let them fall in love and rise in life

Let them fall in love and rise in life!

Yesterday, in Udumalpet, a usually sleepy town in Tirupur witnessed one of the most unlikely scene that was captured on a CCTV camera. A group of men drag a man and a woman and maul them down and escape on a motor bike wielding deadly weapons. The next we hear is that the man was dead and the woman was grievously hurt and is fighting for life. Just a few moments ago some media montages tell us that the father of the woman surrendered to the police. This is becoming a pattern in Tamil Nadu: Girl from a higher caste marries a boy from a dalit community. He is targeted and killed and the girl is forcefully taken away. In some cases the entire village is burnt down. They do it with no guilt and conscience. Or rather just because the person's caste conscience was hurt and would be deemed guilty by fellow caste beings.

This I am sure is a result of severe social pressure and loss of face for the parents who felt that their child left them without their approval. She has profaned their caste and brought a bad name for their family. Now the family stands at risk of being ostracised from its own kith and kin. There may be another unmarried daughter in the family who may not get married for this reason, and the fear of polluting the family lineage are some common excuses that are imagined. This even makes people hire jobless goons and mercenaries to kill the hapless partner and the children. They trust that they can get back their lost glory by punishing them. The least is to separate them the worst is to kill them and come out to the world and thump the chests and say, ‟Look what I did”. Some times it sounds like the gorilla after establishing its alphaness.

How do we tell our people that caste is just a mental construct and has nothing to do with what we look or what we do or what we eat or how we dress or how we speak? There is no difference in the DNA or the way we are made of? We have been stratified to be controlled by some vicious myth and we refuse to believe that we are capable of overcoming it even in this time and age. We see honor in protecting something that is not even real as a mirage! But we do not see it as an honor that our sons and daughters are capable of deciding a suitable future that is built on self confidence and love.

I think there is a lot that can be made to change this system in schools, colleges, churches, temples, mosques and all establishments. May be a preferential system can be evolved in the process. I don't mean to touch the existing reservation but I want much more to be done.

I want to teach children to love and to live. So let them fall in love and rise is life! I want to us to trust them and believe that they will accept the challenges that come about.