Shakespeare or Khap Panchayats?

         While life sustains honour, honour makes life worth living. It seems that there is a reciprocal relation between these two dimensions. Nevertheless, there is a marked distinction between them. While life survives even if it is not honoured, honour goes nonexistent in the absence of life. Then, what honour does a person gain by sabotaging his fellow human being?  How does a gotra preserve its honour by annihilating its own members? What is so honourable in Killing?

When the prince of Verona declared death penalty against the families of Romeo and Juliet, he did it with the intention of putting an end to the long running Montague/Capulet feud. But today, when the self-claimed, authoritarian, no-women-all-men panchayats issue their diktats against modern Romeos and Juliets, it is not because to put an end to caste (or gotra) division or rivalry distance that exists between them, but to reinforce it further through social alienation and excommunication often end up with barbaric assault and total annihilation. Is it what they mean by “honour killing”?

Then, why do we nail Hitler for ages in the history? Had he not done what he thought was right to protect honour? Are not our dictatorial Khap punchayats worse than Hitler? If honour is the sole reason for killing, then why only inter-caste or inter-religious marriages alone pay the prize? Why do we not line up all the prisnors and shoot them one by one for they have brought dishonour to our family, gotra, parampara, caste, Varna and entire nation?

“Honour killing” (or still worse “honour crime”), which is operated on the above mentioned key values- life and honour, is highly paradoxical that even the parliament of India has failed to define it yet. But, the perpetrators of this anti-life evil seem to know it well. Their stained swords and knives seem to have understood it fine. Victims of this brutal carnage are found in the soil of Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, rural Delhi and in south India, mainly Tamil Nadu, with no exception in Kolkata and Maharashtra.

When Rizwanur Rahman was cold bloodedly killed in Kolkata in September 2007, the plot had been undertaken by his Hindu-wife-priyanka’s father in cooperation with state law makers and their protectors to protect the honour of his family and status. When Manoj and Baoli couple was brutally tortured and killed in Kaithal district, Haryana in July 2007, and Ved Pal Maun, a 27 year old medical practitioner, was assassinated in Jind district, Haryana two years later in July 2009, diktats had been issued by respective Khap panchayats to protect the honour of their respective gotras. When Ravinder singh and family were blood-bathed in Maharashtra in may 1999, and Babitha, a 19 year old girl, was cold bloodedly massacre with her lover and his brother in Etah district in Uttar Pradesh in November 2008, diktats had been issued and executed by girl’s father to protect the honour of their families. When Delhi based Ravinder Gehlout, from Gehlout gotra, attempted suicide by consuming poison because he was denied his married Shilpa, from Kadym gotra in panipat district, just as Romeo from Montague family was denied his love, Juliet from Capulet family, and consumed poison, Honour killing, the Indian version of Romeo Juliet, made Shakespeare’s words come true: “The world is a stage and we are actors and actresses in it”

If Shakespeare were to be born today, will he be contented with the modifications done to his original version Romeo and Juliet? Or will he regret for setting an example, so influential and applicable? While Romeo and Juliet was based on the principle ‘live together or die together’, what principle the Indian edition of it is based on? Who to be blamed now, Shakespeare or khap panchayats?