Hyderabad: While much is being said about Love Jihad, Hyderabad is showing a different trend altogether. More and more people from different religions and from different countries are converting to Hinduism for their Hyderabadi partner and are getting married as per Hindu customs at various Arya Samaj branches in the city.
Over 25 such couples got married in the last eight months. Most of them are students. They include a few Americans, Russians, Australians and even a Chinese national who converted to Hinduism for their partners.
There were also three weddings wherein neither of the partners were Hindu, but willfully changed their religion for personal reasons like getting quick marriage certificates and moving out of the country.
Most of the marriages, however, were not for quick marriage certificates, but a conscious decision by the Hindu partner to get married according to Hindu rituals and in his or her own city.
Vitthal Rao Arya, president of the State Council of Arya Samaj, said, “We have had about 25 to 27 such couples this year. This is a new trend. As per our principles, we perform weddings only for people following Hinduism. But in some cases, when the girl or the boy is from another religion, we tell them what our procedures are and that we cannot perform the wedding unless both are majors and Hindus.
“We do not immediately allow conversion. We counsel them and ask them if they are sure of their decision and only then we go ahead,” Mr Arya said.
The couples are mandated to submit an affidavit, a medical certificate, age proofs, address proofs, passport photos and three witnesses each with their address proofs.
“Only after all these documents verified do we perform the wedding. After the wedding, an Arya Samaj certificate is issued. This is valid across the country and even for applying for a passport. But for a visa, they must submit this to a registrar and in about a week, a marriage certificate is issued. A normal registry marriage will take a month and it is also a dull event. In this case, their friends come, we give them the space for the rituals and it’s like a celebration,” he added.
