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One of the first of its kind, this book compares understandings and experiences of love and intimacy of one distinct cultural group – Gujarati Indians – born and brought up in two different countries. Using in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with middle-class Gujaratis aged between 20 and 30 years of age, it explores their relationship ideals and early experiences of marriage formation. It shows how discourses on what it means to be modern have interacted with pervasive ongoing status ideologies in both the UK and India. In bringing together the findings from both contexts, the book addresses the connections between intimacy, class, globalisation and kinship. Young Gujaratis are concerned not only with global ideals of 'companionate marriage', but also with national and local ideologies of what constitutes a 'respectable' middle-class marriage and family ideal. Such ideals shape not only practices of courtship and relationships, but the very experiences of love and desire.
