Nagpur is a large city in the central Indian state of Maharashtra. It is famous for its oranges and a yearly rally called Marbat. This is a unique tradition of wishing away everything that troubles society, in the form of the Marbat. People make effigies that would be representative of all the diseases and evil spirits that people believe pestered them. They burn these effigies, symbolising the destruction of everything evil. In this rally organisers try to reach out to Politicians and Governance system by putting their needs and demands on marbat and banners in the form of short messages. They chant slogans like “Rograi gheun jaa re marbat” (Marbat take away these diseases). The diseases here mean not just physical ailments, but also social evils.

As the story goes this tradition got popular in the 18th century, when the greedy wife of King Bhosale connived with the enemy against her husband. At the time of Pola festival celebration when the King and the residents of the kingdom were completely engaged in festival celebrations, his wife Bakabai opened all the entrances of the Palace and deceived him leading to the defeat of her husband. Now every year this rally is being continued to protest and highlight such bad things in the society.

This year an NGO called GEO-SIF participated in this rally through their Bhuri Marbat to create awareness about the biased laws, highlight #CrimeAgainstMen , protest against bias faced by men and the extortion of men due to anti-men laws misused by women to file #FakeCases. They created a huge effigy representing those evil wives and evil women in modern India who misuse various laws to harass husband and in-laws. Such criminal women are responsible for the rising number of suicides of married men in India. Millions of families are destroyed by greedy wives who plan and plot against their husband just for money. The misuse of law by such Indian women is so high that even the Supreme Court termed it as Legal Terrorism. Some of the most common laws misused by women are 498a, Dowry law, Rape & Molestation laws etc.

The overwhelming response they got can be seen by the photos from the rally. The event is about 15 kilometers and the awareness created by this initiative is truly commendable.