May 4, 1998

Nine wives, 30 children, a 161-member family. This Gujarati is a statistician's delight -- not to speak  of political parties wooing his very own vote bank.

By Uday Mahurkar

Tagaji Bhikaji takes his job as family patriarch rather seriously. He's been married nine times, has six surviving wives, 16 sons, 14 daughters and heads a clan -- children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, the works -- an astonishing 161-strong. At 76, this bamboo basket mini-tycoon from Deesa, a little town in north Gujarat, has problems putting a number to the size of his family. His life is an existential paradox: his youngest son -- three-year-old Ummedsinh -- is younger than one of his great grandsons.

Nevertheless, Tagaji is at peace with himself; and it is a peace even a man with just one wife would envy: "It's all God's will. We are mere actors in his hands." Quite possible; but what of those petty man-made laws banning polygamy? Pat comes the answer: "Since we are illiterate we don't know the law. We only follow our community's customs."

Truly, multiple marriages run in the family. Tagaji's father Bhikaji had seven wives himself -- and 32 children. To quote a proud Tagaji, Bhikaji's progeny "are in thousands and not hundreds because quite a few of my step-brothers have more than one wife". So do, in fact, two of Tagaji's sons. No wonder the Tagaji household, with its 100-odd voters, sees keen canvassing by a variety of political parties every election.

Over 59 years of matrimony, Tagaji's domestic management has sharpened. He spends one day in the week with each of his six wives. Presumably, on the seventh day he rests. Whether it's being with eldest wife, Maniben, 68, on Saturday or the youngest Sodhi, 30, on Sunday, the man takes change with equanimity. Every wife has a two-room set to herself and cooks all Tagaji's meals on the day allotted to her.

The other principle for promoting marital equity is never buying individual gifts. Confides Tagaji: "Even if it is a small ring, I get it for all of them. That's actually the secret of my success as a husband." Tagaji also bears the medical and clothing expenses of all his wives and those sons who live in his residential complex. Yet, the expenses of grandsons are met by their respective fathers. Perhaps this home-grown decentralisation was inevitable for, as Tagaji's son Ishwar, 55 (two wives, seven children), puts it, "He may be a good manager of his large family but the fact remains he doesn't remember the names of all his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

What made Tagaji a sought-after groom was his relative prosperity. He has 40 employees who weave some 250 baskets daily, leaving him with a monthly income of Rs 25,000. His sons are in the same trade. Further, Tagaji is the mukhi or headman of his backward Vaanswadi community. In fact, with his flowing beard, twirled moustache and traditional headgear he is the very picture of the chieftain. Fellow Vaanswadis bring their quarrels to his doorstep or transport him, all expenses paid, to Surat, Rajkot, even Mumbai or Jodhpur, to play arbiter in their disputes. Toying with her husband's 12 bore gun, Patti, 35, wife No. 5, exclaims, "This completes the king-like aura around him."

Just how Tagaji's harem kept expanding makes for interesting stories. Says one son, Balwant, 32, and the only member of the family who is literate enough to sign his name: "The parents of my many mothers obviously saw in him a groom who could keep their daughters in style, with his money and status." Others call Tagaji a rather imaginative moneylender, who asked creditors incapable of repaying to give him their daughters.

Whatever the truth, he obviously pleased his many sets of in-laws. Dhapu, 62, wife No. 2, and Shanta, wife No. 3, now dead, were sisters. Patti and Sodhi are first cousins -- and nieces of Maniben. On their part, the wives display a strange camaraderie. Says Diwaliben, 51, wife No. 4: "We often wash each other's clothes and treat each other as sisters. In case of a difference, the word of Maniben, the seniormost, is final."

The Tagaji undivided family really comes into its own in the evenings, when its home -- a commune, for all practical purposes -- sees much merrymaking. The clan being rather dipsomaniacal, as the night sets in, almost all of Tagaji's clan -- wives, sons, granddaughters-in-law, everybody -- hit the bottle. It is not uncommon to see Patti, already high on the local brew, smoking a bidi; or Dhapu barely able to walk. Occasionally they break into the rambunctious folk dance to the tune of the dholak.

To the residents of Deesa, this highly unconventional family is something of a "phenomenon". Explains Vijay Bharot, a local photographer: "Tagaji and his family have emerged as a kind of tourist attraction. Visitors to Deesa land up at his place on hearing of him." Tagaji has also earned himself a reputation as a canny businessman. This may be why a merchant who frequently deals with the family says, "Money and liquor are what they value most."

All in all, in becoming the USP of nondescript Deesa, Tagaji has more than repaid his family's debt to its adopted home. The town has nurtured it for the past 100 years, ever since Tagaji's grandfather Ramaji migrated to Deesa from Sindh. Ramaji, it may be added, had merely one wife.

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