Marriage holds a sacred position in India. It is not considered as a social contract rather, it holds sacramental values. It is often referred to as the union of two individuals, tied to an intangible holy bond for the next seven rebirths. It is said to be a holy concept that we cherish. But there comes a twist in the tale. Marriages, often regarded as being made in heaven, become immediate hell for a couple when the ingredient called ‘Caste’ comes into play.
This article is in reference to the fantastic judgment delivered by the Madras High Court which stated that inter-caste marriages will help in uprooting the caste system.
The Caste system has prevailed in India since time immemorial (since the ages of Vedas). It has created obstacles in an individual’s life especially causing sufferance to those belonging to the disadvantaged strata of society. Although prohibited by law under Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, discrimination on the basis of caste is still practised throughout the country.
Marrying someone from a different caste is more like a taboo; a sin for which there is no penance. Marrying an individual from the same ‘gotra’ (kinship) and in a different caste has been forbidden for ages. Inter-religion marriages are another taboo in prevalence.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in a bench led by former Chief Justice Dipak Mishra, had held in a judgment in 2018 that when two consenting adults decide to get married, no third party or person can interfere, nor can they subject such a couple to violence, assault, torture or harassment.
While interning with the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, we got an opportunity to attend the Right to Choice session. In it, couples who had married outside their caste shared their experiences. They also talked about the after effects of their actions which clearly didn’t impress their families. One such incident was where one of the friends of the victim played an audio recording of his last call to him. In it, the victim begged him to save his life as his in-laws assaulted him and then poisoned him. His wife was pregnant at that time. The in-laws of the man had called the couple to the wife’s paternal home in the promise of making peaceful settlements with the couple. This is just one case and several couples like them lose their lives or are forced to desert their homes.
Upon investigation as to why such incidents take place, the general response that is received is that the respective family enjoys good social respect in their society. In the fear of losing it, the families take to committing the heinous crime of what is commonly referred to as ‘honour killing’. For some, inter-caste marriage is nothing but an obnoxious concept borrowed from the west. They feel that it is ultimately eroding our Indian cultural values and tradition. This view leads to the forming of an assembly of people who in the veil of safeguarding the traditional values, get engaged in murder.
The concept and the issues are not contemporary but are being faced since ages. The Indian film industry has often taken up the issue and has highlighted it through films like ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’, ‘NH-10’, ‘2 States’, ‘Sairat’ to name some. The judiciary in the country has pronounced judgments in favour of inter-caste marriages to safeguard the rights of consensual marriages between adults. But to what extent will the law act as a safeguard if people refuse to change their opinion? We need to speak up against such ill-fated actions to change the perspective.