‘It’s all culture and society, not religion’ claims Kaur

Religion, caste and culture form vast opinions about teachings of life.

Student Kaur, 23 from Birmingham expressed how beliefs about inter-faith relationships are made from culture and society not religion.

The Sikh religion in Kaur’s life was not a major element to her, as her parents did not grow her up to become religious. Kaur said, "if they did I kind of went against them".

She was however restricted to have a relationship with a boy who was a different religion to her.

"It’s not really been explained, when I have cousins who are married into different cultures and religions. Seeing people getting married to people who are a different cast and religion make me think if they can do it, why cant I?"

Marrying into the same religion was already a concern to Kaur, yet caste was a bigger barrier.

"My parents always said you should marry in your own cast but I never saw it like that in my own eyes. There is not meant to be a cast in my religion, yet people still frown upon this. It’s all culture and society its not actually religion", she said.

Kaur had explained how she had introduced her best friend to her mother who had commented that her friend was a lower caste in the Sikh religion. Kaur, being a Jatt and her best friend a Khatri had caused issues between the two. "I told my best friend that I’m in the higher ranking and then she told me we are equal and we’re the same. She was offended, because she wasn’t different to me".

Kaur started to understood the concept of caste, but realised she didn’t know how it would matter, as she said "if you have a good heart at the end of the day then it should be fine. I understand sometimes when people say religion, but if you go onto caste and say oh he’s a Muslim and he’s Hindu but they’re a different cast and I cant get married to them. I think that’s just going over board.

"We’re all humans at the end of the day and we are looking at others and ourselves differently".

She further added, "funny thing is that its not in anyone’s scriptures where it says this is man-made it's just politics at the end of the day and setting out class".

The generation of Kaur’s parents reflect on the idea of caste differently to the younger generation. Kaur shared how living in the UK is completely a different lifestyle to how her parent lived life in India.

"In the UK we’re all educated and live in the same way.

"I suppose some people still want to carry out the generation, other wise there would be no faith or religion in the future".