Hindutva

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The article refers to a letter sent recently by Karunanidhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 in order legalise at the all-India level marriages without a priest. Presently, such marriages are recognized only in Tamil Nadu. This demand has been a long-standing one, and was first put forward by E.V.Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker, the pioneer of the anti-Brahmin movement in Tamil Nadu. Periyar was a bitter critic of Brahminical Hinduism, seeing it as a thinly-veiled guise for Aryan, North Indian, ‘upper’ caste Hindu hegemony. He regarded Hinduism as a creation of wily Brahmins to assert their control over the ‘low’ caste majority whom they had reduced to servitude. He believed that the non-Brahmins could effectively challenge Brahmin hegemony only if they developed a sense of self-respect and refused to consider the Brahmins as ‘gods on earth’, a status that the Brahmins claimed for themselves. As part of the comprehensive plan for cultural revolution that Periyar laid out, non-Brahmins would dispense completely with Brahmins to officiate over their religious and social functions. In particular, the use of Brahmins to conduct the marriage of Hindu couples was to be strictly avoided. In this way, non-Brahmins would be able to assert their equality with the Brahmins and would, at the same time, be saved from paying the Brahmins the hefty fees that they charged as ritual specialists. In place of Brahmin-officiated marriage ceremonies, Periyar launched what he called ‘self-respect’ marriages, which were conducted without any priest at all. Unlike the Brahminical marriage, in which the bride is explicitly recognized as subordinate to the husband and is given away as a commodity to him, the ‘self-respect’ marriage was an egalitarian one. In contrast to the Brahminical marriage, the ‘self-respect’ marriage did not entail any dowry.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Someone should tell that clown above (sorry for the disrespect, but sometimes I flip when this anti-hindu tirade goes to an extreme) that Karunanidhi himself used priests at his daughter's wedding, and that his family members conduct religious rituals regularly. Karunanidhi is hypocrite and a scheming politician who criticizes Hinduism and other religions very liberally, but is careful to keep christianity out of the picture, lest the evangelists and christian maffia in TN assassinate him for saying anything against christianity and church practices. It is well-known that most DMK members and their families go to church and perform religious rituals for their own private benefits. But in public they will all attack hinduism, mock it and deride it, simply for political reasons and because it is the most defenseless religion and refuses to fight back.

Christianity itself is very priest-centered. A christian marriage without the sanctioning and blessing of a priest is not considered a holy union and is unheard of. If it is a church marriage, then for sure it has to have a priest! I have never heard of a relative or friend conducting a christian marriage for the family member in a church instead of the church padre himself, unless this relative or friedn himself is a priest. Baptism, communion, marriage, confirmation, funerals all require the christian priest to conduct the rituals and offer blessings.

The importance of priest or the pastor in all key life events (baptism, marriage, funeral) is not only in catholicism but also in other christian denominations. So, why is the person above picking on Hindu rituals only - why not the christian marriage practices, especially why not the Indian christian marriage practices since they tend to be more pious and church-centered then many western christians. This joker surely knows which side his bread is buttered!

I strongly propose that henceforth all christians in India should not marry in a church; instead go for a civil marriage. Do not have your children baptized by a priest, and have funeral services conducted in churches with priests. Do not go for sermons every sunday to church because it entails a priest or padre or pastor - however the particular domination refers to their so-called "messangers of god."

If you can't stop your church-centered activities all of which entail a priest; then shut up about hindu practices!