Two instances of brutal attacks on inter-caste couples in Telangana have illustrated how caste continues to define everything. While one son-in-law was killed, another survived with grievous injuries. The wider society is so inured to the atrocities against Dalits that the latest attacks have passed off without shaking the nation’s conscience. Love transcends everything, but not caste. Breaking unwritten caste rules is met with terrible retribution. That caste discrimination has been outlawed makes no difference on the ground. Anyone who marries beneath his or her caste brings shame and dishonour to the family and the community.
The notions of superiority and inferiority, purity and pollution, pervades the minds of men and women. Dalits are living in the world’s largest democracy, but their lives are shaped by “sanctified apartheid”. Caste is in the blood. Inter-caste marriages will go a long way towards the abolition of caste. Caste is antithetical to the spirit of humanity.
G David Milton Kanyakumari
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