Thangai VS Annan

Recently, there has been a spate of honour killings in the country which has led the government to decide what laws should be put in place to stop this heinous crime. Also whether the Hindu Marriage Act should be reformed or not is being debated.  What is the definition of honour killing and what leads families to commit this heinous crime so that they can protect their family honour? Is this practice prevalent only in India or is it prevalent in other parts of the world also?

An honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a (typically female) family or clan member by one or more fellow (mostly male) family members, in which the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonour upon the family, clan, or community.

Such killings or attempted killings result from the perception that the defense of honour justifies killing a person whose behavior dishonours their own clan or family.  Honour killing is more prevalent where a member of a lower class (wrt., social status or wealth status) marries a person of relatively higher class (high social or wealth status). The United Nations Population Fund ((UNFPA)) estimates that the annual worldwide total of honour-killing victims may be as high as 5,000.

History of honour killing in India

Honour killing is different from the dowry deaths that are prevalent in India. In the case of dowry deaths, the perpetrators of that action claim that they have not been given enough material rewards for accepting the woman into the family. In that case there is a lot of harassment from the in-laws and more times than one, it has been noted that the wife commits suicide rather than being killed by the in-laws, though it has to be said that she has been mentally killed, if not physically.

This tradition was first viewed in its most horrible form during the Partition of the country in between the years 1947 and 1950 when many women were forcefully killed so that family honour could be preserved. During the Partition, there were a lot of forced marriages which were causing women from India to marry men from Pakistan and vice-versa. And then there was a search to hunt down these women who were forced to marry a person from another country and another religion and when they returned ‘home’ they were killed so that the family honour could be preserved and they were not declared social outcastes from their region. At that time, the influence of religion and social control was much greater and hence there were at least a couple of honour killings a day, if not more. The partition years can be seen to be the beginning of the tradition of honour killing on a large scale. Honour Killing is not specifically related to India only. This practice prevails in North and South America, Africa, Turkey and many other countries. But the number of incidents relating to this crime is very low and there is a very strict punishment for committing this crime in other countries.

Reasons for honour killing

The perceived dishonour is normally the result of the following behaviors, or the suspicion of such behaviors:

(a) utilizing dress codes unacceptable to the family/community,

(b) wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice, or

(c) engaging in certain sexual acts, including those with the opposite or same sex.

There are various reasons why people or family members decide to kill the daughter in the name of preserving their family honour. The most obvious reason for this practice to continue in India, albeit, at a much faster and almost daily basis, is because of the fact that the caste system continues to be at its rigid best and also because people from the rural areas refuse to change their attitude to marriage. According to them, if any daughter dares to disobey her parents on the issue of marriage and decides to marry a man of her wishes but from another gotra or outside her caste, it would bring disrepute to the family honour and hence they decide to give the ultimate sentence, as in death, to the daughter. Now as has become the norm, the son-in-law is killed as well.

Sociologists believe that the reason why honour killings continue to take place is because of the continued rigidity of the caste system. Hence the fear of losing their caste status through which they gain many benefits makes them commit this heinous crime. The other reason why honour killings are taking place is because the mentality of people has not changed and they just cannot accept that marriages can take place in the same gotra or outside one’s caste. The root of the cause for the increase in the number of honour killings is because the formal governance has not been able to reach the rural areas and as a result. Thus, this practice continues though it should have been removed by now.

Honour killing in India

North India

To be young and in love has proved deadly for many young girls and boys in parts of north India as an intolerant and bigoted society refuses to accept any violation of its rigid code of decorum, especially when it comes to women. The two teenage girls who were shot dead in June 2010 by a cousin in Noida for daring to run away to meet their boyfriends are the latest victims of honour killings, a euphemism for doing away with anyone seen as spoiling the family’s reputation. Many such killings are happening with regularity in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. These are socially sanctioned by caste panchayats and carried out by mobs with the connivance of family members.

People are sometimes murdered in Northern India (mainly in the Indian States of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar for marrying without their family’s acceptance, in some cases for marrying outside their caste (Jat or Rajput) or religion. Among Rajputs, marriages with other caste male/female instigate the killings of the married couple and family. This is unique form of honour killing related to the militant culture of ethnic Rajputs, who, despite the forces of modernization and the pressures of decolonization, subscribe to medieval views concerning the “preservation” of perceived “purity” of their lineage.

