In the name of honour 

Killings in the name of honour are not peculiar to the tribal society in Pakistan. They are rampant in north India as well and ever so often the truth is brought home by a gruesome deed. Unfortunately, political leaders do not possess the moral courage to stand up to uphold the law of the land over the medieval traditions that view women as property and symbols of honour especially in a state like Haryana that claims to be the face of development and progress. 

India is no Pakistan, certainly not the inland of Pakistan where for one Mukhtar Mai there are many more who take their lives after being raped in order to restore the ‘honour’ of the privileged section of the society.

In Pakistan a Mukhtar Mai has to be supported by the world so that she can fight for outraged dignity, we tend to believe. But the reality is that ever so often, especially in the Jat and Rajput dominated north India, we keep slipping into the tribal lifestyle where law and its interpretation of human rights is governed by the percieved needs of the powerful and is in constant conflict of the constitutional and civil law.

Consider this: Raj Narayan, from Bhawanipur district in Uttar Pradesh, once publically narrated how his brother's wife was gang-raped and burnt to death by influential people belonging to the Yadav community of the same village, in a case of revenge. Her crime was that her son had eloped with the wife of one of the Yadavs. Raj Narayan, who belongs to the barber community, said that the Yadavs forced all the male members of the family to search for the couple and then in their absence assaulted his sister-in-law, Sia Dulaari. Since her house was locked from outside, the Yadavs, who shared a common wall, scaled it at night and raped her. Despite being told about Sia Dulaari's plight, the Station House Officer refused to do anything, he alleged.

This happened a few years ago when the supposedly reactionary forces were ruling the Centre and it happened in a State that is believed to be one of the most ill goverened and corrupt. But consider this recent happening in the National Capital Region, in a State that never tires of claiming that it is striving hard to achieve the number one status in the country. Karnal in Haryana is barely two hours drive from the national capital that aspires to host the Olympic Games in the near future.

The bodies of Sunita and Jasbir Singh were lying outside the house of Sunita’s father who unhesitatingly owned the murders and the rest of the family gloated in avenging a grievous wrong done to it by one of its own. The deed had been done when five armed men were said to have burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel.They had punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend "Jassa", 22-year-old Jasbir Singh. Then both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled.

Later, their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's "honour" had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.

The village of Balla now stands united behind the act, proud, defiant almost to a man for among the Jat caste of the conservative Haryana, it is taboo for a man and woman of the same village to marry. Although the couple were not related, they were supposed to see each other in this deeply traditional society as brother and sister.

The relatively prosperous northern state of Haryana is one of India's most conservative when it comes to caste, marriage and the role of women. Deeply patriarchal, caste purity is paramount and marriages are arranged to sustain the status quo. Men and women are still murdered across the villages of northern India for daring to marry outside their caste, but in Haryana the practice is widespread, and widely supported.

Some times bizarre things happen when this society confronts challenges arising out of some one breaking rank. One such incident had shaken the country a few years ago because of the outrageous edict passed by the self styled wise men.

Sonia and Rampal of Asanda in Jhajjar district had been happily married and had even given birth to a child when the Rathi Khap realized that according to the tradition they could not have been married. Promptly and with considerable zeal the panchayat met and decreed the marriage null and void. It also ordained that both consider themselves brother and sister even after living as husband and wife and giving birth to a child!

Defiance of this edict could be dangerous for any number of instances can be dug up of khap panchayats having ordered the killing of couples for defying the oppressive and irrational caste-based social code of the community. Sonia and Rampal not only decided to defy the Khap but also challenged the irrational order.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court responded promptly to a public interest petition filed by the Haryana unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and directed the Asanda khap to not interfere in the marital affairs of Rampal and Sonia. The judiciary did its bit. However, the larger issue of how to neutralise the influence of the khaps, that exist everywhere in India under different names, over rural communities needs to be tackled even today as is demonstrated by that inhuman parental deed in Karnal.

To the rational it comes as a shock to see that the system that should have been consigned to the dustbin of history continues to hold sway. More disturbingly, it apparently has the political patronage of those who are supposed to uphold the constitution and lead the society towards a liberal world.

However, it continues ever so strongly as on the one hand it continues to serve the interest of the rural communities and on the other hand it serves as a vote bank in the competitive electoral battles. The truth is that if a person is not confronted by a dilemma of the dimension of Sunita and Jasbir or Sonia and Rampal, most villagers would follow the archaic traditions as they help in the continuation of the possession of the land by the male heirs in the family. These traditions evolved in a medieval era when population was sparse and women a property and symbol of honour or the lack of it, fail to take into account not only the changing face of demography and society but also the fact that they violate the rights provided by the Constitution of India and enforceable in a court of law.

Sonia and Rampal were lucky they had the support of a few Civil Liberty groups who took shelter in the High Court. Sunita and Rampal were not and therefore they became victim of barbarism. They had a right to live even if the civil society might not have approved of their passion. But surely civil society needed to find a way out for a couple whose passion led to divorce and living together albeit without being legally wedded.

Every day Haryana is witnessing socio-economic changes and the old order is under constant pressure. Unfortunately, the more the pressure the more the society attempts to reap the benefits of change under the old traditional practices. Even more unfortunate is the fact that no political party or a leader worth his name is willing to provide leadership. Even those political leaders who claim to belong to Arya Samaj families are routinely seen to be following those customs and practices that were expressly frowned upon.

This happens at the level of the Chief Minister and the leading lights of the opposition as well as at the grass root levels where in matters of society all responsibility is abdicated by the Panchyats in favour of the Khaps. In fact, Khaps have emerged as a handy tool in the hands of some politicians to hold on to the privileges of birth. Thus when a few Dalits are lynched by the upper castes on the suspicion of cow slaughter the Khap threatens of dire consequences if the suspect are arrested.

At other times, again in Jhajjar Rohtas Kumar and his community was ostracised and humiliated by upper-caste Jats after two Jat girls eloped with a Dalit youth. Though it was known that the girls had eloped on their own yet a case of kidnapping was registered. The village remained tense as the caste panchayat of Jats announced a public boycott of Dalits. Essential supplies were denied to Dalits and they were prevented from drawing water from the village well. Rohtas Kumar, who opposed such measures, was publicly flogged and had to pay a fine. "It was a choice between getting killed and facing humiliation," he said. More important, the girls who returned to the village died in suspicious circumstances. Prolonged harassment forced two Dalits, one woman and one elderly person, to commit suicide.

Politicians of Haryana never tire of boasting of the Arya Samaj movement in the state and yet there is no sign of the principles that the Samaj upholds. Those claiming lineage do not have the courage to lead and are often seen towing the Khaps in the hope of reaping the vote bank. As a consequence Haryana is a bundle of contradictions. Development and arrival of new technologies are being constantly sought to be subjugated to the needs of those who are either left out of it or are unable to master it. Thus they inflate their false egos by pretending to be the custodians of a social order that has become irrelevant.