{"id":932,"date":"2016-02-08T09:08:21","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T09:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=929&preview_id=929"},"modified":"2016-02-08T09:08:21","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T09:08:21","slug":"60-hindu-couples-tie-the-knot-at-karachi-mass-wedding-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=932","title":{"rendered":"60 Hindu couples tie the knot at Karachi mass wedding event | WHN"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pakistani Hindu groom and bride attend a mass wedding ceremony in Karachi on January 24, 2016. (AFP)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A bride and groom wearing traditional handmade garlands wait for their wedding to start in Karachi. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A Pakistani Hindu bride (R) and a groom attend a mass wedding ceremony in Karachi. (AFP)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A groom in traditional dress waits for his wedding to start. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A groom receives a dot on his forehead with Sindoor (red pigment) during a mass marriage ceremony. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A groom signs marriage documents during a mass marriage ceremony. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A bride and groom couple go through a ritual. Some 60 Hindu couples took part in a mass wedding ceremony organised by the Pakistan Hindu Council. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A Muslim bride watches during a mass wedding ceremony in Ahmedabad, India, January 22, 2016. (REUTERS)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A total of 111 Muslim couples from various parts of Ahmedabad took their wedding vows on Friday during the mass marriage ceremony organised by a Muslim voluntary\u2026<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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Indian muslim brides talk to each other. (AP)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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Muslim brides during a mass marriage ceremony in Ahmedabad on Saturday. (PTI)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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An Indian muslim groom talks on his mobile phone before a mass wedding event in Ahmadabad. (AP)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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It was a carnival-like atmosphere at the YMCA ground in Karachi when the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) arranged the mass wedding of 60 couples, all hailing from underprivileged families.Besides the hundreds of relatives of the couples, many more \u2013 including members of the majority Muslim community \u2013 came to witness the weddings that have become an important highlight of the Hindu community\u2019s social calendar in the port city.Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, founder and patron of the PHC, which arranged the mass wedding, said the ceremony began some years ago on the demand of council members who realised a number of Hindu couples were unable to marry simply because of rising costs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe are talking about people whose monthly income is around Rs10,000 and they are expected to save more than Rs 5 lakh to get their son or daughter married,\u201d said Vankwani. \u201cThat is why we started this initiative.\u201dOver the years, more than 300 couples have been married in the mass weddings. Despite the chaos and confusion that prevails, most families are happy with the arrangements.Some 20 stages are arranged for the couples and the marriages take place in shifts. \u201cIn each shift, 20 lucky couples take the pheras and tie the knot,\u201d said Engineer Hotchand Karmani, vice president of the PHC.<\/p>\n

The event is held at the YMCA ground, where tents are set up in a circle. Each tent has a stage with a sitting area for the bride and groom and six of their relatives. When the priest starts the prayers, the couple get up and circle the ceremonial fire at the centre of the stage.Hotchand Karmani said the arrangements can sometimes be a logistical nightmare. \u201cPeople throng the stages and overcrowd them. Others wander off and get lost. My only fear is that one day, the wrong people will end up tying the knot,\u201d he said with a smile.Adding to the carnival-like atmosphere is the loud music that blares from the centre stage.<\/p>\n

The music, stages and food are provided by the PHC. It is a costly affair but the council subsidises this with corporate sponsorship and donations from the Hindu community. The council charges Rs60,000 from each couple for the service.Hindus come from as far as Tharparkar, located more than 400 km from Karachi, to get married at the ceremony. Gopal Ram, a resident of Mithi, was present to witness the wedding of his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of holding such a wedding in Thar would be much higher,\u201d he said.Many Hindu families even take loans to cover the costs of arranging marriages.Sitting next to Ram is Allah Bux, a Muslim friend, who said he was enjoying the ceremony and had come to give his friend moral support. \u201cA shaadi is a shaadi and friends and family have to be there. That is our tradition,\u201d he saidBut there is more to a \u2018shaadi\u2019 for many Hindus in Pakistan. Community leader Mangla Sharma said the debts of poor Hindus, many of whom belong to scheduled castes, eventually lead to their ruin. \u201cThe debts keep piling up and they end up in dire straits,\u201d she said.That is why the PHC\u2019s initiative is welcomed by many.The 1991 census in Pakistan estimated the number of religious minorities at around 5%, of which just 1.5% were Hindu. The latest estimates put the number of Hindus in Pakistan at just under 3 million, and a large percentage reside in rural areas of Sindh province.Of this number, 50% are in Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas and, to some extent, in Sanghar. About 25% are in Hyderabad and Badin.<\/p>\n

The remaining are in the rest of Sindh. Scheduled castes form about 85% and they are the ones hit hardest by costs associated with marriages.The other issue related to Pakistan\u2019s Hindu community is the lack of a Hindu marriage law. A bill was presented by the fourth National Commission on the Status of Women in 2011 and followed up by the chief justice, who instructed the government to amend rules for registering Hindu marriages.The absence of a proper law means men can go around getting married more than once without the knowledge of their first wife. The women don\u2019t have proper documents to produce if the matter goes to court.But all this is forgotten when happy couples tie the knot at the mass weddings. For most, this is the best news they have had in a long time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistani Hindu groom and bride attend a mass wedding ceremony in Karachi on January 24, 2016. (AFP) A bride and groom wearing traditional handmade garlands wait for their wedding to start in Karachi. (REUTERS) A Pakistani Hindu bride (R) and a groom attend a mass wedding ceremony in Karachi. (AFP) A groom in traditional dress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}