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15. Online dating: Transformations of marriage arrangements through digital media technologies in Australia’s Indian community

Chapter of: Digital Humanities in the India Rim: Contemporary Scholarship in Australia and India(pp. 291–318)

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Metadata
Title15. Online dating
SubtitleTransformations of marriage arrangements through digital media technologies in Australia’s Indian community
ContributorAsha Chand(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0423.15
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0423/chapters/10.11647/obp.0423.15
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightAsha Chand
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-11-06
Long abstractMarriage and migration are twin global forces that have reshaped Australia’s identity from a white nation to a multicultural melting pot. India has become the largest contributor to immigration in Australia, with 710,380 permanent migrants. Indians are Australia’s second largest migrant community (after England), equivalent to 9.5% of Australia’s overseas-born population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021). This study, built within the context of a postmodern society that is networked, mobile and global, examines the use of new media technologies in finding a marriage match, known to the Indian diaspora as a way of life. The research seeks to understand the sociological impacts of hyper communication, especially the use of dating sites and social media platforms such as Facebook, in forming intimate relationships online. This chapter evaluates the aspirations among the Indian diaspora to maintain cultural identities through marriage (which also feeds migration) by seeking life partners with similar background via online dating websites. Globalisation, while opening a world of possibilities, simultaneously helps to lock the Indian community into its own cultural cluster through online dating and marriage. Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the community is basking in this newfound freedom to pick and choose, reinforcing the centuries old tradition of ensuring compatibility when forming relationships. Levels of education, professional status and family values stand out as key attributes being sought by men and women who engage on the dating sites in this study. This study builds on earlier research (Chand, 2012) that presents the fabric of family as vital to the Indian social structure. This study is important as it attempts to understand the cultural negotiations specific to the Indian diaspora, which is vibrant and growing in the Australian landscape. The influence of Bollywood, which has enraptured Western societies, coupled with India’s resurgence as a superpower, adds value and significance to this research which provides an understanding of the importance of marriage to Indians. This research is timely and relevant to the public, including Western societies, which not too long ago saw ‘matchmaking’ as backward.
Page rangepp. 291–318
Print length28 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Asha Chand

(author)
Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Western Sydney University
Associate Dean International: South Asia in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2989-2105

Dr Asha Chand is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism and she is the Associate Dean International: South Asia in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. She received the Nav Rattan (2023) and Hind Rattan (2019) awards in Delhi, India, and the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman award (2018) at the House of Commons in London for her teaching, research, and community work. In 2021 she won an Australian journalism teaching award from the Journalism Education Research Association of Australia (JERAA). In 2020, she became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK and a fellow of Badugulang, Western Sydney University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence. Dr Chand’s research interests are in culture, society, migration, and marriage.

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