Western India

India's a complicated country. In a sense, it's very much many countries into one, as each state in India typically has its own language and customs. What unifies the country is religion, but even religious observations vary from state to state.

Here's an interesting article about women seeking some independence prior to marriage.

Without women working, a woman being able to live on her own would be challenging, at best. Once a society allows women to work and to make comparable money to a man, then women begin to think about a life outside of marriage.

These behaviors are more typical of "metros" or the major cities of India.

The reason that India is complex is that many women still live rather traditionally. Even the vaunted IT revolution of India only affects a small percentage of Indians, which means that most Indians still live, one would imagine, much like their parents did.

Like the rest of Asia, India struggles balancing traditional values with more "Western" values, and those can be at odds with one another.

This is not to say Western values are necessarily superior, but that when there are more options available, people are going to take those options.

While India zooms to the 21st century technologically (at least, parts of India), cultural changes will be slower. How will attitudes change in the upcoming 40 years?