In the name of Honour (Out Look)

T.K. RAJALAKSHMI,

I went through your article “In the name of Honour” in your latest edition. However you tried in your best effort , still I feel some of the things has been lost in translation or not understood clearly .

Being part of Jat community and taking lot of pride in it . I would try to help you in understand some of points. I’ve taken some excerpt from the article and given my comments on those in ‘blue’.


Intolerant families and illegal caste panchayats kill young couples who marry in violation of traditional community norms.

(1) I will not touch the case of Intolerant families as this is very subjective and may found across India in different ratio, some of the cases in your article fall in this category.

Matters related to panchayats , clan , khap are needs to be put in right perspective.

Two terms used “ illegal” and “caste” here are misnomer as well as misplaced , if you are using these with reference of Khap Panchayats.

Reasons being , history of khap are dated back to 2500 BC , and found reference in Rig Veda . This was the first attempt made by the humanity to live in republic formation and since then it’s in fashion.

Text of Panini and Buddhist text give reference of 16 such republics.
If somebody term these illegal because Indian constitution doesn’t have reference of these , in that case you will have to term Rig veda , Panini and Buddhist text ,illegal too.

History and tradition of this community is much much older , with a written reference of more than 2500 BC old , and observed by the people since then . If we will see every thing from the angle of 58 years old constitution having 448 articles , I’m certain we will miss lots of thing . So constitution really need to enlarge his view .

Secondly, these are not “Cast panchayats” , this is very loose term to use here. Appropriate word here is Clan (Gotra) or Khap panchayat. . This is Indo Aryan race and organized ourselves into hundreds of patrilineage clans with very distinctive identity socially and culturally , these are not caste from puranic/Bhrahmenical Hindu angle. Social and cultural traditions are in line of Vedic traditions. While Khap is used in geographical term , a group of 84 villages.

According to the “brotherhood” principle on which khaps organise themselves, marriages cannot take place between people of different castes. Within the same caste, marriages should not take place between people of the same gotra.

(2) Gotra or clan are group of people united by kinship and very clear blood line , as you mentioned the “brotherhood”. So marriage with in clan or intra clan marriage is unacceptable because no one can justify the marriage between brother and sister.

Even when the gotras are different, people living in the same village or adjoining villages cannot marry.

(3) This is because social environment of village , In villages family are living since ages and every body knows everybody ,over the time these families generate trust on each other and people are free to visits each other places. This trust make the families to allow their daughters and women to walk freely in village and even help the male family members in field. This is very progressive image of this community where women are not confined to home even in villages , this is attributed to clan system .
Just Imagine now , if marriage is permissible with in village and nearby villages , people will start the looking at women from different eye . Males working in field would be worry about their women back home , consequently they will not allow their women to go out of home , because feeling of trust of brotherhood has gone.

This will not only shatter the social structure of villages , as well as will be very unfortunate for women folks.


Marriages that fall in the latter two categories are interpreted as tantamount to “incest”, though on account of the general paucity of girls and the difficulty in finding different gotras within the same caste group, some flexibility is allowed.

(4) Not able to understand what do mean by cast group , There are more than 2700 gotras in Indo-Aryan Jat race . So no question of paucity of gotras eligible for marriage.


The phenomenon is not confined to Haryana, and is common in western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, rural Delhi and some areas in the South. Many reasons have been cited for the prevalence of such killings and harassment in the name of honour.

(5) We are left with two options , we allow every conjugal relationship as long as it’s fit under Hindu Marriage Act OR we put an stop on such relationship even though HMA allow these but our age old culture and tradition don’t allow these relationship , rationality has been explained in para (2) and (3) . In case of former ,it can ruin all the structure of Clan, Gotra and khap as well as social structure of villages. In order to avoid this anarchy and protect these for the next generations , community has no choice but to punish the offenders. In extreme cases punishment may lead to killing . This is bitter pill that community has to sallow to remain lively and healthy

If any killing is done by family then it’s “honour” and there be different reason behind it , very subjective in nature and not confined to any particular part of world. So I’m not touching it.


Among them were the absence of social reforms and the tendency to suppress the rights of the weaker sections within castes and between caste groups. Many view the phenomenon as an outcome of the stranglehold of patriarchy and caste.

These people followed every major social reformist , Gautam Budhha,Guru Nanak,Swami Dayanand Sharwasti.
What sort of social reform we need to have to allow marriage between brother and sister ? . Marriage in bloodline is not appropriate scientifically pl. refer last part of this write-up. Neither this is caste nor there are sections , in clan by the very definition and by your term of “ brotherhood” how can be sections there , here you might carried away by your different social experience.
Scientific reasons of avoiding marriage in bloodline.

Renowned DNA scientist James D Watson , endorse the view point of avoiding marriages in the bloodline as it’s reduce the genetic diseases. Our forefathers were aware of this fact much earlier.

BBC reported high number of birth related diseases in Muslim community in UK because of marriages in family.

Another BBC report suggest high number of microcephalics-babies born in Pakistan because of genetic diseases , also linked to marriages in bloodline.

Back home , Parsi are struggling with various genetic diseases and low potency and community has reached a level of wiped out from with in.

As per James D Watson , homosexuality too is a genetic disorder , as well as 70 % of eunuchs are from a religion which is 20 % in population .

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