Neeya nanna?

Iam a regular audience of this programme. I enjoy the tricky style of the anchor in making the audience spill the beans.
Last sunday rhe discussion was over mixed marriages. I was surprised to watch many yuong girls opting for this. Infact one of them mentioned"Though I belong to a upper castenfamily I will prefer anyone outside the cast. This made me reflect more over the article"Will iyers extinct by 2025, which has been hotly debated on a website by name 'Kerala iyer.com. Recently the site had mailed the responses of some of the members, some declaring the death knell while others were confident if not in pure form atlest the ethnicity of the community will not be totally erased.

This also reminded me of the elders in the Parsee community worried about their extinction, which is a miniscule in the midst of India's teeming million population. The traditional group has been resisting the idea of allowing the mixed marriage couple recognition.
In Mumbai inter community marriage among the parsees has become very common. This has been a point of concern to the elders who insist in the ""Purity" of their creed..
But the moderates have partially succeded in convincing the elders of the outcome if the younsters are outcast. To strike the balance as acompromise formula to appeast the elders on one side and to adapt oneself to the current situation it will be obligatory on the youths marrying outside the community to toe the line of the faith along with their progeny.
The matter is still under discussion. kanaka

Dear Kanaka,

Cannot understand this whole business of "Purity of races". We Indians are a mix of different races.

People from the same state do not have the same characteristics. The policy of assimilation that has been the hallmark of Indian Civilization has contributed to it's survival.

Among the Parsis, it is only the progeny of the males who marry out of religion are deemed Parsis. If a Parsi girl gets marries out of religion, she is an outcaste.

Oh yes, I agree with you regarding your stance that the youth who intermarry keep in touch with their cultural roots. Kanaka, it is possible if the lady of the house is interested in doing so. Else the kids will learn what the mother knows.

Festivals etc will be celebrated but in a way the Lady of the house knows. Hence, intermarriage is good so long both the partners take an active role in educating their kids on the aspects of their (Both the parents' culture)

Regards,

Corallux

Purity means marrying with in the community. Secondly whether the girl/boy marries, the conservatist wants the person in question to be outcast. This has created a numeical problem among them.
Secondly your definiton of race is right when it is seen in a broad perspective. Ofcourse as you say there amalgamation of many races has been and will be there. Don't misunderstood me. I don't neagte your point -as a historical evidence or a biological fact.ststement. Look at it from a narrow definition. Maharashtrian marrying a maharashtrian , the children born out of them will obviously be a Maharahtrian. .. As you said may be the maharashtrians as a race or any community may be a mixture of many other race. Then your statement does not hold good in the day to day life.
What is meant by the "purty" is adhering to certain norms in the day today life which is exclusively theirs. kanaka

Dear friend
please dont think i want to fight with you. But i just want to tell this kind of thought about "purity" and all only is responsible for so much of oppression of so many people in our country for such long time. God only made everyone so how can one person be pure and one person unpure ? We must all have pure heart and pure mind it is enough. In India, all the trouble is because one set thinks they are superior, coming from god's head and they only should enjoy all rights and other people coming from god's feet so they must all suffer always. God never said like that. I think mixed marriages are the best for making society uniform and equal and one nation of all Indians only.
I am not wanting to hurt anyone but only want to tell my thoughts.
Thank you.

The opposition to mixed marriage among Parsis has nothing to do with religion as such but they want to maintain their identity and purity of the ancient persian race,

Yes, as balaji said it's a mater of identity crisis. Dear Swarnalata each community has away of life, which it may like to preserve for posterity. There is no question of superiority or inferiority. For eg by traditon we all wear that 9yards saree. A time has come very few people knows to drape the saree in that manner. Is not this a fact. I myself don't know. During my daughtr's wedding only one lady who is very senior knew the way. Don't we have a cusinine which is attributed to us-say rice, sambar rasam - - - - - - -. We have a style of speaking- When some people speak Tamil we immediately ask"Are you from Palakkad?. That's because they have slightly a different nuance. All of us like to keep intact these small things.
Recently I read in one if he newspapers taht only two persons(one old lady and another one) knew a particular language which was considered a spoken language by a population.
This is something which has happened in NE of India. According to the reports the govt has struck a deal wit the old lady-ie She would help the govt in collecting a data of all the words she knows in that particular dialect, all the proverbs, everything she can contribute and in return she is going to be provided free medical service for her health problems. This is not a concocted story.
I didn't speak anything in terms of 'communal" as you misunderstand. Term "Purity was used in this context. kanaka

dear kanaka,
we are going back to the pre veda period where there was not caste of creed and no difference so nothing new about this, however much we ponder or plead the change is a must and comes along to speak a different dialect altogether, my mother a bengali by birth came up with a different sort of tamil altogether and we had a tough time maintaining a straight face with her..still she lived among us in her style tried to blend a lot all could be done but her eating habits could not be changed for anything in the world and her dialect which is her own stamp...sunkan

Sunkan
I was discussing about a community which is soon losing an identity of its own. I don't understand the relevance of pre vedic period here.. Change is a must. Remember changes which are radical will create uneasiness to the very structure of the society. Let not posterity blame us bieng callous to a great heritage. kanaka

Dear Kanaka
I did not misunderstand you and i did not say you are communal . no no. Please dont mistake me ( i know i have difficulty to write my thoughts correctly in english, sorry) I wanted to tell, each one sticking to own peculiar practices will only make groups like closed fists not wanting to spread out, mingle and like they say in America, become melting pot. Then we will always think other people's way of life is not good and all. And so thinking of superior and inferior.
I understood you are telling about identities we have in families, like you say for your 9 yard saree, rasam saatham etc. and we want to keep that safe without change. Yes i know we want to keep safe anything we love or got used to, but we must remember even these culture and identity things we have now, they came sometime ago after changing from something else before that. Long time ago they were wearing maar-kacchu and sutru-seelai ( not 9 or 7 yards sarees with blouse) and eating dishes like thinaimaavu , Kummayam, pittu etc. We did not save that ancestor's lifestyle.(one example: there was no chilli in India which we are using in sambar, rasam,only pepper. we adopted chilli, potato, tomato etc from portugese) Like that only i wanted to tell, world is becoming global village, some want to adapt and keep moving, some like to stay inside "comfort zone" of habit , its ok, whatever each one wants. If young people want to mix culture and identities , its their life. No use finding fault,no ?
Many languages are dying everyday. Many tribes are becoming extinct also ( in Andaman, there are only 20 Onges tribals itseems) Today nobody speaks Prakrit or Pali and in Tamil also we dont write Vattezhuttu or Grantham, its always like that, no? .
I want to tell again, i am not looking to fight or argue that i am only right or anything. I am just telling you my thought,friend. My point of view thats all.

God save us