Two Himachal brothers marry same woman adopting tribal tradition of polyandry
Nahan/Shimla (HP), Jul 20 (PTI): Two brothers of the Hatti tribe tied the knot to a woman in Shillai village of Himachal Pradesh, with hundreds of people witnessing the marriage solemnised under the anachronistic tradition of polyandry.
Bride Sunita Chauhan and grooms Pradeep and Kapil Negi said they took the decision without any pressure.
Local folk songs and dances added colour to the ceremony that began on July 12 and lasted for three days in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur district.
Videos of the wedding ceremony have gone viral on the internet.
Revenue laws of Himachal Pradesh recognise this tradition and named it "Jodidara". In Badhana village in Trans-Giri, five such marriages have taken place in the past six years.
Sunita, who hails from Kunhat village, said that she was aware of the tradition and made her decision without any pressure, adding she respects the bond they have formed.
Pradeep, from Shillai village, works in a government department while his younger brother Kapil has a job abroad.
"We followed the tradition publicly as we are proud of it and it was a joint decision," said Pradeep.
Kapil said he may live abroad, but through this marriage, "we're ensuring support, stability and love for our wife as a united family".
"We've always believed in transparency," he added.
Hatti is a closed-knit community in the Himachal Pradesh-Uttarakhand border and was declared as Scheduled Tribe three years ago. In this tribe, polyandry was in vogue for centuries, but due to rising literacy among women and economic uplift of communities in the region, cases of polyandry were not reported.
Such marriages are being solemnised in a clandestine manner and accepted by the society but instances are fewer, elders in the village said.
According to experts, one of the main considerations behind the tradition was to ensure that the ancestral land was not divided while the share of tribal women in the ancestral property is still a main issue.
There are nearly three lakh people of the Hatti community who live in about 450 villages in the Trans Giri area of Sirmaur district and polyandry is still a practising tradition in some villages. It was also prevalent in Jaunsar Babar, tribal area of Uttarakhand and Kinnaur, a tribal district of Himachal Pradesh.
Kundan Singh Shastri, general secretary of Kendriya Hatti Samiti, the prime body of the Hatti community, said this tradition was invented thousands of years ago to save a family's agricultural land from further division.
Another reason is to promote brotherhood and mutual understanding in a joint family by marrying even two or more brothers born from different mothers with a single bride, he told PTI.
The third reason is a feeling of security "if you have bigger family, more men, you are more secure in a tribal society", he said, adding it also helps in managing scattered agriculture lands in far-flung hard hilly areas which requires a family for a long time for care and cultivation.
These requirements of tribal families have kept the polyandry system for thousands of years, in practice, though these traditions are slowly dying, Shastri added.
In this unique tribal tradition of marriage known as "Jajda", the bride comes to the village of the groom in a procession and the ritual known as "Seenj" is performed at the residence of the groom.
The pandit chant mantras in local language with sprinkling holy water on the bride and groom and offer them jaggery in the end, with blessings that their Kul Devta may bring sweetness in their married life.
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Gurugram/New Delhi: A case involving a former Ashoka University student has drawn attention after her parents alleged she went missing and sought a probe into an alleged network, while court records indicate that the woman had left home voluntarily and sought legal protection to live independently.
According to The Print, the parents, who are both academics, have approached the Haryana State Commission for Women, alleging that their daughter was manipulated and used by university officials. They have requested a probe by the National probe Agency and have named multiple individuals, including academic members, researchers, and students, in their complaints.
However, the university stated that the woman ceased to be a student in May 2023 and that its instructors and staff have no participation in the situation.
According to documentation in the case, the woman, who was 22 at the time, left her Rohtak home on October 24, 2023. In her written communication with police officers and the station house officer in Sonipat, she stated that she had departed on her own accord, alleging years of physical and emotional abuse at home and demanding secrecy regarding her location.
She subsequently recorded a statement before a magistrate under provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. She affirmed her decision to live independently and in later complaints, she alleged continued attempts by her family to contact her and sought police protection.
Court records from the Delhi High Court show that she appeared in person before the court in May 2024 and stated that she wished to choose her own way of life and did not want to interact with her family. The court noted her statement and recorded that she was a major acting of her own volition.
In a subsequent order, the court noted that she had been provided police protection since November 2023 and was residing independently, granting her liberty to approach the court again if required.
The parents, meanwhile, have maintained that their daughter was a meritorious student and alleged that she was traced earlier to premises linked to university staff. They also raised concerns over financial transactions and a name change, which they claim point to a larger network.
At the centre of their allegations is Bittu Kaveri Rajaraman, an associate professor at the university. No response has been issued by the individuals named in the complaint so far.
After the matter was taken up by the women’s commission, chairperson Renu Bhatia said the panel may recommend a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
During the hearings, a lawyer claiming to represent the woman arrived before the commission even though she had not been summoned and the commission has asked for her personal appearance.
