Nepali wedding ceremony ‘Bidai’ tradition shared as India’s ‘Sati’.
Claim
An infamous clip depicts a Hindu tribe in India, where it is said to be their tradition that when the groom dies, the bride is buried alive with him!
Rating
Explanation
A video purportedly showing a bride crying and screaming while carried in a palanquin by her relatives is shared widely with the claim that the Hindu tribe in India is following a tradition to bury the bride alive when the groom dies.
مقطع متداول لأحد القبائل في الهند يقال انه من تقاليدهم إذا مات العريس تدفن العروس معه حية !! 😳
pic.twitter.com/pxtRT5w5Fi— كوميديا (@KoMeaDy) June 4, 2023
What is the truth?
When reverse-searching the keyframes of the viral video we found the same video posted a week ago on a Facebook page named ‘Laxu Sapkota’. The caption reads as “The traditional marriage ceremony in Bajhang, Farwest, Nepal, 2023 Inside Farwest culture, traditions and rituals in marriage ceremonies still practice traditional systems. Doli for the groom in the marriage ceremony.”
The caption further states that “Brides cry on their wedding days; this is one of the rituals of Far West Nepal. They cry a lot while leaving home. It is painful for the bride that she no longer belongs to her own family but instead belongs to her husband’s family and must live in his home instead.
Bride crying because they have to leave their family and go live with their in-laws permanently. A newly married woman would most likely be worried about moving out of her parents’ home and taking on their new role as a ‘buhari.” This ceremony marks the moment when the bride leaves her family’s home to live with her husband.” The same video is found posted on his Instagram and TikTok pages.
Some of the other videos from the same ceremony are also seen on his Instagram and Facebook pages. The bride is seen carried in a palanquin (doli) in the viral video. And videos of rituals with the empty palanquin are also seen on his social media pages.
With further search, we found similar other images and videos of the Nepali bride being carried in a doli (palanquin) as a part of the wedding ceremony. This ritual is referred to as ‘bidai’ or ‘vidaai’ as seen in the title or description of such videos.
Conclusion
It is found that a video of a Nepali wedding ceremony ‘bidai’ is falsely shared as Indian tribals following the ‘sati’ ritual where the bride is burnt alive when the groom dies. This ‘sati’ tradition is no longer followed in India.
