POLLUTING one's lineage with a mixed relationship is probably one of the greatest travesty one can inflict upon one's race, according to Hindu philosophy. Pundit Ramesh Tiwari firmly objects to polluting and diluting any race by mixed marriages.
However, he does not pose any objection to people who choose to "water-down" their lineage. Pundit Tiwari said he is not racist and he has nothing against people of other ethnic backgrounds. "Hinduism teaches the importance of preserving and not watering down one's race." He also quoted the Qu'ran and Bible as subscribing to the same principle. "Sura 24:33 in the Qu'ran states clearly... Any may marry from among you your male and female who are fit for marriage." He continues: "For Christians Leviticus 21:14 says... But he shall take a virgin of his own people for wife..."
Pundit Tiwari said Hinduism does not make a direct statement about choosing a partner but clearly points out that the "Hindu man is the only one fit to apply sindoor (vermilion) on the forehead of a woman to complete the marriage ceremony." He highlighted the problem of polluting the lineage as a major concern. This, he said, is not based on a matter of any one race being touted as superior or inferior. Pundit Tiwari referred to the general public perception, that by marrying a person of a certain race elevated or demoted person in the eyes of their peers is purely something that society has promoted.
He explained: "This is true for cases involving Indian girls and white men or African men and Indian girls. It is nothing more than perception." To justify this comment, Pundit Tiwari pointed out that the level of acceptance of an Indian girl who marries a lawyer or doctor who is African, is easier for parents to accept, because of society's perception.
He also admitted that acceptance of Indo and Afro relationships in this country is still heavily frowned upon in the East Indian community. Pundit Tiwari was quick to point out than the same applied for Indian girls and any other race and not just Afro-Trinidadians. He said: "It is still a no-no and the degree of acceptance of mixed relationships is still almost nil." He was able to point out that there are more noticeable cases involving Indian girls with men of a different race, especially Afro men.
Pundit Tiwari said the barriers have not come down with education and modernisation of society. As head of the Edinburgh Dharmic Sabha he is often called upon to mediate with families facing interracial marriages. He explained: "The couples almost never come to me, but the parents in desperation come seeking advice on how to cope with and prevent the marriage from taking place."
But in most cases the parents are unable to stop the union and the couple may be ostracised for a while, "at least until grandchildren come along". He said in most cases the grand- children help to cement broken relationships, but there are usually problems with other relatives. "More often relatives with pure Indian children will object to their children mixing with their dougla cousins, because they feel it is embarrassing."
Pundit Tiwari acknowledged that the problems with acceptance mainly occur with the generation of Hindus and Indians above age 60 or people from devout Hindu homes. "They are still steeped in tradition and adhere to the basic principles of Hinduism," he said. "And in cases of love it is never an easy solution." He added: "The orthodox Hindu family feels genuine pain and embarrassment when their child chooses a mixed relationship."
When questioned about the perception of widespread domestic violence involving Indian men, which serves as a deterrent for Indian women choosing an Indian partner, Pundit Tiwari said it is not a realistic yardstick to base such an important decision.
Pundit Tiwari said he is alarmed that this might be the general perception of the public. He added: "I am not willing to accept that more Indian men abuse their wives, until somebody provides me with proper and well researched statistics." He said: "There are good Indian men who treat their wives well." He drew reference to his own congregation in central. "I have about 500 people and 30 per cent of this are men and they are good Hindus who are not involved in domestic violence," he said.
He testified to witnessing a violent incident between an Afro man and an Indo woman in Chaguanas. "He was punching the daylights out of the woman and nobody approached them to help the woman," he said. He explained that "it's almost as if the people around her (mainly Indian) were thinking, you wanted an African man and you look for what you get."
Pundit Tiwari said he was embarrassed by this reaction and knew if it was an Indian couple, passersby would not hesitate to get involved.
