The new government order has limited the number of Wazwan dishes at Kashmir weddings to seven.
Kashmir's multi-cuisine Wazwan may lose its flavour if a new order passed by the state government has its way.
In a new order issued today, the Jammu and Kashmir government imposed curbs on guest list and dishes to be served in weddings in the state. The government has directed deputy commissioners of all the districts to implement the order. According to the circular, only 500 guests can be invited at the weddings. The order has limited the number of
Wazwan dishes to seven. Use of loudspeakers, amplifiers and firecrackers during weddings has also been banned.
If the government has its way, many of the favourite
Wazwan dishes served at weddings would no longer be available to the guests.
Normally over 20 mutton dishes like
Tabakmaz, Goshtaba, Rista, and
Rogan Josh are served in
Wazwan.
The government maintains that the order was passed after people demanded regulating number of dishes and guests at weddings. It also warned strict action against violators. "Action will be taken against the violators under the provisions of the CrPC. The law is already there but we decided to implement it only now," said Zulfikar Chowdery, minister for Food and Consumer affairs.
He said that the order will provide respite to poor people who are often forced to organise lavish weddings due to societal pressure. "Poor people are suffering because of lavish marriages. It is an initiative to provide them a respite," he said.
Wazwan is a delicacy very few people can resist. The high society people usually prepare between 20 to 30 mutton dishes during marriages.
This is not the first time the government has announced restrictions on the number of guests and
Wazwan in Kashmir but every time the order fails to get implemented.
Social activists have also launched campaigns against lavish weddings and extravagant
Wazwan in the state. "There is always a competition among the rich to serve more and more dishes and poor try to imitate them. God knows where this race will end," said Zarief Ahmad Zarief, Kashmir's well-known poet and social reformer.
The order will come into force from April 1 and people have also been directed not to send dry fruits and sweets with invitation cards.