Advantages & Disadvantages of Arranged Marriages

As they say, marriages are made in heaven and God has made one person who will make a perfect life partner for you.

But reality is that no one is perfect and it takes two individuals who are ready to make compromises and accept each other’s flaws to make their marriage work.

Over the time, love marriages have become prominent in most parts of the world and have become more welcoming to the families of different cultural groups. But even advantages of arranged marriages are well known. Though declining, arranged marriages are quite popular in many religious groups and families following traditional lifestyle approach. 

Today’s modern generation repel the idea of getting hitched to a person chosen by their families. They feel that the right to choose their life partner has to be surrendered and they have to begin their life’s most important chapter with a person who is a complete stranger. Whether it is love marriage or arranged, your love, respect and tuning with your partner are a few things that will help you sail through rough patches with ease.

Here are few advantages and disadvantages of arranged marriages that will help you understand the concept better and shape the decision making process for you or your children:

Advantages of Arranged Marriages

1. Finding The One Is No More A Big Task

Many of us spend a whole lot of time finding the right partner by going through numerous dates, making impulsive expenses and then handling traumatic break-ups. This is one of the best advantages of arranged marriage where your perfect partner is chosen for you. 

There are many people out there who find it difficult to interact with the opposite sex or are shy to date other people or are culturally bound to get married to the person chosen by family or are fed up dating and wish to get settled down with their parent’s choice, definitely find arranged marriages a great option.

2. Fewer Chances Of Fights With In-laws

Since the whole marital arrangement is planned by the parents of both families, it can be assumed that both parties are happy with the union of the families. Since the bride or the groom is selected by mutual consent of the families, there are hardly chances of any fights with the in-laws.

3. Parental Guidance Is Always Available

Few disagreements or fights are common in every relationship. But in case of arranged marriages, parents can be involved to help resolve them. Since parents are highly knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to life and relationships, they can guide you to manage your marital life and give you new perspectives about making the marriage a successful one.

4. Safeguards Cultural Legacy

Arranged marriage is an ancient concept and parents ensure that age-old rituals and cultural traditions get priority while planning the whole wedding scenario. This brings you closer to your roots and preserves family culture. And what’s great is that your spouse too understands the importance laid on safeguarding cultural legacy and would then pass on to the future generations.

5. Easier Upbringing Of Children

One among the numerous advantages of arranged marriage is that the families involved in arranged marriage understand their culture, traditions and rituals and their involvement in the life of the married couple which helps them in seamless upbringing of children. 

The newly married couple will not be alone in the new parenting phase as they will get expertise of their parents that will guide them the right way of rearing a child.

Disadvantages of Arranged Marriages

1. Hardly Any Chance To Enjoy The Dating Phase  

Unlike love marriages, here you cannot enjoy that dating phase. It is actually the dating phase that enables you to know the person and understand his or her lifestyle, preferences and ideologies before even thinking of getting married to that person. There is a romantic thrill when you go dating. 

In case of arranged marriages, you are allowed to meet your chosen partner for a few times and for limited hours. It lacks intimacy and you don’t have the opportunity to develop love and understanding for each other till you get married. 

2. Increased Interference Of Family

Since arranged marriages are mostly a complete family affair, the interference of the parents continues throughout the marriage. Right from selecting your partner, planning your honeymoon to getting involved in every single event of your married life, both the families can highly intrude your privacy and hamper your marital life to some extent.

3. Limited Involvement Throughout The Wedding

The whole wedding scenario is under complete supervision of your parents and in-laws. This limits your scope of involvement in the most important day of your life. Everything remains a surprise and your choices and opinions don’t get much attention from the parent’s side as they have to maintain family traditions and cultural legacy throughout the wedding proceedings. 

4. Starting A New Journey With A Stranger

When you think of living your whole life with one person, you want that one person to be your best friend, confidante and the person stands by you through the toughest of times. You can find such a person when you have dated them for long and developed a different level of love, respect, understanding and coordination. 

But in case of arranged marriages, you are married to a person you barely know and the first few years goes in developing the love and trust. Till then, you just feel like living with an utter stranger whom you cannot trust with everything. 

5. ‘Love’ Factor Is Given Least Priority

Love definitely takes a backseat in case of arranged marriages. Love marriages are a result of deep love between two people and arranged marriages is a union of two families who arrange wedding of two people who hardly know each other. 

It doesn’t count if you both like or love each other, since the whole wedding in case of arranged marriages is approved by parents of both families. Love may or may not happen in arranged marriages and if it happens, you are lucky and if it doesn’t, the parents are to be blamed.

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