Common family names of Hindus, Jains and Sikhs (followers of Dharma traditions) were picked from the Macys marriage registry for our data analysis. Though individuals religious preferences were not verified, the consistency of results across these common family names, gives validity to our conclusions. The results clearly show that at least a third of these young Dharmics have selected an Abrahamic partner as their life mate.
For example, the registry lists 494 Patels, of whom 170 were marrying partners of the Abrahamic religion.
Historically in India , interfaith marriages among Hindus, Jains and Sikhs are quite common, but not with Muslims or Christians because there are fundamental differences between the beliefs and practices of the two major groups of religions — the Dharmic and the Abrahamic. Now in America, these groups are assimilating for marriage at large.
In reality, a marriage is not only a marriage of two individuals; but to some extent, it is also a marriage of two extended families. Many a time major difficulties may arise when subtle pressure is applied by the extended family for religious conversion before a church wedding or Islamic Nikaah takes place. The challenges may get harder as years go by, especially when time comes to decide the religious fate of the children from the marriage. For example, the Islamic religion requires that children of mixed marriages must be raised in the Islamic faith. The Catholic Church strongly advocates that the Catholic parent should do everything possible to insure that a child is baptized and raised as a Catholic. It remains to be seen how followers of Dharmic and Abrahamic faiths will manage their fundamental religious differences in these new interfaith marriages.
The study’s author, Dr. Amin, is a medial research scientist and past President of the Plymouth Balvihar (Hindu cultural school) in Pennsylvania. His e-mail is dilipamin@yahoo.com.