In the Dangs, weddings are not just a celebration. They are a financial milestone that entire families work toward, sometimes across multiple generations.Nestled in the northernmost tip of the Sahyadri range along the Maharashtra border, Dang is Gujarat’s only hill-station district, popular for its dense forests, tribal culture, and the hill station of Saputara. It is also the state’s least populated and one of the economically most-distressed districts.And it is here that a quietly extraordinary wedding tradition has endured for generations: couples formally marry only when the family has saved enough, which can take decades. Until then, they live together, raise children, and wait. When the money is finally ready, grandparents, parents, and their adult children may all walk to the wedding hall together. A ‘bride’ with her infant at the mass wedding in Ahwa taluka of Dang in May 2018 (Express File Photo)Economics behind the waitOver 70 to 80 per cent of Dang’s population is tribal, and the economy runs on seasonal migration. Each winter, from November to March, families travel to other districts for sugarcane cutting – one of the few reliable sources of income available to them.“They are very good at cutting sugarcanes,” says Chirag Munjani, owner of Rural Pleasure Journeys, a travel company that works extensively in the region.“After cutting all expenses, they are left with savings of about Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 from this occupation each season.”Against this, a wedding in Dang costs around Rs 5 lakh. The expenses are huge – gold ornaments, return gifts of clothes and utensils, and meals for the entire village. Wedding cards in some families run into hundreds of names, with guests from the bride’s and groom’s villages together crossing 1,200.Story continues below this ad Prakash Suryavanshi’s wedding invitation – the names running across the card reflect the scale of a community celebration in Dang. (Express photo)“Dang is culturally very rich but economically very poor. And here, poverty is the biggest problem. But given the poverty, people here live a very sustainable life, which is an interesting aspect of the tribes of this region,” Munjani says.When the sugarcane workers return to Dang in March, there is another significant drain on their savings. The district holds a unique festival called ‘Dang Darbar’, where the traditional kings of the region receive annual political pensions, locally known as Saliyana.Must Read | No-gold weddings get popular in India: Why couples are rethinking tradition and big spending“It is believed to be the only place in India where such a practice continues after the abolition of princely titles and privy purses. Tribes from nearby districts also join the fair, and participants spend a lot of their savings in it,” Munjani said, reducing what families can set aside for weddings.Math of multiple generationsThe arithmetic of saving for a wedding costing over Rs 5 lakh on an income of Rs 25,000-30,000 a season is daunting for a single couple. It becomes possible only when an entire family pools its labour.Story continues below this ad“Suppose all five adult kids start migrating for work – even then Rs 25,000 multiplied by five is only Rs 1.25 lakh, which is still insufficient for marriage expenses,” Munjani explains. “So these next-gen young couples also get engaged and bring up their family. As they, along with their spouses and adult children, a third generation, start working, suppose 16-17 family members work together, the savings cross the Rs 5 lakh mark. Now they have enough.”This is when the community comes together for what locals call a mass wedding, in which multigenerational couples, sometimes in their 50s and 60s, formally marry alongside their children and grandchildren. Shantarambhai Bagul and his partner at a mass wedding event in Dang – April 2018. (Express photo)There is also a firm social rule governing the order of ceremonies. “The senior-most couple needs to marry first, then the younger ones,” explains Prakash Suryavanshi, a resident of Bijurpada village in Subir tehsil of Dang district, who married on Friday alongside his younger brother and sister at one such event. “If the grandfather and grandmother are still unmarried, they need to wed first, then the father and mother, and then me.”Start living together, wed wheneverThe process begins with a formal engagement, which itself is no small affair. It happens at the bride’s home, where a group of community elders discuss and finalise the match. This is followed by a tilak ceremony, a pre-wedding Hindu ritual where the bride’s family formally accepts the groom.Story continues below this ad“The groom has to purchase gold ornaments, so even the engagement easily costs over Rs 1 lakh,” says Suryavanshi. Once engaged, the couple is socially recognised and may begin living together and start a family – a practice accepted within these communities for generations.“Weddings are sacrosanct and must be done whenever they gather enough savings,” Munjani explains. “The formal wedding ritual solidifies the bond for multiple generations and gives the couple clear social and legal recognition within the community.” The engagement, in this sense, is not a delay; it is the beginning of a long, purposeful journey toward a celebration the whole community can share in.Mass weddings: Community as catalystGroup weddings in Dang are not merely a workaround for poverty; they have become a community institution. Shantarambhai Bagul, a resident of Subir tehsil who also works with NGO Swapath Trust in Ahmedabad, got engaged in 2013 and started a family. Despite years of work, he couldn’t save enough for a grand wedding on his own. “Finally, in 2018, I did my wedding in a group event where multiple couples marry at once,” he says.These events are often sponsored by members of the community who have prospered after migrating to cities. “Some tribesmen who migrated to urban areas like Surat and settled there have become financially stable,” Bagul says. “Every year, around May-June, they come back to Dang and sponsor mass weddings. I did my wedding at one such event.”Story continues below this adAlso Read | The cultural legacy of history’s grandest weddingsThe timing of weddings, typically post-harvest, in spring and early summer, is itself deliberate. “For this agrarian community, major life events are often scheduled following the harvest cycles and favourable seasons,” Bagul explains. “A long gap ensures families are financially stable after the harvest and that the wedding can be celebrated when the weather is ideal.”Tradition meets changeDang’s major tribes, Gamit, Bhil, Konkani, Kunbi, and Warli, among others, have traditionally practised arranged marriages, with inter-tribal matches not uncommon.But the influence of social media is gradually introducing a new dynamic.“As many youngsters are getting connected through social media, there is an increase in love bonds over online mediums,” Bagul says. “If their parents agree, they formally marry as per Hindu traditions. Otherwise, they opt for a court marriage.”Story continues below this adThe desire to modernise, however, runs up against community expectations.“We do think of an economical wedding,” admits Suryavanshi, “but to continue living in a tribal community, we need to follow the traditional grand ritual even if we don’t wish to.”