In people's perception, incest is not only not allowed in the human reproductive system, but even animals will try their best to avoid inbreeding or backcrossing. The so-called incest, which is the marriage or relationship between close relatives, is difficult to say in most customs around the world, and even explicitly prohibited in the law. However, there is one country with an exception, incest is not only widespread in India, but the proportion of incest marriages in South India is as high as 36%, and it is self-evident how India's bad reputation as a "country of incest" came from.
Where did the "incestuous marriage" in India come from?
India fully deserves the name of "the country of incest", for example, in South India, where religious belief is very strong, the Hindu Tamils follow the tradition of uncles marrying nieces. Such incestuous marriages abound in South India, and even the internationally known "scandal", the rate of incestuous marriages in South India has reached 36%, which is a frightening figure. This makes people wonder, at a time when human civilization is so highly developed, how did this phenomenon of incest marriage in India come about?
To say how this phenomenon arose can only be said to be a product of the Indian social system and the inability of the law in the face of powerful customs. Indian society implements a caste system, which is divided into four classes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vedas, and Sudras. Brahmin imperial power and nobility; The Kshatriya represents the warriors and serves the Brahmins, just as the ancient kings had power and the warriors had power, you protect me, I give you power, it is the same truth. The Vedas, originally representing aryans who were not within the administration of the state, later also referred to merchants, held the wealth of Indian society; Shudra, on the other hand, represents the poor, who have no family property or land, and can only earn money by blood and sweat. In Indian society, the hierarchy is solidified and difficult to change, but marriage has become a more effective but high-threshold way.
The Indian caste system stipulates that men of the upper caste can marry women of the lower caste, and because Indian women need to be given the husband's surname after marriage, this is a breakthrough for the lower caste women, and the entire female family can flourish. In order to be able to cross the class, so that the woman's family will not hesitate to spend a high dowry to accompany the marriage, but ask the daughter to climb the branches. In addition, the Indian caste system also stipulates that a woman of high caste cannot marry a man of a low caste, in order to protect the noble bloodline. It is also under this system that even the families of high-caste women must prepare a high dowry, seek a high lintel for their daughters, and at least seek a family of caste equality.
But for poor Indian society, the majority of families cannot buy a large dowry for their daughters, and in order to be able to marry their daughters, but also to allow their sons to marry wives, and in order to strengthen the strength of the family or the entire tribe, women have become "equivalent goods" in marriage, and the "incest marriage" in the family or tribe has been repeated to this day.
What is the price India pays for "incestuous marriages"?
The existence of "incestuous marriage" is not only contrary to human civilization and morality, but also from the essence of biological survival, it is obviously not conducive to survival, because inbreeding will lead to bad genes being amplified and intensified, increasing the prevalence of offspring, resulting in offspring becoming weaker, and even going extinct. Therefore, the more advanced animals in nature know how to avoid inbreeding, the male tiger will stay away from the mother and sister when it is about to reach adulthood or just reach adulthood, and establish a territory and reproduce as far away from the mother's territory as possible, while the female tiger will generally live with the mother. That is to say, the offspring and females born of the same mother are separated as widely as possible in order to achieve the purpose of reproductive isolation. In addition to the moral and ethical constraints of human society, there are laws that explicitly prohibit the marriage of close relatives, and even more do not allow the existence of incest.
In fact, India has also included the prohibition of consanguineous marriages in the law, and why incest addiction has been repeatedly prohibited, the most important reason is that Indian laws are not strong enough. The hierarchical nature of Indian society has made the social status between castes extremely unfair, and the law has often "perverted the law" for the Indian aristocratic community, and the law has given way to some powerful tribal customs in India. This statement is not subjective speculation, but in the Indian marriage law, many legal provisions have the phrase "unless the local customs allow it".
And this kind of behavior is a typical backdoor, so that many illegal and incorrect marriages are "at large". The harm this brings to Indian society is not only to make inbreed offspring weaker, but also to a series of social problems, such as child marriage, domestic violence against women, and women's lack of freedom.
The Blood and Tears of Women under the Indian Marriage System
It is an accepted fact that the social status of Indian women is low, but the degree of inferiority is still unbelievable. It is all too common for Indian women to enter marriage at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and it is truly amazing that they have entered marriage at such an age. And there is still a phenomenon of child marriage in India, such as the marriage of a niece and uncle who is only seven or eight years old, which is reminiscent of the child protection laws of international organizations, is it useless or deterrent in Indian society?
And because Indian society is a typical and already deformed patriarchal society, Indian housewives have no right to work outside the home, so they have no financial resources, and they have to rely on their husbands to survive. Seeing this, it is not difficult to imagine how India's divorce rate of less than 1% and becoming one of the countries with the lowest divorce rate in the world has done it, and the truth behind it is not that Indian women do not want to divorce, but that they cannot divorce.
In addition to the loss of economic capacity and viability, there is almost zero incentive and inclusiveness of Indian society and customs for women to divorce. The traditional custom is that women's life mission is to marry and teach their children in peace and security, and the social atmosphere in India is that there is almost no place for divorced women, there is no room for survival in public opinion, and there is almost no space for daily survival. And this is why incestuous marriages have always been arranged, but they have always existed.
All in all, it is not that women in India do not know how to fight and flee, but that they do not have the ability to do so, and even hysterical cries for help are not heard. Even those of them who have suffered from marriage often have no voice.