The Indian culture is far away from the western, being a developing country, the mindset & the stereotypes have been imbibed in Indians since childhood. Now, when it comes to stereotypes, it’s a vast subject but specifically to mention, Gender roles are one of the most affecting things hampering the culture - A male is supposed to look after the income of the family whereas a female has to look after its children & the household world. These gender roles lead to the concept of patriarchy & injustice. Not denying the actuality that metro cities & big towns have had a drastic change in their psychological upliftments but we also need to remember the fact that the rural population is more than 60 percent in India which leaves the urbans in minority.
The second affecting factor is “social status”, people in India have a huge thing in them for what is called to be the relative level of respect & honour in the society they reside in. This societal pressure causes toxic & committed relationships to stick around, even when they are falling apart. Just a fact that needs to be highlighted here is, “DIVORCE IS STILL A TABOO IN MANY PARTS OF INDIA.” How vulnerable is that?
Then comes the feeling of powerlessness - when compared to western culture, the women are not as financially & emotionally independent as most of the women living in the West. Once divorced, the hurdles of lack of family support, managing expenditures, living in the traits of shame in the society & most importantly, speaking up for themselves scars these women who think they are helpless and the only way is to jump through these challenges is to stay in the oppressive relationship and sacrifice. This false morality is also supported by legal justice & religion, the focus of the court and judges in India is on reconciliation which makes the entire process of divorce so lengthy and time-consuming.
In India, lack of education and exposure also contributes to the unethical norms & systems prevailing in the society. Imagine yourself being in the house since childhood & helping around your family. You don’t get anything to learn or in that case you don’t even know what learning is. And even if education is a thing, you are not exposed to different cultures & perspectives. What is the stand of those in this society? They are more like puppets working with what the community demands.
Summing this up, the western culture does not focus on divorce being a social stigma, instead the mindset of people aim towards individual happiness which is exactly OPPOSITE to the situation in India. Not only this but to a certain extent love marriages were or are also a taboo in India- Most of the families don’t accept love marriages especially if it’s inter-caste, leading to arranged marriages playing the game with dominance.
This is majorly because of the caste system that gave birth to arranged marriages as they did not want their children to marry someone outside their community, specifically the upper caste families.
It’s time, we make divorce an easy process, we see it positively, we support the decisions & be absolutely non-judgemental. With this cause in mind, we started Rekindle, a dating app for have-been marrieds who are separated, divorced or widowed. We believe in second chances & so should you.
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