Blog Post # 4: Love in Indian Culture

            When it comes to love in Indian culture what do you think of? I always thought of arranged marriages and weird Bollywood movies that are hard to understand and interpret. While watching “Slumdog Millionaire” those beliefs were challenged and I decided to investigate further what love really means within Indian culture. I found that love is prevalent in Indian culture through the forms of marriage, death, and Bollywood films.

http://weddings.iloveindia.com/features/arranged-cum-love-marriage.html

            One issue not addressed by “Slumdog Millionaire” is the role of marriage in Indian culture. Contained in the link is an article about the evolution of marriage in India from the conservative and more traditional arranged marriage to the westernized and idealized love marriages. Throughout this article and many others like it, the author points out that Indian society is very adaptable and changes with the times very easily. Traditional marriages are accepted as a probability for all young Indians, but a growing number of young Indian men and women are taking part of love marriages. More and more the Indian culture is accepting of the fact that two people can and should be able to choose their life partner based on a deep romantic passion for each other.



wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal



            Everyone has heard of the Taj Mahal and everyone has seen the grand display and the beauty of the 17^th century Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s architectural masterpiece.  What does this fine piece of architecture have to do with love? Emperor Jahan built this magnificent structure for his late wife Mumtaz Mahal (May she rest in peace). The Taj Mahal is seen as a symbol of eternal love, and is also viewed as one of the most beautiful building in the world. Now, if you had a majestic masterpiece in your backyard as a symbol for eternal love wouldn’t you place a strong personal preference on the loved one’s in your life? Looking back at Shah Jahan we see that love was never and still is not, a touchy subject in Indian society and culture. Love is not hidden from modern day India, but instead is prevalent in the artistry and magic of Bollywood.

           Bollywood, Bollywood, Bollywood. Over the course of many You Tube clips I started to notice that, compared to Hollywood, Bollywood films focus less on the human control over the situation and more on the view point that fate decides love and relationships. This is seen in both “Slumdog Millionaire” and the clip from “Eternal Love” seen below. If fate, or one of many gods, were to decide whom you were to love then would it be easier to spend the rest of your life with somebody never second guessing if she/he was “the one”? In Bollywood films love is seen as a sacred topic meant to be respected whereas in Hollywood love is seen as a free flowing form of expression. 

            In summation, the Indian culture does not shy away from love by any means. In fact, Bollywood and the Taj Mahal are standing symbols of expressing love as loud and as clear as one can. While, at the same time, marriage is seen as the means through which people can express that love in a lifelong bond no matter if it were arranged or not. In the end, I have realized that India is a very loving place surrounded by examples past and present of deep romantic love for generations to come.