The true cost of ‘Big Fat’: Why India needs a luxury-wedding tax
When celebration becomes spectacle, society — and the country — pays dearly “More! More! Is the cry of a mistaken soul” — William Blake For generations, Indian weddings were intimate rituals woven with meaning — a sacred union, a gathering of families, a celebration of blessings and community. But the visionary English poet’s warning feels painfully current in a country where the wedding industry, worth an estimated $200 billion, is increasingly driven by competitive display. What once unfolded in ancestral courtyards has expanded into multi-day extravaganzas: destination resorts, celebrity performances, imported decor, curated feasts, and photogenic rituals engineered for social media. Yes, these weddings may burnish India’s soft power and global glamour. But beneath the shimmer lies a cost we rarely acknowledge — an ecological footprint that swells with every unused plate of food, a civic burden shouldered quietly by public systems run by tax-payer’s money, and a ...
