Even as many religious groups strongly offer their support to the 'No' campaign in the ongoing postal survey on same sex marriage, the Hindu clergy group has come out publicly supporting the rights of same-sex couple to get married.
"This is a civil matter and it has got nothing to do with religion," the public relations officer of the Australian Council of Hindu Clergy, Pandit Rama Ramanujacari tells SBS Malayalam.
"We support whatever the majority of Australian population decides on this issue."
In a statement published on its website, the Council said that it gave "unqualified support for equality of all citizens before the law and the rights of everyone to live in love and dignity."
"We (Hindus) as a migrant community expect equality before law," says Pandit Rami, "how can we expect equality for ourselves and deny it for another marginalised community. Is that not hypocrisy?"
He asked all Hindus in Australia to, "support others in their pursuit of happiness, equality and their rights in front of the civil law."
Despite supporting homosexual marriage as per civil laws, Pandit Rami has clarified that when it comes to religious marriages as per the Hindu culture, the priests will only perform marriages between heterosexual couples.
Indian Hindu organisations have a different view
This is a clear deviation from the stand taken by many Hindu leaders in India on the issue of same-sex love and marriage. When the Supreme Court of India upheld the section 377 of Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, leaders of many major Hindu organisations had come out applauding the judgement.
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev had even gone to the extent of calling homosexuality as "not genetic; it is just a bad addiction" and offered a cure for homosexuality.
On the same occasion, Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - one of the leading Hindu organisations in India - had also criticised homosexuality as something against Indian culture.
"We are regressing, going back to when we were like animals," VHP vice-president Om Prakash Singhal had said.
However, Pandit Rami of the Australian Council of Hindu Clergy has pointed out that, as per Hindu tradition, the performance of a "vivaha" or marriage sacrament, is restricted between a man and woman only for the Brahmin caste - the uppermost group in the caste system.
As there are many other kinds of marriage ceremonies within the Hindu religion, he clarified that non-Bramanic Hindu marriage customs can be applied for the same-sex couples also and, if the law is passed, they can get married as per such Hindu laws.
Pointing to the objections raised by some other priests within the community, Pandit Rami said that as per Hindu ideology, a woman can even be a married to a banana tree or clay pot if she is a "mangalik" - or predicted to have two marriages as per horoscopy. Once this marriage is performed, the banana tree will be cut down and the person can marry "again".
