Celebration of Raksha Bandhan a taboo at this village in Ghaziabad

When the whole country celebrates Raksha Bandhan, the people at Surana village in Ghaziabad not celebrate the festival as they considered it taboo for various reasons.

Ghaziabad/New Delhi: The festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated with great pomp across the country. Sisters tie Rakhi to their brothers and in turn, they promise to protect them. But, at Surana village in Muradnagar-Ghaziabad, the hands of the brothers remain empty on the day of Rakshabandhan. According to their belief, celebrating Raksha Bandhan in this village is a bad omen. People from Surana village never celebrate Raksha Bandhan. Rahul Surana, a resident of Surana village, said that the people of Chhabaria Gotra of the district consider celebrating the festival of Rakshabandhan to be a bad omen.

Surana village is about 35 km from Ghaziabad city. The village was known as Sohangadh in the 11th century. Son Singh Rana, a descendant of Prithviraj Chauhan, who came from Rajasthan hundreds of years ago, had camped on the banks of the Hindon river. While Prithviraj Chauhan was held captive by Muhammad Ghori, he received information that the descendants of Prithviraj Chauhan live in Sohangadh and decided to attack Sohangadh on the day of Raksha Bandhan. As the villagers considered the day auspicious, they couldn't fight back on that day and the Muhammad of Gori took advantage of their belief. He attacked and killed all the people in the villlage.

Rahul told that, before the attack by Mohammad Ghori, the festival of Raksha Bandhan was celebrated with great enthusiasm in Sohangadh i.e; Surana village. After the attack, the entire village was destroyed. However, Jaskaur, a resident of the village, had gone to her maternal home. During this incident, Jaskaur was pregnant and was left alive due to not being present in the village. Jaskaur gave birth to twins, Lakkhi and Chunda. After growing up, both the children came back and settled in the Songadh village. Today Songadh, or Surana village has a population of 12,000.

Rahul says that the new generation tried to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, bypassing the old tradition, after which unlucky incidents happened in many houses in the village. Now, the new generation also considers Raksha Bandhan to be inauspicious. Rahul further explains that not only the people living in the village, but also those who have left the village and settled abroad, do not celebrate Raksha Bandhan.

Bhupendra Yadav, who serves in the army, "Before Raksha Bandhan, the sisters of all the soldiers send Rakhi through courier, but we don't receive any Rakhi. When our friends ask why we don't get any Rakhi from our place, then we tell them the history of our village".