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Honor is a corollary of guilt. When Honor is infringed, the point comes to shame. As a collective unit, society pronounces what is and is not honorable, and shameful is a social experience. So what is a shame and why are women and girls shameful? Shame, as a social phenomenon, is induced by apparently unacceptable and unsuitable conduct and acts that contravene the prescribed codes. And every culture has such established codes of conduct, cultural and behavioral, which routinely take place and are internalized by mutual strengthening.
How Honour Killing is a Caste Crime?
The caste divided into a pyramid of birth grades and subranks maintains a hierarchical relationship not only of the "top" with the "lowest" but of the "higher" with its "lower." The troublesome aspect of caste is supported by the latest incident of honor killings, according to the report in the frontline. M. Sudhakar returned to his village in the lockout from Chennai, from the village of Morappan Thangal. As he came back to his home, he tried to meet his wife, who insulted the female parents and relatives.
Six months ago at the town of Walajah, Sudhakar married his wife, the Vanniyar community woman. The Caste of Sudhakar (Oddar) was considered to be the smallest in the MBC classes, while each belonged to classes that have been classified by the state classification list as the Most Backward Caste (MBC).
In opposition to marriage, the woman's family convened a local Panchayat to annul the marriage and forcefully split the pair. Afterwards, Sudhakar was abused and forced out of the village. As his community members were among a minority of people in the village, they remained silent and did not challenge the local panchayat decision.
Fearing his own life, the parents of Sudhakar, poor wage workers, sent him for a living to Chennai. However, Sudhakar found it difficult to earn a living in Chennai and came back to her village after a nationwide lockdown was declared. On the 27th March, when Sudhakar was in his own village alone, the father of the woman assaulted him and killed him, along with a friend. Soon after, the wife's father and his relative gave up at the police station in Arani, where a case was registered.
Ironically, when the woman's family is a part of a poor caste community, the family is historically superior to the family of the deceased man — members below their level. Brahminical’s notion of honor goes beyond the pleasant construction of Brahmin patriarchy, though at the same time it imitates its prescription of honor.
Provincial Patriarchy of Honour and Notions
In marriages women were "exchanged" for the conquest of kingdoms and brokering of peace and patronage; in battle, they were captured and devoured by boots. This is a circle that acknowledged the right, just like a sovereign would assert territorial power over his piece of land, to patriarchal influence over a woman's body. Kings and chiefs, lords of the feudist, councilors of State, priests and princes work within the exclusive boundaries of kinship- and caste-approved provinces of a woman's sexual and marriage rights. Only if patriarchal lords have financial benefits or careers and ego boosts will cross-casting and cross-religious marriages take place.
Today's violations of honor are embedded in the patriarchal feudal patriarchy's collective memory. This is run by a conglomerate of patriarchs, local panchayat bodies in North and South India – which have no legal authority – and known as khap panchayats, local police and wealthy, upper-caste gentry, each of whom is due to their own allegiance to their castes. Marriage is therefore the result of a hierarchy of castes and genders, which is legitimized by the traditional councils of castes and the villager and by the people who belong to the local caste. The "balance" of society is collectively maintained.
People following hypergamic marriages — in which girls or women marry within their own caste or an upper caste — are allowed to join caste. Within his own caste or lower-caste woman, a man is allowed to get married. However, the reverse pratilom marriage (hypogamy) is a taboo, in which a girl is married to a man with a lower caste or is married to a female with a higher caste. There are some other markers of a given identity which govern caste-system marriages — gotra, Kula and village exogamy regulations sometimes. Traditionally, all Kula or gotra members are siblings; and within the same Kula or gotra, they are not allowed to be married in incest.
