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The meeting, essentially attended by leaders of the backward and most backward classes of Tamil Nadu who consider themselves superior to Dalits, apart from representatives of Muslim groups, said most marriages between Dalit men and women of “higher” castes were “fraudulent alliances” planned at the behest of Dalit leaders.
In Dharmapuri, the marriage between a Dalit youth and a Vanniyar girl had led to her father committing suicide which, in turn, had triggered a clash between Dalits and caste Hindus. As many as 268 houses and huts in three Dalit colonies were damaged and destroyed. The PMK, a largely Vanniyar party, is facing allegations of being involved in the Dharmapuri violence.
Even as they claimed they were not opposed to inter-caste love marriages, leaders representing the Vanniyars, Thevars, Udayars, Yadavas, Naidus, Nadars, Reddys, Mudaliyars said at the Sunday meeting that most of these alliances were not simple love marriages.
In a resolution scripted by the PMK, they cited the case of Namakkal district which, according to them, had seen 955 love marriages last year, of which 712 allegedly had “failed”. “Unable to withstand the suffering, 32 girls committed suicide, 37 parents ended their lives. The affected girls were from non-Dalit communities, while the culprits were Dalits,” charged the resolution. PMK founder S Ramadoss, who chaired the meeting, has made this charge several times.
The organisations also demanded that the minimum permissible age of marriage be raised to 21 for girls and 23 for boys, while the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act be amended to prevent its “misuse”.
It is shocking see such alliance of so called caste Hindus opposing the intercaste marriages. Many love marriages fail, but that does not mean that all the failed marriages are intercaste marriages. It may be true that majority of intercaste love marriages meet a tragic end, but it may not be due to caste differences. There are so many social aspects for a failed marriage and that cannot be related to intercaste marriages. Political leaders like Dr.Ramdass are misleading the people with a false statistics. In my opinion most of the love marriages happen because of mere bodily attraction between men and women and there, there is no place for understanding about their future. After marriage, when the couple meet the reality,they are unable cope up due to lack of guidence to them from both of their parents and relatives. They are left alone to decide their own fate and therefore the intercaste marriages meet the tragic end. Dr.Ramdass's alligations are absolutely baseless.
Nothing can be more farcical than this claim. Even assuming the 'statistics' of Dr.Ramadoss & co to be entirely true, they would do well if they read the statistics of the divorce rates and suicides in 'arranged marriages'( within caste)which is five times higher! It is the marriage 'within one's caste' which sustains and promotes the dowry system and by its very nature anti-women and anti-social.
It is shocking see such alliance of so called caste Hindus opposing the intercaste marriages. Many love marriages fail, but that does not mean that all the failed marriages are intercaste marriages. It may be true that majority of intercaste love marriages meet a tragic end, but it may not be due to caste differences. There are so many social aspects for a failed marriage and that cannot be related to intercaste marriages. Political leaders like Dr.Ramdass are misleading the people with a false statistics. In my opinion most of the love marriages happen because of mere bodily attraction between men and women and there, there is no place for understanding about their future. After marriage, when the couple meet the reality,they are unable cope up due to lack of guidence to them from both of their parents and relatives. They are left alone to decide their own fate and therefore the intercaste marriages meet the tragic end. Dr.Ramdass's alligations are absolutely baseless.
It is shocking see such alliance of so called caste Hindus opposing the intercaste marriages. Many love marriages fail, but that does not mean that all the failed marriages are intercaste marriages. It may be true that majority of intercaste love marriages meet a tragic end, but it may not be due to caste differences. There are so many social aspects for a failed marriage and that cannot be related to intercaste marriages. Political leaders like Dr.Ramdass are misleading the people with a false statistics. In my opinion most of the love marriages happen because of mere bodily attraction between men and women and there, there is no place for understanding about their future. After marriage, when the couple meet the reality,they are unable cope up due to lack of guidence to them from both of their parents and relatives. They are left alone to decide their own fate and therefore the intercaste marriages meet the tragic end. Dr.Ramdass's alligations are absolutely baseless.
The Violence unleashed against the Dalits in Dharmapuri clearly shows that it has NOTHING to do with intercaste marriage but EVERYTHING to do with use of POWER - over and against people who question and demystify the CASTE system/ideology. Divya and Ilavarasan (along with their should be hailed as Heros who challenged the myth of purity-pollution because of "Caste". When a leader accuses the Dalits with "motives" using intercaste marriage and adds that so many have committed suicide because of failed "intercaste" marriage, it shows that he wants to cling on to CASTE system for his own security, identity and political power. We refuse to buy this and such stories anymore and plead that we bury the CASTE SYSTEM/IDEOLOGY and pave way for a casteless society to emerge. People who marry from across the caste/ race/creed only help to prove that we human beings are utterly common, of same value and worth. Power of Love is far more powerful than Love of Power.
It is shocking see such alliance of so called caste Hindus opposing the intercaste marriages. Many love marriages fail, but that does not mean that all the failed marriages are intercaste marriages. It may be true that majority of intercaste love marriages meet a tragic end, but it may not be due to caste differences. There are so many social aspects for a failed marriage and that cannot be related to intercaste marriages. Political leaders like Dr.Ramdass are misleading the people with a false statistics. In my opinion most of the love marriages happen because of mere bodily attraction between men and women and there, there is no place for understanding about their future. After marriage, when the couple meet the reality,they are unable cope up due to lack of guidence to them from both of their parents and relatives. They are left alone to decide their own fate and therefore the intercaste marriages meet the tragic end. Dr.Ramdass's alligations are absolutely baseless.
It is shocking see such alliance of so called caste Hindus opposing the intercaste marriages. Many love marriages fail, but that does not mean that all the failed marriages are intercaste marriages. It may be true that majority of intercaste love marriages meet a tragic end, but it may not be due to caste differences. There are so many social aspects for a failed marriage and that cannot be related to intercaste marriages. Political leaders like Dr.Ramdass are misleading the people with a false statistics. In my opinion most of the love marriages happen because of mere bodily attraction between men and women and there, there is no place for understanding about their future. After marriage, when the couple meet the reality,they are unable cope up due to lack of guidence to them from both of their parents and relatives. They are left alone to decide their own fate and therefore the intercaste marriages meet the tragic end. Dr.Ramdass's alligations are absolutely baseless.
