonial northern India influenced issues related to marriage. The most controversial matters, also reflected in Hindi literature of the time, were: proper age at marriage, ritual concerns, marriage expenses as well as side effects of child marriages and immature widow problem.

The paper draws mainly on Hindi novels by Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay and Kishorilal Goswami published at the beginning of the twentieth century. For the most part conservative and didactic in their outlook, they put forward interesting postulates concerning disputable matters. Some of the ideas, like reducing the unnecessary expenses, are worth considering even today. The analysis of literary sources also reveals what were the expectations of future brides and grooms and by what means they were to be found. The attention paid by Hindi writers to a number of marriage practices confirms the status of marriage as one of the most important social institutions.