‘If brothers marry the same woman, family stays united’

When a bride in a Himalayan village wed two brothers, the ceremony went viral. Namita Singh reports from the Indian communities where the practice is rooted in Hindu tradition

- Namita Singh

For three days in July, folk songs and drumbeats echoed around a quiet village perched high in the Indian Himalayas as hundreds of people gathered to celebrate a wedding. What drew the large crowd and soon national attention to the hamlet of Shillai in Himachal Pradesh state was that Sunita Chauhan was marrying not one man but two: brothers Pradeep and Kapil Negi.

The wedding ceremony on 12 July was solemnised in accordance with Jodidara, a polyandrous tradition unique to the local Hatti tribe wherein a woman marries multiple brothers to keep the household united and family land from splitting.

After videos of the wedding showing him standing alongside his brother and their bride during the ceremony, Pradeep, a government worker, gave media interviews expressing pride in the cultural roots of their decision. “We followed the tradition publicly as we are proud of it and it was a joint decision,” he told the Press Trust of India.

Kapil, the younger sibling who works abroad, added: “We are ensuring support, stability and love for our wife as a united family. We’ve always believed in transparency.”

Sunita, originally from Kunhat village in the same district, wanted to make it clear she was not coerced into the arrangement. “I was aware of the tradition and made my decision without any pressure,” she told the Hindustan Times.

By the time The Independent reached the family at their home, their door was closed to the media. “This is our tradition. It is a part of our culture. I do not understand why everyone is interested in a private matter,” Pradeep said briefly, declining to speak further.

The wedding may have elicited viral interest on social media but local villagers say such unions are far from unusual in this remote area tucked away between high mountain ridges and sharp valleys.