Rubbing off sindoor, girl revolts against dowry

Durgapur, 11 March: A village girl in Burdwan stormed out of her wedding venue today though the rituals had been completed and, rubbing off the sindoor on her head, said she did not accept the marriage because the groom’s family was demanding a huge dowry.

The boy, owner of a car rental agency, was garlanded with shoes by angry villagers and was being kept confined at a local temple along with his sister and two relatives late tonight.

The villagers were demanding that groom Sanjoy Bagdi’s family return the Rs 1.85 lakh they had already been paid as part of the dowry. The marriage, completed at 2am, was a social marriage and has not been registered yet.

Trouble had broken out soon after Lichuram Bagdi, an Alloy Steel Plant worker from Durgapur town, had arrived at Patshaora village in Laodoha, Burdwan, with son Sanjoy around 8 last night. They came with a barjatri of 50 in a car and a bus.

A dowry of Rs 2 lakh in cash had been fixed apart from jewellery and furniture. The girl’s father, a small-time farmer, had sold part of his land to arrange the dowry, and only Rs 15,000 remained to be paid on the wedding night.

“As soon as I told Lichuram I had not been able to raise the Rs 15,000, he threatened to leave. I promised to pay him in a few months and begged him with folded hands to step inside,” the girl’s father said.

Soon, the barjatris began insulting the bride’s family, he said. “They threw away the cups when offered tea and called us a family of beggars. When they sat down to dinner, they flung away the sal-leaf plates and claimed the luchis had not been fried in ghee.”

The 20-year-old bride learnt what was happening only around 2am when, the rituals over, she asked her father why he was looking so agitated. Moments later, the Madhyamik graduate had rubbed off her sindoor.

“I don’t accept this marriage,” she told the groom. “I’m against dowry anyway. How can you be so mean? If I go to your house, you people may even murder me. I will not go to your house.”

“Nowadays,” she added, “it is not absolutely necessary for a woman to get married.”

As the assembled villagers grew angrier by the minute, Lichuram and the barjatris hurried to their bus and left. Sanjoy and the three others tried to get into the car but were surrounded.

“We were furious when the boy’s father and relatives kept insulting the girl’s family…. When she herself protested, we could not control ourselves,” said villager Dulu Bagdi.

Some people informed the police but the personnel were outnumbered when they arrived around 5am. “It’s between the two families. Since no complaint has been lodged, we won’t do anything,” said the sub-divisional police officer of Durgapur, Joy Biswas. “We are watching the situation.”

Lichuram has apparently not yet contacted the police because he knows that accepting dowry is a crime. In the afternoon, however, he went to the Ichhapur gram panchayat under which Patshaora falls.

Panchayat pradhan Shanti Banerjee said he had told Lichuram the girl’s father had sold land to raise the money and the villagers too had pitched in. “I told him, ‘If you want to free your son, return the money first’.”


The Telegraph