Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Surgana, June 10: The brides and grooms came in droves to Alangun near Surgana on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border: Some had trekked 10 to 12 km while others poured out of jeeps, Matador vans and trucks arriving from hamlets as far as 40 to 50 km away. At 4.15 pm on Sunday, while a storm gathered outside and it rained endlessly, as many as 1,286 tribal couples entered wedlock.
Many of them had brought their children along, curious guests at a ceremony as alien to them as most other `urban’ rituals. Marriage is a rarity for the Mahadev Koli, Kokana and Warli tribals of Surgana — the prerogative of a handful of affluent families in their communities.
Traditional marriage rituals are unaffordable as the families of both the groom and the bride have to provide free meals to the villagers and distribute new clothes among relatives. The penn, or engagement, is thus the perfect substitute. For a modest price, the groom gifts his bride new clothes and in a symbolic gesture gives his in-laws a piece of jaggery.
Living together after penn is the rule rather than the exception among the tribals.
Former Sarguna MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit says the penn is often a thorn in the government machinery, especially while dealing with the courts, in cases of land disputes and divorces. Hence, the tribals would benefit considerably by the official registration of their marriage. So when the Adarsh Samata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal in Alangun village, about 112 km from Nashik, announced the mass marriage, the multitudes came. Chandan Amruta from Talpada village had come to `marry’ Parvati in the presence of their three children. Chandan and Parvati live in separate houses while tilling a small plot of land producing paddy during the monsoon. The rest of the year they work as farm labourers or contract workers in the forest. Amruta says Parvati has even undergone tubectomy. Their eldest daughter Priya, 7, wide-eyed and curious at the goings-on, says she finds nothing unusual about her parents getting married after bearing threechildren. Motiram Zanzar and his wife Shanta had come all the way from Salbhoye village with two daughters in tow. Having lived together for nine years, Motiram says he could not afford the Rs 15,000 it would have cost to get married. “Now I can complete my belated matrimonial rites as this marriage is free,” he says.
Similar is the story of Kailas Kalu and Kamala who have been living together for seven years. Or that of Shankar Bandu from Motha Talpada who came to Alangun with his wife of 10 years, the mother of his three daughters. Gavit, who is also the chairperson of the mandal, says his volunteers had been distributing decorated headgear, glass bangles, a `Gorsal’ necklace, turmeric and other wedding finery all of last week. The Alangun Panchayat had agreed to register the marriage. The other wedding gifts included Rs 300 in cash and utensils worth Rs 700 under the Integrated Tribal Development Programme. The marriage was as festive as it could get. The Shahid Bhagatsingh Mitra Mandal fromMhaiskhadak village sponsored the meals — rice and `Pithala’ (a spicy paste of `channa dal’ flour). Gavit, the CPI(M) leader who represented Surgana for four successive terms, till 1995, is elated with the success of Sunday’s function. He says it is a record in the state, the only earlier attempt on such a scale being in 1983 when 378 couples from 87 villages got married.
The invitees from officialdom, however, were too preoccupied to attend the tribals’ rite of passage into urban civilisation. Nashik Guardian Minister Babanrao Gholap, Tribal Development Minister Arjun Pawar and local MLA Harishchandra Chavan did not turn up.
