Raising cash
Reformist agenda of khaps in Haryana
Khaps are vying with each other to showcase a liberal face in matters of matrimony. By projecting a socially responsible stance, the self-appointed panchayats are engaging in damage control under socio-economic compulsion
Prem Chowdhry
Frankly, one doesn’t know what to make of the gender friendly posturing of the khaps, the self-appointed panchayats in Haryana. A few of them are going all out to show a progressive face mouthing a reformist agenda which firmly negates their earlier stand based upon some of the most brutal and regressive trends in society. In brief, so far they had been demanding changes in the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Hindu Succession Act 1956, a legal recognition of their customary practices in marriage, bringing down the marriageable age of the girl from 18 to 16 and changes in the property rights in keeping with their patriarchal patrilineal society. Their demands also include changes in law against homosexuality, surrogate motherhood, or ban on women wearing jeans and using mobiles, closing down of all the co-educational institutions from the school to the college level and lastly and importantly demanding the Lok Adalat status with judicial powers for themselves – for bodies that are unelected and not accountable to anyone.
Exploring a new world: A group of girls inside their college campus in Gurgaon, Haryana. Photo: Sayeed Ahmed
Suddenly, newspapers are flooded with reports on khap panchayats vying with each other to declare their ‘no objection’ to inter-caste marriages, opening out for purposes of marriage the customary exclusion of the village and gotras that fall in the khap area from ties of siblinghood, and going to the extent of saying that girls have ‘equal rights’ to wear jeans and keep mobiles. In this they have firmly refused to toe the line of Muzaffarnagar khap, UP, that banned the use of mobile phones and wearing of jeans by unmarried girls. They have also been campaigning against female foeticide, extravagant marriages and alcoholism. However, these khaps continue to maintain a deafening silence regarding ‘rights of women to equal inheritance’. If they are touting to be the institutions that believe in ‘equality’ this remains a serious anomaly.
Changing local dynamics
Reasons are many for this volte-face among the khaps. In fact the reformist agenda seems to have emerged as obligatory to their survival. The multiple socio-political reasons behind this change extend from a rapidly transforming social milieu of the independent India, the process of political democratization, to the opening of economic opportunities that have altered local power dynamics, complicating relationships between members of different caste groups as well as between members within a caste group.
Catruring the moment:
Technology is broadening the social boudaries of the young.
The traditional linkages of unequal status, hierarchy and prestige are being challenged and replaced by new norms based upon notions of egalitarianism, citizenship and entitlement. Certain shifts are occurring simultaneously: on one hand, caste solidarities are crystallizing, and on the other, education, reservations, and opening out of the economy are eroding the traditional system of caste by changing the material base for different caste groups. There is a certain amount of de-linking between caste, occupation and power in contemporary India. Other identities have taken over, leading to greater self assertion and the rejection of traditional norms observed for purposes of marriage. Couples are therefore defying the age old customs and revolting against the imposed constrictions, they do not believe in. In the given social milieu of education, higher mobility and facing a globalized and consumerist society which has increased the intermingling of sexes, it is not difficult to gauge their growing rebelliousness. Consequently, we are witnessing a rising defiance from the young couples, especially in relation to their marriage, regardless of the consequences.
Restricted marriage market
Over the years, the customary regulations governing marriages have had the effect of creating a very tight market for prospective brides and grooms. For example, inter-village and regional migrations have resulted in a severe drop in the number of very small villages and corresponding increase in that of large and very large villages. This has had the effect of multiplying the number of gotras (patrilineal clan) represented in different villages. From two to three gotras, villages may well have as many as 20 to 25 gotras. An extension of the principle of village exogamy means that all the gotras represented in a village cannot be entertained for marriage. This leaves the marriage market highly restricted. The extension of the concept of bhaichara (brotherhood) also means that all the neighbouring villages have to be similarly excluded.
These prohibitions imposed on marriages are greatly compounded in a social situation labouring under multiple problems the extremely unfavourable sex-ratio, the presence of a large number of unmarried men and the dowry economy. All these are inter-connected. The widespread female foeticide practiced in this region in combination with suspected female infanticide through neglect and other causes has led to an adverse ratio of only 819 females to 1000 males. According to some activists this estimate, in a number of villages is as low as 500-550. This uneven sex ratio is creating havoc in more ways than one.
About demand and supply
In a situation where status hypergamous marriage is also the customary norm for a girl’s marriage, there is a surplus of brides at the top but a pronounced deficit at the bottom. This situation is compounded by a very large number of unemployed men in Haryana. According to the official figures of the unemployed in Haryana available for 2001 only, there are a total of 7,85,408 persons registered in the employment exchanges. Since 1980-1981 these unemployment figures have more than doubled. Rural unemployment is calculated to be almost twice that of urban unemployment. In the marriage market it is the employed and not the unemployed who are coveted. Their limited numbers means a competition to net them in marriage. The existence of surplus girls in this stratum, feeds into the dowry economy–successfully defeating the economics of demand and supply.
