“We don’t live in a world in which there exists a single definition of honour anymore, and it’s a fool that hangs on to the traditional standards and hopes that the world will come around him.” – Joseph J. Ellis
To begin with, the fabric which binds and protects the integrity of this nation as a whole has been tested time and again and one being on the abrupt practice of ‘Honour Killings’. The terms «honour killings» and «honorable crimes» have been used interchangeably to describe the incidents involving the brutality and badgering caused primarily to young couples who intend to marry someone of their own choice[1] including those who dare to ceasefire the boundaries of “whom to love” set by their family members. Murders like these which are the acts of retribution, usually death, performed generally by the patriarch›s mind as a response to protect and maintain the dignity and pride of the family. The element which gives rise to such abrupt and feudal practices are the perception or apprehension of bringing dishonor to the society/family by one of their own family members. These barbaric practices have now taken a front pew in our society, resulting in the suppression of inalienable rights, enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Democracy in Quarantine
The COVID- 19 pandemic needs no introduction and description now. In India, amid lockdown, an unprecedented event of honour killing was reported from the southern part of India[2] where, M. Sudhakar, 24, was killed by his wife’s father for marrying outside of his caste. Cases surrounding feudal practices in the name of gender, caste, and religion; have demolished the hailed findings and verdicts of the Supreme Court on what we call as the basic feature of the Constitution of India ‘The Rule of Law’. Supreme Court recently delivered another notable judgment wherein the court said that the law will not come to guard any person who in the name ‘honour’ takes a life of another person[3].
Another, odd practice which has locked the still has a pew especially in rural sectors of the country is the informal system of ‘Khap Panchayats’; wherein the society and especially the men who consider themselves as the protectors of their culture and family issue severe orders or ‘dikats’ to restrict and remind the realm of love. In the case of Shakti Vahani[4] the apex court of the country categorically laid down stringent guidelines, thereby ensuring protection to young couples against the feudal orders of the Khap panchayats. It further ensured an immediate registration of FIR against such orders andx extended to provide safety, if needed. The ghost which has confined the system of democracy into the four walls is the hinge of traditions vs modernity.
Pandemic of Caste
The impact of the caste system has been wide and varied across the country. It has burnt a family of Dalits including kids alive. It has beheaded a person who had ‘dared to contest’ in local body elections. Dalit women continue to be sexually harassed across the country. The list is endless. Honour killings perhaps have the most dreadful impact upon the caste systems in the country today. The Supreme Court judgment of 2006[5] delivered a notable finding on ‘Honour Killing’ and it stated that «There is nothing honorable in such killings, and in fact, they are nothing but barbaric and shameful acts of murder committed by brutal, feudal minded persons who deserve harsh punishment», but, it failed to incentivize the government to bring a new code on ‘honour killing’ thereby criminalizing such barbaric, feudal practices at large. Murder in its very name is a heinous crime. Murder in name of caste inevitably murders the principles of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who once remarked that if the practice of building and taking shelters in the temples of caste would continue then it will only deteriorate the integrity of this country[6]. But in my notion, the Indian Laws have miserably failed to distinguish between a murder and a caste murder. Honour killings, thus, has proved to be at the top of the list of spate crimes across the country.
In the culture of patriarchal control and notions of feudal minds, where women are not free to fall in love with a man of their choice, particularly from different religion or caste, these egregious violations of inalienable rights need to be addressed with utmost caution which will not only provide rigorous punishment to those who consider ‘Honour’ in abysmal killings, but will also break the hornet’s- nest of queer notions. In the year 2018, the Apex court of the country refused to take note of brutal murder[7] of a 23-year-old Delhi based photographer by the family members of his girlfriend. Another incident which imbalanced the bedrock of the Rule of Law was the reported murder of Shankar[8], a Dalit man from Coimbatore who daringly fell in love with Kawsalya, an upper-caste Hindu which resulted in an escalation of caste-based violence where a group of men hacked Shankar to death for daring to marry an uppercaste woman without the permission of her family. In 2018, the data available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported that 10,773 people eloped due to the familial denial upon marrying someone of their own choice, suggesting only the number of people who are at risk over distinction in their caste, class, or religion. These distressing instances of killings and feudal practices are only a few out of plethora that has taken place across our country.
In light of these blatant instances, one question that inevitably strikes down is, whether the government is shunning the desperate need of a stringent code on “honour killing” or is it the question of Who, as to who will take traditional values within the realm of judicial setup.
A RoadMap for Curbing Menace
Even if the local governments decide to step on the pedestal by introducing a separate regime on ‘Honour Killing’, it would require it to be enforced effectively. Police cooperation, in India, is yet another glaring issue, instances of outright refusal to register the complaint or perhaps officials harassing the complainant resulting in either withdrawing or not registering the complaint.
The foremost facet of honour killing which needs utmost consideration is the tracking of honour killing cases across the country. The killings which take place in the name of ‘honour’ are frequently reported by the family members as suicide, the relatives and family members destroy every shred of evidence by immediate cremation of the victim. In 2019, a similar incident of murder of a minor girl by her family members was reported[9]. To control the exponential growth of such practices, one must start with the root cause. ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ being the subject matter of the State list, empowers them to make policies or laws on the same, as the case of the State of Rajasthan, in 2019 the Rajasthan Assembly introduced a bill mandating the death penalty for the crimes and practice of ‘Honour Killing’[10]. Such dedicated regimes if gets introduced at the centric level, would not only bolster up the safety of young couples who wish to marry the person of their own choice but would also let us all know the depth of the cavity caused by the distinction in religion and caste.
The Tool of Amendments
To construct robust and stringent law on the subject of honour killing, amendments majorly in the areas of Indian Penal Code, 1862, Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and Evidence Act, 1872 can help in achieving the same. To mention a few, amendment in the definition of Murder under Section 300 of the IPC, must be done with an inclusion of the term ‘Honour Killing’; doing the same would generate more clarity on classification of honour killing cases thereby it would be easy for the justices to punish the victim pursuant to the succinct definition of honour killing. Apart from this, an amendment must also be made under Section 34 of the IPC to the extent of inclusion of the system of ‘Joint Liability’ in the cases of arising out of barbaric orders (dikats) of ‘Khap panchayat’ in order to accord stringent punishments to those to issue dikats along with those who are involved in the execution of such brutal orders.
Along with these amendments, the offenders of ‘honour killing’ must also be tried as the violators of the fundamental rights facilitated by the Constitution of India to all its citizens. Therefore, the cases of honour killing must be put under constitutional scrutiny in order to ensure the facilitation of inalienable rights especially to every woman who suffers from the patriarch notions of living life and as aptly elucidated by an American poet “There are miles to go before we sleep, miles to go before we sleep”; and hence the only vaccine for this pandemic of caste would be a separate regime on honour killing.