Ban same-gotra, same-village marriages, demand khaps

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 26

Union Rural Development Minister Birender Singh has stated that people should understand why the demand for amending the Hindu Marriage Act is being raised.

Addressing a ceremony organised to observe the 251st martyrdom day of Maharaja Surajmal here today, the minister said earlier, members of the Jat community used to exclude five gotras while marrying their wards. Then, they started excluding three gotras instead of five and nowadays, they excluded only two gotras.

“If we ponder over the issue seriously and act accordingly, there would be no need to amend the Hindu Marriage Act,” he maintained.

Birender Singh asserted that excluding certain gotras while fixing marriages was not a matter of orthodox tradition or blind faith but a scientific approach based on medically proven facts.

On the other hand, coordinator of Sarvkhap panchayat Om Prakash Dhankhar said at today’s meeting that representatives of nearly 170 khaps from different parts of north India had decided to launch a concerted struggle for suitable amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act to ban same-gotra and same-village marriages in accordance with the social ethos of the region.

“The matter comes under the purview of the Haryana government and the khaps will take to the streets if the state government fails to take concrete action in this regard within three months,” Dhankhar said while talking to The Tribune here today.

Rohtak 84 Khap head Hardeep Singh Ahlawat and Rashtriya Jat Ekta Manch president Rajbir Rajyan said major demands of the khaps were to ban same-gotra marriages, marriages within blood or milk relations and within the same village and adjoining villages. The khaps’ representatives also submitted a memorandum to Birender Singh in this regard.