WELCOME to matrimony 2.0. What was once strictly a personal and word-of-mouth activity helmed by the family’s elders, arranged marriages in the Indian community have evolved in the 21st century.

Forget visiting the homes of a potential bride or groom and sizing them up over the rim of a coffee or tea cup from the corner of your eye. Globalisation, migration and technology have pushed matchmaking on to the World Wide Web, changing the way the Indian diaspora finds a suitable boy or girl.

Over the past decade, the Internet has played a big role in the way Indians get to meet their life partners. Cupid now hides behind a mouse, waiting to launch his arrows.

When MsNisha Arul (not her real name) thought it was time to settle down, she drew up her wishlist. She wanted her partner to be someone from her own community; someone who shared her passions or, at the very least, appreciated them. She told tabla! she hardly met anyone in Singapore that she could “click with”. Said the 29-year-old master’s student: “Having a social life in Singapore is difficult and it was tough for me to meet potential partners that I liked.”

So she turned to the Internet. She logged on to Shaadi.com, put up a profile and described the kind of man she was looking for with a few clicks of the mouse. Within hours, she had a few interested callers “knocking” on her profile.

“While nothing came out of Shaadi.com, I made a few friends online. The people I met were all serious about having a relationship and eventually getting married.

One girl I know, a Singaporean, met her husband on this site and moved to Dubai where he was working,” she said.

Ms Arul eventually met her husband, who was based in the US, via another matrimonial website.

Since the late 1990s, sites such as Shaadi.com, Bharat Matrimony.com and Jeevansathi.com have had over 10 million people signing up, with more than five million logging on at any one time. Shaadi.com recently claimed on its site that it is responsible for a million marriages around the world while Bharat Matrimony has set up drop-in centres around India as well as offices in the US, UK and the Middle-East where people can register in person and hand in their profiles.

The success of these sites lies with the level of customisation they offer their members. Members can specify their requirements like the potential partner’s state of origin, language, nationality, profession; religion, caste, the type of family values, dietary preference, blood type and even that old matchmaking option, complexion – fair, wheatish or tanned.

The sites also allow parents to post profiles of their children online.

Founder of the Chennai-based Bharat Matrimony.com Murugavel Janakiraman said: “At the end of the day, every Indian wants to marry someone from the same community – someone who speaks the same language, eats the same food and shares the same culture. We chose to provide a website which addresses these concerns.”

By allowing members to be specific and detailed in their searches, the power of choice is in the hands of the single Indian. But when tabla! spoke to members of these sites, it became clear that family expectations are still a huge factor in the marital decision-making process.

MsLata Devan (not her real name) represents the modern Indian woman who wanted to marry a man from her own community, which was what her parents wanted. She chose the Internet to find that man, something her parents knew about but not her relatives. MsDevan, who is in her early 30s and works as an account manager in a multinational corporation, saw it as the most natural thing to do and put her profile online.

She was very clear about the kind of man she was looking for – a professional who shared her passion for art but the non-negotiable was that it had to be someone from her community.

“My parents’ blessings are very important to me and they would have a very hard time accepting an outsider,” she said.

And more of these matches made in cyberheaven are making their way onto the wedding dais. President of the Sindhi Association in Singapore and a justice of peace for three years, Mrs Divya Advani solemnises at least three to four marriages a week.

She told tabla! that most of the couples whose weddings she solemnises met online, choosing their mates from their own community. “One couple came from the same village and the same community as the bride was very specific about who she wanted to marry,” she said.

Obviously online matrimonial sites are big business. Last year, US-based research company EmPower Research published a report predicting that the online matrimony industry in India may reach 21 million registrations with revenues of US$63 million by 2011.

The money in the business has created a whole slew of websites catering to the big, fat Indian wedding.

Just type Indian weddings in any search engine and hundreds of sites pop up, catering to the needs of global Indians who want to have a traditional wedding. It ranges from getting the caterers to finding the wedding outfits and jewellery (see report, top right).

Even astrologers have jumped into the act by offering their services online.

While the rules of engagement have changed in the arranged marriage and wedding business, one thing is clear – Indians remain steadfast to the traditions of their ancestors.

Said Ms Arul: “Today’s Indians want the same thing as their parents wanted; nothing has really changed – most of them want someone from the same caste, community, language background and it is still based on word-of-mouth as they talk about which sites are the best. The only difference is the platform – it happens be on the Net now.”