"If God had wanted us different he would have made us different," Pundit Tiwari said as he reinforced his convictions.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1301 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Thu 22 Feb 2007 19:14 Post subject:
FIrst off he should not quote the bible.
In the Old Testiment there are many stories of Israelite taking "foreign" wives.
In the bible the primarily concern from my reading is when a man and a woman have different religions, this is seen as bad to marry out of your religion, someone need convert. There is nothing about race or ethnicities not marrying. That is a lie.
The Koran is also talking about marrying in the Uma (the Muslim community) but once again this is only for women, a man can marry a woman who is not Muslims as long as she is a Dhimmi (person of the book, aka Abrahamic religious believer) traditionally women can only marry a Muslim man if she is Muslim. Once again there is nothing about race or ethnicity. Mohammad had a Christian wife.
In Hinduism you are born into a cast, which is part of the religion so it does not shock me he has this attitude. India being a sexist society...from what I have been told (by Hindus) if a man marries a woman of a lower caste the children have the caste of the father...also men are not encouraged to marry out, for the same reason, but women marrying out, is typically considered very bad (by most conservative families) because she is lost and the children will have no caste or a lower caste.
Conclusion, this guy is racist, but also likely adhereing to his religious beliefs, which can be interpreted as racist.
Its funny that in most societies the people who have higher status typically marry out the least and also are more likely to forbid their women from marrying out. The people of lower status seem to promote marrying out along with other egalitarian measures because, probably they have lower status.
If this world was dominated by black Africans and in America blacks were 60% of the population and almost 2X as wealthy as whites, I seriously doubt most blacks would want to marry whites or anyone else for that matter.
Whites would be the ones promoting interracial marriage the most because it is a means to move up in society, for one thing, the other is that it shows their "equality" their status is the same level. Typically if groups have the same educational status, wealth, etc they intermarry quite easily (think Whites and Asians)...groups who are highly different in status do not intermarry as much, unless it is high status men marry out and preventing their sister from doing the same...I can see this trend world wide.
Indians are wealthier and religiously (if orthadox) likely racist/prejudice even toward their own people who are of a lower caste or different caste so it is not shocking they do not want their daughters or sons marry black people who they see as inferior and "the other"...
This dynamic, I'm starting to see as human nature.
I meant to post this in the Caribbean section since this man is a Hindu from Trinidad. The combination of his religion, nationality and race influence his position, IMO.
He quotes the Bible and Koran to show that other religions are opposed to such relationships, thus justifying his own opposition. Unfortunately for him both Islam and Christianity are universal Abrahamic religions and do not necessarily condemn interracial marriage or marriage outside of one's cultural group. Racialism exists amongst the faithful in both religions (and one can argue about Arab supremacy in Islam), but it is not an inherent part of either of them.
Hinduism, on the other hand, is arguably an ethnic religion (at least many Indians think so) that divides its faithful into castes. Therefore, Hinduism, IMO, blends nicely with racialism.
Quote:
Indians are wealthier and religiously (if orthadox) likely racist/prejudice even toward their own people who are of a lower caste or different caste so it is not shocking they do not want their daughters or sons marry black people who they see as inferior and "the other"...
The author is from Trinidad, so he has had more intimate contact with black people. Also, caste no longer is an issue in that community.
In my experience, the degree to which Indo-Trinidadians dislike black people (in Trinidad of course) is influenced by many factors, one them being religion. Hindus may be more opposed to interracial marriage than Muslims or Christians in that community. However, there is still considerable social intermingling and cultural cross-polinization between the two, and tensions between the two communities are much less than what you'd find between black and white Americans.
He quotes the Bible and Koran to show that other religions are opposed to such relationships, thus justifying his own opposition.
He has no choice but to turn to Christianity and Islam since there is no mention of opposition to interracial marriage in any Vedic text of which I am aware. Additionally, as we’ve gone over before, the present-day caste system is but a perverted reflection of the ancient varnasrama dharma social order.
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