Dalits and Inter-Caste Marriage Written by T. Sowjanya Published on 17 September 2015  ROUND TABLE INDIA T. Sowjanya (This article is extracted from one of my research papers) Is the personal, political? Perhaps, we don't disagree with this radical viewpoint of feminism i.e. personal is political. If this is so, then personal choices are also political in nature. Therefore, there is no personal arena into which academic research cannot penetrate. Marriage has been one such area which has been perceived to be a space for religious significance. (Samita Sen, Ranjita Biswas, Nandita Dhawan, 2011) Marriage and other forms of intimate relationships are considered to be impenetrable private spaces of individuals. The study of politics that operates within these private spheres is, therefore perceived to be an unpleasant intrusion. While the traditional understanding tries to protect the sanctity of marriage, the modern understanding of marriage implies that the privacy of this space should be respected. But the notions of gender, race, class, caste and community continue to determine the power-relations within and around marriage/intimate relationships. Domestic violence, marital rapes are a few examples of how gender politics and power operate in this space. Therefore, the power relations determined by caste/class positions in inter-caste marriages could also be explored. The genesis of this piece lies in the informal discussions among various circles of dalit feminists. 1 Those discussions threw up an interesting observation that a considerable number of dalit ideologues and educated dalit men marry Brahmin/upper-caste women as against the miniscule number of educated dalit women who marry outside their caste. 2 Even the recent critically acclaimed film Masaan portrays romantic "love" relationship between a young educated dalit man and an upper-caste middle class woman. This was definitely food for thought. Traditional View on Inter-caste Marriage I present here some of the traditional ideologies that act as built-in deterrents to inter- caste marriages in Hindu society. Endogamy is the significant feature of the caste