Tanay Sukumar, January 30, 2011

In a huge blow to khap panchayats, a survey has found that even arranged marriages can end up in couples falling in love someday.

The survey claimed that 96% of people who dropped tears at their spouses’ deaths in 2010 had their marriages arranged by family. It appears that somehow, love happens even in arranged marriages, the survey said.

“It appears from the survey that love and marriage take place in both arranged marriages and love marriages. Just the order is opposite,” says the agency that carried out the survey.

Conservative India has slammed the idea as a fluke with claims that weeping at the spouse’s death is a custom and not an indicator of love and attachment.

“Love is an outright outlaw activity,” said the sarpanch of a Haryana village in response. He claimed to be a social reformer. “That people should be married off by family, is a custom, because a woman in our India is not a family’s permanent property, and a man needs to have children. Where does love come into the picture?”

The sarpanch himself is proudly accused of killing his own daughter for falling in love with a boy in the neighbouring village. About loving his own wife, he says, “No comments.”