Caste and Cross-region Marriages in Haryana, India: Experience of Dalit cross-region brides in Jat households

Abstract

This article, based on original research in 75 villages in the North Indian state of Haryana, examines long-distance marriages of its dominant-peasant caste men with low-caste (Dalit) women from other parts of India. The male marriage squeeze caused by the female deficit in Haryana has led to this breach in the rules of caste endogamy in matrimony. These marriages and the gender status of such Dalit brides are situated within the context of polarized caste relations, caste contestations, and caste violence against local Dalits in Haryana. Long-distance alliances, through fabricated, high-caste identities of the brides, tactically circumvent prohibitions on local inter-caste marriages and provide legitimacy to continued, local, unequal hierarchies of caste relations. Intersecting oppressions of caste, gender, and patriarchy exacerbate gender subordination within both the home and community for Dalit cross-region brides. Caste-exclusionary behaviours and discriminations are strategically employed to assert caste supremacy and subdue women's resistance. The caste stigmatization of these brides carries over to their children who face inter-generational discrimination in daily interactions and marriage prospects because of their ‘diluted’ Jat identity and low-caste status. The article provides examples of Dalit brides’ agency through resistance strategies.

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

“…Not all migrant brides experience caste violence or colorism within their conjugal homes due to factors including the region from where they are sourced and the necessity of their labor. The intersectional and overlapping discriminations of caste, ethnocentrism, and colorism result in the creation of a racial hierarchy, with fair-skinned women from the provinces of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand ranked first because of their similarity to the locals in terms of “racial” attributes (Kukreja 2017). They do not experience discrimination largely because their skin tone is more in line with the dominant color discourse that privileges fairness with higher caste status.…”

“…Since the 1990s, widespread dis-preference for girls coupled with sex-selective abortion of female fetuses has created a bride deficit within the rural North Indian marriage market because of skewed sex ratios (Ahlawat 2009). This marriage squeeze has led many low-class North Indian Hindu and Meo 3 men—rejected locally as husband material because of their poverty, unemployment, landlessness, physical handicap, and/or alcoholism—to travel across India to distant provinces such as West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Assam in search of brides (Kukreja 2017). 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).…”

“…This marriage squeeze has led many low-class North Indian Hindu and Meo 3 men—rejected locally as husband material because of their poverty, unemployment, landlessness, physical handicap, and/or alcoholism—to travel across India to distant provinces such as West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Assam in search of brides (Kukreja 2017). 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).…”

“…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.…”

‘Flexible’ caste boundaries: cross-regional marriage as mixed marriage in rural north India

“…Here I wish neither to generalise the experience of all brides nor argue for 'widespread intolerance', as some have (Kukreja and Kumar 2013, 2, 32;Kukreja 2018; see also Mukherjee 2013). Rather, I seek to problematize the view that the uncertain/differential caste status of CRBs is entirely irrelevant in the caste-bound rural communities into which they marry.…”