A matter of honour

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Karnal is 135 km from Delhi. I often drive through it on my way to Himachal. Karnal’s economy seems to be booming. Which means, there are more cars, more shops, more advertisements for ‘branded goods’. One time, I stopped at a restaurant for a meal, and the gift shop next to it was filled with all kinds of goodies of the faux European kind — fat cherubs holding up clocks, golden fountains, large reproductions of the Manhattan skyline… You get the picture. The small town making good, the kind you’ll see all over India these days. 

The other day, Karnal was in the news, though not for its booming economy. A young woman, six months pregnant, had been killed by a group that included her father, and her body along with her lover’s, was thrown out into the streets. Where they lay, until the police arrived and took them away. The media calls it an ‘honour killing’. I call it a national shame.

The facts I have managed to gather seem a bit hazy. The young woman had been married against her wishes some years ago, though she was in love with another person. Her husband, finding out about this emotional infidelity, divorced her. After which, she chose to live with her lover and was now expecting a child with him. I don’t know if the two got married, or they chose to ignore social convention. Either way, the village decided that by making this choice, they had brought dishonour to the entire community. And since dishonour is worse than death, it must be avenged with death.

What made my blood run cold was a news cast on NDTV channel yesterday. The panchayat, the local governing body that is elected from among the village, had decided to meet so they could ’save’ the perpetrators of the heinous crime who were in jail and charged with murder. As the village ‘elders’ stood around, the reporter, a young woman, asked them about their view. “What happened was right,” they said, one after another, not a wrinkle of sorrow on their brows. By the end of it, the young reporter was visibly shaken, as was I.

Karnal has an abysmal sex ratio — 864 women to 1000 men. Which means it doesn’t find it particularly dishonourable to do away with its female fetuses and infants because of their gender. In recent years, it like many other districts of Haryana and Punjab with skewed sex ratios, has witnessed a shortage of brides. Which are then bought like cattle from other parts of India.  

Honour, it seems, in this context doesn’t really mean adherence to a set of personal ethics and values, of being upright in your conduct. Rather, it lies in what others (society, peers) think of you, how you come off according to set standards of behaviour. Needless to say, it is also a code of conduct that is heavily set against women, and where often, women are designated the repositories and conduits of honour. It is a code that will not brook any disagreement, that will not dialogue, that will eliminate dissent.

A link to a related article in the Indian Express:

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/308156.html 

 

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Tags: honour killing, Karnal, life, values