Haryana is one of the worst hit as far as honour killing is concerned. Even as rural Haryana remains in the stranglehold of the defiant caste panchayats, honour killings continue in their most horrible form

On June 21, 2010, the family members of a girl allegedly killed her and her teenaged lover and hanged them as exhibits in their house for the village to see their “fate.” Monika (18) and her lover Rinku (19), both from Jat families, were brutally killed for honour at Nimriwali village, near Bhiwani. The father of the girl, her brother, uncle and cousins are suspected to be behind the crime and are absconding.

The case was registered for murder and wrongful confinement on the basis of a complaint by Rinku’s uncle, Krishan Kumar. Police teams have been deputed to arrest the suspects named in the case. However, circumstances clearly suggest it to be an honour killing according to inspector Prem Singh, the investigating officer. Singh avoided enquiries as to who had informed the police and who first came to know about the incident.

According to preliminary investigations, the injury marks on the bodies of Monika and Rinku suggest that they were tortured by their killers.

Sources said Monika was a dropout and Rinku, who belonged to the neighbouring Manherhu village, was living with his maternal uncle, a trader. The two had been going around for over two years despite objections from their families. According to sources, the two were caught by their relatives at Monika’s uncle’s house.

Bhagalpur in the northern Indian State of Bihar has also been notorious for honour killings. Recent cases include a 16-year-old girl, Imrana, from Bhojpur was set on fire inside her house in a case of what the police called ‘moral vigilantism’. The victim had screamed for help for about 20 minutes before neighbours arrived, only to find her still smoldering. She was admitted to a local hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries. In another case in May 2008, Jayvirsingh Bhadodiya shot his daughter Vandana Bhadodiya and struck her in the head with an axe. In June 2010 some incidents were reported even from Delhi.

In a landmark judgment, in March 2010, the Karnal District Court ordered the execution of the five perpetrators in an honour killing case, while giving a life sentence to the khap (local caste-based council) head who ordered the killings of Manoj Banwala (23) and Babli (19), two members of the same clan who eloped and married in June 2007. Despite being given police protection on court orders, they were kidnapped; their mutilated bodies were found a week later from an irrigation canal.

The latest case of honour killing was reported in a case where a couple was murdered by the father of the girl, Vimla (20), and a guard named Robin, after they found 28 yr old Hari from Jalandhar and Vimla in a compromising position in an under-construction building.

South India

Honour killings are rare to non-existent in South India, and the western Indian States of Maharashtra and Gujarat. There have been no honour killings in West Bengal in over 100 years, thanks to the influence and activism of reformists like Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

In 1990, the National Commission for Women set up a statutory body in order to address the issues of honour killings among some ethnic groups in North India. This body reviewed constitutional, legal and other provisions as well as challenges women face. The NCW’s activism has contributed significantly towards the reduction of honour killings in rural areas of North India.

According to Pakistani activists Hina Jilani and Eman M. Ahmed, Indian women are considerably better protected against honour killings by Indian Law and Government than Pakistani women, and they have suggested that governments of countries affected by honour killings use Indian law as a model in order to prevent honour killings in their respective societies.

Rural vs Urban areas

There are various misconceptions regarding the practice of honour killing. The first misconception about honour killing is that this is a practice that is limited to the rural areas. The truth is that it is spread over such a large geographical area that one cannot isolate honour killings to rural areas only, though one has to admit that majority of the killings take place in the rural areas. But it has also been seen recently that even the metropolitan cities like Delhi and Tamil Nadu are not safe from this crime because 5 honour killings were reported from Delhi and in Tamil Nadu; a daughter and son in law were killed due to marriage into the same gotra. So it can be seen clearly that honour killing is not isolated to rural areas but also to urban areas and as already pointed out, it has a very wide geographical spread. The second misconception regarding honour killing is that it has religious roots. Even if a woman commits adultery, there have to be four male witnesses with good behavior and reputation to validate the charge. Furthermore only the State can carry out judicial punishments, but never an individual vigilante. So, one can clearly see that there is no religious backing or religious roots for this heinous crime.

Nirupama Pathak’s case

At 23, Nirupama Pathak seemed to have seamlessly made the transition from her small home-town in Jharkhand to big city life.

Supported by her parents, she arrived in Delhi to study journalism at one of the capital’s premier institutes. There, she fell in love with a classmate, Priyabhanshu Ranjan.  A job at one of India’s best-known newspapers, the Business Standard, followed. On Facebook, she commented on political and personal issues. She was easy-going, unpretentious and helpful.

