Thanks to love marriages, the number of arranged marriages seems to be coming down in India. Quoting the report of a survey conducted by a ‘wedding technology platform at a business organization called ‘WeddingWire India,” a news item released by a news agency and carried on the front page of this newspaper on Saturday said that there has been a 24 percent decrease in the number of arranged marriages in India. According to a survey, love marriages are becoming more frequent in India. It has been stated that 68 percent of couples who took part in the survey conducted in 2020 admitted that their marriage was prearranged. When the survey was conducted again three years later (in 2023), only 44 percent of the participating couples admitted that their marriages were pre-arranged, thus showing a 24 percent decrease in the incidence of arranged marriages. In sharp contradiction to the “findings” of this survey, another survey conducted by the Taj Group of Hotels has shown that even in the 21st century, around 85 percent of Indians prefer to marry the boy or girl chosen by their families rather than choosing their life partners themselves and getting into a love marriage. Marriage is a very important social custom and tradition in India, which again varies from region to region and community to community. In the Northeastern region, for instance, the marriage traditions among the Khasis and Garos would be different from those of different Naga tribes. Within Assam, too, the marriage system is different among different communities, both tribal and non-tribal. There is also an acceptance of elopement as part of the marriage. Moreover, the religious rites associated with marriage also vary from community to community. In the Ahom community, for instance, a marriage is solemnised by organising a “chaklang” ritual. The increasing incidence of inter-caste and inter-ethnic marriages has brought into practise newer methods for solemnising a marriage. Considering all these and other factors, one can conclude that while marriage traditions vary from community to community and region to region, a study of marriages among different communities in the Northeast and the impact of the decreasing number of arranged marriages will reveal a lot of things happening to the communities.