Exploring The Issues of Marriage System in Baloch Tribes Specifically For Males Living In Blochistan Pakistan: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

Have a glance over the geographical map of Pakistan, Balochistan is one of the largest provinces of Pakistan, and Quetta is considered as its capital. This province is famous for some peculiarities as a number of ethnic groups dwell in Balochistan like Baloch, Brahvi, Pashtun, Punjabi, and Urdu speaking as well. Amongst them the Baloch including Brahvi are 55% of total population whereas 35% are Pashtun. These ethnic groups are having their cultural norms and values. They pay a very deep consideration to their culture as if a valuable inheritance for them. Most of the Baloch are very much simple in nature and are rich in cultural standards. They feel proud by practicing these strong traditional values in their daily life routine. Balochi people have their own strong well-built feudal ‘Sardari System’ and are eager to follow their loved one traditional system. Coming towards their traditional way in marriage system, a tribal practice of Baloch reveals the concept of the word ‘Bijjar’, a Balochi term used for co-operation. When someone wants to get marry there the ‘groom’ needs Bijjar (help) from the relatives to manage all the expenses of marriage ceremony. Bijjar can be given in different forms even in the form of cattle as well. This system aids the groom’s family in many ways to get marry but due to social change and technological advancement whereas families are having a lot of problems to maintain their household expenses, so it becomes difficult for tribesmen to ask for ‘Bijjar’ because Bijjar is that system in which groom’s family has to return when someone else needs this. The aim of this research is to highlight the importance of ‘Bijjar’ (aid) and ‘Lub’ (bride price), how this traditional value creates a lot of hurdles economically for males to get married and to know the demands of bride’s side from groom for fulfilling their desires in marriage ceremony. Research is purely qualitative in nature and was conducted from different areas of Quetta city, the capital of Balochistan. The tool of data collection was open ended questionnaire. Data was conducted and collected directly from married Baloch males through convenient probability sampling technique. Thematic approach has been employed for collected data in the process of analysis. Results showed that sometimes traditional value ‘Lub’ is really a helping hand for them but mostly groom is not having such strong economic status and having less earning opportunities to face a lot of difficulties in getting married because bride’s family’s demands are as high to touch the sky. So Sometimes they get late to satisfy all the required demands of bride’s family because everyone is not rich enough to fulfill them frequently. Traditional value ‘Lub’ is fruitful for bride’s family but not for groom’s because the male members of the society who do not have strong economic background are not likely to have the opportunity of an easy marriage so in results they are unsatisfied and are not happy with these traditional values Lub. The relaxation about Lub utterly depends on bride’s family that sometimes groom’s family wishes to have concession because specific amount of Lub creates environment distracted and frustrated for groom’s family. They firmly believe that materialistic approach cannot be the source of strong relation between husband and wife but even though they are compelled to follow their traditional value Lub.