Sir— This refers to the article, “Another victim in a country of ‘no love”’ (February 12) by Balbir Punj. Religious prejudices, that create walls of caste, creed and religion among us, keep on fragmenting our country and jeopardise national unity. Such prejudices are so strong that they prevent us from mingling with our own countrymen.
The need is to revisit Tagore’s lecture titled, ‘Nationalism in India’ which was delivered 100 years ago in 1917. In that lecture, he said, “When our nationalists talk about ideals they forget that the basis of nationalism is wanting. The very people who are upholding these ideals are themselves the most conservative in their social practice. Nationalists say, for example: look at Switzerland where, in spite of race differences, the people have solidified into a nation. Yet, remember that in Switzerland the races can mingle, they can intermarry, because they are of the same blood. In India there is no common birthright. And when we talk of western nationality we forgot that the nations there do not have that physical repulsion, one for the other, that we have between different castes. Have we an instance in the whole world where a people who are not allowed to mingle their blood, shed their blood for one another except by coercion or for mercenary purposesIJ”
Unfortunately, walls of apathy between religions and castes is very much prevalent in India. As a result, inter-marriage among Indians is still remain a far cry. The India Human Development Survey figures show that while 26.9 per cent of marriages are among inter economic group, only 6.1 per cent is inter-caste and 2.7 per cent is inter-religious marriages have taken place in our country in 2001-2005.
Even this microscopic figure of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages invites honour killings. According to statistics from the United Nations, one in five cases of honour killings, internationally every year comes from India. Indeed, physical repulsion among us is the stumbling block to achieving our national unity.