A second marriage is difficult in any community. In one where four names and two parishes connect everybody, it comes with an audience that already believes it knows what happened.
The particular problem
In a large city you can begin again somewhere nobody knows you. Here, the families know each other, the story has travelled, and it has usually travelled in one version.
That version is frequently wrong and is almost never corrected, because correcting it means discussing it, which is exactly what nobody wants to do.
What actually helps
Say it yourself, early, to the person concerned. Not the details — the fact. People handle being told directly. Nobody handles being told by a cousin.
Do not try to correct the community's version. You will not manage it and attempting to spreads it further. The people who matter will ask you, and you can answer them.
Consider looking further afield. Kolkata, Chennai, Perth, Toronto. Not to hide anything, but because a family who meets you without a pre-existing account of your life will judge you on you.
For families receiving a proposal
Ask the person, not the network. The account you have heard has passed through several people, each of whom improved it.
And be careful what is asked of them. A second marriage does not mean somebody should be grateful for whatever is offered, and treating it that way is both unkind and a poor basis for a family.
For anyone in this position
You are not asking for something unusual. Marriages end, and the community's memory is long but its judgement is softer than it appears — most of the people who seem to have an opinion have very little invested in it.
The gossip is loud and shallow. The families who actually matter tend to ask you directly, and to take the answer at face value.