Endless buffets, rivers of alcohol and extravagant decorations have become staples at upper-class Indian weddings -- but Sikh leaders are considering creating guidelines to tone down the glittering events, a newspaper reported yesterday.
A group of Sikh leaders called for a July 28 meeting of representatives from New Delhi's more than 400 Sikh gurdwaras, or temples, to discuss ways to rein in over-the-top weddings, the Times of India reported.
"The committee feels that ostentatious weddings are leading to increasing competition among families to outdo each other," Paramjit Singh Sarna, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, said in the report.
"A lot of money is being wasted," he said.
India's economic growth has surged in recent years, with the GDP growing by more than 8 percent annually in the past four years.
The boom has created a new class of incredibly wealthy Indians who can afford palatial homes, imported luxury cars and wildly elaborate weddings, often at five-star hotels.
The religion of Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak, who broke from Hinduism, which continues to be India's dominant religion.
He preached the equality of races and genders, and the rejection of image-worship and the caste system.
Sikhs make up less than 2 percent of India's nearly 1.1 billion people.
The Sikh leaders said the deluxe wedding trend puts an unfair burden on brides' families, who traditionally pay for the parties.
"Our fight is against this exploitation by those who pose demands on the girl's family to organize elaborate weddings," the newspaper quoted the group's general secretary, Balbir Singh, as saying. "The ceremony should be simple."
Sarna said it was more a matter of values than taste.
"The idea is to create moral responsibility within the community," he said.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara s Committee could not immediately be reached for comment on the report yesterday.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS