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How In-Laws Are Slowly Destroying Marriages In India
The hidden cost of obedient husbands
On a rushed Monday morning, a phone call made me pause. It was Disha, a woman I knew through mutual friends. We’d met months ago at a party. She’d watched us silently as my husband fussed over me, then, almost wistfully, said, “You’re lucky.”
However, this call wasn’t about my relationship. But hers.
“We might end up getting divorced,” she said, her voice trembling with something heavier.
“I don’t think Aakash ever loved me or our child in over 12 years of our marriage. His parents decide everything for us; he obeys them.
I have no voice in my own home.”
I was shaken, but I knew Disha wasn’t alone.
In countless Indian households, marriages are slowly dying.
Not from infidelity or incompatibility, but from the misplaced loyalties of men who favor their parents over their partners.
The Dutiful Son Syndrome
This isn’t about villainising parents or sons. It's about recognising that emotional adulthood demands difficult choices.
It means knowing how to differentiate love from duty and making choices that uphold fairness in a…
