Till Khap Panchayats do them part

Every year,around 100 legitimate marriages in Haryana are annulled by Khap Panchayats,but successive governments have refrained from dealing with it.....

There are more than 500 policemen protecting a dozen members of the Gehlawat family in Dhrana village of Jhajjar district. They are being shielded against their own neighbours,who have asked them to leave the village,as their son Ravinder has dared to marry a girl of his own gotra. Despite the presence of a huge police contingent and regular assurances from the district administration,the family is jittery. Ask them about their discomfort and they give the example of Ved Pal 23 who was lynched a week back in a village in Jind district for allegedly committing the same crime. Pal had come to take his wife back,armed with a High Court order. The court had also sent a Warrant Officer with him. But even the presence of police could not prevent his death.

These are two of the recent instances of justice delivered by the notorious Khap Panchayats in Haryana. A Jat social structure of medieval times,the Khap is a collective panchayat of several villages or castes. Each Khap is governed by a sect of brotherhood,which means that conjugal relations between a set of gotras within that particular Khap are barred. Ravinder had invoked his Khaps ire by marrying a girl who belonged to Kadiyan gotra. The norms of Kadiyan Khap of the 12 villages which included Ravinders deemed Kadyian and Gehlawat to be from the same family and for them,Ravinder and his bride were brother and sister.

It is estimated that every year,around 100 legitimate marriages are annulled by the concerned Khap Panchayats.

Two years back,Sonia and Rampal of Jhajjar district eloped to get married. They returned to their village after several months. The Khap Panchayats verdict was that the couple and their families could live in the village only if Sonia aborted her child and publicly accepted Rampal as her brother. Similarly,when a couple eloped to Surat,the Khap Panchayat pressurised the girls family to register a case of abduction against the boy. The police traced the couple. They were brought back and separated.

Over the years,successive governments have shown feebleness in dealing with this issue. These Khaps are headed by local Jat leaders. The politicians depend on their support during elections. Some Khaps have a size as huge as 84 villages Satrod in Hisar or over one lakh people Meham in Rohtak.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda says,These are social situations. If we take any rash step,it can have an adverse impact on the law and order situation in the state. We have assured the concerned families that they will be protected. But this protection is often futile as the case of Ved Pal shows. Surajbhan,the Warrant Officer who was the eyewitness to his death,claims to have seen nothing. Even Pals bride apparently under pressure from family and villagers claims to have been abducted by Pal.

The biggest problem which the administration faces is that these panchayats have overwhelming local support. In Ravinders case,the villagers amongst themselves decided that anyone who talks to the family will be fined Rs 21,000, said an official of the Jhajjar administration.

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The members of Khap Panchayat feel that far from being arbitrary,their dictums are based on sound logic. Ratan Singh,a member of Kadiyan Khap,says,Our system goes back to ancient times. Villages were formed because people agreed to live together. To facilitate this,the idea of brotherhood was conceived. Its not being imposed. When the families agreed to live within these villages,they knew these norms. There is no point complaining now. Also,there is scientific evidence that discourages marriages within the family as it leads to birth defects.

The argument is not convincing,as the idea of a gotra differs from Khap to Khap. In Ravinders case,a marriage between Kadiyan and Gehlawat is barred. But the same is allowed in his brides village in Panipat.

Sociologists say lopsided development in Haryana where areas falling under the NCR have progressed and the interiors have remained backward is to be blamed. The governments attempt to bring about an egalitarian structure by nominating Dalits and women in statutory panchayats has also failed. Khap Panchayats exclude women from participation. The statutory panchayat can take care of government schemes,but we cannot allow their interference in matters of kinship, says a Khap member.