Wedding Registration

In India the custom of "registration of weddings" with the civil authorities is of relatively recent origin. Before the advent of the British and for most of the period of their colonial rule, marriage was a religious of India were Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. The advent of the British brought a fourth religion-Christianity-to India.

Among Christians and Muslims keeping records of births, deaths and marriges in the churches and mosque was an old tradition but among Hindus and Buddhists, records of wedding varied according to the importance and social standing of the parties. The wedding of a lord or a prince would, of course, be recorded but the marriages of the vast majority of the people were usually not written down anywhere. The traditions of "oral history" held and such events were recorded only in the memory of the local village priest.

The advent of British administration initially did not significantly alter this state of affairs, because, while civil cases of inheritance did arise now and then the religious caremony was considered to be legally binding. At the most, evidence of whether the caremony had actually been performed might be considered.

The concept of civil registration began as a legal notification that the religious caremony had been performed.

Initially this arose from considerations of pensions awarded to employees-military and civil-of the administration. Windows who were entitled to money had to be able to prove it. The drive to abolish child marriages was a contributing factor in the drive towards civil registration, but paradoxically it was with Independence that civil registration of marriages became widespread.

In their way to creating a secular state the Congress government recognised certificates issued by the churches of the different Christian sects and the mosques of Islam as proof that a marriage had taken place. With the uniformity of practices in these religious-arising from their centralised natures- it was quite easy to set standards. Unfortunately Hinduism lacked and still lacks a central structure and considering the large number of sects and hundreds of thousands of temples it was decided that a central civil registration procedure should be created. Registering the marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act is fairly easy. One has to go to the registry with proof of the marriage which has taken place-a photo, the wedding invitation and a certificate from the office of the temple or the wedding hall where the caremony was performed-two witnesses, the bride and groom and duly register. But if the marriage is between two individuals of different religions and to be registered under the special Marriage Act, the notice of the proposed wedding is to be given to the registry, with proof of identity and age a month ahead.

This notice will be put up and if no hitches occur the wedding will be registered in due course.

Today in the cities and towns at least-it is common for a couple to go directly from the temple to the civil register, but by no means is the practice universal. In the villages and the countryside, all too often, the religious caremony is the only one.

Thus the Hindu population of India is in the curious position of having a society that regards the religious caremony as valid and the children of such weddings legitimate, and yet having an administration demanding a civil certificate for a number of issues such as ration cards and passports and paradoxically to register a divorce case. This can sometimes lead to the amusing situation of a long married couple solemnly going to the registrar and registering a wedding that might have taken place a decade ago.