Forbidden love: Indian inter-caste marriage ends in husband’s murder, allegedly on order of father-in-law
Pranay Perumalla and Amrutha Varshini were in love and about to become parents when Pranay, a Dalit, was hacked to death allegedly on the order of his father-in-law. In India, despite rapid modernisation, the caste system maintains its stubborn grip on society
They were young, glamorous and in love. Pranay Perumalla strode into the wedding hall in a midnight blue suit, his face lit by a grin as he clasped the hand of his bride, Amrutha Varshini. The couple draped huge garlands of flowers around one another’s necks and relatives threw grains of yellow rice that caught in their hair. But even as they celebrated, they were already in danger.
One bright afternoon less than a month later, the couple left a doctor’s appointment in the small southern Indian city of Miryalaguda, in the state of Telangana, where they had grown up. A man came up behind them carrying a large butcher’s knife in his right hand. He hacked Pranay twice on the head and neck, killing him instantly.
Pranay, 23, was a Dalit, a term used to describe those formerly known as “untouchables”. Amrutha, 21, belongs to an upper caste. Her rich and powerful family viewed the couple’s union as an unacceptable humiliation. Her father, T. Maruthi Rao, was so enraged that he hired killers to murder his son-in-law, court documents say.
While Indian society is changing, it is not shifting rapidly enough for couples like Amrutha and Pranay, whose marriage defied an age-old system of discrimination and hierarchy. Even as India has lifted millions out of poverty, increased education rates and built one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, the influence of caste – a social order rooted in Hindu scriptures and based on an identity determined at birth – remains pervasive.
If a woman can choose who she marries – including a Dalit man – it destabilises the entire system
That system is at its most resilient in marriage. A 2017 study found that just 5.8 per cent of Indian marriages were between people of different castes, a rate that had changed little in four decades. The results surprised the researchers, who had expected to see “more intermingling of the different castes,” said Tridip Ray, a statistician and the lead author of the study. “Unfortunately, that’s not happening.”
In India, transgressing such boundaries sometimes provokes violence. Since late June, killings of men and women who married outside their caste have been reported in the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The daughter of a politician from India’s ruling party recently posted a video on social media seeking protection from her father after she married a Dalit man.