Marriage is deeply ingrained in our culture, and while there have been ongoing attempts to reform the ancient practice in novel ways, there appears to be much more than the widely accepted idea of heterosexual marriage.
Marriages can be classified based on the individuals’ relationships, the nature of the marriage, and the purpose it serves.
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Marriages based on faith, caste, and race
Almost all religions outline marriage guidelines, and while many people choose to follow them religiously, many others dismiss them for personal reasons. Marriages in India have long been based on caste and faith, as mandated by marriage acts such as the Hindu Marriage Act of 1971.
Legal Status-Based Marriages
Civil marriage is the most widely accepted form of marriage because it is sanctioned by both the state and the law. A religious marriage also requires legal validation, so it is common to use a combination of state and faith.
A “common law marriage” is one in which the couple enters into married life without registering their marriage. Some marriages are based on a legally binding contract that specifies the terms. These unions are contractual unions. Some of them are also time-limited, with the marriage ending after a certain period of time. Such unions are referred to as “time-bound marriages.”
Gender-based marriages
A heterosexual or straight marriage is one in which the corresponding partners are of the opposite sex, whereas a homosexual or gay marriage involves partners of the same sex.
Marriages based on corresponding partnersa
Sologamy, as the name implies, is self-marriage. On the other hand, monogamy is the most basic type of marriage in which a person only has emotional and sexual relations with their partner. Polygamy is the practice of having marital relations with more than one person. It differs from a group marriage, in which a group of people marry another group of people.
