‘Frank, you’re rich enough to afford a wife
and an ex-wife.’
— M*A*S*H
The rise in the economy of China has started a new trend within the nouveau riche class: acquiring a mansion or an apartment, a fancy car, and an even fancier mistress. This trend provides food for thought on the current state of the most established system in society—the institution of marriage.
The institution of marriage is based on the pledge of fidelity till death do us part. But how sacred is fidelity in marriages?
When we go back in history to track the concept of fidelity, we learn that the kings and chiefs were almost always polygamous. In fact, polygamous marriages were fairly common among all the sections of the community who could afford them. The sacred laws and their advocacy of monogamy came to be restricted to the subjects but not the rulers or the wealthy. Aeons have passed, democracy is the order of the day, but what hasn’t changed are the ways of the wealthy class.
The onus of morality still rests with the subjects, aka the middle class. So, as is the case with luxuries, does this also translate to monogamy being a case of sour grapes and polygamy the prerogative of the rich? Is the virtue of fidelity an economic constriction and imposition or is the New Age man capable of being faithful and true to the vow of fidelity irrespective of his economic status?
Faithful or unfaithful, the one thing that has dramatically changed over the ages are the ways of the women . . . or have they?