IN 2005, the Department of Sociology at the Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak, Haryana, had organised a seminar called ‘Khap Panchayats: Challenges and Prospects.’ The participants were academics, activists and the heads of khap panchayats. One of the participants, Sooraj Singh, pradhan of the Meham Chaubisi khap (which represents 24 villages in Meham, Haryana), remarked that the caste panchayats enjoyed ‘divine rights’ to adjudicate marriages. “We cannot allow love marriages,” he said. “Sarvakhaps do not recognise court marriages either.” He was, of course, referring to marriages that went against the traditional norms of caste segregation.
Singh’s statements strike at the heart of an issue that has shocked the nation in the past few months. Honour killings, barbaric murders committed for the sake of preserving the honour of a family, a clan or a village, are the medieval remnants of regressive tribal societies that have persisted for far too long into the modern, liberal age. These are acts that the international community had considered as mostly confined to the Arab-Muslim world.
So how do honour killings continue to happen in the not-so-remote neighbourhoods of Delhi, Haryana, and in other northern Indian states, especially at a time when the country is going through rapid social and economic advancements? The answer lies in the discussions at the seminar at the Maharshi Dayanand University: the importance of maintaining caste hierarchies against the will of the times.
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