Tension grows over same clan marriage in Haryana

Jhajjar (Haryana), July 31 (ANI): Tension is prevaling in Jhajjar district of Haryana as the family of a groom who married a girl of the same clan has refused to quit the village as ordered by the village council.

The Gehlot family was asked to leave Dharana village after Ravinder Singh Gehlot, 24, married 20-year-old Shilpa Kadyan of Siwah village near Panipat, against the wishes of the village elders.

When villagers came to know that the girl is of the same clan, they called a village body meeting and accused Gehlot of violating a custom of no-marriage between the Gehlot and Kadyan sects as they have a "brotherhood" akin to consanguinity.

The village council decreed that the Gehlot family should dispose off their property and leave and also asked other villagers to shun them.

"The administration says that it is bound by law and we say that we are bound by society. This is the bone of contention," Raj Singh Kadyan, village council head.

Due to mounting pressure from the village council, the Gehlot family briefly left for a relative's house in another village but returned amid security cover.

"We have been living here since this village came into being. They have asked us to leave this village and go. Where are we supposed to go? There is no question of us leaving the village," said Naseeb Singh, a kin of Gehlot family.

Caste system runs deep in the rural hinterland of some States of India where people are still bound to the old practices. (ANI)