Abstract
Matrimonial sites in South Asia are online advertising platforms encouraging South Asians to look for spouses among South Asians in and outside their homeland. As per the studies, there are 1500 matrimonial sites based in India and attracting non-resident Indians. Indian based matrimonial sites, in this digital era, have jumped from 0.11 to 0.26 billion US dollars in business from 2017 to 2022. The boom of matrimonial sites has attracted a lot of research. This research looks into the matrimonial sites as a space that divides the South Asian population (including those living outside the country) based on caste and class and creates online “imagined communities” based on these factors among the South Asian diaspora. The paper delineates that within such “imagined communities,” the matrimonial sites (re)produce caste, perpetuate normative heterosexuality, and suppress upper-caste and lower-caste South Asian women globally. The case study is based on jeevansathi.com, from where the data for the study has been collected. Methodologically, this study is based on digital ethnography. Theoretically, the chapter will do a close reading from the Dalit (diaspora) feminist perspective.
Presenters
Shilpi GuptaAssistant Professor, Department of Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, India Gaurav Sushant
Assistant Professor Senior, Department of Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
GENDER, CASTE, MATRIMONIAL SITES, SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA
