The market for polygamous wives is booming in India

A good woman, by the standards of a Hinduist and traditionalist polygamist, is one who will be a good caregiver to the kids of her first wife, and respect the hierarchy of the fact that she is a second wife. But with the traditional family economy becoming less common in a more modernizing society, the traditional wife has less need to be the one passing the family business forward to the kids. In fact, a traditionalist man may even be expected to be a good provider and to make enough to support both of his wives, which is a much higher bar than the traditional one.<br><br>So the men seeking this sort of polygamy are themselves not satisfactory to the standards of the traditional wife, which means that the supply of traditional polygamous marriages cannot meet the demand. The women are not willing to get married to men who are not satisfactory particpants. But there are other women who are willing to get married to men who are satisfactory participants under alternate arrangements.<br><br>The problem a lot of traditionalist societies face is that they're not able to attract satisfactory participants. Many men are either unwilling or incapable of upholding the standards of a traditionalist society, and so many women are unable to find a traditionalist partner who is satisfactory. But with the traditional family arrangement becoming less common in a more modernizing society, the traditional wife has less need to be the one passing the family business forward to the kids. In fact, a traditionalist man may even be expected to be a good provider and to make enough to support both of his wives, which is a much higher bar than the traditional one. But the society isn't able to attract satisfactory partners, and attempting to attract unsatisfactory partners would be even more impractical. So the society must either abandon its traditions or risk extinction by not being able to attract satisfactory partners, but not satisfactory under the traditional standards. The polygamous wives of India are thus a compromise between satisfactory partners and unsatisfactory ones, as particpants are able to marry multiple women if they can satisfactory provide for all of them.