Marriage of love or reason?

Gulbahar’s marriage to Lal Hussain Shah was a marriage of reason of sorts and love wasn’t the primary basis of marriage. Gulbahar acquired status and respect through this marriage, apart from the right to ‘Saieen’s jageer’ through their son Guddu. Economics does play a role in the marriage because at the brothel Gulbahar had to auction herself to earn money but as Saieen’s wife she had to just doll up ,sit at home and wait for him to grace her with his presence. But the primary purpose of her marriage to the feudal was to quench her thirst for respect as reflected by Gulbahar’s very famous dialogue “agar izzat ki bhooki na hoti tou nai karti ye shaadi, paisa tou meray paas bhi bohot tha”. Moreover, because of her marriage with the influential and revered Lal Shah Hussain she easily got rid of her past and her affiliation with her old friends because they knew she dared not mess with such an influential man’s wife(  with an exception of Dilber).On the other hand, Gulbahar was Lal Hussian Shah’s secret wife who very few people knew about so that his reputation could be protected. He was scared that people would question his character therefore he robbed her of her basic right of acceptance and identification as his wife in society. Even though he bestowed upon her a lot of love and respect but she wasn’t encouraged to pursue her talent of singing and had to give it up to keep her husband’s ‘izzat’. Thus as much as dalogues like “mein tou aap ki mureed hoon” and “ mein petal thi aap ne sona bana dia” suggest that Lal Hussain Shah and Gulbahar make this unacceptable marriage possible because they are truly,madly, deeply in love-they are not, their ‘nikkanama’ is an actual contract!