Khap panchayat: signs of desperation? - Jagmati Sangwan

The number of cases in which the totally unconstitutional caste panchayats have openly defied the law of the land by issuing illegal diktats has increased manifold.

In Haryana today, rapid capitalist transformation is accompanied by a regressive feudal consciousness. As education and political awareness spread among Dalits, women and backward sections, alongside there is a massive consolidation of caste (khap) panchayats in defence of the status quo. The number of cases in which the totally unconstitutional caste panchayats have openly defied the law of the land by issuing illegal diktats has increased manifold. Attacks on young couples, Dalits and progressive-minded people have become frequent. 

A recent landmark judgment by the Additional Sessions Court at Karnal in the Manoj-Babli “honour” killing case, in which five accused were given the death sentence, sent shock waves among caste panchayat leaders, as it reminded them that they were not above the Constitution. The court took serious note of the fact that the policemen deployed for the security of Manoj and Babli actually facilitated the accused in perpetrating the crime.

Though geographically small, Haryana is socially and culturally heterogeneous. For example, in some areas and among certain castes, marriages within the village and even intra-gotra marriages are not uncommon. At the same time, such marriages are treated as incest in certain other areas, and among other castes. Even the caste or khap panchayat is not a feature prevalent throughout the State, as many believe, but is confined to a particular region. Thus, a section of people of one particular caste proclaims itself as the cultural representative of Haryana, refusing to acknowledge the customs and traditions practised by others in their own neighbourhood. 

A look at the demography of the State and its development statistics would help to contextualise the problem. The State that stood second in per capita income in the country has one of the lowest sex ratios (821 in the 0-6 age group). Female foeticide is rampant, and the situation is so bad that wives are being brought from far off States. Not once have these panchayats called a maha-panchayat to pass a resolution against female foeticide or dowry or even in connection with the crisis in agriculture — problems staring the people of Haryana in the face. 

After the judgment in the Manoj-Babli case, however, a congregation of caste panchayats representing the Jat neighbourhoods from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan was called at Kurukshetra on April 13. It was decided that panchayats would now fight for legal status to legitimately maintain the “social order.” One of the main agendas of this sarv-khap panchayat was to push for amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 that would ban marriages within the same gotra (clan within which men and women are considered siblings and hence cannot marry). Under this Act, marriages between certain lineages from the paternal and maternal sides are already barred.

Most of the khap panchayat diktats are against couples who are not from the same gotra. In fact, not more than one case of honour killing has been of a couple within the same gotra. By creating the false impression that all marriages of choice between young couples are incestuous, what the khaps are actually opposing is the right to choose a marriage partner. Among the several instances of khaps issuing fatwas in Jaundhi, Asanda, Dharana, Singhwal, Hadaudi, Maham-kheri, Ludana and other villages, not a single one was an intra-gotra marriage, yet the married couples were declared siblings, and families made to  suffer boycotts and excommunication from their villages.

A sad example of the gotra row is that of Ved Pal Moan, brutally beaten to death last year when he tried to secure his wife who was confined by her parents at Singhwal village in Jind district. He was escorted by a police party and a warrant officer of the High Court. Ved Pal had married neither within his gotra nor within the same village. In this case, another absurd code was invoked by the khap: that the couple violated the custom of not marrying in the neighbouring village as it forms part of bhaichara (brotherhood). A khap congregation held in March 2009 publicly pronounced the death sentence for Ved Pal, and it succeeded in executing it in June. As couples are selectively targeted, it is clear the real motive is to control women's sexuality to ensure that property remains within the patriarchal caste domain (mainly Jats in Haryana). 

The sarv khap panchayat also called for social boycott of individuals who raised their voice against the caste panchayats. A former police chief of Haryana, himself a self-styled caste leader, went on record threatening khap-critics. How can a former DGP publicly threaten law-abiding citizens, and yet continue to enjoy the hefty perks and pension out of the public exchequer?

The caste panchayat leaders have decided to stifle any voice of assertion from the backward sections. On April 21 more than 20 houses of Dalits were burnt down at Mirchpur village, in the presence of a police force, allegedly by thugs belonging to a dominant caste, resulting in the death of an 18-year-old handicapped girl and her ailing father. A panchayat of khaps convened at Mirchpur three days after the carnage not only declared all arrested persons innocent but also issued an ultimatum to the government for their release! This was exactly the pattern adopted by caste panchayats in the Gohana (2005) and Duleena (2002) incidents, where brutal attacks on Dalits took place. 

