India, Dec. 21 -- Marriage in Indian culture is rarely treated as a personal choice. It is a social expectation, a family milestone - especially for women. From an early age, girls are raised with the understanding that marriage will define their adult lives. It is presented as a destination offering social and economic security.

Education, independence, and even ambition are encouraged only to the extent that they do not interfere with this final goal. Women are often warned against being 'overqualified' or too independent. Marriage is not framed as one possible life path, but as the inevitable one.

Yet marriage, historically and structurally, was never designed with women's freedom at its center. It functioned as a system of dutiful s...