Caste is Still the Tie That Binds in India | The Guardian UK
Primitive practices around caste and marriage are still finding support – even in urbanised, educated India.
A leading Indian matrimonial website found that more than 99% of its users chose to mention caste when searching for a partner.
In villages and cities across northern India, the most dangerous choice young people could make is one most of us take for granted – choosing their own partner. In the rural hinterlands, the khap panchayats, traditional community organisations, mete out their own forms of justice to "erring" villagers. In recent years, they have ordered the honour killings of young couples for marrying outside their caste, for marrying within their gotra (ancient lineage as defined by Hindu tradition) and even for marrying someone from aneighbouring village. In short, one could invite censure, and usually worse, by marrying anyone against the wishes of their parents and the community patriarchs (for most of the traditional leaders are men).
This month, the supreme court issued a notice to seven states on the steps taken to protect young couples from the wrath of these khap panchayats. It is clear that in these rural areas, extra legal norms based on fossilised traditions run their writ. This happens while the state remains "a mute spectator", as admitted by the judge of the high court that was "flooded with petitions" seeking judicial confirmation of the right to life and liberty of married couples.
Of course, the khap panchayats are selective in their sanctions. In April, two low-caste Dalits wereburned alive and 18 houses gutted by a mob that was hundreds-strong. Within three days of the carnage, a gathering of 43 khap panchayats resulted in no condemnation of the act, only a demand for the release of the arrested. In their various acts of moral posturing, not once has a congregation of these organisations criticised female foeticide or dowry. This is not surprising, considering the khap panchayats are part of the traditional complex of factors that promote a self-serving, caste-based, patriarchal view of social norms. This much we all acknowledge from the comfort of our city living rooms.
In national newspapers, in academic seminars or at evening soirees on the well-lit lawns of the cities, these acts are roundly condemned. Such practices are attributed to the primitive mindsets of rural India, deprived as they are of education, modernity and Coca Cola. The general consensus is that there are rural areas where the 20th century has not yet arrived. And that they are as far from the urban imagination as a foreign country. As are their "medieval" norms.
What most of us fail to see is that these norms probably enjoy as much implicit support even in the most urbanised, educated and apparently liberated sections of the country.
Chandigarh is one of the best-planned cities in the country and capital to two of the most prosperous states. Its roads are teeming with SUVs, and it contributes more than its fair share of uber-fashionable models, reality TV participants and cricket stars; it is the modern Indian city. A recent survey found that more than 65% of the respondents in Chandigarh oppose marriages within the same gotra. And more than one-third of all respondents even agree that khap panchayats should order the social boycott of such couples. Across the country, urban youth are regressing towards the most conservative readings of gotra and marriage.
In the affluent, high-rent neighbourhoods of south Delhi, imported cars vie with foreign-education degrees for attention. The area is home to some of the country's most elite families. But the number of girl babies is only 845 per 1,000 boys, much lower than even the already abysmal national average of about 930. Overall urban India ranks lower than rural areas, with affluent neighbourhoods ranking among the worst. It seems higher incomes do not buy urban Indians only cars and degrees. It also buys multiple trips to illegal ultrasound clinics and female foeticide to order.
Young urban Indians now pride themselves on being online citizens of the world, proclaiming the shedding of their caste identities at parties and updating their Facebook accounts with ferocious regularity. They seem to inhabit a different world compared to the village where rural patriarchs prohibit their children from marrying outside their caste. But caste preferences weigh in as heavily among the mostly urban, net-savvy Indians as it does among the khap panchayats. A leading Indian matrimonial website found that more than 99% of its users chose to mention caste when searching for a partner.
The city is not as far from the village as we think. And primitive norms lurk not far below the veneer of modern living. Another dangerous choice we could make is to ignore how small these distances are.
Primitive practices around caste and marriage are still finding support – even in urbanised, educated India.
A leading Indian matrimonial website found that more than 99% of its users chose to mention caste when searching for a partner.
In villages and cities across northern India, the most dangerous choice young people could make is one most of us take for granted – choosing their own partner.
In recent years, they have ordered the honour killings of young couples for marrying outside their caste, for marrying within their gotra (ancient lineage as defined by Hindu tradition) and even for marrying someone from a neighbouring village. In short, one could invite censure, and usually worse, by marrying anyone against the wishes of their parents and the community.
In April, two low-caste Dalits were burned alive and 18 houses gutted by a mob that was hundreds-strong.
The state remains "a mute spectator", as admitted by the judge of the high court that was "flooded with petitions" seeking judicial confirmation of the right to life and liberty of married couples.
These norms enjoy as much implicit support even in the most urbanised, educated and apparently liberated sections of the country.
Caste preferences weigh in as heavily among the mostly urban, net-savvy Indians as it does among the khap panchayats. A leading Indian matrimonial website found that more than 99% of its users chose to mention caste when searching for a partner. The Guardian UK
Link to Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/24/caste-india-marriage
The National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) in its “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” released on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture stated that a total of 1,731 persons died in custody during 2019 i.e. deaths of about five persons daily. These included 1,606 deaths in judicial custody and 125 deaths in police custody.
Torture is perpetrated to extract confession or bribes and torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Jammu & Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Kerala), hitting in private parts (Haryana), electric shock (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh), pouring petrol in private parts (Uttar Pradesh), applying chilly power in private parts (Kerala) beating while being hand-cuffed (Kerala), pricking needle into body (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), branding with hot iron rod (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), beating after stripping (Haryana and Assam), urinating in mouth (Uttar Pradesh), inserting hard blunt object into anus (Bihar), beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), forcing to perform oral sex (Gujarat), pressing finger nails with pliers (Assam), beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with both hands and legs tied (Madhya Pradesh), forced to do Murga pose or stress position (Haryana), and kicking in belly of pregnant woman (Assam).
Indian police officers in the town of Nagina chased a group of Muslim teenagers into an empty house. They grabbed them and took them to a makeshift jail. And then, the boys and community leaders said, the officers tortured them.
Four of the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 17, said that police officers used wooden canes to beat them and threatened to kill them.
Indian Police officers over the course of 30 hours terrorized them.
According to two of the boys, the officers laughed during beatings, saying, “You will die in this prison.”
More accounts are emerging of abuse meted out by police officers.
Almost all the violence has been directed toward Muslim residents. More people — at least 19 — have been killed!
Witnesses said that police officers opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition, broke into houses and stole money, and threatened to rape women.
Police officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill protesters.
The Indian police have become a lynch mob! Inidan police officers having been given the green light by senior officials to use harsh measures against Muslims.
A 20-year-old Dalit man was allegedly burnt alive over his relationship with a woman from another caste, the killing causing his mother to die of shock.
The victim was beaten up, kept hostage in a house and set ablaze.
Locals rushed to the spot on hearing his cries and took him to a local hospital. He was referred to a Lucknow hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way.
India : Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Telangana2018-09-20
A father attacked his 20-year-old daughter and her newlywed husband in the heart of the city on Wednesday, chopping off her left forearm and slashing her jaw. The incident comes days after a Dalit youth was mercilessly murdered in front his pregnant wife in Nalgonda district.
Police said the father was upset over the inter-caste marriage — the woman an OBC (Other Backward Class), her husband, B Sandeep (22), a Dalit. Sandeep and Madhavi Chary, in a relationship for five years, secretly got married on September 12, despite stiff opposition from her father.
Madhavi was left with a 12-inch gash on her neck and jawline and her left forearm barely hung by the skin. She was in a 10-hour surgery at the time of going to print. Sandeep, in another hospital, received 10 stitches to close the deep wound at the angle of his mouth; the attending doctors said he was in deep shock.
