A reality television show based on ancient Hindu rituals is aiming to strike a blow against India’s tradition of arranged marriages.
Rakhi Sawant, a Bollywood dancer, actress and television host, has refused a union brokered by her parents. Instead, she has promised to find the perfect man herself — with the aid of a prime time TV series.
Rakhi Ka Swayamvar (Rakhi’s Search for a Husband) has attracted more than 12,500 aspirant grooms from across the subcontinent. The show is due to begin later this month but the outspoken celebrity’s promise to marry on air has already whipped up controversy in what remains a rigidly conservative country.
The show’s producers admit to being shocked when Ms Sawant first pitched the idea for the show — but they deny being part of a stunt designed purely to win ratings.
Rather, they insist, the message is one of female empowerment.
The series will be based on the ancient but now largely neglected practice of swayamvara, where a young woman picks a husband for herself from a group of hopeful suitors, often by putting them through a series of tests.
The most famous example appears in the Ramayana, the 2,500-year-old Sanskrit epic, with Ram, the Hindu god, chosen as a husband by the heroine Sita after he wins a trial of strength by bending the bow of Lord Shiva.
A recent survey by the International Institute for Population Sciences found that 95 per cent of marriages in India today are arranged by the families of the bride and groom. More than 70 per cent of married women between the ages of 15 and 24 said that they were never asked their views on their future husband before their wedding. About a quarter said that their first sexual experience within marriage was forced.
“Over the past 500 years girls in India have lost the right to ask questions about who they marry,” Shailja Kejriwal of NDTV Imagine, the channel that has created Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, said. “I really hope this series, which is all about a strong woman choosing her own husband, will address that. It’s about empowerment.”
Conservative Hindus, who have vehemently opposed the infiltration of Western cultural ideas into India, are almost certain to object.
A spokesman for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India’s most powerful hardline Hindu group, made plain his disapproval of the series. “We prefer arranged marriages,” he told The Times. “They are part of an old and good tradition.”
For her part, 30-year-old Ms Sawant has said that she is looking for a husband who combines the best attributes of Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan — three hugely wealthy Bollywood superstars.
The producers admit that it probably rules out the thousands of would-be husbands who have applied to appear on the show from India’s poor rural villages.
“We have to be realistic,” Ms Kejriwal said. “The series will look for a compatible husband. I can’t see a celebrity like Rakhi marrying somebody from a village. That would be foolish.” The series’ creators are keeping the details of the selection methods secret, but say that they will be adapted from “ancient Vedic practices” — similar to those outlined in the Ramayana.
The audience will be asked to vote for a winner, but Ms Sawant will make the final decision on whom she marries, helped by friends, family and a psychologist. Contestants are now being vetted, with background checks being run on each man’s health and wealth.
Explaining how the idea came to her, Ms Sawant said: “I am a cultured Indian woman with good values and I have reached a stage where I need a companion with whom I can share my love, joys, sorrows and success.
“I want to solemnise my marriage in the presence of all my fans who have been supportive of me throughout — and what better way than getting married on national television?”
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