“Dating apps are a needless Westernisation,” says S. It’s a country where community leaders and village councils have banned girls from carrying smartphones, Valentine’s Day has been decried in some quarters as an unwelcome Western import and, in one instance, goons beat up girls in a pub in southern India for purportedly destroying Indian values. Dating is another matter entirely and makes conservatives deeply uncomfortable. Once the families agree, the horoscopes are matched, the families (including the girl/boy) meet and then work out the details.īut a marriage arranged online mirrors a tradition Indians have followed offline for thousands of years. Potential brides and grooms are categorised by region, language, religion, caste, language, horoscope” - even status and annual salary. For about 10 years now, sophisticated Indians have used web matrimonial services to arrange the marriages of their children. Online matchmaking isn’t exactly new in India. “Dating apps are helping break conventional barriers, providing people with more choices, control and freedom.” “India is going through a social revolution but young Indians, especially women, rarely get the chance to interact with people of the opposite gender outside of their college or work environments,” says Taru Kapoor, who runs Tinder India, the company’s only office outside the United States. Getting young Indians to do the equivalent of swiping right (in Tinder parlance) requires making dating seem fun, safe” - and parent-approved.ĭating start-ups say the effort is justified because half of India’s 1.3 billion people are under 25, increasingly global and presumably open to shedding some reserve. So Ajmal limits himself to chatting with women online and uses the app to divine if they’re spendthrift, flirty and look like their profile photo.ĭozens of dating apps have emerged in India over the past couple of years, but Ajmal’s qualms are commonplace in a nation where most weddings are still arranged and sex before marriage remains largely taboo. “I’m scared that my friends or neighbours will spot me and start rumours,” he says. The 27-year-old pharmacist lives in a small town on India’s southeast coast and is loath to upset local sensibilities. BENGALURU: Since downloading the TrulyMadly dating app two years ago, Arsath Ajmal hasn’t ventured out on a single date.
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