Shaadi Aur Barbaadi

Dogged by superstition first, and now the police, SABYASACHI BANDOPADHYAY investigates the circumstances of the Man Who Married His Daughter To A Dog

The door is locked and the inhabitants of the house trapped — in the media spotlight, cowering under the scorn of their neighbours, hiding from the weight of their own ignorance.

On July 10, Subal Karmakar, an employee of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Mahavidyalaya, got his four-year-old daughter married to his friend’s dog, hoping that it would cure her of the evil eye that was influencing her health. As news of this unusual union spread, the media and the officialdom descended on his modest house at Haringhata. Within days, the father-in-law of the dog, as Karmakar is now better known, was arrested, his family left poorer by Rs 15,000 and his beloved daughter Anju still in the grip of her various ailments.

‘‘My father arranged this mariage out of genuine love for Anju. He is very fond of Anju and he thought her marriage to a dog would change her gotra to the Sarameya (dog) gotra which would ward off the evil glare of the Satan, who was causing all the miseries to Anju,’’ protests Ashok, Karmakar’s eldest son.

This match, its genesis firmly on this earth, has only resulted in trauma for the Karmakars. In the week following the wedding, their house became a shrine for the curious. ‘‘Reporters, busybodies, neighbours, hangers-on, the plain nosy...everyone felt it was their right to intrude,’’ complains Ashok. Earlier this week, the Karmakars bolted the windows and locked the front door.

But perhaps what has been most disturbing is the flak they have received from the CPI(M) supporters. More so as Karmakar’s wife Saptami is an employee of the state-owned Haringhata diary and the couple has been an active supporter of the ruling party in the state. The condemnation therefore really hurts. ‘‘The trouble is that after the marriage, so many party functionaries — the local panchayat member, the panchayat pradhan, the MLA — all came and gave him a dressing down, asking him why he did such a superstitous thing,’’ says Ashok. ‘‘But these men never cared to teach him what is wrong and what is right. He might be working for a college but does he have an education? Did the party ever care to give my father, who is illiterate, any education. And they boast of the literacy movement in the state,’’ the young man fumes.

The only concession these party functionaries are willing to make is to say that they do not support Karmakar’s arrest. ‘‘We admit that what he did was wrong,’’ Sikha Chakrabarthy, the local panchayat member and a member of the CPI(M), told this reporter. ‘‘But he did this unintentionally. He did this as he believed it would save her (Anju) from the clutches of Satan. There is no point in arresting him.’’ Another party worker, Jayagopal Chakrabarthy, says that Karmakar, who is an ‘‘honest man wouldn’t kill an ant. It’s out of a superstitious belief that he got this marriage solemnised,’’ he says. ‘‘But there are so many people who are educated and rich and who are equally superstitions. Why doesn’t the police arrest them?’’
Subal Karmakar is not the only one facing harrassment. The priest, Abhay Bhattacharya, and another boy, Biswabandhu Karmakar, who claims he is innocent, has also been arrested and sent to jail. But the owner of the dog — Bullet alias Laloo — Barun Dutta is absconding. The family of Barun Dutta has been rather worried too after the police came to their house looking for Barun.

When we went to meet his family, they were belligerant and refused to disclose Barun’s whereabouts. One of the neighbours, Sushanta Das, explained: ‘‘These people are being harassed for no fault of theirs. We want to clarify a few things. First of all, Barun is a useless chap. He spends his time gambling and on other vices. Subal wanted a dog for the marriage and so Barun, to have some fun, gave him the family’s pet dog. And now the police is after his life. It’s unfair.’’

Madhumita Roy, sub-divisional officer of Kalyani, under whose jurisdiction the village falls, blames the media for all the woes that have fallen on the Karmakars and the Duttas. Incidentally, when this reporter had earlier visited the village, soon after the marriage, and met Roy, she had said that there was no question of arresting Karmakar as the administration did not regard this as a marriage in ‘‘the true sense of the term’’ and that in the eyes of the law, Karmakar was not guilty. ‘‘The officer-in-charge (OC) of Haringhata police station, under instructions of the Superintendent of Police (SP), Nadia district, arrested Subal and others under Section 7 of the Drug and Magical Remedies Act,’’ Roy said, when reminded of her earlier claim.

However, ask her about the Act and she is clueless, both about its content as well as how it is applicable in this case. ‘‘I don’t know much about it as the arrest was done by the OC under the instructions of the SP. But all I can I say is that this was done because the media made it into a big thing. This man did this for the good of his daughter. Now look at the mess he is in. What a tragedy!’’ she said, shrugging her shoulders.

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