Dear Friends,

I am posting a very interesting article which goes quite deep into the efforts of urbanite Indians to run down the Khaps;

http://www.merinews.com/article/bann...15807545.shtml

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Banning Khaps would be a retrogade step, argues social activist

The accusations against rural folks following their traditions and customs are thick and fast with palpable ignorance on the issue. The sweating exercise has been lapped up dutifully by the leadership that matters.

CJ: janadhikar Mon, May 17, 2010 10:23:41 IST
Views: 42 Comments: 0Rate: 1.0 / 1 votes OFF LATE, media is agog with Khap/Gotra Khap question and has taken to itself the task of cleansing rural India of ‘feudal moss’ making it fit for modern times of its choice. Almost a tirade is on. The subject is thus worth attention to study certain aspects that stand ignored so far in the debate.

The accusations against rural folks following their traditions and customs are thick and fast with palpable ignorance on the issue. The sweating exercise has been lapped up dutifully by the leadership that matters for administrative, judicial and legal measures against the ‘errant’ Khap system itself to usher in modernity. The campaign in consequence has aroused intense passions around among both adherents and opponents. Curiously, this time institutions of family and Gotra Khaps as also Khaps in general are being asked to clear the constitutional litmus test for legitimacy in free India!

It needs to be clear in the beginning that conceptually ‘Khap’ and ‘Gotra Khap’ are distinct entities in jurisdiction and composition. Former is a geographical entity encompassing every community living in its area of operation without any discrimination of profession, caste or religion while ‘Gotra Khap’ is an institutional practice each with particular community or caste Bhaichara to resolve disputes within the community on disputes regarding marriage or family affairs, on demand.


Both have no permanent or fixed structures. Both assemble, discuss, mediate/decide and dissolve. It is the family in the sense of kindred or Kutumbh (with no English parallel) that takes cognizance of dispute in the first instance to settle it. Gotra Khap or Khap at each level enters the scene only on demand and is unrestrictive of participation. In media both terms are used interchangeably creating much confusion.


One impression has gained ground and not without reason that the media has turned particularly partisan as never before in coverage and presentation of incidents leading to the current tirade against Khaps. It has painted these institutions in deep colours of choice by using derogatory words like feudal, Talibani, Kangaroo Courts and the like, inviting equally wild reactions among adherents of this customary practice in rural belt.


It is held widely that the media is justifying each and every case of family defiance by youngsters as a new standard for social conduct, inviting in bargain a serious accusation that it is encouraging an anti-social behaviour for some ulterior objectives.

Feudal is the word of choice these days to use by every Tom, Dick and Harry who happens to describe any family head in rural India on any account. Such is the level of prejudice. It is doubtful if the practitioners of this terminology really understand the meaning that is attached to it by political economy denoting certain negative features of socio-economic life of yester years largely in the West and which hardly find place today at the beginning of 21st century even in the field of culture any where. India is no exception.


They hardly realise that liberation zone for women on questions of sex, love and marriage begins somewhere else and salvation does not lie in Jean P. Sartre brand of freedom which is at the heart of this current campaign being sponsored by corporate media in its over zeal for a new paradise.


This sense of hostility towards rural mores gets strengthened when media reports carry opinions that are biased and ill-informed. Most of the time in zeal it is completely carried away by one track arguments of its own against the institutions of family, community and Khaps, denting its credibility to a new low.

The activist role of media, on behalf of urbanite arrogance towards rural ‘uncouth’ is sharp and biting too harsh with no mind for the victim. It has left the unattached readers gasping, when they generally like it to remain impartial courier of news. However, short is the assessment of adverse implications of this campaign on the social life of rural India that still constitutes nearly 65 percent of the total population.


Few years back an incident first of its kind was reported when an outraged mother in Western UP murdered her errant daughter, while other members were asleep and punished her for a wrong the family had never experienced earlier. Since then, every year dogged murders of errant boys and girls by their close kinsmen are green in reports despite stringent actions by law courts.

Parents and close kinsmen from rural belt murdering their erring siblings are as unusual and unprecedented as sheer rising number of youngsters defying family code for the sake of sexual urges and elopements are. This is unmistakable feature of an undeclared war within the confines of families. It is affecting the normal life of villages too and disrupting their rhythm. The brash defiance of parental supervision by young boys and girls on matters so close to the familial code of conduct as ‘love. Sex and marriage’ having deep bearing on its very social existence and obligation to community behaviour of long standing on the one hand and murders on the other as punishment of such defiance by close kinsmen have fuelled the raging debate.


Nonetheless, the accusation that these murders have come on the biddings of Khaps is atrocious and amusing. The charge is seen as part of a design to snap out the age old bond between a family, village and its respective Khap as a support mechanism in need. If the project materialises as per design, the family will loose its local support mechanism and remain dependent at the sole mercy of a thoroughly corrupt formal system under the state. This will lead to break up of these institutions for conversion into atomised individuals –a sure way undoubtedly for industrial culture to flourish and urbanise India of choice!


One aspect that attracts attention is the timing of the debate. The ferocity of charge against Khaps from the neo-rich elite has come after over sixty years of Independence, though these have been on the scene since centuries of practice. The institution could survive side by side even of the formal state structure that British colonialists thrust upon India to make the population docile by curbing their initiative on social issues. It is well known that the wisdom to make this institution irrelevant had dawned upon colonialists after what they experienced during the wide scale rebellion of the masses in 1857 against their rule.


After Independence, at least during its first phase of nationalist resurgence, the opinion prevailed not to tinker with social customs and traditions with various social groups to the extent of autonomy that was acceded to scheduled areas under Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, though only in theory. Still that is not repudiated; rather it has been strengthened under PESA, 1996.


This law, deemed to be a part of constitutional scheme, recognises the competence of the people at the level of Gram Sabha to conduct its own affairs according to their traditions and customs. The provision was found acceptable for extension even to general areas in MP during the regime of Digvijay Singh.

Now is the time of second phase, when nationalism is asked to serve the interests of globalised capital with a concomitant cultural shift. Every family is in the midst of a severe conflict between the demands of old cultural mores and the new agenda having a strong Western likes and dislikes in life style imbued with ambitions to roll in riches over night and where crass individualism has taken the lead.


Perhaps nobody from among the well wishers of common man had visualised when the war between these two distinct cultures opened in Independent India within the confines of ‘family’ that would lead to so violent reactions as have occurred recently resulting in murders of wayward youngsters or unbending parents by their own near and dear kin on matters of ‘free sex, love and marriage’ beyond traditional taboos of the community.

This occurred because families exist within the ambit of community pressures of shame and glory so important for man to relish or repent in a social milieu. The surprise is because ‘murdering’ even the habitual offenders is not the rule among village community that governs such matters since times immemorial.


The ruling principle with them has been “Ha, Ma, Dhik’ in penalising the way-wards for violations of community mores. For the first violation the community expresses disapproval. If the transgression is repeated second time the community collectively notifies its disgust against the failure. On grave violation the community rules its disassociation with the culprit even in cases of gravest provocations. But normal are not the times now, apparently. It is a full-fledged war going on within the families and have reached a stage of zero tolerance. None must have vouched for it initially.

cont....