Honour Killing

Honour Killing

Recently, there has been a spate of honor killings in the country and this has led the government

to decide what laws should be put in place to stop this heinous crime. Also whether the Hindu
Marriage Act should be reformed or not is being debated. So what is the definition of honour killing
and what leads families to commit this heinous crime so that they can protect their family honour? Is
this practice prevalent only in India or is it prevalent in other parts of the world also? What are the
misconceptions regarding honour killing and what are the solutions to stop this crime from spreading?
These are the questions that this article seeks to find an answer to.
Honour Killing Definition
Honour killing is defined as a death that is awarded to a woman of the family for marrying against
the parent’s wishes, having extramarital and premarital relationships, marrying within the same gotra
or outside one’s caste or marrying a cousin from a different caste. Honour killing is different from the
dowry deaths that are also a very common practice in India as, in the case of dowry deaths, the
perpetrators of that action claim that they have not been given enough material rewards for accepting
the woman into the family. In that case there is a lot of harassment from the in-laws and more times
than one, it has been noted that the wife commits suicide rather than being killed by the in-laws,
though it has to be said that she has been mentally killed, if not physically.
Background
We have had a tradition of honour killing. This tradition was first viewed in its most horrible form
during the Partition of the country in between the years 1947 and 1950 when many women were
forcefully killed so that family honour could be preserved. During the Partition, there were a lot of
forced marriages which were causing women from India to marry men from Pakistan and vice-versa.
And then there was a search to hunt down these women who were forced to marry a person from
another country and another religion and when they returned ‘home’ they were killed so that the
family honor could be preserved and they were not declared social outcastes from their region. At that
time, the influence of religion and social control was much greater and hence there were at least a
couple of honour killings a day, if not more. The partition years can be seen to be the beginning of the
tradition of honour killing on a large scale. It’s worth mentioning here that Honor Killing is not specifically
related to India only. This is a practice that continues to be prevailing in North and South America,
Africa, Turkey and many other countries. But the thing that has to be kept in mind is that the number
of incidents relating to this crime is very low and there is a very strict punishment for committing this
crime in other countries.
Reason
Now, there are various reasons why people or family members decide to kill the daughter in the
name of preserving their family honour. The most obvious reason for this practice to continue in India,
albeit, at a much faster and almost daily basis, is because of the fact that the caste system continues to be at its rigid best and also because people from the rural areas refuse to change their attitude to
marriage. According to them, if any daughter dares to disobey her parents on the issue of marriage
and decides to marry a man of her wishes but from another gotra or outside her caste, it would bring
disrepute to the family honour and hence they decide to give the ultimate sentence, that is death, to
the daughter. Now as has become the norm, the son-in-law is killed as well. Sociologists believe that
the reason why honour killings continue to take place is because of the continued rigidity of the caste
system. Hence the fear of losing their caste status through which they gain many benefits makes
them commit this heinous crime. The other reason why honour killings are taking place is because
the mentality of people has not changed and they just cannot accept that marriages can take place
in the same gotra or outside one’s caste. The root of the cause for the increase in the number of
honour killings is because the formal governance has not been able to reach the rural areas and as a
result. Thus, this practices continues though it should have been removed by now.