An Unwanted Weed: Children of Cross-region Unions Confront Intergenerational Stigma of Caste, Ethnicity and Religion

ABSTRACT

This article, based on original research in 226 villages from two North Indian provinces of Haryana and Rajasthan, examines the status of children of an emergent category of cross-region marriages among the Hindus and the Meo Muslims that breach customary marriage norms as the brides belong to a different caste, ethnicity, region, and sometimes, even religion than the husbands. Since the mid-1990s, rural bachelors began seeking wives from distant parts of India to meet the local bride deficit. Prevailing discourses of ethnoracism, caste discrimination, and religious fundamentalism shape the lives of the offspring of such ‘transgressive’ cross-region matrimonies. The offspring are not considered ‘pure’ on counts of the low caste, undesired ethnicity, and/or different religion of their mothers. ‘Stained’ as 'internal others’, they do not obtain unequivocal acceptance into paternal kin groups and communities. The inter-generational stigma affects their everyday interactions and psychological wellbeing, and creates hurdles in life prospects including marriage.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• intercultural marriage
• cross-region marriage
• children
• internal other
• caste discrimination
• racism
• inter-faith

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Paritosh Kumar, Abigail Bakan, and Angela Pietrobon for comments on earlier drafts and the two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Reena Kukreja is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies and the Cultural Studies Program at Queen's University, Canada. She divides time between teaching, research, and documentary filmmaking. Her research interests include marriage migration, South Asian masculinities, political economy, caste, and trafficking. Currently, her work examines the intersections of masculinity, sexuality, securitisation of borders and religious fundamentalism on the lives of undocumented South Asian men in Greece. She received her Ph.D. from the Cultural Studies Program at Queen's University, Canada.

Notes

1 ‘Paro’ is derived from ‘paar ka’ (the other side), a historical term used to describe any bride that came from the other side or ‘paar’ of Mewat, a region largely inhabited by Meo Muslims. Today, it is used as an exclusionary and abusive term of reference for cross-region brides.

2 The Meo regard themselves as a distinct ethno-cultural entity amongst Indian Muslims. They primarily inhabit a contiguous geographical region called Mewat or the ‘land of the Meo’ that straddles the two North Indian provinces of Rajasthan and Haryana. Considered low caste Muslims because of their Hindu origins, they replicate the Hindu caste system in their elaborate kinship system governing social rules and adhere to traditional Hindu caste rules on marriage including endogamy and hypergamy.

3 Among the Hindus, caste is a hierarchical descent-based kinship system with four castes, or varnas, arranged in a pyramid-like structure, with Brahmans (priests) at the top and Shudras (peasants and artisans) at the bottom. A large number of people known as Avarna or ‘without varna’ remain ‘outside’ of the caste system as ‘outcastes’ or ‘untouchables’. In contemporary India, the ‘untouchables’, historically oppressed and marginalised by upper castes, have consciously chosen to self-identify as Dalits, a politically aware term that means ‘crushed’ or ‘broken’. The latter includes the people known in official parlance as SC or ST: acronyms for a list of castes and indigenous groups eligible for affirmative policies of the Indian State.

4 Khap Panchayats, or Khaps, are non-elected and non-judicial clan (gotra) councils among the Hindus. Khaps of the dominant castes, prevalent in Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan, regulate social behaviour within the caste group and the village, and between various caste groups through decrees of social boycotts and other forms of exclusionary punishments.

5 I conducted a survey of cross-region brides in 75 villages in the Rohtak District and 6 villages in the Rewari District of Haryana. Of the surveyed cross-region brides, 36.79 per cent self-identified as Dalit, while 75.89 per cent of men belonged to the dominant-peasant castes there.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada Doctoral Award under [grant number 752 2014 2052], and The Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi, India.