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Khap U-turn saves couple
The police and elder citizens in a village in Haryana’s Rohtak district saved a newly wed Scheduled Caste couple and their families from an ordeal on Tuesday.
The police and elder citizens in a village in Haryana’s Rohtak district saved a newly wed Scheduled Caste couple and their families from an ordeal on Tuesday.
The khap panchayat of Saiman village was persuaded to withdraw its diktat to the couple within 24 hours of the police’s intervention.
The khap panchayat had ordered the family of the bridegroom to annul the marriage or leave the village in 10 days for violating bhaichara (brotherly relations between gotras).
The khap had argued that Susheela Budgujar, whose mother belongs to the Bahamani gotra, was the village’s ‘niece’ and it could therefore not accept her as the village’s bahu or bride. The groom Kulwant Maidal belongs to the Maidal gotra and marriages between members of the ‘fraternal’ communities are taboo in Saiman.
Susheela and Kulwant and their families insisted that the marriage did not violate any social norm as the gotra of the bride’s mother did not matter.
The families stuck together, refusing to abide by the diktat and decided to take up the matter with the police.
“The panchayat decision was unjustified and unacceptable,” said a family member who did not want to be named. The families approached the Rohtak district police, pleading that if the diktat was implemented, it would ruin the couple’s life.
The police, surprisingly, sprung into action and organised a meeting between the couple’s families, village elders and khap panchayat members.
The meeting was supervised by the SHO of Meham sub-division of Rohtak district, Telu Ram. “After lengthy discussions, the Bahamani and Maidal gotra representatives agreed to relax the norms in tune with the changing times,” Telu Ram said.
The khap panchayat also declared there will be no restrictions in the village on such marriages in future.
The couple’s well-wishers can now hope Susheela and Kulwant live happily ever after.
