By:0
Date:2018-06-13
Though the concept of marriage in India is not so complicated yet politics and greed of dowry has made it so. Specially dowry, and the matter is so much hyped that it often leads to disrespect of women also.
Often the advocates of these concept use so many false and misleading claims that it looks like as if they are only intended to do a business of marriage and only interested in monitory selfishness. Such people mix the concept of gotra and sapinda with the western scientific concepts of gene, incest and sometimes Oedipus complex, but actual motive is just to misuse these concepts for social gain. If one would look closely he will learn that these concepts were not made to explain the concepts of caste, gotra or sapinda. The Indian constitution allows these concepts because it has no intention to mess up with the social belief and faith. Indian constitution and acts has aim of moving ahead keeping eyes on history. It has no intention to create a mess of history. This is the reason it has other laws like special marriage act as well.
Gotra only has to do with father lineage of any individual. Father, forefather, grandfather etc. all would have same gotra. The gotra of women gets changed after marriage for some unknown reason. It become same as the gotra of husband. According to one sect of Hinduism, marriage within gotra is not done.
Another belief support sapinda system, which means that one should not marry within his/her sapinda. Sapinda means 3 generations of mother lineage and five generations of father lineage. All relatives coming within this boundary are sapinda.
To avoid any dispute often people look for both gotra and sapinda. But Hindu marriage act don’t mentions gotra system for marriage.
Due to lack of proper knowledge often people don’t understand the true reason behind these systems. They relate it to superstition. Though if we do a close analysis we would be able to see that these systems have more to do with property disputes and have less religious significance.
The gotra system, if you analyze, favors male superiority in marriage system. This is the reason that the gotra of the bride is changed after marriage. If you compare it with the sapinda system you will learn that the deciding factor, Gotra or sapinda, don’t get changed in sapinda system and gets changed in the gotra system. This indicates that the gotra system somehow reflects the superiority of groom family over brides family.
One can easily deduce from this that why hindu marriage act includes sapinda system, simply because constitution prohibits gender discrimination as much as possible.