Class mobility is nipped in the bud. So, mobility between religions, especially between Hindus and Muslims, is unthinkable. There could be historical reasons why it is anathema to each other but if two innocent individuals would like to put all those behind and move forward, should they be taught a gory lesson? Rizwanur is dead and Priyanka is grieving. Even if we buy the theory he committed suicide, was that not societal or family pressure that drove him to do that? If he had been murdered, it was a dastardly act. A pre-medidated homicide that must attract the rarest of rare punishments.

 

But why are we afraid of mobility? Because status quo gives us a false sense of security? Because our own relative social status might be in jeopardy? We feel secure in the relative security of the present arrangement, even if it is stagnant and rotting. Witness the case of Chiranjeevi's daughter. The couple was hiding in Delhi for a while with the protection granted by the court.

 

In both the cases, apart from caste/religion mobility, class mobility is as serious an issue. Or, is it the main issue? Both the boys belong to humbler backgrounds. Why did the girls decide to do what they did? Was it pathological aversion to the stink of wealth? Or was it that the filmy stuff that they grew up on, motivated them to it? Could it be that one or both did it on the rebound from another affair that they didn't quite realize the consequences of their action? Or was it simply a matter of the heart? Interestingly, in both the cases, the boy's family has had no issues about the marriage. I am certainly not talking about boy versus girl. It is about the class background. No hassles when Sunil Dutt married Nargis, Sharmila married Mansur Ali Khan, when Saif and Kareena are supposed to be going strong, when Hrithik Roshan married Suzanne Khan, when Hema Malini married Dharmendra (caste mobility)...any number of cases can be quoted. A good friend of mine, of similar middle class background like mine, invited me to the reception of his son's marriage a couple of years back and said apologetically that the marriage itself was a very simple affair, confined just to the two immediate families, because his boy married a Muslim girl. My friend is a Hindu. Most of us friends told him zamana badal raha hai and appreciated his courage in accepting the reality and extending his emotional support to his son and daughter-in-law. Sometime later, I came to know that my friend himself had married a Muslim girl and some of us friends speculated that he may have specifically chosen a Muslim bride for his son, because no Hindu family might like to marry their daughter into such a home. That is middle class morality, reinforced, in a misplaced manner, by cases like Rizwanur's. That is the bitter truth and we cannot turn away from it.

 

But the fact of the matter is such marital associations do take place and are mostly successful when the class barrier is not breached. My friend and his wife both are middle class backgrounds and their daughter-in-law is also from the same background. Sachin Pilot has married Farooq Abdullah's daughter and there is no problem. We had late Prof Rasheeduddin Khan (ex-Rajya Sabha MP) whose wife was a Hindu. Consider the class backgrounds of the film stars I have mentioned. I am sure our fellow bloggers will be able to come up with more examples. Such associations must be taking place in the lower and lower middle classes also and without disturbing anyone's peace, as long as such mobility is within the same class. 

 

Another reality that we must not shy away from and in fact stare in its face and come to terms with is that we all have friends in each other's community and some of them could be our best friends but when it comes to collective identity, we are back to us versus them. Shameful, we are all hypocrites, irrespective of our respective religious affiliation. At least here, our views merge. Is that a silver lining? After what happened to Rizwanur? (I must add that Rizwanur's fate could have happened to a Hindu boy, a Muslim girl or a Hindu girl).

 

No doubt, the color of your blood is red, whatever your religion or caste. But, be wary of the color of the money you would be courting when you jump into a relationship that would require you to cross class barriers. But if you go along with the zing of your heart, be prepared to be lined up alongside Rizwanur. 

(I had posted this on another blog site some four weeks back. I have brought this up here for the consideration of the Sulekha blogging community. Thanks.)