Indian Couple Married for Love, But Bride’s Dad Paid for Assassins Because It Was ‘Forbidden’
Meanwhile, Amrutha belongs to Arya Vysya, a subset of the upper caste family known as Komati. Her wealthy family reportedly viewed their marriage as an “unacceptable humiliation.”
Over many years of subjugation, many Dalits also penetrated politics, higher education and business, partly through affirmative action. However, adherence to the caste system is still widely observed in Indian society as recent data suggests. Based on a 2017 study, only 5.8% of Indian marriages are between people of different castes. This figure has barely changed in the last four decades.
The country has enacted many laws and social initiatives to protect and improve the socio-economic conditions of its lower caste population since the 1950s, but the continuous tradition of marrying in one’s own caste has kept the system rigid in the present day. Cases of non-adherence to this system, such as inter-caste marriages, have often led to very violent opposition by the upper castes.
Uma Chakravarti, a historian/expert on caste and gender, revealed that the violent reactions are “passed off in the name of tradition and honor.” She further noted that a woman choosing a Dalit man to marry strikes a deeper wound to her parents as it “destabilizes the entire system” anchored on inequality.
Even as a teenager growing up, Amrutha’s parents have warned her against not making friends with girls from lower castes, particularly Dalits. She met Pranay, who studies in the same school as hers, while she was out with friends in her ninth-grade class. After exchanging texts and phone calls, they developed a friendship that immediately faced consequences after Amrutha’s father found out.
“I can even marry you to a beggar who belongs to an upper caste,” Amrutha’s dad would keep telling her back then. “But I don’t want you to marry from a lower caste, whoever it is.”
The pair were already in college when Amrutha felt that her parents were making attempts to marry her to another man. Amrutha, who was then studying fashion, sent word to Pranay that she wanted to elope. At the time, Pranay was pursuing an engineering degree but decided to set it aside to fight for their love.
Amrutha and Pranay had it all planned out. In a bid to go to Australia and start a business, they immediately submitted their applications for passports and studied for an English proficiency test.
In a simple ceremony attended only by close friends, the couple got married at a temple in Hyderabad run by the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist group which supports inter-caste marriages. Their plans to leave the country was put on hold, however, when Amrutha discovered she was pregnant five months after their wedding.
They then decided to organize a reception on Aug. 17, 2018, to celebrate their marriage. The event was attended by hundreds of people but Amrutha’s parents did not show up.
hi As they were chatting and walking down the street, a man suddenly came up behind them and struck two blows, hitting Pranay behind his back. Amrutha was captured on film in tears as she started running back to the hospital for help.
“Somebody attacked Pranay. What did you do?” Amrutha asked her father over the phone before she fainted.
Authorities have since cited overwhelming evidence linking Rao to the murder, noting that he confessed to the crime on September 30. Rao has yet to be sentenced for his crimes.
While many, including the hundreds of Dalits who mourned with Pranay’s family in Miryalaguda, denounced the young man’s death, there were also others who took the side of Amrutha’s father.
Amrutha, who now lives with her son and Pranay Perumalla’s parents in Miryalaguda, says Pranay’s parents have now become her own.
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