Even elders from socially and economically weaker families are not spared. At Khedi Meham in December 2009, the father of a newly wed groom was forced to hold a shoe in his mouth in front of the whole village by the panchayatis. Ordinary citizens are caught in the contradiction between two sets of values — the blind consumerism of the neo-liberal dispensation, and the outdated feudal values represented by the khaps. The first is no replacement for the second, and indeed, pseudo-modernism only strengthens the forces of revivalism. The alternative to both types of distortions lies in the spread of healthy and progressive values that can be unleashed through only a new social reform movement in the entire Hindi belt.

Limited but crucial role

The judiciary does have a crucial role to play but has its limitations too. On June 23, 2008 Justice K.S. Ahluwalia of the Punjab and Haryana High Court made a revealing observation while simultaneously hearing 10 cases pertaining to marriages between young couples aged 18 - 21: “The High Court is flooded with petitions where … judges of this Court have to answer for the right of life and liberty to married couples. The State is a mute spectator. When shall the State awake from its slumber [and] for how long can Courts provide solace and balm by disposing of such cases?” A legislature with little political will and a pliant executive will have to be made responsive under pressure of a mass movement.

The voices of dissent are also getting consolidated under the umbrella of organisations like the AIDWA and other democratic forces. The younger generation must stand forth as responsible social activists and lead the struggle for change in an otherwise feudal society that lives by the dictum “Jiski lathi uski bhains” (the powerful call the shots). In Haryana each passing day is costing the lives of innocent women and men. 

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

This woman wages a lone battle against khaps

CHANDIGARH: Top politicians kowtow to them. The police watch from a distance when they hold their mahapanchayats. Lovers shiver at their mention. But, if the dreaded khap panchayats in Haryana's badlands fear anyone, it's a 50-year-old woman — a former international volleyball player — who is contemptuous of their diktats.

Three decades ago, when three girls from rural Haryana could not join Jagmati Sangwan to represent India in volleyball for Asiad because they were married off by their parents, it marked a turning point in her career: the beginning of a long struggle against oppression of women.

It pained her when India returned with a bronze as she believed the three girls would have got the country gold. What rankled her more was the fate of numerous girls in Haryana whose cause she then took up with a gusto.

It was in 2002 that Sangwan won a major battle when she barged into a mahakhap panchayat at Sir Chhotu Ram Park in Rohtak. Khaps do not allow women into their meetings. But, Sangwan, made of sterner stuff, couldn't be pushed around. None dared ask her to leave.

Jagmati's voice against khap fatwa is so strong that she has become an eyesore for these Taliban-type courts. Irritated by her, khaps have termed her a "gang leader".

"They try to defame me but I continue my fight for the rights of women and the weaker sections. The khaps are anti-women and anti-Dalit," said Sangwan, director of Women's Study Centre, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

Sangwan has a force of over 1,000 women activists, being state president of the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA). When the powerful panchayat in Karora village of Jind district was adamant on social boycott of the family of Manoj after the infamous honour killing in which he and his wife Babli were murdered for marrying "despite belonging to the same gotra", Sangwan was the first to support their families.

"It would have been difficult for us even to survive without the support of Jagmati," said Chanderpati, the mother of Manoj. Not only this, when police did not arrest influential khap leader Ganga Raj in the honour killing, Sangwan called for a statewide protest, forcing the leader to surrender.

Sangwan began raising her voice against the khaps in 1988, when a girl was raped for revenge after her brother eloped with a girl from the same village in Jind. "We forced the police to lodge an FIR against the rapists and kept the victim with us for six months to ensure her safety," said Sangwan.
(Courtesy : The Times of India)

CPI(M) wants prices of farm inputs reduced

Party wants Swaminathan panel report implemented

Says MNCs are allowed to trade in 198 commodities

BANGALORE: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and All India Kisan Sabha general secretary K. Varadarajan on Saturday urged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to implement the M.S. Swaminathan Committee Recommendations for reducing the price of fertilizers, seeds and pesticides and increase the minimum support price of agricultural produce.

Criticised

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha on fertilizer policy here, Mr. Varadarajan criticised the centre for its failure to give relief to farmers. Accusing the centre of dancing to the tunes of the U.S., he alleged that the UPA Government was more serious than its predecessors in implementing the “liberation, privatisation and globalisation” policy. This the reason for reducing the fertilizer subsidy by Rs. 3,000 crore in the last budget.

