Role of Interreligious and Intercaste Marriages in Achievement of the Constitutional Goal of Unity and Integrity in India

Abstract

. Since ages, the Indian social system is governed on the basis of caste. According to the old scripts such as Manusmriti, work was divided amongst the people in Indian ancient society on the basis of caste, in which some of the communities were treated as lower caste because of the nature of the work distributed to them under the social arrangement. However, the system proved fatal in due course and resulted in the gross violation of human rights of backward caste. After independence, the Constitution of India, in 1950 provided special provisions in favor of backward category in educational institutions and public employment. In absence of clarity and definite criteria of deciding a caste as a backward category, various communities and caste claiming to be backward in nature started demanding reservations and benefits. From time to time, Government of India included these castes in schedule caste list and declared reservations by suitable amendments in the respective laws. Recently, in India, there is a great demand by the open category for removal of reservation on the basis of caste in the educational field in order to save merit. This scenario has created a new division of society into the open category and reserved category. Certain unpleasant incidences are alarming these days. And it is very clear that even after 72 years of Independence, the Indian legal system has failed to solve the issue of casteism in India. In this background, the researcher has tried to throw light on the role of Intercaste and Interreligious marriages in removing the caste system and bringing unity and integrity amongst the personages which is one of the Constitutional goal enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution.