Monika Sangwan
Monika Sangwan (मोनिका सांगवान) is the First girl to perform Ghurchari in marriage rituals. She is from Khaparwas village in Bhiwani district in Haryana.
Deepender Deswal writes in Times of India on May 5, 2011 in an article 'Bride perform ghurchari, tumbles male domination in marriage rituals'. It was a historic moment for the fair sex in Haryana when a 23-year-old Monika Rani, a girl-next-door from Khaparwas village of Bhiwani district dared to turn a male specific marriage ritual on its head and rode a mare to perform ghurchari to make a round of the village in a procession on Wednesday.
As Monika took the unprecedented step of performing ghurchari, which was so far considered only a ritual for grooms, she did not face any resistance and in fact hailed by entire village. Around 400 persons including old and young who participated in the ghurchari procession described her as the icon of changing society.
She rode the mare at around 5 pm in the evening wearing the red and blue colour sherwari and a headgear just like a groom does. As her procession proceeded towards a temple in the village where she performed pooja, children danced to the dhol tunes in front of mare while a group of women and men followed her singing traditional Haryanavi songs blessing the soon-to-be wed girl. On way during her nearly two hour procession, villagers lined up on both sides of the streets and even rushed atop their houses to have a glimpse of the bride's ghurchari with her elder sister continuously showering rice on her from behind.
While a few women offered her glassful of milk on the way which she took sitting firmly on the back of the mare, and some other people welcomed her by offering currency notes. Lakshmi Devi, a 55 year old woman remarked, "This is new generation. Things are set to be changed with the changing times and the time seems to have arrived now. These kinds of new initiatives will also usher in new thinking in people that will end the age old male domination in our society".
A confident looking Monika, who opted out of studies after completing her 10+2 due to financial constrains, remained seated on the mare for nearly two hours waving to girlfriends who were looking at her with surprise. A young girl who had gotten married recently and a friend of Monika maintained, "It was a bold and big decision on part of Monika. She in fact has always be a confident girl. Perhaps we are not bold enough to follow her but hope that her initiative would herald a social change and we would be able to perform the ghurchari of our daughters in the years to come".
Reference
- Times of India 5 May 2011
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