![arranged marriage television show arranged marriage television show](http://flowjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/image-a.png)
In several ways, the presentation of Indian Matchmaking seems to fall within Majumdar’s paradigm. According to Rochona Majumdar, “marital practices in foreign lands have long tantalized outside observers with their apparent promise to unlock the secret of an ‘oriental culture’” (Majumdar 2009, 6).
![arranged marriage television show arranged marriage television show](https://cropper.watch.aetnd.com/cdn.watch.aetnd.com/sites/3/2016/05/watch-desktop-hero-arranged-S2-alt.jpg)
The medium of presentation for Indian Matchmaking also serves as a site of ethnographic significance, namely in the form of the globally distributed streaming platform Netflix. The subjects of Indian Matchmaking, as well as the manner in which the process of arranged marriage itself is depicted, manifest in a state of flux, straddling the line between the ostensibly traditional and the modern.
![arranged marriage television show arranged marriage television show](https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-81549798,width-1070,height-580,overlay-toi_sw,pt-32,y_pad-40,resizemode-75,imgsize-1827789/81549798.jpg)
The tension in this statement is one which characterizes the entirety of the eight-episode series. The scene concludes with a final exchange between Seema and Preeti who note that “arranged marriages are such a headache these days” but that “there are problems in love marriages too” ( Indian Matchmaking 2020). It is only after Preeti’s extensive list of demands are presented that Seema turns to ask “So, Akshay, how are you?” At this point the viewer, for the first time, sees the nervous Akshay who remains silent. Speaking to Seema, Preeti lists a litany of characteristics a suitable bride for her son must possess: intelligence, sociability, height above 5’3″, and the ability to fit within Preeti and Akshay’s pre-existing familial unit ( Indian Matchmaking 2020).
Arranged marriage television show professional#
Following this scene, the viewer is presented with a conversation between two middle-aged women, revealed to be professional matchmaker Seema Taparia and a woman named Preeti who is seeking a wife for her son Akshay ( Indian Matchmaking 2020). Though unspecified, the towering skyscrapers and the silhouettes of construction cranes evoke the sensibility of a large modern city, not unlike New York, London, or Beijing. Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking opens its inaugural episode with a wide shot, panning across the skyline of an urban metropolis ( Indian Matchmaking 2020). By doing so, Indian Matchmaking elucidates the negotiation of the neoliberal subject’s positionality within the overarching ethos of modern India through reconfiguring the schema of arranged marriage within emergent liberal economic and social frameworks, attempting to refute the Orientalized vision of the monolithic third world woman, and engaging with the construction of novel norms regarding the expectations of marriage within modern India. Rather, I argue, Indian Matchmaking underscores the reconfiguration, but not replacement, of pre-existing cultural schema within a dynamic and emergent neoliberal reality. Therefore, I posit that Indian Matchmaking presents the modern Indian subject as neither a bastion against the totalizing force of neoliberal globalization nor the supplanting of traditional cultural values in the wake of liberalization. Rather, Indian Matchmaking prompts critical investigation of the relationships between notions of individual autonomy and obligations to kin, social status and the pursuit of romantic exploits, and the presentation of “modernity” and neo-liberal neo-colonialism.
![arranged marriage television show arranged marriage television show](https://www.theknotnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Maneka-Mayur-Life-After-Wedding.jpg)
Overall, it would be a gross generalization to argue either that Indian Matchmaking serves to reinforce “traditional” illustrations of arranged marriage or that it illustrates an entirely novel “modern” phenomenon. Indian Matchmaking’s presentation of the tradition of arranged marriage emerges as a site for rich ethnographic analysis, straddling the intersections of individual agency, cultural tradition, Orientalism, and the Western gaze. Although certainly not the first television program to depict the trials and tribulations associated with finding a romantic partner, Indian Matchmaking was novel in its depiction of arranged marriage in a modern globalized context. Indian Matchmaking is a reality television show which was first released on the global streaming platform Netflix in 2020. REARRANGING ARRANGED MARRIAGE IN MODERN INDIA: HOW NETFLIX’S INDIAN MATCHMAKING ELUCIDATES THE POSITIONALITY OF THE MODERN NEOLIBERAL SUBJECT