May 20, 2010
The recent controversy over khap panchayats demand for banning same gotra marriage, has created a controversary, and an adverse reactions from all liberal sections, left, centre and the right. Instead of listening to them, why does the government and the intellectual community takes a confronting and oppressing stand against the khaps?
More about this below.
History of Khaps:
The wikipedia link has a detailed account of khap history. I will sum up the essence of it.
The khap is a traditional republic system, which consisted of 84 villages. Each village is governed by the panchayat, which is an elected council of 5 members. These elected members of all 84 villages would then choose a khap leader, who would convene the meeting of khap panchayats.
The khap panchayats exist for more than 2500 years, and they are predominantly an organisation of the kshatriyas. It is a means of governance and administrative system, which was highly decentralised but co-ordinated centrally. Every khap is a village republic, where a khap leader is chosen. Please note that they are chosen by the people in the villages and NOT Appointed.
There is also a sarva khap, where leaders of all khap in a territory will assemble and discuss major issues. The sarva khap will cover an entire state, or province. For example, there is a sarva khap for haryana and malwa.
The khap panchayats exist today in Haryana, Rajasthan, punjab, uttar pradesh and madhya pradesh. Its also present in some parts of pakistan too, which adjoins indian border.
Functioning of Khaps:
At each village, the panchayat is called whenever there is a dispute. The elected council of 5 members will attend the session, where every villager can participate and become a witness. The trials are conducted openly in front of the villagers, and the panchayat leader finally gives a judgement that is acceptable to all people. If its not acceptable, further discussion is carried out on why it is not acceptable. And then the final judgement is arrived, with consensus of all the parties involved.
If still, any of the party is not satisfied with the panchayat’s decision, he can take his case to the khap level, again for further hearing.
This article “Democracy in ancient India” gives an excellent account of our native systems and the colloborative administration followed.
Similar systems in other parts of India:
The panchayat system was prevalent through out india in one or other forms, before the british invasion. Indian polity was highly decentralised, with village republics as the fundamental self-adminstrating unit. The village republic was governed by the council of elected panchayat members. There was different title given to the panchayat leader, according to the region. For example, in southern districts of tamilnadu, the panchayat leader is given the title “Naattaamai”, whereas the western tamilnadu has the title “Gounders” or “Oor Gounder”.
I dont have info about other regions, but essentially, all the village republics have the panchayat model.
The structure of the panchayat system is also similar to khaps. In kongu region, the village head is called “Kothukaran”, whereas group of villages are administered by “Naattu Gavundas”. The Pattakarars rule over the nattu gavandas. The region is grouped in to “8 hamlets” or 18 hamlets. (Popularly called ettu patti or pathinettu patti).
Thus there are varied native administrative through out india, but most of them are destroyed initially by colonial britishers and later by the independant governments of free india.
Current Khap Issue and their demands:
The ongoing issue regarding the khap panchayat is about marriage of same gotra people. The khap panchayat annuled the marriage of the couple, handing over them to their respective parents. This issue has been happening for long, but this time, the khaps called the assembly of Maha Panchayat, and discussed this issue. At the end of that meeting, they placed their demand that the Hindu Marriage Act should be amended so that Same Gothra Marriage is NOT recognized in law. In my opinion, the khap leaders had hit the nail, in this issue. By demanding an amendment in hindu marriage act, they are trying to have a legal status to the widely followed social ethics, NOT just among khaps, but among major castes all over india.
Ethical Issues in Same Gothra Marriages:
The major reason why same gothra marriage receives such widespread social condemnation (except for those liberals) is the extent of the social values that the people hold. In order to understand this, we have to understand how our society structure has evolved, and for that we have to understand the caste system.
Before proceeding, we have to understand what is meant by a gothra. The kula/gothra is a famous phrase used widely among indians, as an identity to one. Kulam is a larger set of people group, and gothra is the sub-division based on common paternal ancestry.
In india, caste system is mostly patri-lineal, except for few which has matri-lineal. Which means, a child inherits the gothra of his/her father (and NOT mother). So, a boy and girl belonging to same gothra, automatically becomes a brother and sister, even though they are NOT direct siblings of common parent. During marriage, brides or grooms are selected from a different gothram of the same Kulam. ie, jats have many gothrams within them, and bride from one gothra chooses groom from a different gothram but within jat kulam. Similarly the gujjars and the meenas and other caste groups.
In North India, alliances are avoided both from mother’s gothra and father’s gothra. however in south india, only father’s gothra are seen, and girl/boy from mother’s gothra are accepted. (athai mahal/maman mahal).
Having understood these different social values, when a couple within same gothra, all of a sudden marries and comes to a village, it creates a shock to the people residing there. It creates disturbances among the society who all hold the same value, which gets violated now.
Now, How do they resolve this? Or how do we expect them to handle this?
