India Caste System

India unable to do away with caste system - The National

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Inter-caste marriages such as the one between Shree Gurav, second from left, and Rajini, seated beside him, are rare.

Anuj Chopra Feb 19, 2010 One-page article

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PUNE, INDIA // He is handsome, she is pretty. They met through a common friend at a gathering, stealing glances at each other through the crowd. Sparks flew, romance blossomed. But in order to marry, they were forced to elope. The couples' families are vehemently opposed to union - not because the girl is rich and the boy poor, but because they belong to different castes. Shree, the husband, 26, belongs to the Gurav caste - an upper caste of priestly Hindus who have historically been revered as temple managers. Rajini, 23, hails from the Mahar caste - who lie at the bottom rung of the social ladder and are denounced as "untouchables". The thought of mingling, let alone marrying someone from another caste, was anathema to both families. But despite the opposition, the couple married in September. "All I know is that she is made for me and I am made for her," said Shree, putting his arm around his wife. "The social reverberations o inter-caste marriage - the fear of being judged by society, of being mocked and jeered for defying traditional beliefs - held our families back." Shree and Rajini are not the only couple to transcend caste barriers; 5,862 Indian couples had inter-caste marriages in 2009, up from 3,945 in 2006. The numbers may be small in a country of 1.2 billion, but not insignificant, observers say, given how entrenched caste divisions still are in Indian society. The trend, observers say, is emblematic of how a rapidly modernising India is...