Marriages beyond barriers
An article by me criticizing recent laws in India that require a magistrate’s prior approval before an inter-faith marriage can take place, or before either party can change his or her religion, has invited a comment that I reproduce later on in this piece. My article can be accessed at https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/kamala-harris-and-indias-laws-against-love-jihad-2344545
In that article, I wrote of “the sick story being circulated in India of a large conspiracy among Muslim males for trapping Hindu females so as to (a) increase the Muslim percentage in India's population and (b) bring terrorists to birth”. Accepting this conspiracy theory, several BJP-ruled states in India have enacted the laws I was criticizing.
In my article, I suggested that believers in the theory had “been brainwashed to think of another caste or community as people who are unnecessary when they’re not a menace. They are dangerous, or expendable, or both.”
The article also pointed out a historical fact about the U.S.: “In at least 16 American states, persons of different races could not legally marry until 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the so-called anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. Connoting a ‘risky’ mixing of genes and races, the term miscegenation had been coined during the Civil War (1861-65) by slavery defenders who warned that freeing slaves would result in interracial marriages.”
“If California had been one of those 16 states,” I added, “Tamil Nadu's Shyamala Gopalan, who as a 19-year-old had immigrated there in 1958, could not have married Donald Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica, in 1963. But that was not the case. Shyamala and Donald could and did marry, and Kamala Harris, born to the couple in 1964, is today on the cusp of being sworn in as America's Vice-President.”
My critic writes as follows:
“Through profession I was [a] Government Bank Official. By Pravrutti or Aptitude, I was a Man interested Deeply in Literature and History taught by Eminent Lecturers of those Times. I am now 74 Years Old.
“Rajmohan ji, Marriages [whether] Middle Class, Upper and Lower Middle Classes and
still Lower Classes… are not only between Bride and Bridegrooms. [These marriages] will be Bond between two Families. The Mantrams (sacred utterances) Reveal that. Think of the Parents who brought up their Children with Selfless Love and Affection.”
“Indian History told us what Islam was. Now I.S. Talibans LET (tell?) what Islam is.
Why You bring Kamala Harris?”
The critic seems to have conveyed opinions he holds. My response to him is as follows:
“I know that parents usually raise their children with love and affection. But if the love is truly selfless, autonomy for adult children will be joined to it.
“As for Islam and Muslims, please make your own independent study and get to know actual Muslims near you. Islam may not be what you think it is, and your Muslim compatriots may turn out to be among the most helpful friends you’ve ever had.
“As for Kamala Harris, I brought her up because she is half-Indian and because India’s middle classes have the U.S. in their dreams. And because her mother’s interracial and inter-religious marriage in the America of 1963 to a Black man raised in Christianity was as controversial as an inter-faith or inter-caste marriage may be in today’s India.
“The history of humankind seems to reveal that mutual love, mutual understanding and mutual respect are the highways to a heaven on earth. Please accept best wishes for 2021 to you and your family.”
