Column | Nandini Bhowmik: bridging the gap

Nandini Bhowmik challenges patriarchy by officiating inclusive weddings, promoting equality, and bridging cultural gaps through Vedic mantras.

Nandini Bhowmik, 66, has been doing her bit to shake up Hindu society since 2009. Her daughter’s wedding was the first one she officiated as a priest. “Both families agreed, though nobody had heard of such a thing,” she says. “Not all the guests were satisfied.”

The Sanskrit scholar-professor, Indologist and priest says she “spreads human values through religion”. In a country where identity is employed every day to divide people, Bhowmik uses her teachings to unite the younger generation and, through them, their families.

“Actually all religions speak of the same thing, the path is different but everyone speaks of human welfare,” she says. “My deliberations and explanations also point that way.” The 2020 Bengali film Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti, about a woman priest who smashes patriarchal prejudices, was inspired by her.

Nandini Bhowmik

Shubhamastu, the name of the charitable trust she co-founded in Kolkata all those years ago with her college friend Ruma Roy, could easily be seen as their gift to couples who want to marry irrespective of caste, religion, or nationality. Its tagline is, appropriately, ‘Priests for humanity, priests for a better society’. Now they are a team of 19 priests and devotional singers, all women, who officiate some 170 weddings every year, in addition to other ceremonies. “Young people contact me on their own,” says Bhowmik. I can see why they are drawn to her. What’s more comforting than an erudite grandmother with progressive values?

Using Vedic mantras to write a new script, Bhowmik transforms the wedding arena into a space that gives women a more equal start in the marital journey.