Maharashtra: Anti-Superstition Organisation To Establish Interfaith, Inter-Caste Marriage Bureau Soon

Dabholkar confronted the adherents of long-standing superstitious beliefs head-on. 

13 June 2024

By Khushi Maheshwari 

An “intercaste, interfaith” marriage bureau has been established by the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) to assist people who want to marry outside of social norms. Following a two-day convention held in Solapur on Tuesday, the body led by the deceased rationalist Narendra Dabholkar passed several resolutions, including one to establish the first-of-its-kind forum.

“In a television debate over ‘Khap/Jaat Panchayat,’ the night before Dabholkar was murdered, he had said that caste is the biggest superstition followed in our society and the solution to this, as suggested by Dr B R Ambedkar, is marrying outside castes and communities,” MANS state committee member Rahul Thorat said. In order to spread this message to couples who want to defy society norms and get married, we established this “safehouse,” according to Thorat. 

According to Thorat, the agency will soon facilitate the interchange of individual biodata. “We will offer free counselling to anyone who is interested, and two senior organisation members will be assigned to this role. We will move the procedure online and create a portal for it, depending on the reaction. Numerous people have expressed interest, including both young and old. We anticipate a positive answer,” he stated. In the meantime, MANS also made the choice to appeal the Pune court’s ruling clearing the three defendants in Dabholkar’s murder case.

After quitting his ten-year medical career, Dabholkar founded Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) in the late 1980s, revitalising the superstitious thought process. He confronted long-standing superstitious beliefs and their proponents head-on. Over time, Dabholkar made multiple attempts to create a legislative framework opposing superstition, while MANS persisted in its efforts to eradicate superstitious practices. In addition to opposition from a number of organisations and political parties, the governments in power at the time delayed the passage of the legislation.