Inter-caste marriages

The Assam government recently announced that couples involved in inter-caste marriage will be given financial incentives. The state government has already put out advertisements through the print media inviting applications from inter-caste married couples for availing the incentives being provided under a particular scheme called "Inter Caste Marriage Scheme 2021-22," which will cover those couples of the state who had entered into inter-caste marriage between April 2019 and March 2021. It has been also said that the scheme will particularly cover those couples whose inter-caste or inter-community marriages have triggered stiff resistance from their families. Going by a tweet the Assam government (MyGov Assam), it however appears that only those couples of which one belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and the other to a general caste will be eligible for availing the incentive, with additional criteria that the annual income of the couple should not be more than Rs 5 lakh. The question arises as to why couples consisting of one general caste spouse and the other belonging to a Scheduled Tribe community of the state have not been included in this particular scheme. It is important to note that the caste barrier in Assam is not as rigid as in most other states of mainland India. Reports of honour-killings crop up at quite short intervals from several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, while caste-based discrimination is reportedly very high in the southern states. In Assam, one must recall the contributions of Sukapha, Srimanta Sankaradeva, Momai Tamuli Barbaruah and a handful of Xatradhikars like the late Pitambar Dev Goswami of Garamur Satra of the last century, towards loosening, if not breaking altogether, the caste-based barriers. The Ahoms, who had practically brought no women with them when they arrived in Assam in 1228 AD, had all married women of various existing communities of the Brahmaputra Valley. Srimanta Sankaradeva broke the monopoly of priests in religious matters. Momai Tamuli reorganized villages by including families from every caste and community, thus strengthening the concept of inclusivity. In modern times, a sizable section of the prominent people of Assam had entered into inter-caste and inter-community marriages.