Dear Editor,
I was taken to a wedding hall by a friend on Tuesday evening at a catering hall in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Upon entry, I was welcomed with cold water and a sweet snack made of milk. Many indentured labourers or girmits taken to Guyana during indentureship were recruited from Azamgarh, and tens of thousands were also sent to far-flung colonial territories like Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad, Suriname, Jamaica, Grenada, other West Indian territories, to work on plantations that produced goods that enriched European empires. The district of Azamgarh is large with over five million people. In the Azamgarh city environs were several Hindu wedding (shaadi) ceremonies. Weddings are held in the evening as opposed to the day time as in Guyana and West Indies or America, among Guyanese.  As a foreigner, someone coming from Guyana, I was accorded a most warm reception and hospitality by the male wedding hosts in Azamgarh. It was a most cordial welcome once the hosts were informed that I am coming from the West Indies and America. They were very gracious and kind, somewhat reminiscent of welcome and reception accorded me in Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad, Toronto and Florida at Hindu weddings or ceremonies.

This is wedding season in India. For Hindus, unlike say for Muslims and Christians, weddings must be only held during auspicious periods as prescribed by the scriptures and sanctioned by the family’s pandit or priest. There are certain periods in the calendar year when Hindu weddings are not sanctioned by Hindu pandits.  The scriptures specifically state when weddings cannot be held. The pandit relates to family when weddings can be held. A couple weeks just before Phagwah or Holi, for example, karwas, as it is called, pandits will not conduct weddings. Post-Phagwah, pandits sanction weddings, and that is why there have been so many Hindu weddings all over India as well as in Florida, Toronto, New York and Schenectady among Guyanese or Trinidadian Hindus. In India, hundreds of shaadis are held nightly in each big city and dozens in small cities like Azamgarh. In a one-mile area in Azamgarh, there may be a dozen weddings at gardens or wedding hall, a huge tent. Some are indoors. Similarly, in cities like Varanasi, Lucknow, Ghazipur, etc. all of which are in UP from where 65 per cent indentureds came to Guiana, there are many nightly weddings.

Unlike in Guyana or the West Indies or New York among Guyanese or Trinis when weddings are held on weekends, in India Hindu weddings are held any day. In fact, weddings are held in the evenings in India – a custom also practised by the pioneering Indian immigrants in British Guiana, Trinidad, elsewhere during indenture period (1838 to 1920) up until the 1950s. Thereafter, weddings have been held during the day and on weekends and in America or Canada among Guyanese.

As I travelled around Delhi last extended Hanuman Jayanti weekend, there were hundreds of weddings nightly being held all over the city. Dozens were observed in Varanasi, Azamgarh, Lucknow, and other cities I travelled in recent days. Weddings are held in catering halls as opposed to family homes and temples, the latter being the custom in Guyana, the West Indies and America and Canada among Guyanese. The halls in India are magnificently florally decorated, very fancy, very attractive. They are brightly illuminated with multi-coloured lights, fantastic decorations not even seen in Bollywood movies or anywhere in America.  The halls are sites to behold. That in itself is worth a visit. And I have been fortunate to experience many shaadis in different cities and villages of India since 1985 during dozens of trips as a researcher and when I was a student and lecturer at a university. The wedding or party halls are magnets to your eyes.

Some weddings in West Indies and North America are held in halls but in general Hindu weddings are held at home or in the temples. Some weddings in India are held at homes and temples where there are facilities to accommodate large numbers of guests or temples. Otherwise, weddings are held at special halls or in hotel ballrooms; weddings are large with hundreds of guests. In the hotel where I stayed in Delhi, Varanasi, Azamgarh, and Lucknow, there was a nightly wedding in addition to other types of receptions. The weddings are similar as Guyana and Trinidad or America with the marao (decorated tent) and the bharath or bharriyiat (the groom party) coming to the hall and being welcomed by the bride’s family with traditional hospitality (rituals and refreshments) as found among the girmits’ descendants of indentured labourers.

It is extremely hot in India – temperatures soaring into the 90s (40 centigrade). (The cold or cool period in India is from November through early March). Most families have weddings when it is warm but tend to avoid the rainy season (July/August); weddings are held throughout the year including during the cold winter period or raining season except when prohibited by the scriptures. There have been hundreds of weddings in the big cities nightly and dozens of shaadis in smaller cities like Azamgarh. What stood out was the extraordinary reception granted me.
The wedding I attended was quite lavish. There was lively music – a band and geet Gaya or singing. There were several counters with a variety of dishes – salad, appetizers, kachoorie, cold and hot food, and cold soft drinks. Some of the main dishes were dahi-bara, dhal, rice, bhajee, puri, roti or chapatti, papad, and various other vegetables or tarkaries or curries as we say in Guyana and the Caribbean including baigan, kalonji, katahar (coa or the fruit kind that is cooked as a vegetable in India and places like Mauritius and Fiji). In the Caribbean, cooked katahar is different and is very tasty. The cooked coa is not as delicious as the cooked katahar of Guyana which is a favourite of ours. There was no pumpkin or curry alou. But several dishes had alou including fried baigan and fried bora. There was an assortment of desserts including gulab jamun, kulfi, ice cream and more. It was a very large wedding with hundreds of guests. The hall could take a few thousands.

All and all, it was a fantastic wedding similar to ours in customs and practices with very delicious foods and quite entertaining music. People ate before the start of the wedding and continuously during the evening. All the rituals we practised in Guyana were observed at the wedding in Azamgarh.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Vishnu Bisram