Marrying for a Future

"Brilliant . . . The book is a clear, fresh portrait of the Tamil community as phoenix; [Maunaguru's] fieldwork is a carefully observed aggregation of community tendernesses in the face of the often-cold bureaucracies around migration and marriage."—V.V. Ganeshananthan, Himal Southasian magazine

"Addresses a most important topic not only in Tamil migration, but in migration situations in general and in prolonged processes of forced displacement in particular."—Oivind Fuglerud, author of Life on the Outside: The Tamil Diaspora and Long-Distance Nationalism

"This innovative and provocative book reflects a renewed anthropological interest in migration and transnationalism. Maunaguru reveals a whole new dimension of transnational marriage by documenting the role of marriage brokers and 'marriage packagers' and the tragic dilemmas that sometimes arise from marriages in which one spouse is an immigrant."—Isabelle Clark-Deces, author of The Right Spouse: Preferential Marriages in Tamil Nadu

"Marrying for a Future is a work of stunning complexity in which the experience of the long civil war in Sri Lanka is rendered through stories of unmaking and remaking of life. As families navigate the uncertainties of transnational migration we see how new forms of life emerge over the ruins of lives destroyed by war and chronic violence. A work of love and unmistakable courage."—Veena Das, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University