a mARTIAN dIARY

One of the worries that older generation of India fret about is of, what they see, as a general decline in values and culture. For them Inter-Caste marriages take the cake when looking at such indicators of decline. Of course a treatment of this subject by the hands of an old-school Indian can only find it to be outright wrong and a treatment from the progressive school of thought would give it kudos. The first group’s opposition can be termed irrational and the second group also don’t back their claim on scientific data as to why is it “better”. Also the second group does not leave any room for the justification of the practice of intra-caste marriage at any point of time in our history as they see it as one of the all time “evils”. But this is inconsistent with scientific models as nothing can come into existence by happenstance The problem with most of these analysis is that the causes are put down to religion/caste structure and they do not probe deeper into the real causes, which I am going to try and do.

In the Darwinian model, the reason for most social interactions comes from the concept of the selfish gene. For those who cam in late, the concept of The Selfish Gene advocates that most social customs starting from religion to altruism can be traced back to the need of the gene to survive the filtering that happens during each generation.In line with this the two main processes by which the gene (note it is the gene and not the organism) survives is by kinship and reciprocal relationships.

As is obvious, the kinship concept is the one that can be observed in the intra-caste marriages, pooling similar genes together and giving that gene a better survival rate as the people of similar kin would stick together. But this is a micro level condition for the survival of the gene. The consideration at the macro level is that the society, which again exists due to reciprocal relationships between people of different castes/genes, should be structured in such a way that as a whole, it is capable of surviving. Since in the past the nature of work was directly linked to the household/caste into which you are born, intra-caste marriages were the most acceptable to the gene as it would help hone the similar attributes within the similar caste, helping it become more and more “evolved” for the job and hence help in the survival of the society as a whole as long as people played out their proper roles.

But as times have changed, the work done (also seen as the contribution made to society) is no longer linked directly to birth. ( This shift maybe seen as a long term strategy of the gene as it realises about threats that are more relevant in a ever shrinking world like a fatal bacteria/virus that can wipe our humanity or problems from the heavens) And consequently there is not much point for the gene at the macro level to favour intra -caste marriages as honing and concentrating the skill-sets within the same caste/race is not helping the society at a macro level. With globalisation coming and move towards a knowledge based economy, older important traits like the ability to digest food from a particular area and of brute physical strength has started getting replaced with other traits like intelligence and adaptability as far as mate selection goes. On the basis of this, the fact that liberal girls like to have “fun” with physically dominant men but settle with stable men with jobs can be put down not just to the financial stability the latter brings, but the also to the important position intelligence is getting in breeding for the next generation. The initial “fun” phase can in a similar way put down to a residue of the old system. Also in similar line, cross breading between castes and races can be seen to facilitate the evolution of the next superhuman who can eat from anywhere and face bacteria from any part of the world and still survive.

So with more importance or chances of survival being associated with a person with lineage in different caste and races, inter-caste marriage and inter-race marriages can be put down as the next step of evolution rather than degradation in culture.

As a side note a rational approach should also be maintained to other facets of marriage also. For example the early days, we did not have a government to give us tax benefits for investing money and so investment was certainly not seen as the primary avenue for spending money. Hence our forefathers, more my foresight rather than chance, invented customs that serve the same purpose. Take for example the custom of buying gold for marriages / dowry system. From a rational view point it can be seen as a kind of investment for the future for the well-being of the couple. And it is quite possible that the astrological good seasons and bad seasons for marriage would be linked to how the old global gold markets fluctuated among other things. But as time has passed the original intent seems to have been forgotten by people (as in the case of a lot of customs) and it has been reduced to a mere ritual and in fact has turned counter productive as now “marriage season” is the peak of the gold cost curve. So the next time you go to buy gold for a marriage when the gold price is high, just think of the stock trader who buys high and sells low

(A  HUGE! thanks to Miss R for pointing out some silly silly mistakes ! :)  )