{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T04:14:34Z","timestamp":1788408874097,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":76,"publisher":"Wiley","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788307200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788307200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000710","name":"Smuts Memorial Fund, University of Cambridge","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000710","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000742","name":"Churchill College, University of Cambridge","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000742","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["British Journal of Sociology"],"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>The article presents a sociological study of promise\u2010to\u2010marry \u2018rape\u2019 cases in India to illuminate the inner lives of intimacies. It argues that promise\u2010to\u2010marry cases cannot be understood merely as instances of deceptive sex, wherein the consent of the victim is vitiated by a false promise of marriage as a pretext for sexual intercourse. Rather, through an ethnographic study of promise\u2010to\u2010marry cases in Delhi, it explicates the myriad forms of harms including explicit physical and sexual violence, infringement of reproductive autonomy, economic fraud, emotional manipulation and abandonment experienced by women in intimate and acquaintance contexts. In doing this, it presents a methodological insight in terms of studying intimacy through sites of violence complaints. It also foregrounds victim narratives from the field to highlight how caste\u2010endogamous marriage, intimacy and sexuality remain intertwined in the socio\u2010cultural context of India, even as youth forge romantic ties across kinship and community boundaries, more than before. It is argued that promise\u2010to\u2010marry cases provide an unexplored but useful avenue for understanding women's experiences of romance and coercive control in pre\u2010marital relationships in India. The article thereby contributes to the fields of sociology of law, feminist literature on domestic and intimate partner violence, and sociological studies on intimacy and marriage.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/1468-4446.70167","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T03:38:25Z","timestamp":1788406705000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Unkept Promises, Unequal Worlds: A Sociological Study of Intimate Abuse in Promise\u2010to\u2010Marry Cases in India"],"prefix":"10.1111","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-4697-8409","authenticated-orcid":false,"family":"Monika","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Criminology University of Cambridge  Cambridge UK"},{"name":"Churchill College University of Cambridge  Cambridge UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_12_2_1","first-page":"56","article-title":"Contingent Caste Endogamy and Patriarchy: Lessons for Our Understanding of Caste","volume":"49","author":"Abraham J.","year":"2014","journal-title":"Economic & Political Weekly"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_3_1","volume-title":"Law and Gender Inequality: The Politics of Women\u2019s Rights in India","author":"Agnes F.","year":"1999"},{"issue":"44","key":"e_1_2_12_4_1","first-page":"76","article-title":"Protection of Women From Domestic Violence","volume":"50","author":"Agnes F.","year":"2015","journal-title":"Economic and Political Weekly"},{"issue":"39","key":"e_1_2_12_5_1","first-page":"50","article-title":"Law and \u2018Live\u2010In\u2019 Relationships in India","volume":"47","author":"Agrawal A.","year":"2012","journal-title":"Economic and Political Weekly"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.4324\/9781032614410-9","volume-title":"Dissent with Love: Ambiguity, Affect and Transformation in South Asia","author":"Agrawal A.","year":"2024"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1077801217720693"},{"issue":"43","key":"e_1_2_12_8_1","first-page":"109","article-title":"Marriage, Language and Time: Toward an Ethnography of Nibhaana","volume":"47","author":"Bapna G.","year":"2012","journal-title":"Economic and Political Weekly"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_9_1","volume-title":"Public Secrets of Law: Rape Trials in India","author":"Baxi P.","year":"2014"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_10_1","unstructured":"Baxi U. 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