Marry outside caste and get a job: Quota call to push mixed unions

Bangalore: A group of writers and activists in Karnataka has demanded the state government reserve jobs and other benefits for people who marry outside their caste or religion and their children. The so-called rationalists, a collection of individuals who oppose irrational beliefs and advocate progressive social changes, met in Mysore, 150km from here, after the wedding reception on Sunday of a Hindu-Muslim couple. Writer K.S. Bhagawan, a guest at the reception who later led the meeting, told The Telegraph that such unions should be encouraged to disrupt communal thinking. He said a memorandum would be handed to someone high in the government. "These couples and their children must get government jobs, educational facilities and other social benefits," Bhagawan said. "The wedding itself was a motivation for us to make the demand to the government." Karnataka now offers a one-time cash incentive for marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits: Rs 2 lakh if the groom is Dalit and Rs 3 lakh if the bride is Dalit. A government official said the money is paid a few years after the marriage - "after checking if they are still married: otherwise, people will marry just for the money". Aashitha Babu and Shakeel Ahamed, both 28, had a Muslim wedding a day before the reception. The families, both well-off, approved of the marriage despite some Bajrang Dal activists visiting the bride's home last week to talk her out of the alliance. The families were neighbours in Mandya, nearly 100km from here en route to Mysore, where the couple fell in love 12 years ago. Held under police protection, the wedding passed off peacefully. Aashitha changed her name to Shaistha Sultana for the wedding, which Bhagawan described as "a rare but great event". "But I would've been happier," he added, "if they had gone beyond the rituals of any particular religion, because it is human experience and not religion that makes a marriage." Bhagawan, a close associate of rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi who was murdered last August, has often angered Hindutva activists with his remarks. The Sree Rama Sene had threatened to cut his tongue off last September for saying the Mahabharat and the Ramayan do not uphold human values. Maulana Maqsood Imran, the imam of Mysore's Jama Masjid, disagreed with the rationalists' demand. "Marriage is a personal decision: why should the government be forced to set aside jobs and social benefits?" he said. "The government's responsibility is limited to taking care of their security (if there's a threat)." Imran said that Islam didn't prohibit anyone from joining another faith. "An adult is free to go to any other religion. Islamic law only states that a marriage cannot be conducted unless both partners are Muslim." The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has objected to the rationalists' stand. "We are fine with interfaith marriages, but why is it that only the Hindu girls and boys (marrying Muslims) convert to Islam and not the other way round?" asked Keshav Hegde, state organising secretary of the VHP. Aashitha's father Narendra Babu, a doctor, is the son of former Congress MLA and Vokkaliga community leader Veere Gowda. Shakeel's family has its own business. "Their children must be encouraged to marry beyond the castes and religions of their parents. At that rate, caste will definitely be eradicated in 25 years," Bhagawan hoped.