I have read almost all of this crap! Let me clear my position first, I am absolutely in favour of Live-in, though I have some doubts about the inheritence issues, single parenthood issues etc. and I think our legal framework will adopt soon to resolve those. Personally I have been in two such relationships one after another; the first one didn't work, the other did and we're happily married thereafter. I have a teen-age daughter, and if AFTER securing her own career and economic independence she moves in with her boyfriend I would respect her decision. At the same time, I am proudly an Indian, probably far more patriotic than any of these guys who oppose an open relationship. Point is, sociologically it's a taboo only among the typical middleclass. At the bottom of the social pyramid they don't care for marriage, they just move in, and whatever ceremony is there is meant for informing the kinsmen and celebrating the new couple. Take the tribal marriages for example. This is consensual marriage. The fuss remains only where you have to win the bride as a family property and then mark the property with Sindoor, confine her with Kara etc. Try to understand the rituals of what you call Hindu marriage. Well, not only Hindu/Hindi, the christian and muslim marriage also do the same thing. The grooms family acquires a bride for procreating more of the clan, 'putraarthe kriyate bharya', and in my view live-in relationship is more of a consensual marriage than that. Let reality decide.