The roots that seemed to ground her rose quickly to strangle her. Nirupama was a Brahmin, her boyfriend a Kayastha. Where she came from, that was enough to stop everything.

In June 2010, Nirupama’s family summoned her home, insisting that her mother, Sudha, was not keeping well. On Thursday night, Nirupama was found dead in her bedroom at her Jharkhand home. Her family said she had committed suicide by hanging herself. The post-mortem clearly spelled murder by asphyxiation.

Her mother, Sudha, was arrested for her murder and sent to 14-day jail on Monday. Nirupama’s father, Dharmendra, says though the family wasn’t pleased with her relationship with Priyanshu, because he was from a different caste, he would never hurt his daughter.

The crime shows yet again how ‘honour killings’ cannot be considered the curse of rural India where panchayats often order the execution of young couples who dare to cross caste borders.  Nirupama’s father worked at a bank, her brothers were PhDs, the family had helped Nirupama to move far from home to follow her dreams.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has asked for the case to be handled by a fast-track court.

Legal action towards honour killing

The usual remedy to such murders is to suggest that society must be prevailed upon to be more gender-sensitive and shed prejudices of caste and class. Efforts should be made to sensitise people on the need to do away with social biases. But equally, it should be made clear that there is no escape for those who take justice into their own hands.

So far, there is no specific law to deal with honour killings. The murders come under the general categories of homicide or manslaughter. When a mob has carried out such attacks, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a culprit. The collection of evidence becomes tricky and eyewitnesses are never forthcoming.

Like the case of Sati and dowry where there are specific laws with maximum and minimum terms of punishment, honour killings, too, merit a second look under the law. Undoubtedly, the virus of caste and class that affects those carrying out such crimes affects the police in the area too. But that can be no excuse to sanction murder. Active policing and serious penal sanctions is the only antidote to this most dishonourable practice.

Prevention Tactics

What can we do to prevent such a thing from happening? Firstly, the mentality of the people has to change. And when one says that the mentality has to change, one means to say that parents should accept their children’s wishes regarding marriage as it is they who have to lead a life with their life partners and if they are not satisfied with their life partner then they will lead a horrible married life which might even end in suicide. Secondly, we need to have stricter laws to tackle these kinds of killings as this is a crime which cannot be pardoned because. Humans do not have the right to write down death sentences of innocent fellow humans.

4^th July 2010

Participating in International Child Abduction, Relocation and Forced Marriages Conference organised by the London Metropolitan University here, Chandigarh-based legal experts Anil Malhotra and his brother Ranjit Malhotra have said that in traditional societies, honour killings are basically ‘justified’ as a sanction for ‘dishonourable’ behaviour.

They say that forced marriages and honour killings are often intertwined. Marriage can be forced to save honour, and women can be murdered for rejecting a forced marriage and marrying a partner of their own choice who is not acceptable for the family of the girl.

Though there was no nationwide data on the prevalent of honour killings in India, they quoted figures compiled by the India Democratic Women’s Association, according to which Haryana, Punjab and U P account for about 900 honour killings and another 100 to 300 in the rest of the country.
They said the ministries of home affairs and the law and justice are preparing to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to define the act of “honour killing”.

The demand for such a law was made repeatedly with the objective of stamping out this social evil. They pointed out that the Supreme Court of India, concerned over the spate of recent ‘Honour Killings’ has asked the Centre and eight state governments to submit reports on the steps taken to prevent this barbaric practice.

In June 2010, scrutinizing the increasing number of honour killings, the Supreme Court of India issued notices to the Central Government and six states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, to take preventive measures against the social evil.

Alarmed by the rise of honour killings, the Government is planning to bring a bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament next month (July 2010) to provide for deterrent punishment for ‘honour’ killings

July 27 2010

New Delhi

Even as the Government contemplates laws to tackle the phenomenon of honour killings, khap panchayats remain defiant. Leaders from across North India came together in New Delhi on Monday to oppose same gotra marriages.

The meeting was a show of strength against the Government as nearly 250 khap panchayats from different parts of the country reiterated their demand to amend the Hindu Marriage Act and ensure inter-gotra marriages are made illegal.

“Government should not let brothers and sisters marry. We are all part of the same gotra which means the same blood line. We don’t advocate killing anyone. But genetic problems arise due to inter-gotra marriage,” said khap leader Shamsher Singh

The meeting took place even as the Government set up a nine-member group of Ministers to find a solution to the increasing numbers of honour killings across the country. Khap leaders say they have no role to play in the killings cases but maintain that inter-gotra marriages should not be allowed

Another khap leader Mangesh Singh says that the khaps are not involved in honour killing.

