“The happiest day of my life” turned out to be her last. A bride unexpectedly died while preparing for a wedding ceremony in Subhashnagar, Gujarat, India. While the young woman’s death is undoubtedly a heartbreaking event, the public opinion in India was most shaken by the reaction of her loved ones. They decided to offer the would-be groom… “compensation”.
She died of a heart attack on her wedding day. The ceremony went on anyway
According to the Indian media, on the day of the wedding nothing foreshadowed the tragedy – Hetal Rathore, the bride, participated in the rite to prepare her for the wedding ceremony with Vishal Algotara from the village of Nari. The rituals took place in the temple of Bhavnagar. The traditional music was still playing when Hetal suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed. Although she was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors were unable to save her and she was pronounced dead.
While some family members began to mourn the death of the bride, others decided that the wedding must go ahead – even if the body of the would-be wife had just been transported to the morgue. Vishal was offered the hand of his younger sister Hetal. Moreover, the groom agreed, and the rite continued as if nothing had happened.
“They pressured them to set a good example”
Laxmanbhai Rathore, a Bhavnagar city councillor, described the incident as “extremely sad.” According to the information provided by him, the family was in shock after the sudden and unexpected departure of their daughter, however wedding guests pressed on them, to “set a good example”, not leaving the groom and his family “without anything”.
This case sparked a debate online. The news of one of the portals that provided this information was, among others, shared on Twitter by singer Chinmaya Sripaada: “From the news – Bride dies of a heart attack – Relatives convince grieving family not to send the groom ’empty-handed’ by marrying the deceased’s sister. Here’s how girls are disposable and replaceable in Indian society,” Sripaada commented.
“May you be the mother of a thousand sons.” How much is a woman in India worth?
What can make the family, after the unexpected death of their daughter, do everything to organize a wedding at all costs, instead of organizing a funeral? Living in a society where a girl is a “crutch” and a financial burden, especially if her relatives are not very wealthy. “May you be the mother of a thousand sons” – traditionally Indian women wish on their wedding day. In the Indian province, there are still popular m.in. selective abortions (only pregnancies with female fetuses are terminated), and even getting rid of daughters already born in a cruel way: the most popular are asphyxiation, drowning in a well or poisoning with pesticides, easily available in the countryside (source: “Polityka”). The report published in 2018 shows that as a result of this type of practice, there is currently a shortage of about 63 million women in India. A larger deficit has so far been recorded only in China.
A daughter in the Indian province is still mainly a problem that needs to be effectively dealt with. There are usually two options / Pexels
Photo: Qazi Ikram Haq / Pexels
The biggest “ballast” after the birth of a daughter becomes above all statue, according to tradition, her parents should gather for a young woman. They do so rather reluctantly. “Statue it was supposed to be a guarantee of a prosperous life in a new family for an Indian girl and widowhood protection. It was paid to the bride’s in-laws at the time of marriage, and its amount depended (and still is) on, among others, depending on the region of India, caste, varna, education of the future spouses, and even the skin tone of the future wife – the paler the complexion, the greater the value of the woman and the smaller the dowry” – he writes in his text “Spend 500 rupees now to save 50,000 in the future” dr Blanka Katarzyna Dżugaj, journalist and orientalist. Instead of security, however, it turned into financial blackmail, about which you can read more at the link below.
