May 12
Pragoti has
an interesting analysis of what makes Khap Panchayats still tick in the 21st century.
...
Before we further delve upon this issue let’s see what is this whole concept of "honour". Honour or for the Hindi speaking people, izzat is the
central reason for the functioning of these caste panchayats. In the popular perception of rural society and as well as in the Hindu scriptures,
women are the repositories of this izzat of a community. The greatest danger to this ideology of izzat comes from the woman. In the warped logic
of the caste system that dictates terms of life in villages, a female "dishonours" her family/clan/ caste and community by her "shameful
conduct". Why is their conduct termed "shameful"? To understand this we should see what Manu, the Law Giver of the codified Hindu caste system
writes for women in Manusmriti: (translated)
- II. 213. It is the nature of women to seduce man in this (world). For that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company of) females.
- IX. 14. Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age; (thinking), (It is enough that) he is a man, they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly.
- IX. 16. Knowing their disposition, which the Lord of creatures laid in them at the creation to be such, (every) man, should most strenuously exert himself to guard them.
- IX. 17. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct
It is clearly and further stressed in Manusmriti that women should not be made free under any circumstances:
- IX. 2. Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control.
- IX. 3. Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never for independence.
- IX. 5. Women must particularly be guarded against evil inclinations, however trifling (they may appear); if they are not guarded, they will bring sorrow on two families.
These above verses coupled with other Codes (which must not be seen in their textual isolation) to be observed for caste purity describes the way caste panchayats operates in rural society. It is these archaic laws ingrained in the minds and actions of rural folks which drive them to uphold their caste linkages and force them to have a closer surveillance on the happening marital alliances. Thus, it is the woman who holds the key to the honour of a caste group and it is by not letting the woman to marry beyond the fold of her own caste (in various instances in the same gotra) that these caste panchayats maintain strict endogamy and thus the honour of their caste group and the "purity" of caste itself.
...
From all the news bites on the Khap panchayats demand to change the Hindu Marriage act and Naveen Jindal's quite shameless support for it, some folks would somehow have the impression that maybe the panchayat's demand for ban on marriages would have even a
hint of legitimacy. Even Chauthala kept harping about there being
medical justifications behind such demands.
This Hindu news article exposes the lie behind such reasonings.
Most of the khap panchayat diktats are against couples who are not from the same gotra. In fact, not more than one case of honour killing has been of a couple within the same gotra. By creating the false impression that all marriages of choice between young couples are incestuous, what the khaps are actually opposing is the right to choose a marriage partner. Among the several instances of khaps issuing fatwas in Jaundhi, Asanda, Dharana, Singhwal, Hadaudi, Maham-kheri, Ludana and other villages, not a single one was an intra-gotra marriage, yet the married couples were declared siblings, and families made to suffer boycotts and excommunication from their villages.
