Breaking down the question
The statement claims a radical transformation of marriage from a ritual to a commercial outlook, and the command word explain the factors directs candidates to identify and account for the causes of this shift.
Two contrasts must be unpacked. The ritual view treats marriage as a sacred sacrament — a religiously sanctioned, lifelong union embedding duty and kinship obligation. The commercial view treats it as a transaction shaped by money, status display and calculation. The answer must move beyond describing the change to explaining the social forces producing it.
Ground the discussion in the note on family, household and marriage.
How to approach it
Open by contrasting marriage-as-sacrament with marriage-as-contract, noting the Hindu ideal of vivaha as a sacred bond. Then argue that a bundle of modern forces has pushed the institution towards a commercial outlook.
Organise the body around clear factors — commodification and dowry, consumerism and status display, market economy and individualism, and the wedding industry. Keep each factor tight and illustrated. Conclude with a balanced note that ritual has not vanished but is now overlaid by commercial calculation.
Model answer
Traditionally, especially in the Hindu conception, marriage was a sacrament (vivaha) — a sacred, indissoluble union sanctified by ritual and oriented to dharma, progeny and kinship alliance rather than material gain. The claim in the question is that this ritual outlook has increasingly given way to a commercial one, in which marriage is shaped by money, display and calculation. Several factors explain the shift.
Commodification and the dowry system. The spread of a money economy has turned alliances into transactions, with dowry transforming the bride's family into a paying party and marriage into a negotiation over goods, cash and status. What was gift and obligation has hardened into demand and exchange.
Consumerism and status display. Rising incomes and a consumer culture have made the wedding a theatre of conspicuous consumption. Lavish ceremonies, designer trousseaux and destination weddings signal social standing, subordinating ritual meaning to display.
Market economy and the wedding industry. A vast commercial ecosystem — event managers, matrimonial websites, banquet halls — has grown around marriage, further embedding it in market logic. Matchmaking itself is now a paid service.
Individualism and changing values. Modern individualism, education and economic aspiration mean partners and families increasingly weigh income, occupation and material prospects. Giddens's notion of relationships judged by what they deliver captures this calculative outlook.
Weakening religious authority. Secularisation and legal reform have loosened the grip of ritual sanction, allowing pragmatic and financial considerations greater play.
Yet the transformation is not total. Rituals persist, and marriage retains emotional and kinship significance. What has changed is the outlook — the sacred frame is now overlaid, and often overshadowed, by commercial calculation. Marriage today is best seen as a sacrament increasingly conducted as a transaction.
Examiner's perspective
The pitfall here is a moralising lament about modern weddings that never isolates factors. Since the command word is explain the factors, examiners reward a clearly itemised causal account — commodification, consumerism, the market and wedding industry, individualism, secularisation — each briefly evidenced.
Credit rises when candidates first establish the ritual versus commercial contrast conceptually (sacrament versus contract) and deploy a thinker such as Giddens to theorise the calculative turn. A balanced conclusion — that ritual survives but is now framed by commerce — avoids overstatement and shows the analytical control expected in a focused 10-mark answer.