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Who marries across caste

How many marriages in India cross caste, and how many people say such marriages should be stopped?

Updated 12 Oct 2026

Exhibit 5

By region, the share who said it was very important to stop women marrying into another caste ran from 37% in the South to 83% in the Central region

Adults who said it is very important to stop women in their community from marrying into another caste, per cent, by region of India as Pew defines them. 29,999 adults aged 18 and over, interviewed face to face in 26 states and three union territories, 17 November 2019 to 23 March 2020.

  1. North72
  2. Central83
  3. East64
  4. West67
  5. South37
  6. Northeast51
Source (survey): Pew Research Center, “Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation”, Pew Research Center, 29 June 2021, pages 29 and 227. A sample, not a national count. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 12 Oct 2026.
64%of adults said it was very important to stop women in their community marrying into another caste (survey, Pew Research Center, 17 November 2019 to 23 March 2020)5.82%of marriages were inter-caste in 2011, in a peer-reviewed study of the India Human Development Survey