Newlyweds at crossroads as Haryana Khap annuls marriage

Forbidden love

In yet another diktat by the all-powerful Khap panchayats in Haryana, a newly married couple have been directed to annul their marriage which the Panchayat declared as void and against their age-old “customs”.

The representatives of the panchayats announced this decision since the bride and the groom were from nearby villages where traditionally marriages have often not taken place since very long. This bar on marriages within nearby villages and same gotra has been arguably an irrational custom espoused in the name of “preserving brotherhood” within the village community.

Ignorantly or otherwise, the family of the groom, Naveen, solemnised the marriage in village Sulkhani in Haryana’s Hisar district last week only to invite the wrath of the village panchayat which held a meeting a couple of days ago and warned the two families against the continuation of the marriage.

The gotra of the two families have a “brotherhood clause” that bars villagers from indulging in any love affair or solemnising marriages.  The couple and their families have been asked to either fall in line or face a social boycott. This would follow the end of brotherhood within the villages as well. Naveen's father Balwant presented his version before the congregation, but to no avail. The girl is a native of village Saran in Kaithal in Haryana.

Balwant says he has apologised but will not annul the marriage. Khap chief of Bura village, Harnarayan said, the marriage is against the customs and has been declared invalid. Its now a choice that the families of the couple have to make. It’s no secret that finding brides for bachelors in gender ratio skewed Haryana is often a tough job. But increasing number of villages are now breaking the stereotype by resolving to allow matrimonial ties in nearby villages where until now marriages were prohibited.

This avant-garde move promises to address the problem of chronic bachelorhood in Haryana where youth are increasingly crossing the ‘marriageable age’ without tying the nuptial knot. At least a 100 villages in Haryana’s Jind district recently resolved to allow inter-village marriages by lifting centuries-old ban on marriages between villages in the block. Earlier, some 42-odd villages in the state under the aegis of Satrol Khap had resolved to lift the ban on such marriages.