Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
by Abhay Vaidya
“They do not belong to our caste; they do not belong to our community. There’s no way we can allow this marriage”
So goes the dialogue in many an Indian household day in and day out. A young couple has fallen in love, either in college or at work, and they want to get married. But there are many reasons for opposition; The couple belong to different communities, castes or sub-castes; the girl is older than the boy by even a few months (leave alone a year or two), and the horoscopes don’t match.
These differences often don’t mean anything to the young couple who are on the threshold of life and want to spend it with each other. But since the Indian mindset has remained stuck in matters of caste and haven’t kept pace with progressive thought, such love stories often end in tragedy.
India is sitting on a youth bulge, called the demographic dividend, as more than half of India’s population is under 25 years of age. The middle class today has more disposable income, a better lifestyle and better educational and employment opportunities.
Inevitably, youngsters will move to other towns, cities and countries for education and employment and the chances of falling in love with someone they like and admire are that much higher. Can these youngsters then be expected to carry the burden and baggage of their caste and community if they decide to enter into matrimony?
In extreme cases of inter-caste love, families resort to “honour killings” and don’t feel any remorse about taking the life of a son or daughter who’s defied the family and married a person of his or her choice.
It was just a few days ago that the Deputy Inspector General of Uttar Pradesh (Saharanpur range), S K Mathur, was caught on camera justifying honour killing. “Had my sister run away with someone, I would have either killed her or would have committed suicide,” Kumar told an aggrieved father who feared that his minor daughter may have been abducted. According to the local police, she had eloped with her lover.
Equally shocking was the case of a former additional district judge from Odisha who was arrested along with his wife and son on charges of attempting to murder his pregnant daughter-in-law after she refused to abort her baby.
According to a report in The Times of India, the woman who had worked as a maid in the judge’s Bhubaneshwar residence was being forced to abort her baby from the ex-judge’s son.
As mentioned in these columns previously, channel ‘V’ has a reality show called ‘Love kiya toh darna kya’ where young couples in love reveal it to their parents on camera and seek their approval for marriage. Some fathers have actually become violent when taken by surprise by their son’s inter-caste/ inter-community affair. The bizarre Juhi Prasad murder case in Pune involving her fiancée and his long-standing girlfriend is suspected to have resulted from parental opposition to marriage.
Barely two months ago, a 25 year old medical social worker at a Pune hospital was killed in her sleep by her 65-year-old farmer father only because she was defiant about marrying a person from another caste with who she was in love.
Young India is changing but are the people willing to accept and address the issues arising from this change? Or are they trying to reverse the clock?
As the nation awaits the second episode of Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate after its phenomenal success with the first episode on female foeticide, there’s little doubt that he’s done more than just stirred the nation’s conscience. His star status was the first selling point for the show- just as it was for Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati or Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss. The show is entertaining because it is being presented by a sensitive and highly acclaimed star like Aamir.
From thereon, Satyamev takes an unexpected turn. It’s a powerful docu-drama with field reports. It’s also a reality show where viewers don’t have the luxury of being voyeurs from the comfort of their drawing rooms.
Instead, they are dragged in as participants because the issue is such that it concerns each one of us. As Aamir said in his first episode, “If you or a relative of yours is contemplating a sex determination test or aborting a female foetus, all you have to do is speak up against this crime.”
Aamir went on to elicit support through SMSes that cost a nominal Re. 1 and donated the amount to a worthy NGO. He met Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot to press for the setting up of fast-track courts to deal with doctors accused of facilitating female foeticide. Such was the impact of the show that Gehlot said he had already called a meeting consulted his experts.
Indian TV has never seen anything like this before- so well thought out and innovative from start to finish- that no one seems to be grudging its phenomenal success.
More than anything else, the show promises to eloquently mirror the dark spots in the Indian mindset. The sooner we address these dark spots the better it will be for our society.
Updated May 10, 2012, 2:28 pm
On May 11, 1973, charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.
