Caste Over Love

An illusion fading away the real feeling of love and affection. is caste based system really needed to determine marriages?

A story of love finds solace in the thought of “forever living”. To a couple feeling the sanity of love and the pious feel of it never cease when society comes to explain of “caste”. Sadly, a fast moving society that is open to learn tends to build a barrier in its thoughts when comes to marrying someone outside its caste.

LOVING CASTE

Casteism is peculiar problem of India and is altogether a different issue in itself. Dating back to 1500 BC the society was divided into four groups according to work they performed. There was not high-low caste or untouchables.(As per Vedas)

— The varna of Brahmans, commonly identified with priests and the learned class
— The varna of Kshatriya, associated with rulers and warriors including property owners.
— The varna of Vaishya, associated with commercial livelihoods (i.e. traders)
— The varna of Shudra, the servile laborers

But the problem came after foreign invasions. During medieval people forgot of the origin of caste system and started pushing their caste in the bracket of “best” and “above others”. The biggest irony was that the division was never based on high-low but only on the basis of work. Brahmins and Kshatriya had an upper hand in this time who tried their best to dominate. Similarly some people who didn’t follow Hinduism (Vedic religion) as prescribed by Brahmins were deemed to be unholy, unworthy hence untouchables. This again must have been propoganda by Brahmins to establish their authority. So making sense of the whole caste based division comes to zero if considered practically. It’s a complete hoax, an illusion that we as a society is continuing to practice blindly.

The division of humanity was never the motive but today it seems to be deepening. The believers of the caste based system may never be able to justify their beliefs but still judging their peers continue to happen. The moment anyone enquires about your caste, you can surely conclude how deeply rooted this whole lie is now. Following invisible stringent rules are the moulded minds that categorically divide love and castes. Years of togetherness and understanding of a couple in love seems void to the strict believers of caste based system. Many homicides and suicide of couple gets reported which points straight to this hollow vague system.

THE REALITY

Findings of a 2017 study by the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, which used data from the latest round(2011-12) of the Indian Human Development Survey(IHDS-II) to examine the impact of education on one of India’s most resilient caste-based practices revealed how education of spouses has no effect on the likelihood of the marriage being inter-caste; rather it is the education of the husband’s mother that plays a role. A better educated mother makes a household more gender-balanced and tends to yield more bargaining and decision-making power, the study suggested. Another aspect of the study is, education of the wife’s parents is not associated with the likelihood of an inter-caste marriage. While in other countries an increase in education levels correlates with a decrease in endogamous marriages but in India appear to have no bearing on the likelihood of marrying someone from a different caste.

Marrying outside rigid caste boundaries that an individual is born into remains taboo in most parts of India leading to social ostracism and even inter-family/community violence. Dr. Ambedkar Scheme for Social Integration through Inter-Caste Marriages proposes how government trying to bridge the gap between the two sections of society. The objective of the scheme is to appreciate the socially bold step, of an Inter-caste marriage, taken by the newly married couple and to extend financial incentive to the couple to enable them to settle down in the initial phase of their married life. Marriage in Hindu society is considered as sacrament bond. It gets funny when some stranger based on same caste gets preferred over the love itself that determines bonds in marriages.

How long these honour killings be justified?
How long will the education not play role in getting the stereotype erased?
How long will the pious feeling of love lose?