The Government raised the price of urea by 10 per cent as a disincentive to save soil quality and farmers from low productivity. If it was sincere, he said, the Centre should have reduced the price of potassium and sulphate.

Mr. Varadarajan accused the Centre of reducing food subsidy by Rs. 428 crore. Even the discretion to reduce the subsidy for fertilizer had been passed onto the company concerned, subjecting farmers to further harassment and fraud.

The CPI(M) leader alleged that the Government was allowing multinational corporations to trade in 198 agricultural produces in the country.

Farmers and those who depended on agriculture would be unable to compete with them as their prices would be low, because of their mass production. Bt. Cotton and Bt. Brinjal, introduced by companies such as Monsanto, would destroy Indian farmers.

All these had prompted the CPI (M) and Kisan Sabha to launch an agitation against the Centre in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.

He said they would join non-Congress and non-BJP parties and mass organisations to take up the struggle wherever the CPI(M) had less influence.

The State unit leaders such as Maruthi Manpade and Bayya Reddy spoke.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Maoist Killings Condemned

The brutal killings of the five CPI (M) members and supporters in West Midinapore and Purulia districts in West Bengal on a single day, May 14, by Maoist gangs is yet another instance of the true nature of the Maoists. It gives the lie to the manufactured campaign that the Maoists are engaged in a struggle to defend the cause of the tribal people and other oppressed sections.

The Maoists killed four CPI(M) supporters Nazrul Mir, Sanatan Ahir, Swapan Ahir and Ashok Ahir in Chandavilla village in Binpur-2 Block of West Midnapore by taking them out of their homes in the middle of the night. Their bodies were found near the Highway, bearing marks of torture. All the killed were agricultural labourers.

Another CPI (M) activist, Srikanata Mahato, was picked up from his house in Pathardi village in Arsha Police station area in Purulia district and shot death after his family members were beaten up.

With these murders, the number of CPI (M) members and supporters killed by the Maoists since the Lok Sabha elections in the three districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura is now 121. They all mostly came from tribal and poor backgrounds.

The civil rights groups and intellectuals who support the Maoists by speaking out only against the police and paramilitary operations must answer the question – are they defending the Maoists so that they carry on such killings of political opponents with impunity?

The CPI (M) will continue to fight the Maoists politically and organizationally with all the resources at its command. It will expose the game of the Maoists who are out to help the anti-Communist forces like the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal.

The Polit Bureau expresses its deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the martyred comrades.

Left Parties Statement

The Left parties, the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and AIFB met today and issued the following statement:

Food Security Anti-Price Rise Movement

The Left parties took stock of the ongoing movement against price rise and related issues. It decided to hold a national convention on price rise, food security and connected issues in the beginning of July, from where the future course of action will be announced.

Posco Struggle: Stop Use of Force

The Left parties condemn the firing and the resort to force by the armed police against thousands of men and women who were resisting and blocking the predatory moves of Posco to take over large tracts of fertile land in Jagatsingpur-Paradeep area of Orissa.

Today more that 40 platoons of armed forces were mobilised. They moved down to the Posco site and confronted the thousands of men and women who have been sitting on dharna for the last several months. The armed police resorted to tear gas, lathi charge and fired with rubber bullets in order to disperse the protesters who have now retreated to the villages. This has caused injuries to more than a hundred, including 60 women. The CPI MP of Jagatsingpur was taken into custody the previous night. State CPI and CPI(M) leaders were present on the spot when the firing took place. Canards are being spread by the government that some of the protesters threw bombs. This is a total falsehood.

The people were also protesting against the Posco’s move to have a captive port alongside the existing Paradeep port, which will have an adverse impact on the Paradeep port. Posco is also proposing to have captive iron ore mines instead of purchasing ore from the Orissa Mining Corporation. The proposal of Posco to draw water from the Mahanadi Barrage will seriously affect the irrigation system and also damage the ecological balance in the region. Ignoring all these concerns the Centre and the state governments have been backing Posco in their efforts.

The Left parties demand that the state government stop the use of force against the agitators.

Maoist Killings in West Bengal Condemned

The Left parties strongly condemn the killing of four CPI(M) workers, all of them agricultural labourers, in the West Midnapore district and one activist in Purulia district of West Bengal by the Maoists. It calls upon all democratic forces to condemn such violence.