This study explores the beliefs of middle class urban Hindus (MCUHs) about the meaning and purpose of the institution of heterosexual marriage. The intention was to develop a foundation for assessment tools valid for India’s population. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted in the homes of 32 MCUH in New Delhi who had been married for at least seven years. Qualitative methodology along with the constant comparison method was used to analyze the data. This sample conceived of marriage, both as a noun and a verb, differently than the theoretical models underlying Western assessment tools. To these MCUH, marriage is a sacred, inescapable, socially-sanctioned, developmental stage in which pragmatic collectivist rationales exclude romantic motives. Accordingly, the researchers found probes about marital “satisfaction” to be largely unfruitful. Some MCUH described minor changes driven by formal education, Western thinking, and technological development. Implications for family clinicians and future research are given.

这项研究探讨了中产阶级城市印度教徒（MCUHs）关于异性婚姻制度的意义和目的的信念。目的是为适用于印度人口的评估工具奠定基础。在已婚至少七年的新德里32 MCUH的住所中进行了个别的半结构式访谈。定性方法与常数比较方法一起用于分析数据。该样本将婚姻视为名词和动词，与西方评估工具所基于的理论模型不同。对于这些MCUH，婚姻是神圣的，不可避免的，受到社会认可的发展阶段，在该阶段中，实用的集体主义理由排除了浪漫动机。因此，研究人员发现，有关婚姻“满意度”的调查基本上没有结果。一些MCUH描述了由正规教育，西方思维和技术发展所驱动的微小变化。给出了对家庭临床医生的影响和未来的研究。