India must ask: where is the honour in killing?
Three men were arrested by Delhi police this week for “honour killings” days after the Supreme Court asked eight Indian states to stop these so-called “honour” killings, where family members, typically men, kill daughters and their husbands for apparently bringing dishonour to the family by marrying below their caste.
The killings, in a posh neighbourhood in Delhi, brought the tragic and shameful story of honour killings closer home to Delhi residents, who had so far dismissed the rising instances of these killings as a feature of rural India, equating them to a more traditional and conservative India they claim not to inhabit.
The clash between tradition and modernity is not new and is not unique to India, where more than two-thirds of its population lives in rural areas, and where more than half the population is below the age of 25 years.
Satellite television, education and rising numbers of working women have all been blamed for an erosion of family values and the Indian ethos, and the corruption of its youth.
When did killing young women become a part of the Indian ethos? Why is punishment by death an admirable family value?
In a country where a majority of youngsters still have marriages “arranged” by their parents, caste and religion dominate matrimonial conversations.
Activists say despite growing modernisation — or perhaps, because of it — the number of honour killings has been rising steadily in the last few years, particularly in some northern and central Indian states, where village elders often order such killings.
What’s love got to do with caste, class or countries?
Love and marriage have always been subjected to societal norms in most communities and this is especially true in India with its myriad structures of caste, class and a historical rich-poor divide.
The recent media glare on honour killings in northern India put the spotlight on the traditional system of local “khap” councils, who do not allow persons from the same sub-caste or lineage to marry.
Sometimes even marriage between two consenting adults from different gotras (clan or lineage) is banned if they are from the same village, and the diktat of the khaps can lead to ostracism and banishment to even honour killings.
Proponents of the ancient tradition maintain the issue is not simply black and white as a lot of factors are in play including maintaining honour, a balanced social structure, brotherhood of gotras, apart from historical opposition to inter-caste and inter-religious unions.
But frequent reports related to the khaps in recent times could mean that more and more people are defying tradition to be with the ones they love, even at the cost of their lives.
This presents the dilemma of a large population of youth with global aspirations living in a country still deeply entrenched in tradition.
The government plans to toughen laws to punish errant khap members but rural panchayats say they will continue settling disputes in villages.
Keep stirring the pot and sooner or later this is likely to become a regime change job for the USA, or France. You know, as in bringing them Freedom©?
A horrible day in Haryana, and a challenge to India’s police
I had a truly depressing day in Haryana this week, reporting on the murder of a 21-year-old girl and her 22-year-old boyfriend .
It was sad enough to meet a village where many appeared proud of this brutal murder. To come home and see the photos of Sunita and Jasbir, laid out outside her father’s house for all the world to see, was heartbreaking.
Fear still stalks the villages of Balla and Machhroli where the murders took place. Jasbir’s family have been threatened by other villagers that they will also be killed if they speak to the media or if they refuse to drop charges.
Few of them had faith in the police. They said they were “too poor to pay a bribe”. Five people have been arrested, including the girl’s father, uncle and two cousins. I met another cousin, right on the spot where the bodies were laid out, who started by trying to intimidate us and ended up saying he was proud of the murder.
In a tiny police post, a corporal told me such cases rarely if ever reach prosecution. “Witnesses back out,” he told me. “The entire village is on one side”.
As I looked further into the story, I found that love liaisons like Sunita and Jasbir’s, between a couple from the same village, were a direct threat to the upper caste old men of Haryana.
A girl who dares marry against their will, and stay in her own village, might just mount a claim to a portion of the family’s land, as she is legally entitled to do.
Astounding that such cowards who’d strangle a pregnant woman and creep up on the back of another man can consider themselves to have fulfilled their duties.
Its frightening to consider what the playwright Terence said, ‘”Nothing human is alien to me” in this light. How lowly an act to have commited though. You have to wonder at first why this couple stayed near these other people, I suppose they wanted to make a stand for themselves. /That/ is fulfillment of a person’s duties; standing up for yourself in the face of such a horrible thing.
The issue of social acceptance of inter-cast or intra-Gotra marriage and honor killing are two separate issues and required to be dwelt separately. The heinous crime of honor killing is absolutely deplorable. However, the larger social issue of intra-gotra marriage is a debatable point.
Hinduism is a way of life or a tradition having its origin since time immemorial without any particular follower or deity describing it completely. It origin or flows from the text of four Vedas in which the almighty is one having no specific face or depiction. The Vedas are followed by Purans. The Purans are followed by Smritis (e.g. Manu Smritis) which written by specific ancient souls by their remembrance. The Smritis are followed by Shruties (e.g. Ramayan, Mahabharata etc.) which are chants of nomadic tribes to describe valiance and nobleness of their Kings. In Hindu mythology any character, living being, deity or object which brings you near the right path of social living is being worshiped by different sects. These sects have their own set rules and norms. The inhabitants of civilization Indus Valley and beyond centered on Gangatic plains was termed by Greeks as