Such concerns leave the unemployed to either settle for lesser matches or not get married at all. Consequently, a substantial number of the unemployed is to be found among those who are unmarried. In Haryana 36.24 per cent of men in the category of 15-44 years of age (the so-called reproductive or marriageable age) are unmarried. In districts like Rohtak, the percentage of unmarried males is as high as 44 percent. Unable to get married, such men are reduced to purchasing brides, of any caste group, from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa, Bengal, Mizoram, Assam, Bihar and Nepal. Apart from raising the questions of severe exploitation, legitimacy, inheritance and race etc. such marriages/associations are also questioning the rationale behind the imposition of marriage restrictions by the khaps which are clearly extremely hard on both the boys as well as for the girls. The defiance of marriage norms are attempts to open out the marriage market against traditional sanctions.
Impact of growing defiance
Indeed, a kind of simmering ‘revolt’ can be witnessed in the breaches of customary norms in marriages, whether inter-caste or intra-caste, which have escalated over the years. Although there is no statistical evidence, in the rough estimate of the lawyers in Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court receives as many as fifty applications per day from couples fearing for their lives, seeking state protection, or anticipatory bail or restriction orders against being mentally and physically harassed by the parents and other relatives, for having defied their families and community in matter of their marriage. According to them, this is a staggering ten-fold rise from about five to six applications a day, five years ago. The ‘traditional’ way to deal with such cases is the physical elimination of the couples generally and of the girl especially under the entirely erroneous euphemism of upkeep of ‘honour’.
Lately, the media both print and electronic has played an important role in creating nervousness among the khap members. On one hand, the media certainly gave them publicity, which proved to be ‘heady’ for the Khaps but they were also roundly chastised, severely condemned and repeatedly made to lose face for their ‘highly regressive’, ‘inhuman’ and ‘unconstitutional’ ways. The politicians of Haryana who had earlier refused to intervene in the worst cases of violence inflicted by or under the khap directions are now urging the khaps to take up social issues for reform that trouble the populace. They are eyeing the khaps as their vore banks.
Altogether such efforts have prompted the khaps to adopt some measures to counter the scathing criticism. Opening out of some of the khaps to women, was one such measure, because the charge of ‘exclusion of women from khaps’ had been noticed widely and assailed universally. Some women, who would support the khap line, started to be invited. Recently the Chief Minister reportedly gave Rs one crore as ‘inam’ (prize) to the Bibipur Sarv Khap panchayat, which had appointed a woman as the Sarpanch. Some women brought in as khap members have also been promised or even given tickets by some political parties, underlining the fact that khap members are deeply divided on political lines. Clearly, the khaps are composed of members of different political hues who vote according to considerations other than the khap dictates. Consequently, this non-representative body has come to be assailed as a whimsical organisation of different individuals who are not accountable to anyone but their own highly individualised interests.
Political shades
Moreover, the politicisation of village India is a fact, which cannot be denied. Existing factionalism and litigation in the villages feed into unstable political conditions, fragmenting it further. Growing conflict over caste, community and land has become an important aspect of rural politics in India. The utopian principle of village aika (unity) projected by the khaps stands fragmented. The fact that the khaps are not homogenized monolith bodies who act under a unified command for political purposes is now well acknowledged. Also in this age of media presence is it possible to offer to a disgruntled complaining electorate a non-reformist agenda and get away with it?
The recent attempts, even though taken as a token, are an attempt to overcome this serious charge. There is clearly a deliberate attempt on the part of the politicians as well as the khaps to reform their much damaged image by projecting a modern socially responsible face. The khaps’ advocacy of the reformist agenda is a belated reaction to their having come to be known as a body not responsive to the socio-economic changes under way. It is a way to seek legitimacy which is fast slipping out of their hands.
Gender equality?
n Khaps have been demanding changes in the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Hindu Succession Act 1956 that includes bringing down the marriageable age of the girl from 18 to 16.
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Most of them oppose ‘rights of women to equal inheritance.’
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Female foeticide and suspected female infanticide practised in the region has led to an adverse ratio of only 819 females to 1000 males, in some districts it is as low as 550 females.
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36.24 per cent of men in the category of 15-44 years of age are unmarried in Haryana. In districts like Rohtak, the percentage of unmarried males is as high as 44 percent.
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By a rough estimate provided by the lawyers of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as many as fifty applications are received per day from couples fearing for their lives, seeking state protection, or anticipatory bail fearing harassment by the parents and relatives, for having defied their families in matters of marriage.
The writer has authored several books on
gender issues including The Veiled Women: Shifting Gender Equations in Rural Haryana and
Gender Discrimination and Land Ownership.