Secularizing Hindu Marriages

[Guest guest]

DMK's tinderbox gift on UPA anniversary

A mischievous proposal to tinker with Hindu faith

By R. Balashankar

 

Everybody wants to meddle with Hindu religion. The latest is the DMK

chief, Karunanidhi's desire to promote atheism by deritualising and

de-Hinduising Hindu marriages. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan

Singh, he has demanded an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 to

legalise at the all-India level "marriages without a priest." Four

decades ago, at the height of Dravida Kazhagam intimidation of Hindu

religion, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu had enacted a law making it

legal for Hindus to get married without the purohit (priest), temple,

or rituals.

 

In Kerala, the so-called atheist-communists in the fifties tried to

encourage Hindu marriages through exchange of red cotton thread

garlands in the presence of local comrades, in the shadow of mango

groves. Some of their leaders like M.N. Govindan Nair, K.R. Gowri Amma

and A.K. Gopalan had their marriages solemnised on the roadside in

this fashion. This was all done to spite the religious sentiments of

the Hindu majority.

 

A few months ago (Organiser August 1, 2004) the DMK Union Minister,

T.R. Balu, while addressing a congregation hosted by evangelist

Brother Dinakaran, revealed that he was ashamed of being born a Hindu.

He further apologised for this `shameful' act on which he had no

control. Balu is a senior functionary of Karunanidhi's party.

 

Why did the DMK leader suddenly rake up this issue is not clear. It is

not going to help the UPA. It is not yet fashionable in the rest of

India to break family traditions and violate social norms, only to

prove one's radicalism.

 

Karunanidhi has appealed to the Prime Minister to amend the Hindu

Marriage Act to provide for such "self respect marriages" throughout

the country. Karunanidhi, in the company of the communists wants to

change the whole of India like Tamil Nadu.

 

It also involves ownership on family property. What DMK had sought to

achieve through the amendment in Tamil Nadu was to restore the right

to a share in family property, even when the marriages were not

solemnised as per the traditional customs.

 

This traditionality is very much a part of the Christian and Islamic

marriages as well. But the DMK will not venture to radicalise or

minimise the role of the Church or the Maulavi on those communities.

Then why this concern for Hindu marriages? The parties, who call

themselves secular, oppose Comon Civil Code as it will allegedly

infringe on the religious rights of those sections. Is it that in

their scheme of things Hindus will not enjoy even their basic

religious rights?

 

The 1967 Annadurai amendment inserting Section 7A into the Hindu

Marriage Act, 1955 was an offshoot of the anti-Hindu campaign of E.V.

Ramasamy Naicker, the founder of Dravida Kazhagam. The basic idea was

to wean away Hindu youth from the fold of the family and religion and

make them tools of atheist, anti-Hindu tirade. With the fall of the

DMK, this `self-respect marriage' also lost its relevance, as such

marriages were largely confined to the fanatic segment of the DMK

cadre. Simultaneously, Tamil Nadu witnessed a revival in Hindu

religious practices and traditional values.

 

Karunanidhi wants Prime Minister to hold an all-party meeting to frame

this controversial and irrational clause. With this intent, he has

also written to the Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj. As of now, he

has asked his party MPs to approach the Prime Minister to press the

DMK demand. The timing of the move has surprised political observers

in Tamil Nadu.

 

The basic idea was to wean away Hindu youth from the fold of the

family and religion and make them tools of atheist, anti-Hindu tirade.

With the fall of the DK this "self-respect marriage" also lost its

relevance, as such marriages were largely confined to the fanatic

segment of the DMK cadre. Simultaneously, Tamil Nadu witnessed a

revival in Hindu religious practices and traditional values.

 

Karunanidhi has appealed to the Prime Minister to amend the Hindu

Marriage Act to provide for such "self-respect marriages" throughout

the country. Karunanidhi, in the company of the communists wants to

change the whole of India like Tamil Nadu, where a highly revered

Hindu leader like Kanchi Shankaracharya can be treated like a hardened

criminal, humiliated and incarcerated in jail on totally fabricated

charges, orchestrated with partisan media inquisition and with not a

bird willing to squeal in protest.

 

Tampering and tinkering with the religious faith of the Hindus

constituted the political plank on which the DMK was launched. The law

amended by the first DMK government in Tamil Nadu in 1967 provided for

marriage between two Hindus in the presence of friends either by

exchange of garlands or rings or mangalsutra. The bottom line was to

do away with the custom of the presence of a priest and deity. It is

nonsense to say that the new law was to demolish Brahminism or

Sanskritisation. For, priests are drawn from all communities, temples

are for all and in most Hindu societies, rituals are performed in

local languages, even dialects.

 

Anything can happen under the UPA, which many describe as an ulta

pulta anarchist. The DMK idea is an affront to the Hindu psyche.

 

It is significant that Karunanidhi suddenly thought of the old

"self-respect marriage" Act at the wedding of Union Minister T.R.

Balu's son in Chennai, last week. This appeal was made in the presence

of Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee and other communist leaders.

Karunanidhi followed it up by writing to the Prime Minister.

 

With elections only a year away, Karunanidhi is trying to take on the

high ground of anti-Hindu profession. All these politicians are

supportive of religions imposing Middle Age restrictions on women.

They are silent on the Muslim fanatics' endeavours to set up Islamic

courts in flagrant violation of the country's Constitution and tenets

of secularism.

 

As a declared non-believer, Karunanidhi and the likes have no right to

talk on Hindu religious affairs. It is for Hindu religious leaders and

social reformers to talk on the religion. These people get away

because we are a tolerant, docile lot. They won't talk of other

religions because they react violently. The society will no longer

tolerate further interference in its affairs by anti-Hindu,

pro-minority vote-hungry politicians.