It’s a new day, and we have another piece of news that is making us shake our heads in sheer disbelief. While the world is progressing and embracing intercultural, inter-faith, and inter-race marriages with open arms, India seems to be regressing back in time.
Following threats by local panchayats, the Jain, Gujarati and Sindhi communities in Bhopal have made the bizarre decision to ban pre-wedding shoots. Yup, you read that right! In fact, a diktat was issued by panchayats of the three communities that stated–those who do not adhere to these new rules will be boycotted and shunned from the community.
According to Sanjay Patel, President of the Bhopal Gujarat Community, a circular banning pre-wedding photo, video-shoots and entry of male choreographers in ladies sangeet during and before weddings has been issued.
“The community has decided to ban these activities as the communities feel that many marriages break even before they take off. It is a collective decision and those who will not adhere to this will be ostracised from the community,” Patel said.
The Sindhi community was quick to follow suit. “We have passed a resolution banning pre-wedding video and photo-shoots and the same would be communicated to the community through a circular which is being drafted,” said Bhagwan Das Israni, President, Bhopal Sindhi community.
The Jain community went as far as calling these trends ‘obscene’ and said such events were having a bad impact on the social bonding within their community. “Our spiritual guru called it obscene so we have issued the necessary directions,” said Pramod Himanshu Jain, a representative from the community.
This isn’t the first time that such bans have be enforced by local communities in India. Last year, a Sindhi panchayat in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh had issued a similar diktat banning pre-wedding shoots. The decision to ban such shoots was opposed by many within the community, with splinter groups claiming that no one person or a group of persons represented the entire community.
Well, we hope that young people from these three communities come together to protest these ridiculous bans. Let’s focus on larger issues instead, shall we?
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