Key Highlights

  • Not her tradition, still her wish: Devoleena said Karwa Chauth isn’t part of Bengali and Assamese culture, but she would like to observe it someday.
  • The water challenge: She fasts on Mondays and sometimes on Ekadashi, but a full day without water worries her.
  • New mother’s pause: She is still breastfeeding and hopes to keep the fast next year.
  • Husband’s annual question: Shaan, from a Muslim family, asks her every Karwa Chauth whether she will fast.
  • Her argument: If people diet and fast for themselves, fasting for a husband by choice shouldn’t be labelled patriarchy.

For Devoleena Bhattacharjee, Karwa Chauth is a festival she has watched, admired and never actually observed. On Thursday, the television actress used that outsider’s view to make a pointed argument on X: celebrating love is a personal choice, and nobody needs to turn it into an ideological battle.

Why Devoleena has never kept the fast

The actress, who rose to fame as Gopi in ‘Saath Nibhaana Saathiya’, explained that the Karwa Chauth fast is simply not part of Bengali and Assamese customs. That does not stop her from being drawn to it. “We may not have every ritual, but we celebrate so many festivals with all our hearts. So why not Karwa Chauth?” she wrote.

The real hurdle, she admitted, is practical. She already fasts every Monday and occasionally on Ekadashi, but going without water through the entire day is a challenge she is not sure she can manage.

There is also a more personal reason for waiting. Devoleena shared that she is still breastfeeding, which has kept her from attempting the fast for now, adding that she hopes to try it next year.

The question Shaan asks every year

The sweetest detail in her note came from home. Her husband, Shanawaz Shaikh, whom she calls Shaan, comes from a Muslim family, yet he never forgets the festival. “Every Karwa Chauth, he asks me, ‘Tum rakhogi kya fast?’. And every year, I say, with a heavy heart, ‘Dekhte hain, next year’,” she wrote.

For an interfaith couple, that small yearly exchange says a lot: the ritual is less about religion and more about the gesture of care behind it. “Husbands deserve to feel special and loved too, don’t they?” she added.

Choice, not compulsion

Devoleena then turned to the criticism that surfaces online every year. In her view, many couples see the festival as a love language, and today plenty of husbands fast alongside their wives. Mothers fast for their children and families without anyone calling it oppression, she argued, so a woman choosing to fast for her husband should not be singled out, as long as no one is forced.

She also highlighted what she sees as a double standard: intermittent fasting, keto and strict diets are celebrated as self-care, while fasting for a partner is instantly framed as patriarchy. “Ladies, thoda chill karo! Love is personal. Traditions are personal. Celebrations are personal,” she wrote.

Devoleena’s note reflects a shift in how many young couples approach Karwa Chauth today: as an optional, mutual gesture rather than an obligation. Coming from someone outside the tradition, in an interfaith marriage, and navigating new motherhood, her argument puts the focus squarely on personal choice, which is perhaps the most balanced take the annual debate has seen this year.

(With inputs from IANS)