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In recent years the topic of infertility has received much public attention. This can be traced to rapid progress in New Reproductive Technologies (NRTs), legal issues concerning the biogenetic production of life and the transformative possibilities of family and relative relations (Inhorn and Balen2002:5). Similarly
some studies have been made on Infertility in the field of Anthropology. However their concern is mainly on the Reproductive Revolution, like the influence of NRTs on family systems and traditional gender relationships (Strathern1992, Inhorn 1994, 2003), and the practices and perceptions of medical doctors, patients and
people such as gamete donors and surrogate mothers who are involved in these technologies (Ginsburg et al.1995, Franklin1997, Tsuge 1999).

Despite continued dialogue over such legal, social, biological and ethical concerns, little attention has been given to the most basic tenet in this matter, namely, Love. In particular, little focus has been dedicated to love and intimacy within marriage arrangements in non-western societies, such as India. Love is generally considered as an emotional bond which is belonged to personal sphere. What I would like to deal with is the political aspect of ‘love’ in marriage. As I will discuss in detail later, a woman’s situation becomes very critical when she is not able to conceive. The main concerns in this paper are how women manage and survive the crisis of marriage and what their agency is within that. Human emotions such as love and intimacy related to infertility has been neglected so far, however the politics of love among couples, families and kinship plays a crucial role as motivation for seeking specific behavior concerning infertility. Over the course of sixty interviews with infertile couples, this paper tries try to examine how people construct social relationships based on the body, gender, and sexuality and to consider the possibility of woman’s agency in Indian society through the politics of ‘love’.

Download Free PDF Ebooks Marriage and the Politics of Love What Forms do ‘Love’and ‘Intimacy’take in the case of Infertility in Rural India?