- Sunday, March 02, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Imposing bans are not new in India but a community body in Banaskantha district of the western state of Gujarat has decided to include into the list of the forbidden things — “fashionable” beards, celebrations of birthdays by cutting cakes and hiring disc jockeys (DJs) in marriage parties.
According to reports, Shree Dhanera Taluka Yuvak Pragati Mandal, a community body of the local Chaudhary community in the Dhanera tehsil (a local unit of administrative division) of Banaskantha has taken the decision to ban among 20 others in a bid to implement social reforms.
The Indian Express reported that a soft copy of the decisions taken at a meeting of the Mandal — a social organisation comprising 54 villages of the Dhanera region — on Sunday (2) went viral on social media. The body decided at the meeting that a fine of Rs 51,000 would be imposed on any youth found sporting a “fashionable beard”.
“Our community has decided to ban it (growing beard) as the youths have started sporting a beard and one cannot recognise if they are from the Chaudhary community or not. People having clean shaves is the identity of our community,” the newspaper quoted Raymalbhai Chaudhary, the body’s president, as saying.
The group also banned hiring of DJs and even private persons to serve food at marriage parties. While cake cutting on birthdays has been prohibited, it has also been decided that no videography or photography on mobile phones would be done during weddings. No fine was prescribed for violating these.
Chaudhary, who belongs to one of the Other Backward Class in Gujarat, said the decisions were taken so that people incur limited expenses in social events.
In another major reform, the community also decided to end the social practice of consuming opium on the occasion of death of any member of the community and decided on a fine of Rs 1 lakh on violators, the report added.
Raymalbhai said they wanted to stop the practice as it puts poor people under a financial burden and called it illegal.
