Adivasi woman paraded naked for daring to marry below caste
SYED KHALIQUE AHMED

CHHOTAUDEPUR, APRIL 28: Over a week ago, a 22-year-old adivasi woman, Chauliben, was tonsured by the people of her village and paraded naked. The villagers were led by their sarpanch and there is yet to be any official action taken on the incident.

Chauliben's head was pasted with lime, her upper garments removed and her body blackened with soot. She was then paraded in front of the entire village amidst beating of drums. Her hair was tied to a bamboo log and youths carrying it formed the front part of the procession. The whole village hurled abuse at her while she was being paraded. Her crime -- she had fallen in love and married a man belonging to a tribe different from hers.

Chauliben's husband, Phalji Madhibhai Nayak, hails from the Nayak tribe which is considered inferior to the Rathwa tribe to which she belongs. Chauliben's affair with Nayak, who lives at Dhadgaon in the jungles bordering the Madhya Pradesh, had been going on for three years. Nayak had come into contact with the girl while he carted the villagers' goods to the market of Chhotaudepur in his tractor trolley.

Chauliben secretly escaped from her house a fortnight ago and got married to Nayak. Incidentally, Nayak is already married and has four children from his first wife. When the news reached Chauliben's father Narsinh Vesta Rathwa, he invaded Nayak's house with more than a hundred armed men. The Rathwas were led by Sanada village sarpanch Manu Mehta.

However, neither the girl's parents nor the other Rathwa men were objecting to the fact that Chauliben is Nayak's second wife. Polygamy is not considered a taboo and is an integral part of the adivasi culture of this region. Many politicians, including several sitting adivasi MLAs from the Vadodara district, have more than one wife. Their outrage was because Nayak was of a lower caste.

``I repeatedly told my father and others, including the sarpanch, that I have chosen Nayak as my husband and I want to live my whole life with him, but nobody listened to me,'' said Chauliben.

``I was dragged out of my husband's house by my hair and beaten all along the way up to Sanada village,''she said, while trying to cover her tonsured head with the end of her sari.

Her husband said he initially tried to negotiate with Rathwas as per adivasi custom, under which such matters are settled by payment of money to girl' parents. ``However, Rathwas demanded Rs one lakh and ten thousand for settling the matter, which was beyond my capacity,'' Nayak said. He added that it was after his refusal to pay that they dragged his wife away. Nayak and his family were mute spectators as they were outnumbered by the Rathwas.

According to Chauliben, after parading her in the village, she was restored to her parents. ``However, I could not stay in the village because of the insult and life became hell for me as everyone taunted and passed filthy remarks against me,'' she said, adding, ``I again ran away after two days and came to husband at night so that I would not be spotted.''

After the second incident, Nayak was forced to pay Rs 5,000 to Chauliben's parents as a penalty and another Rs 2,000 to the village panchayat for a non-vegetarian feast. ``I gave it to avoid the wrath of powerful Rathwas,'' said Nayak. The agreement regarding payment of money has been signed between the two parties on a court stamp paper.

But the couple's woes have not ended. ``The Rathwas do not allow me to drive my tractor through their village which is the only route to the outside world from the jungles,'' Nayak said, adding, ``My source of income has almost been blocked.'' He said that Sanada villagers were still insisting on payment of Rs one lakh as penalty for lifting the ban on driving his tractor through their village. ``The Rathwas have threatened to set my tractor on fire if I defy their ban,''Nayak stated.

When this reporter visited Sanada village on Thursday, however, neither the sarpanch nor the girl's parents were available for comment.

Rangpur PSI J H Patel said that no such complaint was received by the police and hence no FIR was registered. In his defense, Nayak said any move to lodge a police complaint would only aggravate his problems.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.