Violence unleashed by gun totting Maoists has started casting its shadow over marriages in Bastar as not only the delightful band and music coupled with dance are missing from the electrifying wedding parties but even hullabaloo of fire crackers too have fallen silent with number of ‘baratis’ going down considerably day by day.
Taking note of the tense environment filled with fear of danger to life, as well to do parents are avoiding either marrying their daughters in Naxal land or performing the wedding rituals withing this territory, the greatest sufferer of this insurgency fall out is trading/business community who earlier enjoyed the occasion in style.
Notably, Tribal communities who are natives of Bastar, have their own traditions as also marriage function – both style and rituals wise – quite different from those of business community and other migrants in Bastar, whose marriage functions specially wedding parties could hardly be thought of without band party, dance, firecrackers and of course a scintillating wedding party procession led by groom sitting atop mare’s back.
Maoist violence, specially the Darbha carnage, has put a dampener on it all. Now marriage function is organised in a hush-hush manner as if something has gone wrong in the family. Now its more or less a family affair with close relatives only present on the occasion
Earlier, wedding parties were usually organised in evening to late evening with marriage rituals performed during night but now arrival of wedding procession is usually ensured in day time itself to avoid any danger or mischief. Since marriage rituals are performed during night, ‘baratis’ have to stay overnight mostly to avoid any mishap. Hence, wedding party has become a two-day affair forcing people, except close relatives, to avoid becoming part of wedding party. To avoid this odd situation, well to do families are now organising marriages in cities and towns out of the bounds of Bastar in their bid to make the occasion of ‘once in life time event’ memorable even if parents of girls remained unimpressed, thanks to terror unleashed by Red rebels.