No honour in murder (The Hindu)
“A newly-wed bride and her mother-in-law were killed and the groom seriously injured by the girl's relatives in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab on May 11. According to the police, 19-year-old Gurleen Kaur's naked body had deep cuts in the neck area, and her shoulder and fingers had been mutilated. Her father, brothers and uncles obviously thought this was fit punishment for her crime: marrying 25-year-old Amarpreet Singh against their wishes. [...]
“Will such so-called ‘honour killings’ stop if the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 is amended to prohibit marriages within the same gotra? Unlikely. That may be the most publicised of the demands and threats issued by the Khap Mahapanchayat–a congregation of caste Panchayats from Jat strongholds in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan–in Kurukshetra on April 13, and subsequently elsewhere. But it was not the only one. They have also reportedly called for a ban on marriages within the same village and contiguous villages, as well as de-recognition of temple weddings uniting runaway couples.
“The mythical gotra factor may have come to the fore because the Kurukshetra gathering was clearly triggered by the recent landmark judgment delivered by District and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma in Karnal (Haryana) in the case of Manoj and Babli Banwala, a young couple belonging to the same caste and gotra, who were murdered in 2007 because they dared to marry each other.
“But, as scholar and activist Jagmati Sangwan has pointed out, not all honour killings even within Haryana involve same-gotra couples. According to her, the majority of the marriages condemned by Khap Panchayats are of couples who do not share a gotra.
“Most victims of ‘honour killings’ reported from various parts of the country are young people who choose to love or marry outside their caste, sub-caste or religion. Not surprisingly, the socially and economically dominant castes are usually responsible for acts of reprisal against inter-caste relationships. [...] In the name of preserving ‘social order’ and saving the ‘honour’ of the community, caste or family, all kinds of justifications are pressed into service. If the same-village or -gotra obstacle does not apply, there is always something else: a man was killed in Haryana last year for violating the ‘customary’ proscription of marriage between residents of neighbouring villages. [...]
“The recent spate of deaths attributed to ‘honour killing’ and the aggressive, unrepentant posturing of Khap leaders seem to have pushed at least some in the government into taking a more decisive stand on the issue than was common in the past (under any political dispensation). However, it is no secret that these caste-based, extra-legal bodies enjoy at least tacit support from a number of political leaders, civil servants, police officers, lawyers and even judges. Already two politicians from Haryana–one supposedly enlightened, the other definitely old-school–have publicly sought to make peace with the increasingly combative Khaps, albeit with riders (which ring rather hollow).”
See also:
anti-caste: HONOR KILLINGS AND OTHER EXTREME FORMS OF WOMEN'S OPPRESSION ARE ROOTED IN MATERIAL BACKWARDNESS (January 1, 2010)
anti-caste: ANTI-WOMAN LYNCHINGS ORDERED BY CASTE COUNCILS DEFENDED (September 14, 2009)
anti-caste: WOMAN-KILLING CASTE COUNCILS IN HARYANA WANT LEGAL COVER (September 8, 2009)
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