India's Elders Lift Ban on Inter-caste Marriages

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The decision to lift a ban on marriage between people from different castes has been hailed as a victory for love over tradition

One of India’s most influential tribal councils has lifted a ban on inter-caste marriages in a move hailed by campaigners as the start of a social revolution.

India’s more than 800 million Hindus are born into rigid castes which determine their opportunities in life and their social status.

Those who defy traditional barriers to marry someone from below their own caste are often shunned and occasionally murdered – there are more than 1,000 honour killings in India every year of those who cross caste and religious divides to marry for love.

Most of the killings have been in northern India where Hindus from the Jat tribe – traditionally regarded as peasant warrior – also forbid marriages between those from the same sub-caste or gotra, which they regard as incest. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Monday, April 21, 2014

The Streets of Britain Today
Photo courtesy of the BBC
BBC: A leading British Asian organisation is warning that men, women and children are being abused, attacked and spat at, because they are low caste Hindus regarded as impure and untouchable.

They are the victims of the 2,000-year-old Indian caste system which activists say is flourishing on the streets of Britain, even though it is banned in India.

It is a form of social hierarchy and divided Hindus into four main categories; priests, warriors or ruling class, the merchants and then the unskilled labourers.

Below them were the untouchables, those people deemed so low that they could not be included in the system.

Two thousand years on, caste is an integral part of the Asian community, according to activists.

The country's first ever support group has been set up in Southall in West London to help victims of caste discrimination. British Hindus divided by caste >>> By Naresh Puri

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