“Quota for Inter-Religious Marriages” – Sarva Dharma Sansad

On the occasion of World Human Rights Day, Sarva Dharma Sansad (Parliament of All Religions) organized a well attended Interfaith convention at the Constitution Club, New Delhi for the annihilation of caste system in India. Religious leaders of several faiths pledged support to promote and celebrate inter-caste marriages. The Religious luminaries like Swami Agnivesh, Goswami Sushil Maharaj, Jain Munies- Vivek and Lokesh, Father Dominic Emmanual, Swami Aryavesh and noted Buddhist activist Udit Raj, other social activists like Vijay Pratap and Padmini Kumar joined hands on the occasion and reiterated the need to promote inter-caste and  even inter-religious marriages. Several couples who had tied the knot demolishing the caste barrier were also honored and felicitated by the distinguished gathering.

The convention began with a soulful song presentation by Shri Pushkin Arora which set the tone for humanist deliberations. On this occasion, famous socio-spiritual activist Swami Agnivesh said that we must take a leaf out of the magnum opus of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar titled ‘Annihilation of the Caste’ and promote inter-caste marriages at all costs to rid ourselves from this social menace.

Father Dominic Emmanuel recalled the horrors of the Kandhmal pogrom and gave every one the horrifying details of how the society is mired in caste system and how certain vested interests make use of this for their own power. He called upon the missionaries to give up the big schools in towns and cities and provide education to the socially marginalized and down trodden in the villages and tribal societies.

Sadhvi Tapeshwari of Divya Jagriti Sansthan pledged full support for movement.

Arya Samaj leader Swami Aryavesh stressed on the fact that we need to take this movement out of cities and halls and convert it into a national movement.

President of Bhrigu Foundation, Goswami Sushil Maharaj, appealed to the Hindu religious leaders to come together and declare that there was no space for casteism in their religion and that temples and religious spaces should be open for all.

Udit Raj, famous Dalit activist, declared that India had been in shackles for over 2000 years because of only and only its casteist structure and thus such an initiative by religious leaders should be highly welcomed by everyone.

Concluding the function Swami Agnivesh felicitated couples who had married transcending the caste barrier. He logically and scientifically explained the Vaidic Varna Vyavastha as obtained in Purush Sukta of the Rigveda but also declared that it was an obsolete concept in the modern world.