ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on marriage, the instability of which is positively correlated with the incidence of inter-caste unions. As a general rule, the higher the rate of divorce and remarriage, the more frequent the breaches of caste endogamy; and plainly the prevalence of those has a crucial bearing on the reproduction of caste. Even scholarly studies of the subject have sometimes claimed that, by contrast with its ‘alarming rate’ in the West, ‘divorce was unknown to the Hindu institution of marriage. The logic by which the stability of marriage and the grip of endogamy are associated is already present in Dumont’s distinction between primary and secondary marriage. The primary marriage is ‘the marriage par excellence’, more strictly regulated, more expensive and prestigious. In pre-Bhilai Steel Plant days, child marriage was the norm in all castes; and with the exception of Brahmans all castes in the Girvi and Patripar hierarchies tolerated divorce and remarriage.
