“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.
