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print versionJan.30 [2009]: So we rise in justified rage against the attack on women at a Mangalore pub by yet another gang of self-proclaimed custodians of Indian culture. And the collective fury is working. Several of the attackers have been arrested — including their tilak-sporting, rubbish-spouting leader Pramod Mutalik, a Hindutva activist closely linked to the BJP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena. The outrage over the beating up and molestation of five women because they were enjoying a drink at a pub dominates national media. Even the rheumatic National Commission for Women has sprung into action, demanding an Action Taken Report from the Karnataka Police, setting up a committee to investigate the incident, declaring: "This is a horrific crime and strict punishment should be meted out to the culprits".
Wait. Shocking, yes. Outrageous, disgusting, disgraceful, shameful, reprehensible, yes. But horrific? Only to one really innocent about goondagiri as honour crime in India. Let’s face it. This was goondagiri as honour crime. When women face acts of violence from male members of a family or community who have decided that the women have brought dishonour upon their unit, it is an honour crime. Here, some Hindutva bigots believed that women having a drink was a blot on India’s collective honour, and decided to protect Indian culture and sense of decency by groping, beating and trying to strip some young women. Unfortunately, in the florid landscape of honour crimes, such violence is rather moderate behaviour.
So why are we not similarly outraged by what happened to Balkar Singh and Ravinder Kaur around the same time, in the same country, caused by the same bigotry? On the eve of Republic Day, Balkar, 30, and Ravinder, 19, were chased and publicly shot dead in Punjab by Ravinder’s father and brothers for marrying against her family’s wishes. The couple had been threatened repeatedly and the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered the police of both Tarn Taran and Amritsar to provide security cover. Yet — like so many cases of "police protection" for newlyweds running from their powerful, vengeful families — the police stayed away, and Balkar and Ravinder were killed for going against the tradition of parentally arranged marriages.
It reminds me of young Baljit and Ashwini of Punjab, who were abducted and killed by Baljit’s family over a year ago, in spite of police protection. And of Manoj and Babli, killed around the same time, again in spite of security. They too had got married in court, against the wishes of her family. Five cops were to escort them to Chandigarh from a Punjab court (where Babli had denied her family’s claim that she had been kidnapped by Manoj, stating instead that she had married him on her own free will). The cops vanished mysteriously, the scared couple boarded a public bus, but were dragged out and abducted by Babli’s relatives. Their bodies were later cremated as unclaimed. The murderers stood proud, declaring that they had done the right thing. Their village hailed them as heroes and raised funds to fight their murder case in court. Everyday rebels Manoj and Babli’s love story was not quite the magical love story of celluloid rebels Bunty and Babli.
Nor was the love story of childhood sweethearts Sunita, 21, and Jasbir, 22. Last May they were dragged from their beds and killed by Sunita’s father and other relatives. The couple didn’t have the permission of the village to marry, being of the same gotra. Sunita was pregnant. Their half-stripped bodies were exhibited in front of Sunita’s house. The village declared their delight at the murder, claiming their honour had been restored.
Murders in the name of honour don’t happen only in the back of beyond, safely tucked out of sight of urban India. It also happens dangerously close to the nation’s nerve centre. In November, in Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, schoolgirls Pinki and Sonam were killed by their cousin Sonu for running away from home, apparently with their boyfriends. In September, also in Greater Noida, two teenage lovers were lynched by the girl’s family. In October, again not too far from Delhi, in Hapur, Priyanka, 22, was shot dead by her brother when she visited her family from Dehradun, where she lived with her boyfriend.
In June, Punjab’s Ragbir Singh killed his teenage daughter with insecticide because she was in love with a distant cousin. The same month, in Patiala, Salwinder Kaur, a Dalit girl, and her husband Suresh, were hacked to death for daring to marry outside their caste.
And Hetal, 19, was stabbed to death by her father and brothers in Bhavnagar for marrying a Dalit. Also in June, in Hyderbad, Jyothi, 20, was bludgeoned to death with a pestle by her brother for asking the village head for help in settling the argument with her family over her love affair.
In May, retired Army jawan Jaiveersinh Bhaduria invited his estranged daughter Vandana, 19, back home to Vadodra after she had left and married against his wishes. Once she was back, he shot her, missed, then hacked her to death with an axe. In April, in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, Ravinder, 18, was beaten and burnt alive by her family for falling in love with Amritpal, a lower caste man. At the same time, in Karnataka’s Hubli, Rekha, 22, was beaten and burnt alive by her father and uncles for falling in love with Narasangowda, 22, who was not her parent’s choice. And in Bulandshahr of Uttar Pradesh, little Mamta, 12, was beaten to death by her father and uncles because they found her schoolmate Pintu, 14, in her room.
There are hundreds of murders in the name of protecting Hindu honour every year, both within and outside the family. Dozens of women are maimed and blinded for life as they are attacked with acid by men raring to teach a lesson to women who don’t toe the line. Whether it is the village, caste, panchayat or the urban Sri Ram Sene, male fanatics attack women — perceived as their property and excluded from power equations — to preserve the values of a patriarchal society. And politicians don’t dare fight such practices — patriarchal values run deep, and are allowed to justify the most vicious of crimes.
Attacking fashion shows and women in pubs is just the tip of the iceberg of honour crimes, both Hindu and Muslim. It’s time our political masters showed the will to deal not just with the tip, but the whole iceberg of shameless patriarchal violence lurking unopposed within our society.
Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at: sen@littlemag.com