Go to article »On May 11, 1894, Martha Graham, the American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer of modern dance, was born. Following her death on April 1, 1991, her obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1858 Minnesota became the 32nd state. 1894 Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Illinois went on strike. (The job action spread and crippled railroad service nationwide before the federal government intervened to end the strike in July.) 1904 Artist Salvador Dali was born in Figueras, Spain. 1910 Glacier National Park in Montana was established. 1947 The B.F. Goodrich Co. of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire. 1949 Israel was admitted to the United Nations. 1949 Siam changed its named to Thailand. 1981 Reggae musician Bob Marley died of cancer at age 36. 1996 A ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board 1997 The Deep Blue IBM computer defeated Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match between man and machine in New York. 1998 India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. 1998 A French mint produced the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro. 2010 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigned, ending 13 years of the Labour Party government. (He was succeeded by Conservative David Cameron. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor Jeffrey Donovan (“Burn Notice”) turns 44 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
Actor Cory Monteith (“Glee”) turns 30 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1927 Mort Sahl, Comedian, turns 85 1934 James Jeffords, Former U.S. senator, I-Vt., turns 78 1941 Eric Burdon, Rock singer (The Animals), turns 71 1952 Shohreh Aghdashloo, Actress, turns 60 1952 Frances Fisher, Actress, turns 60 1953 Boyd Gaines, Actor, turns 59 1959 Martha Quinn, Former MTV VJ, turns 53
Historic Birthdays
Martha Graham 5/11/1894 – 4/1/1991 American dancer, teacher and choreographer.Go to obituary »
76 Baron Munchhausen 5/11/1720 – 2/22/1797
German story-teller; his tales became “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”91 Fanny Cerrito 5/11/1817 – 5/6/1909
Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals66 Charles Warren Fairbanks 5/11/1852 – 6/4/1918
American politician; vice-president under Theodore Roosevelt (1905-09)72 Frank Schlesinger 5/11/1871 – 7/10/1943
American astronomer101 Irving Berlin 5/11/1888 – 9/22/1989
Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals75 Henry Morgenthau, Jr. 5/11/1891 – 2/6/1967
American secretary of the treasury (1934-45)80 Dame Margaret Rutherford 5/11/1892 – 5/22/1972
English stage and screen actress83 William Grant Still 5/11/1895 – 12/3/1978
American composer and conductor84 Salvador Dali 5/11/1904 – 1/23/1989
Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker78 Herbert Philbrick 5/11/1915 – 8/16/1993
American counterintelligence agent for the F.B.I.
MORNING
“And will manifest myself to him.”
John 14:21The Lord Jesus gives special revelations of himself to his people. Even if Scripture did not declare this, there are many of the children of God who could testify the truth of it from their own experience. They have had manifestations of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a peculiar manner, such as no mere reading or hearing could afford. In the biographies of eminent saints, you will find many instances recorded in which Jesus has been pleased, in a very special manner to speak to their souls, and to unfold the wonders of his person; yea, so have their souls been steeped in happiness that they have thought themselves to be in heaven, whereas they were not there, though they were well nigh on the threshold of it–for when Jesus manifests himself to his people, it is heaven on earth; it is paradise in embryo; it is bliss begun. Especial manifestations of Christ exercise a holy influence on the believer’s heart. One effect will be humility. If a man says, “I have had such-and-such spiritual communications, I am a great man,” he has never had any communion with Jesus at all; for “God hath respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” He does not need to come near them to know them, and will never give them any visits of love. Another effect will be happiness; for in God’s presence there are pleasures for evermore. Holiness will be sure to follow. A man who has no holiness has never had this manifestation. Some men profess a great deal; but we must not believe any one unless we see that his deeds answer to what he says. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” He will not bestow his favours upon the wicked: for while he will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he respect an evil doer. Thus there will be three effects of nearness to Jesus–humility, happiness, and holiness. May God give them to thee, Christian!
EVENING
“Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again.”
Genesis 46:3-4Jacob must have shuddered at the thought of leaving the land of his father’s sojourning, and dwelling among heathen strangers. It was a new scene, and likely to be a trying one: who shall venture among couriers of a foreign monarch without anxiety? Yet the way was evidently appointed for him, and therefore he resolved to go. This is frequently the position of believers now–they are called to perils and temptations altogether untried: at such seasons let them imitate Jacob’s example by offering sacrifices of prayer unto God, and seeking his direction; let them not take a step until they have waited upon the Lord for his blessing: then they will have Jacob’s companion to be their friend and helper. How blessed to feel assured that the Lord is with us in all our ways, and condescends to go down into our humiliations and banishments with us! Even beyond the ocean our Father’s love beams like the sun in its strength. We cannot hesitate to go where Jehovah promises his presence; even the valley of deathshade grows bright with the radiance of this assurance. Marching onwards with faith in their God, believers shall have Jacob’s promise. They shall be brought up again, whether it be from the troubles of life or the chambers of death. Jacob’s seed came out of Egypt in due time, and so shall all the faithful pass unscathed through the tribulation of life, and the terror of death. Let us exercise Jacob’s confidence. “Fear not,” is the Lord’s command and his divine encouragement to those who at his bidding are launching upon new seas; the divine presence and preservation forbid so much as one unbelieving fear. Without our God we should fear to move; but when he bids us to, it would be dangerous to tarry. Reader, go forward, and fear not.