For those cultural refugees of the urban areas, these kind of social links are beyond their scope of understanding. Hence they often harp on individual rights and sensationalise such issues, and force their morality on the rural people, who have a different social ethics.
That’s the reason, why the urban india, often looks down upon the rural india, with all the contempt. Since the colonial powers are handed over the urban elites who still hold the ruling power, ostracises the khap community, projecting them as villain, as those sticking to medieval era.
Even the nationalists journalists like Kanchan Gupta, had also joined the liberal urban brigade, ostracising the khaps, comparing them to talibans.
Idiotic Comparison with taliban:
I will explain Why comparing khaps with taliban is idiotic. First talibans are autocrats, who are imposing the islamic quran over people. Second, the talibans are NOT elected by people, and they are NOT accountable to people. all they want is to force people to follow quran and shariah, which when violated, they attempt to punish.
However, the khaps have a decentralised native administrative system, and they dont have any religious book to blindly follow. The Sarva khaps are councils of members from different areas, and they make decisions based on mutual consensus. Hence they are NOT autocratic not dictators. Any decision taken there is accepted by the people, as they are also consulted in the decision making.
The main reason why the journalists and intellegentsia (mainly the leftist and elitist) are branding khaps is the honour killing. They think, as though honour killing is followed only by talibans. Its followed even among rich high class people, where they attempt to assasinate their daughter/son, who marries a poor person. Honour killing is followed by islamists, christians at many places in india.
Honour killings are the result of the situation where the society or part of the society faces a sensitive ethical or cultural issue. They are NOT trained before to handle such situations and hence the reaction most often is violent.
From insider point of view, every family holds it as a prestige, to conduct the marriages of their son/daughter in a grand manner, if not atleast in a way appreciated by the society. When there is a love marriage and both the boy and girl belongs to same caste but different gothra, then the family has no problem in accepting them.
When either of the couple is from a different caste, the family faces an immense stress, but that is some what manageable, because the upper caste often disowns their son/daughter and get rid of them.
In the case of same gothra marriage, its the most difficult issue to handle. The family can even accept a person from another caste. But how does a family accept a marriage, where the couple is seen as a brother and sister. I believe, even the so called elitists , the intelligentsia and the journalists could not accept such a situation.
What is the solution for this?
Arent the khap society in distress to handle this situation, just like an individual family would face?
NOw, what legitimate rights do the indian state or the supreme court have to interfere in the social ethics? Why should government force the community to accept a marriage which they consider as ethically unacceptable?
Arrogance of the Media:
The most enraging thing in this issue is the way media sensationalise this issue. In this IBN News whose job is to debate, indulges in branding and ostracising the khap communities. And their arrogance is even further evident, from the way, they make Jindal, a congress MP from Haryana, as a villain, just because he supported the khap demands for amendment to hindu marriage act. Karan Thapar attempts to project, that Jindal is supporting honour killing, while the fact is that Jindal was taking only the khap demand of amendments.
Another Tehelka articel spits out vicious hatred on the khap panchayat, instead of analysing it. They use all types of english jargons, to sensationalise the issue, throw various allegations against the khaps, and finally project them as people of medieval ages.
Arent these medias creating an extreme hatred among their viewers, when their job is to present only the facts and leave the decision and opinion making to the viewers themselves?
Its time for us to recognize our native system:
I often ask this question to many. Why are we having so much negative connotation to anything native to india. When the khap panchayat has been continuing for more than 2500 years, naturally it should be a social asset for india, to learn from them and take the positives. More than that, the khaps represent the historic continuity of the traditional india to the modern india, and its imperative we have to preserve it, strengthen it, and streamline it.
But so far, many of the native systems were systematically destroyed by the macauline colonisers after british left. In tamilnadu, the traditional panchayat system is NOT recognized and even made illegal. Because of that, the system got collapsed here. But it was intact in North india, which there was attempt going on to destroy those.
Solution for the Khap issue:
The solution for the Khap issue is NOT in oppressing the khap leaders. But in creating awareness among the next generation to understand how their society functions, what are their roles in it, and what are the ethical values being followed. The reason why sagothra marriage happens is because the youths are NOT properly taught about their society in their schools.
Its time for the educated youths within the khap villages, to take up this task and create awareness among the next generation, so that they grow up with the knowledge of what is right and accepted within their society and what are wrong and unethical in the society.
The khaps are NOT blind followers of the books. They are open minded, and they have an excellent native & superior democratic system which they continue for thousands of years. What is needed now is proper recognition of this system, and proper guidance from the educated sections in important matter. As Jindal points out in the above IBN interview, we should listen to what the khap leaders are saying.
Ofcourse, when the government is ready to talk to terrorists and separatists, why is it taking an oppressive stand against the native people, who have legitimate concerns?
If any of the readers belong to North india, and have experience in the khap panchayats, please share your thoughts in the comments section of this article.
If there are any graduates who come from the khap villages, i request them to support the system and reform it from within, by understanding their issues and providing solutions.
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