Varna Sankar in USA

How backward most Indians are can be realized by the fact that many of even those Indians who are highly qualified engineers or doctors and have migrated and are settled in America are still very casteist.

 This can be realized from an incident narrated yesterday to me by an NRI,  who I have no reason to disbelieve.

 In a certain city in USA ( which I will not name, to avoid identification of the persons involved ) there was a young Indian couple who fell in love, and got married.

 The young man was a dalit, i.e. belonging to a Scheduled Caste ( the lowest caste in India ), while the young woman was a Brahmin ( the highest caste in India ).

 The young man never disclosed to his wife that he was a dalit, probably thinking that in the West it is immaterial. He was a tall, very handsome, light skinned person, who had done very well in academics and professionally, and was working for a reputed company in USA, and drawing a good salary in 6 figures ( i.e. over 100,000 dollars a year ). His wife doted on him, and the couple was very fond of each other.

 When a son was born to the couple, they threw a party to which the parents of the couple were also invited. It was there that the caste of the young man became known for the first time to the young woman and her family, when the young man's father disclosed to the young woman's parents that they were dalits.

 This shocked the young woman and her whole family. The young woman immediately went somewhere and got some 'gau mootra' ( cow urine ), poured it over her head and face to purify herself, and left her son and husband forever. She later also got a divorce, and has refused to even have anything to do with her son ( probably regarding him a bastard ). The son is now living with the father.

   This shows how difficult it is to change the mindset of people, even though they may have migrated to a modern country, and how deep the roots of casteism are, even among the so-called educated section of our society.

 In the Bhagavad Gita 'varna sankar' (inter caste marriage ) is denounced in Chapter 1 shloka 42.

KULAKSHAYE PRANASHYANTI KULADHARMA SANATANAHA

DHARME NASHTE KULAM KRITSNAM ADHARMO’BHIBHAVATYUCHA

ADHARMABHIBHAVAAT KRISHNA PRADUSHYANTI KULASTRIYAHA

STREESHU DRISHTVASU VARSHNEYA JAYATE VARNA SANKARAHA

SANKARO’ NARAKAYAIVA KULAGHNANAM KULASYA CHA

PATANTI PITARO HYESHAAM LUPTA PINDODAKA KRIYAHA

O Krishna, when the family is destroyed, immemorial religious rites and rituals perish, when these perish, they fall into a state of impiety. By impiety, the women of the family become corrupt. When women become corrupt, the purity of the caste is polluted by confusion and admixture. Caste pollution leads to hell for both the family and the slayers of the family. The dead forefathers fall form the higher realms of existence being deprived of the rites of sraddha and tarpana.

So Gita upholds caste system, and clearly states that inter caste marriage leads to hell. And this is the book which the Prime Minister presents to dignitaries on his trips abroad, and a Judge of the Indian Supreme Court wanted to be made compulsory in all schools in India !

   Hari Om