An Unwanted Weed: Children of Cross-region Unions Confront Intergenerational Stigma of Caste, Ethnicity and Religion

Colorism as Marriage Capital: Cross-Region Marriage Migration in India and Dark-Skinned Migrant Brides

“…The association of dark skin with low-caste or “untouchable” status and, by extension, with primitiveness, uncleanliness, and ritual impurity in the national imaginary has resulted in fair skin signifying higher social and caste status, thereby reinforcing further stratifications for already marginalized and discriminated-against caste groups (Mishra 2015; Parameswaran and Cardoza 2009). The relationship between caste and color is also closely aligned with ethnocentrism, wherein dark skin is derogatively associated with poor people from east India (Kukreja 2018; Mishra 2015).…”

“…Their matrimonial offers of “no dowry and all wedding expenses paid” are often hard for poor families with marriage-age daughters to turn down (Kaur 2004; Kukreja 2017). These alliances transgress customary norms of marriage within one’s caste group and/or religion because the cross-region brides belong to a different caste, ethnicity, region, and sometimes even religion from those of their husbands (Kukreja 2018). The brides have to contend with radically alien social customs, culture, work habits, modes of dressing, and language in their new homes.…”

“…Studies on preference for marriage partners in India reveal a clear gendered skin-color bias, with darker-hued women facing higher rejection in arranged matrimonies (Nagar 2018). In the instance of cross-region marriages, a handful of works discuss caste and ethnocentric discriminations faced by cross-region brides in their conjugal homes (Chaudhry 2019; Kukreja 2017, 2018). However, these do not investigate how colorism contributes to increased gender violence against the women or discrimination within conjugal communities.…”

New Sociological Perspectives: Understanding Cross-Region Marriages and Their Children in Rural Haryana, India

“…Furthermore, these cross-regional marriages are accepted since they do not challenge the village's local power hierarchy unlike the local inter-caste unions (Chaudhry, 2016). According to Reena Kukreja, families who get such wives are ostracised by both the extended family and the local kin group (Kukreja, 2018a). The long-distance character of these unions discourages queries about the bride's caste, allows for easy fabrications about their caste, and thwarts the challenges to the caste system offered by local inter-caste marriages (Kukreja, 2017, pp.…”

“…Since the mid-1990s, it has led bachelors to get rejected in their local marriage markets due to their landlessness, unemployment, lack of education, bad reputation or older ages, etc. Therefore, in response to the shortage of women in marriageable cohorts, the state of Haryana witnessed an increase in long-distance, cross-region marriages (Ahlawat, 2009;Chaudhry 2019b;Chaudhry & Mohan, 2011;Kaur, 2004Kaur, , 2008aKaur, , 2012Kukreja, 2018a;Mishra, 2013Mishra, , 2018Mukherjee, 2013Mukherjee, , 2015 where rural men are breaking the traditional caste endogamy marriage norms (marrying within one's own caste group), sharing similar region and culture, village and territorial exogamy (extending over several villages). A cross-region marriage is one that traverses the traditional boundaries of caste, language, and state boundaries and entails long-distance migration within India, unlike the conventional marriage that conforms to caste and community norms within a relatively short distance (Chaudhry, 2021).…”