Revision summary
Marriage remains sacred for most as ritual, honour, and endogamy. NFHS and Census show near-universal marriage. Live-in law and companionate ideals thin the halo for some. Karve’s kinship still gates the sacred circle. Comment: continued sacred core; contractual margin; gendered policing.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Sacred here means set apart, ritually charged, and morally obligatory. In India, marriage remains widely sacred as honour and sacrament for many communities. Law, live-in judgments, and delayed urban weddings have desacralised it for a minority. The institution continues, with a thinner halo in some classes.
Body
Continuity of the sacred
- Census and NFHS still show near-universal marriage, especially for women, and strong stigma of never-marrying.
- Caste endogamy and wedding ritual keep Durkheim’s sacred–profane split around the knot.
- Irawati Karve’s kinship systems still organise who may marry.
Cracks
- Courts on live-in unions treat some households as legal without a full rite.
- Divorce, delayed marriage, and the new middle class’s companionate talk, after Anthony Giddens, thin the sacrament into a contract.
- Inter-caste and across-region marriages profane older sacred boundaries even when a wedding occurs.
Comment
- Sacred for the majority as honour; legally more contractual than before.
- Not dead. Not untouched.
- Gendered sacredness still polices women more than men.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD MAR[Marriage] --> SAC[Ritual honour endogamy] MAR --> CON[Contract live-in delay] SAC --> MAJ[Majority sacred] CON --> MIN[Urban legal margin]
Conclusion
Marriage continues to be sacred in Indian society as a mass honour rite and a kinship rule. Comment: the sacred persists, while law and urban class practice add a contractual edge. NFHS universality and live-in case law can both be true.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
According to Mills, "Elites rule in institutional terms rather than psychological terms." Comment.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q6(b)). View answer →
-
Does a lavish wedding prove sacredness?
Display can be status, after Veblen. Sacredness is the moral interdict, not only the spend.
-
Is love marriage profane?
It may profane caste sacredness and still be sacralised with a full rite.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
-
2021 · Q6(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Give your comments on the growth of religious revivalism in the present day context
More from this topic
Q8(c) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks · Solution
Discuss the significance and limitations of 'intersectionality' in social research
Sociology
Intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, examines how overlapping identities like race, class, and gender shape systemic oppression. Its significance in social research lies in capturing lived realities beyond single-axis frameworks and preventing reductive generalisations. However, limitations include methodological complexity, risks of infinite regress, and difficulties in operationalising fluid categories. Effective application requires balancing structural macro-analysis with micro-level lived experiences.
Q6(b) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks · Solution
Critically analyse the nature-nurture debate from different perspectives
Sociology
1. The nature-nurture debate explores whether biology or society primarily shapes human behavior
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2026 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks · Solution
Discuss the intellectual origins of sociology and its evolution as a distinct field of study
Sociology
Sociology arose in 19th-century Western Europe to make sense of massive upheavals caused by the Industrial and French Revolutions. Enlightenment thinkers laid the groundwork by championing reason, empirical observation, and human agency over traditional dogma. Auguste Comte gave the discipline its name, pushing for a positivist "physics of society" based on scientific laws. Émile Durkheim secured its academic legitimacy by defining "social facts" and using empirical methods to study human behavior. Max Weber introduced interpretive sociology, while Karl Marx focused on material conditions and class struggle. In the 20th century, Talcott Parsons advanced structural-functionalism to study systemic equilibrium. Later, conflict theories, the Frankfurt School, and postmodern critiques broadened the field to address power and marginalisation. Today, sociology continues to evolve by analyzing globalisation, digital shifts, and modern identity politics.