Do you think marriage as a sacrament is losing its value in modern ... | UPSC Mains Model Answer

Do you think marriage as a sacrament is losing its value in modern India?

Based on 52 evaluated answers to this question on CollectorBabu: here is what aspirants most often missed, the mistakes that cost marks, and a model answer.

What most aspirants missed

Definition of sacrament: vivah as one of the sixteen samskaras, completed by saptapadi and kanyadaan, versus a civil contract
Section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 requiring saptapadi, showing law recognising the sacramental element
Special Marriage Act, 1954 as a civil alternative and the rise of court and inter-faith marriages
Supreme Court rulings on live-in relationships and adult autonomy (Khushboo 2010, Indra Sarma 2014, Shafin Jahan 2018)
NFHS-5 data on rising age at marriage and low divorce rates, used as evidence rather than assertion
Rural-urban and regional divide, with rural India and the South often retaining rites more strongly

Common mistakes

Assuming sacrament means religion in general and not defining it in the Indian, especially Hindu, context
Listing factors such as individualism, education and technology without explaining how each weakens the sacramental aspect
Making unsupported claims about divorce or live-in trends without data or with outdated figures
Framing the answer as a rigid binary of decline versus retention, with a confused or self-contradictory conclusion

What the better answers did

Defining sacrament first and then tying each modern trend back to a specific ritual or legal element
Using NFHS-5 and Census figures with careful wording, and naming the Special Marriage Act and specific judgments
Presenting a counter-view such as arranged marriages, rural continuity or elaborate rituals to show balance
Concluding that marriage is evolving rather than dying, with a clear and simple stance

Introduction

Open by defining marriage as a samskara (vivah) completed through saptapadi and kanyadaan, so that the rest of the answer measures change against a clear standard.

Conclusion

End by stating that the sacramental meaning is being reinterpreted rather than abandoned, and that your stance rests on the balance of urban change and rural continuity.

Model answer

In Hindu thought marriage (vivah) is one of the sixteen samskaras, a sacred bond completed through rites such as saptapadi and kanyadaan, and not merely a contract. In modern India this sacramental core is under strain, but its form is changing more than its meaning is disappearing.

Forces weakening the sacramental view

Late marriage: NFHS-5 places women's mean age at marriage near 22 years, as education and careers shift priorities away from early, ritual-bound unions.
Civil alternatives: the Special Marriage Act, 1954 allows secular marriage, and court marriages and inter-faith or inter-caste unions have risen under it.
Courts on autonomy and partnership: the Supreme Court in Khushboo (2010) and Indra Sarma (2014) recognised live-in relationships, and Shafin Jahan (2018) upheld adult choice of partner.
Commercialisation: lavish weddings can turn samskara into spectacle, pushing ritual meaning to the margins.

Forces sustaining it

Arranged marriages still dominate, and divorce remains low at about 1 per cent of ever-married women (NFHS-5).
Rural India, about two-thirds of the population, largely keeps rites and family consent central.
Section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 makes saptapadi essential for a valid Hindu marriage, so law itself retains the sacramental element.

On balance, marriage is evolving from an inherited sacrament toward a companionate, chosen partnership that still draws on ritual. Its sacred status is weakened in metros and among the educated, but it is not lost, and the answer depends on whether one reads change as decline or adaptation.

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