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9490505053MAKING A POINT: Mukthiravvala Koteswara Rao, the Ardent reformer who has performed 265 inter-caste marriages in a span of 15 years.
TIRUPATI:
Envisioning a `harmonious society', he has taken up the task of
performing inter-caste marriages and has finished 265 in a span of
fifteen years.
For
Mukthiravvala Koteswara Rao, a senior telephones supervisor in BSNL,
Tirupati who is with Adarsha Vivaha Vedika, wedding is just the
unification of two hearts. No need to look for religion, caste,
horoscope and dowry.
Adarsha vivaham Before
preaching, he practised the same to let others emulate. The Dalit
reformer married a Tamil mudaliar girl in 1991, which incidentally was
the first `Adarsha vivaham'. And of course there was no looking back.
He
performed marriages of a Marwadi girl with a Brahmin boy in Tirupati,
Marwadi girl with a Muslim boy in Nellore and Dudekula girl with Madiga
boy in Kadapa. He also had to incur the wrath of a couple of
factionists for ruffling their feathers in 1996. He shot into fame when
he got a Hindu boy married to a Christian girl, in Christian style in
the vicinity of the famous Kanipakam Vinayaka temple near Chittoor.
Odd combinations "My
`odd combinations' often created a rift between TDP and Congress
followers, RSS and Muslim activists, Reddy and Kamma families'', he says
with a smile. On the face of it, it is only about two individuals,
their tastes and preferences. But, the issue assumes alarming
proportions when two families, two communities or two villages
intervene, he adds. During crises, he had rushed with the potential
couple to be, to the Press Club here, considered a safe haven. A number
of marriages were performed in the glare of media flashlights.
His
job, needless to say, was never a bed of roses. He had to escape four
murder attempts and was kidnapped sixteen times for his `unwarranted
intervention' in the social custom called caste.
Success rate How
about the success rate? " Twelve out of the 264 marriages failed due
to intervention of either of the families trying to prevail upon one to
get rid of the other.'' `Getting rid' is not easy, he says, recalling
the horrific incident in Sodam mandal where a girl was stripped naked,
made to dip in three tanks and three wells and her tongue scorched with
a heated iron rod.