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North Indian Wedding Gives ‘Second-Hand Embarrassment’ With ‘South Indian Haldi Theme’

A newlywed Delhi influencer has caused “second-hand embarrassment” on social media after revealing her Haldi ceremony theme: “South Indian.” Nishtha Gandhi-Malik, a wedding stylist and content creator who married Karan, her boyfriend of four years, said the event became “the talk of the town”, but it may have been for a different reason.
The extensively-documented Haldi ritual featured a sit-down South Indian feast with square banana leaves for placemats, some of her male relatives dressed in veshtis, with Gandhi-Malik wearing a Gajra, a type of jasmine garland for hair, to become “the most viral bride of the year.”

“We are a North Indian family and our Haldi theme was South Indian, and this is how cool everyone looked,” one of the video captions read.
However, the pre-wedding custom wasn’t particularly well-received. On Instagram, where Gandhi-Malik originally posted the film, and on X, where photos and screenshots from the ceremony started a separate discussion, people accused the influencer of “cultural appropriation”.

“Love to see my culture get the same status as a fancy dress competition,” said Athi Jacob.
For some, it wasn’t so much about the “theme” itself but the choice of words.

Sridaya Srivatsan wrote, “I would guess that if there was a story saying there was an admiration for the South Indian aesthetics and the bride always wanted a piece of that on her special day -- this video would have gone down differently. Also it would have helped if it was specified as Kerala, or Tamil Nadu but the generalization of term "south Indian" can make people feel like it's disrespectful.”

Some of the criticism was much harsher. Priyanka said she struggled to find a single “element of South”, while Queercus Agrifolia described it as a desperate search for an ethnic identity by “Hindi speakers” that hasn’t been negatively stereotyped.

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