"In a subcast or in a caste, the exchange of women is known as endogamic marriage; exogamy is the opposite. Endogamy has become the status quo; exogamy sends a girl away to a culture that is 'alien.' Fear of the exogamy is the outsider's phobia — outside caste, faith and religion. No wonder, love is thus perceived as a crime as a result of the free will that requires the consent of a feminine. Under love crimes, it is easy to demonize people of 'other' castes and religions—Dalits and Muslims—as terrorists/jihadis/Romeos who love their wives and hijack their material and cultural wealth. Females are slandered and relegated to neutral patriarchal champions.
Men and women who violate Caste Chastity Code were hunted, abused, publicly assaulted, ostracized, remarried forcefully, brutalized, and killed. Diverse reports and studies have over the years highlight the way in which local police agencies co-opt or submit to panchayat heads due to caste and kinship ties; and the dystopia of patriarchal pride in such cases is not difficult to reach. The murder of a member of a family or a social group by other members is one concept of honor murder, since the individual is a victim of dishonor in his family or his community. The end result of patriarchal pride or the misunderstanding of patriarchal pride is to punish. In other instances, the offenders confessed to or recognized the reputation of murders with or without fear of the law and with a certain simple, provincial pride.
The cruelty and indescribable terror of couples who have to pay with life, or who are continually being abused because they love themselves outside the caste, is linked with an apathetic society where such abuse is normalized by myths of the transgression: how the lovers justify their retribution. Despite a strong political resolve to avoid this, the tradition of honor killing tends to flourish in a hush-hush tale where love / romanticism and sex is a taboo, sponsored by a widespread culture of violence.
Honour and its Cultural Packaging
To common cultures the act of raping or 'violing' a woman has named as the 'izat lut liya'; the Hindi-Urdu counterpart of honor is ‘izzat’. The idea that women are vulnerable and thus need protection contributes to a protective complex among male family members. Families also have patriarchal figures who police young women to refrain from leaving, from mixing with men, especially with men of a certain social status, and from dressing in any way, shortly from becoming a sex creature before marriage; their sexuality should remain with the rightful owner, their spouse. Men avenge the honour of ‘their’ women by punishing other men - even while the women are often trapped in a confrontation between protector and violator.
A woman's izzat is the responsibility of her family — ‘hamari ghar ki izzat’. Izzat, though, is a regressive operative; if the family is there, it's twice. Young girls in love are shamed: the abnormal, graphic-style and classic – ‘muh kaala karkeayi’ (that you have tamed your face) is an accusation played out in Hindi films for a long time.
To lose honor or respect is like to have a sense of integrity unclothed or stripped. Here there is a sensation of defiance. Girls and women are traditionally considered as an honourary body. Women are also depicted as covering their breasts — the sanctum of their modesty. The ‘dupatta’, ‘aachal’ — are various sartorial tropes that are protected by such modesty, beyond their decorative and functional interest. Such a glare would be more like bullying victims than making a statement about the fundamental rights of women to live, choose their spouse and marry openly.
The possession of the female body that is so coveted by the patriarchal heads of the family as the position of their "honour," and therefore as that which can be defiled by a man of lower rank / religious exclusion, problems civil equality, human rights, law, and justice philosophical. Since the definition of defilement is based on caste-like cleanliness, honourary crimes are committed since 'safe' punishment for people of lower castes.
For significant sections of urban India, the definition of honor has perhaps become outdated, but it remains present in still broader parts of continental India and is still dedicated to violence and dignity. Let's not view honor as a sensitive issue but as an archaic legacy of a patriarchal past which has persisted in spite of modern caste and gender reforms.
Conclusion
The cruelest and immoral crime is the honour killing. Laws can do nothing to prevent it; but they can only be stopped if people's attitudes and mindsets are changed and that is hard in a country like India, where caste, ethnicity, gotra, clan, etc. are all more important than life. Legislation can only punish the perpetrator, but it cannot prevent crime. Citizens must then rise above caste, ethnicity, tribe, etc. Clouds. The true responsibility is to defend families to be tolerant and open-minded about life, not strict in thought and learning. Be the change that world needs!
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