Ninteen-year-old Gudiya, born in Nehra, a village
near Agra, led an ordinary life. There was
nothing ordinary about her death though. Gudiya
and Mahesh Singh, her physically challenged
boyfriend, had eloped and left Nehra quietly,
early one February morning, and escaped to
Bandipur, thirty kilometres away, to get married.
However, irate villagers, who had declared
Gudiya’s relationship with Mahesh incestuous as
the couple were from the same gotra, brought them
back to the village two days later. Soon after,
at a panchayat meeting, Gudiya and Mahesh were
ordered to put an end to their relationship. When
they refused, the panchayat decided that they
must die. The village elders got together, had a
few drinks, and then hacked the lovers to death.
Then their body parts were burnt in a drain near
the village.

It is not as if killings such as this one are
restricted to the tribal belts of Pakistan or
other Islamic societies. The rise in the number
of murdered lovers makes it impossible to believe
that honour killings are ’new’ to Indian society.
In fact, the first reported honour killing in
Muzaffarnagar, a district in western Uttar
Pradesh, which has gained notoriety for such
slayings, goes back to 1993. Since then, the
numbers have been rising. For instance, in
Muzaffarnagar, 16 such deaths were reported in
2005 alone. Other districts in the state, such as
Saharanpur, Bijnor, and now Agra, have also
witnessed similar crimes. Significantly, the
claim that honour killings are restricted to
certain feudal pockets in north India is a
dubious one. The day Gudiya and Mahesh were done
to death in Nehra, Mohua Mondol, a girl from
Purulia in West Bengal, was shot dead by her own
father, for daring to fall in love.

It is not as if the deaths go unreported. But the
method that the Indian media employ while
covering such events is quite interesting. The
vernacular press resorts to sensationalizing such
deaths. On most occasions, there is also a hidden
moral tone, which helps to legitimize the
violence in the name of punishing defiance. The
English dailies, as well as the electronic media,
invariably point to these killings as tangible
proof of the failure of the country’s vast rural
hinterland to keep pace with an enlightened,
modern, urban India.

The caste panchayats, which often order lovers to
be strangled, burnt or hacked, are found to have
a direct role to play in the violence. But they
are by no means alone responsible for the assault
or killings; a patriarchal society’s curious
interpretation of ’honour’ and its relationship
with gender and caste are as important. But while
a lot has been written on this interdependence of
caste, honour and gender, caste panchayats and
their sinister designs remain curiously
under-reported in the media.

The caste panchayat is different from the gram
panchayat, which is an elected body, headed by
the sarpanch. The former draws its legitimacy
from its claims of being a self-appointed keeper
of tradition, customs and cultural practices,
while the latter is a representative of the law
of the land. However, in India’s villages, it is
the caste panchayat which serves as an
extra-judicial agency, a parallel court of law
that resolves ’private’ disputes at the local
level. Its macabre verdicts are often read out in
the course of conciliatory meetings, known as
shalishis in Bengal. The nature of the disputes
vary - people approach the panchayat for settling
altercations arising out of inter-caste marriage,
elopement as well as supposedly incestuous
unions, as was the case in Nehra. A careful
scrutiny of the incidents of honour killings
would show that in most cases, the caste
panchayats have passed judgments in an arbitrary
manner, and always in favour of those who wield
real power - social, economic or otherwise - to
ensure that the status quo remains undisturbed. A
runaway couple, guilty of defying time-honoured
traditions, is invariably doomed once the
kangaroo court steps in.

Significantly, it is not as if only couples
hailing from different castes are murdered.
Mahesh and Janaka, a married couple from the same
caste, were abducted from Kanpur and taken to
Chak Kushehari, their native village in central
Uttar Pradesh. They were first tortured for two
days, then taken to a paddy field where they were
left to die after the bride’s father and his
henchmen slit their throats. What binds the
killings in different parts of the country is the
violence that is inflicted on the victims. The
caste panchayat will not tolerate any resistance
to a set of archaic rules, which determine
individual lives in the rural hinterland. The
gruesome deaths are meant to remind the men and
women the price one pays for love.

Unfortunately, neither the sarpanch nor the gram
panchayat has quite managed to stem this
particularly brutal trend. It is possible to draw
two different conclusions from this. First, these
acts of reprisal are accomplished with tacit
support from the agencies that represent the
State. That this is indeed true is borne out by
the statement of a police officer in
Muzaffarnagar who has gone on record saying that
if his daughter were to elope, he would wait for
her, not with roses, but guns. Second, and more
important, the sway that caste panchayats hold on
the lives of the people also indicate that the
State is clearly unwilling to play an
interventionist role in these affairs. It is
absence of the State that has further emboldened
caste panchayats to mete out their brand of
capricious justice. The question that needs to be
asked is whether the State has the right to
recede completely from the ’private’ sphere,
especially when such a retreat has imperilled the
lives of innocent men and women.

The deaths of Gudiya and Mahesh, among many
others, can also be interpreted as a violation of
individual rights on the part of a twisted,
unequal, culture. The right to love and live with
a person of one’s choice is a fundamental right
that is enshrined in the Constitution. Each
murder, therefore, signifies the victory of
primitive customs over a modern, liberal and
democratic society. The killings also strengthen
the hand of a sinister agency, which has
demonized concepts as natural as love and
affection. Perhaps it is time for the State to
look at the caste panchayat’s mischief in a more
serious light. It is one thing to protect a
nation’s traditions. But shedding blood in the
course of such a defence is unacceptable in any
society.

There have been sporadic attempts to rein-in
caste panchayats and defy their decrees, without
much success. When asked about police inaction in
the case of honour killings, a police officer
answered that in a democracy, a caste panchayat
plays an important role and hence cannot be
banned. But, the police, he assured, would take
action if they chanced upon an instance where
such a body had violated the rights of an
individual. He was wrong on both counts. A caste
panchayat has no legitimacy. It is not an
inclusive agency and hence cannot have a role to
play in an egalitarian society. And a couple in
India’s villages can never expect help from the
police when their community turns against them
for being in love.

Report: young couple in India killed on the orders of village council

The Associated Press

Published: February 1, 2007

NEW DELHI: Villagers in northern India beat a
young couple to death and burned their
dismembered remains after a local council ordered
the killing, saying the pair were too closely
related, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The couple - Mahesh, 20 and his girlfriend Gudia,
19 - lived in neighboring villages near Agra, 250
kilometers (155 miles) southeast of New Delhi,
and fled their homes when their relationship was
discovered.

Their families tracked them down and brought them
back to her village, Naharra, where the council,
known as a panchayat, told them to end the
relationship because they were too closely
related, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

The paper did not provide details of the
relationship, but said Gudia lived with Mahesh’s
uncle and suggested she was Mahesh’s cousin.

The council deemed the relationship to be
incestuous, and when the two refused to break it
off, it ordered them killed.

The couple was beaten to death by a mob Tuesday
and their bodies were dismembered and set on
fire, the paper reported, adding that police were
investigating 12 people believed to be connected
to the deaths.

Authorities were not immediately available to confirm the report.

Village councils wield great influence in rural
India and marriages are usually arranged by
families in keeping with local customs. Rural
couples, even if they are not related, may face
ostracism or even death if they choose their own
partners.