Runaway Marriages- Can they be justified?

After the traditional arranged marriage, it was Indian Cinema that overtly hyped colours of Love evolving in two souls without considering the consequences. There was a change and lovers started taking vows to be together under Love marriage. Some were not happy with the idea of hurting their parents for their selfish sake so they switched to Love-cum Arranged marriage and seek blessings from their parents.

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But as the time has passed, terms like technology and globalization poured in and fuelled the youth with the new name- Generation ‘Y’. There is nothing wrong in this generation but somehow our patience has certainly gone for a toss. The New Mantra is- Impatient one is the winner. But these days this impatient generation is coming with more problems, the one being the 4th category of marriage state which is Runaway Marriages.

This doesn’t mean that it is something very new to this generation, it is completely no. Even in early days there were people who would flee away from their home to marry the ones they love but these days hundreds of cases like this shout almost daily in all the major local newspapers and other media making it debatable whether they can be justified or not?

Lets take for an example- There is a family who boasts of not being conservative yet they want their daughter or son to be married in the same caste as theirs. The reason being it is better as the child won’t find any problem adjusting in the family (A hard dream that cannot be considered the criteria of happiness). For this they will go to any extent to get her/ him married to their caste no matter what his age is or what he does.

The other example can be taken of a family who feel that people of lower cast or varna won't fit in their social status and would even kill their own son or daughter for this sake.

Haven’t you noticed cases like these in your daily life? The problem is taking its head up so much so, that most of us would agree knowing someone or the other who choose love over family. No wonder it has been continously strengthened by a combination of both political system and social perceptions.

People have already divided themselves into different religions. Though practicing a religion is one’s own choice and which shouldn’t be interfered with, but the different gotras and sub-castes is something that is not tolerated by this generation and hence they revolt.

I do agree that parents have lots of expectations from their children, so it’s natural that they are hurt when their children marry against their wishes. But don’t you think that the choice of marrying a person should be given to the individual because ultimately it’s him/her who has to lead a life with that person? When we have so badly spread casteism in our own country, we have no right to talk about racism against Indians in different parts of the world. There is a popular and very true quote that says, ‘Whatever goes around, comes around.’