Cold-blooded murder? No it is much worse!

Cold-blooded murder? Worse, the murderers had the backing of an entire
village and the act was sanctioned by a 'caste panchayat', comprising
village elders. The victims of this honour killing were young Manoj
and Babli of Karnal, Haryana. They were punished by their community
for daring to violate an old taboo of not marrying into the same clan
or gotra. The stricture might have made sense in ancient times when
the size of clans was small, and marrying within the family, so to
speak, might have posed physiological risks for the offspring.

Today, when clans have so expanded in numbers and have surely merged
considerably over the centuries, the gotra stricture makes little
sense. Claiming ancestorship to a dozen or more rishis and who lived
thousands of years ago, matching gotras before a marriage is to engage
in a defunct and irrelevant exercise. Yet, honour killings in India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh - supposedly to protect family face - continue
to terrorise young men and women who might want to exercise choice in
selecting life partners. This is to say nothing of the punishments
meted out in large parts of the region to women, including rape
victims, who are often killed to salvage family honour.

The Supreme Court in a July 2006 ruling on a writ petition filed by a
partner in an inter-caste marriage, termed honour killing an act of
barbarism. It ordered the police across the country to take stern
action against those resorting to violence against men and women who
decide to go in for inter-caste or inter-religious marriages. The
court went on to say that such acts of violence or threats or
harassment were wholly illegal and those who commit them must be
severely punished.

In a democracy, individuals have the right to choose. It is the duty
of the government, through its law-enforcing agencies, to step in
wherever and whenever citizens' rights are violated. However,
deep-rooted superstitions, prejudices, and bias steeped in tradition -
taken out of context and quite defunct - propel ignorant community
leaders and relatives to mete out punishment to 'offenders'.

An effective way to counter the spread of such barbarism is to
urgently create widespread public awareness through education and
entertainment. Schools for children and adults and compulsory
enrolment, along with interactive street theatre and radio jingles
with social messages, could help bring about a transformation. Above
all, women have to be dramatically lifted from their current status as
almost expendable persons in the cultural and economic structures of
society in large swathes of the subcontinent.
TODAY'S EDITORIAL: Barbarian Face
4 Jul 2007, 0055 hrs IST