Honour
Killings and Marriage Laws
The killing
of a young couple in Haryana who had married against the wishes of their
parents and probably against the prevailing customs has again set the media
debating the issues of Gotra and Khap.
What is most regrettable is that most of these experts do not understand
either the social issues or the concept of law. I would not be surprised if
many of them do not understand the literal meaning of these terms.
Before we
launch into the details of the issue, I would like to say that I condemn the
killings in unequivocal terms. Nobody is permitted to take the life of any
person and it is a sin and crime of highest order. Such
brutal acts must be visited by quick and strong arm of justice. But having made
arrangements for this the nation will need to stop and ponder as to why
such incidents are taking place time and
again inspite of all the condemnation heaped by the nation on the
perpetrators of these crimes and all the
harshness of law.
First of
all we must understand clearly the meaning of the words Gotra and Khaap. Gotra
literally means ‘Cowpen’ or “gaushala” but it also denotes “gurukul”. In
ancient times youngmen in India were sent to the Ashram of their guru where
they learnt not only the three R’s but were trained to be good members of
society. The name of the gurukul was attached to the disciples names as a
matter of honour. Thus persons who received their initiation in the field of
education came to have a “gotra”.All persons who received education in one
gurukul had one gotra. The children belonging to the family of the guru also
studied there and had the same gotra.
Coming to
the rules of marriage in ancient India we must remember that the Indian society became exogamous at a very early stage. How
and why this happened is not to be
debated here but we see Yama and Brahma
being penalized for incestuous marriages. Thus rules of marriage clearly
prohibited certain relations. Since all the children of the guru had a
common gotra marriage among them was prohibited.These children of gurus or
rishis were later known as Brahmins and marriage within the same gotra was a
taboo for a Brahmin. But the rest of the disciples were not the guru’s
scions and came from different families.
Same gotra marriages were not prohibited for them. They were prohibited to
marry in the same family or “kul”. As time passed and population increased more
complex laws evolved but the basic principle remained the same.
The Khaap
is not the same thing as gotra. Khaap means a closed group, a clan or an
extended large family living together. Most probably marriage within a khaap
never received a social recognition because it was against the rule of exogamy.
Not that
there would not have been violations of the rule earlier. But social boycott and social non-recognition
were tools effective enough to keep things in order. A killing was not
required, in fact it was least desired because a living person was always
useful to the society even if he were a social outcast.
The present
reaction of killing persons marrying against the customs is a manifestation of
frustration of society. And this frustration has been caused by our laws which
do not reflect the will of the people. Law can be generally understood as
reflecting a socially acceptable code of conduct or behavior. Unfortunately our
marriage laws are not based on the customs and traditions of Indian society.
Nehru was too enamored of the European
and British system and failed to change
the legal system imposed on India by the British. Even our Judiciary has failed
to appreciate the situation. It is an accepted principle of law that in
personal law custom and tradition have precedence over enacted law.
The way to
prevent these dastardly killings
becomes simple if the spirit of justice and
law is appreciated properly. A person opposing a same khaap marriage is in fact protesting against marriage
between close relations falling within
the perimeter of prohibited relations. Our social scientists and activists appearing in media debates may
not agree with him because their concept of family is very small whereas the
former’s family includes many
generations. The law should recognize the prevalent customs and should not
confer legality to these marriages. This will be a great deterrent to those who
seek to go against the social norm. This would also mollify the society or the
Khaaps who will then need not take
recourse to extreme measures like killing .
The social
scientists ,experts and activists pounding their hearts out against gotra and
khaap marriages need to do their home-work. Elphinstone, the governor general of Bombay ,undertook a study
of Indian customs .He felt that the Indian society was vast and complex and
such a study needed time. But our experts
consider our society a cess-pool and
impose their ideas as if they are dealing with inanimates.
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