It is not the first time that such a meeting was held to oppose same gotra marriages. But with the Government not willing to give into their demands as yet, the khap panchayats say they won’t stop at this and will take their protest forward.

Khap leaders proclaim that they will block roads to register their protests if their demands are not met.

Even as the Government promises to pass a strict Law against honour killings in the monsoon session of Parliament, in 2010, protest meets will continue and who will finally win the battle remains to be seen.

Life-term for three in ‘honour’ killing case – 4.08.2010

The Supreme Court on 4.08.2010 awarded life sentence to three persons who caused the death of six persons of a family in a case of ‘honour’ killing at a village in Uttar Pradesh in 1991.

A Bench of Justices H.S. Bedi and J.M. Panchal reversed the order of acquittal passed by the Allahabad High Court after the trial court handed them the death sentence.

The Bench said: “There is no manner of doubt that killing six persons and wiping out almost the whole family on the flimsy ground of saving the honour of the family would fall within the rarest of rare cases [principle] evolved by this court and, therefore, the trial court was perfectly justified in imposing the capital punishment on the respondents. However, this court also notices that the incident had taken place about 20 years ago. Further, the High Court acquitted the respondents by a judgment dated April 12, 2002. Thereafter,  nothing adverse against any of the respondents is reported to this court. To sentence the respondents to death after their acquittal in 2002 will not be justified on the facts and in the circumstances of the case.”

The Bench imposed a fine of Rs.25,000 on each of the accused.

The incident took place on August 10/11, 1991 at Lakhanpur in Farrukhabad district. Krishna Master and two others were charged with murdering Guljari and his family members. The provocation was that a boy eloped with a girl belonging to another community.

To convict the accused, the trial court relied on the evidence of Madan Lal, who was six years old when the incident happened. However, the High Court acquitted them. The State filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Stand-alone Law needed to curb Honour Killings: AIDWA

The All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has presented to Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily a comprehensive draft law that seeks to make private parties culpable for violation of fundamental rights in crimes and killings committed in the name of “honour.” All kinds of harassment, and curbing of choice, association, and movement would come within the ambit of this law.

Apart from defining crimes in the name of “honour,” the draft makes eulogising or glorification of these offences and killings punishable. The onus of proof is on the accused. The law seeks to protect young couples who declare their intention to marry before a government officer, and also suggests measures to stop self-proclaimed panchayats and other community bodies from issuing diktats.

Defining ‘honour’ killing, a challenge to GoM

The tricky issue of defining ‘honour’ killings and getting the States on board, as law and order is a State subject, will engage the Group of Ministers (GoM) at its preliminary meeting in New Delhi on August 6 to discuss how to end the pernicious practice.

In the draft bill under consideration, the expressions ‘dishonour’ and ‘perceived to have brought dishonour’ have been defined as “acts of any person adopting a dress code which is unacceptable to his or her family or caste or clan or community or caste panchayat,” “choosing to marry within or outside the gotra or caste or clan or community against the wishes of his or her family or caste or clan or community or caste panchayat,” and “engaging in certain sexual relations which are unacceptable to his or her family or caste or clan or community or caste panchayat.”

Any change in the law — in this case a proposed amendment to the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, and the Special Marriages Act, 1954 — will need to involve the States. Indeed, at the July 8, 2010 Cabinet meeting, where the decision to set up the GOM was taken, it was also decided to write to the States, as they will have to implement any new law.

It is felt that one of the suggestions made in the draft bill would be both contentious and difficult to implement: This is the proviso that “all members of a body or group of the caste or clan or community or caste panchayat, ordering the commission of an act by which death is caused, shall be deemed guilty of having committed such an act by virtue of their association with such caste panchayat or body or group of the caste or clan or community.”

While law enforcement officers say this proviso — that is holding all members of a khap panchayat guilty of murder — will be difficult to implement, it will be a political hot potato in States like Haryana, where there has been a rash of ‘honour’ killings, as many political parties and leaders there derive their strength from khap panchayats.

Indeed, at the July 8, 2010 Cabinet meeting, there were differences, with Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Sports Minister M.S. Gill and Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath pointing out the difficulties in making all members of a khap panchayat accountable for one crime.

Dream Dare Win

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