By Shilpa Raina, IANS,
New Delhi : Love knows no boundaries and marriage is more about compatibility, feel many Indians who wouldn’t mind going the Sania Mirza way. Just like the tennis star, they are game for a spouse in Pakistan, Nepal or Sri Lanka, and fundamentalists who oppose such marriages be damned.
According to a survey, “Love Across Boundaries”, by matrimony site Shaadi.com, 61.2 percent people don’t mind looking for their spouses in Pakistan followed by 28.9 percent and 26.4 percent people voting for Nepal and Sri Lanka respectively.
Gourav Rakshit, business head of shaadi.com, says the findings of the survey were “surprising” as well as “pleasant”.
“It truly was a revelation to us that people are genuinely open to having cross-border marriages and we were pleasantly surprised to learn how broadminded South Asians have become,” Rakshit told IANS.
“At the same time, compatibility is still the primary focus. So while cross-border interaction is on the rise, success in finding a compatible partner across borders is still restricted only to a small percentage of candidates,” he added.
Though it may seem hunky-dory on the outside, getting married to a Pakistani national has its share of problems. Due to the political tensions between the two countries, couples prefer to migrate to a neutral country where they are not bothered by visa issues.
The best example of this is the newly wed Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, who much before their wedding announced that they would move to Dubai.
But cross-border romance is not new. Indian woman golfer Nonita Lal Qureshi made news when she tied the knot with Pakistani golf champion Faisal Qureshi 18 years ago.
“When I married Faisal, there were no issues except bureaucratic ones like visa problems. It was very clear that I would continue to play for India while Faisal played for Pakistan. I played for India for years after my marriage, till 1999, to be precise,” she told a tabloid recently in an interview.
Even Bollywood actress Rina Roy fell for Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan and tied the knot in 1983. Writer Sadia Dehlvi too married a Pakistani banker.
In this cross-border marriage, one of the major issues that creates trouble is citizenship.
“We did live in Sri Lanka for a couple of years after getting married, because of visa problems, but now we live in Delhi,” said Qureshi who is happily settled in the Indian capital with her husband and son.
Kolkata-based lawyer Pradip K. Sen advises: “A Pakistani national who is married to an Indian can claim Indian citizenship if they both have been residing in India after marriage. The Pakistani must be here for seven years before he or she can claim Indian citizenship through his or her marriage to the Indian national.”
Apart from this, another restriction with Pakistani nationals is that they can’t claim dual citizenship, he said.
“There is no scope for dual citizenship in this case. Pakistan does not have any agreement of ‘dual citizenship’ with India though it has such arrangements with other countries,” Sen told IANS.
Mumbai-based lawyer Vaibhav Raut says sometimes people fail to get citizenship despite spending seven years in India. To avoid such consequences, one must fill the form carefully.”
“Often the problem arises when the application is incomplete because of lack of documents that can support the applicant’s claim of his or her stay in India for seven years. So one has to consider that,” Raut told IANS.
“In case the application is accepted or rejected by the union home ministry, then the authorities provide a copy of the correspondence to the applicant through the state government or the union territory administration,” he added.
He also added that in the above case of rejection, the communication will state what the problem is. The applicant can then rectify it.
Bollywood cross-border romance “Veer-Zaara” had a happy ending. And many Indians wish reel life would spill over into real life too!
(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at [email protected])