As another comment on this post explains, in urban middle class India, “arranged marriages” are when your parents are a dating app and set up meetings with people and both people getting married need to consent.

Indians themselves, being a former British colony and thus speaking some degree of English, use those exact words. This isn’t a translation of an Indian phrase or someone else labeling Indian marriages “arranged marriages”. Middle class Indians split marriages into two categories. “Arranged marriages” and “love marriages”.

“Love marriages” are when the partners themselves hit it off, date, and marry.

“Arranged marriages” for middle class indians are when the parents set up meetings, and if both partners agree, they get married. Not much dating with that one, just a couple of meetings, then get engaged for a year (can vary), then marry. Either partner can stop this process at any point. After marriage, legally, either party can file a divorce. This is less common and more frowned upon in older generations but legally quite possible.

For poor Indians in really rural areas, “arranged marriage” means something different. For them, both partners are forced to marry regardless of their wishes if their parents feel strongly enough about it. Legally, they have the same rights, but the societal pressure makes it effectively forced for them.

The above is true for all religions in India except Islam. Muslims have some weird special laws and seperate civil courts and law. The Quran states some laws about divorce and other stuff and there would have been more riots and protests during the government’s formation if they weren’t allowed to follow the Quran’s laws. Some of these special laws have recently been banned, it’s very complicated and I don’t know much about the situation as I don’t live in India.

I also have some Chinese friends whose idea of what an arranged marriage is is very similar to the Indian middle class.

And if both India and China have similar views on arranged marriage, I’m guessing that some parts of South East Asia also have similar ideas. That’s easily over a quarter of the earth’s idea of “arranged marriage”.