ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the growing body of work in South Asian anthropology and sociology which is concerned with romantic love and the 'rise' of the 'love marriage'. Framed as a consequence of 'one life, one love', young men actions may better be explained as a response to the changing field of marriage practices in Madampe, and in particular pressures to meet, court and propose to young women in a context where dating remains an impossibility. Nayomi's case demonstrates the interplay of several important features of young women's self-harm in particular. First, it shows how processes of blaming and shaming described in spiralled in Nayomi's life, from a small argument between schoolfriends to a larger dispute with adults, and finally to a violent reprimand by her father. The chapter provides upside-down the accepted history of romantic suicides, and by extension the spread of romantic love ideals, in Sri Lanka.
