Research Proposal On

An Analysis of Honour Killing and Khap Panchayats : With Special Reference to traditional And Modernity Debate

For Centre for the Study of Social Systems / SSS Jawaharlal Nehru University.

An Analysis of Honour Killing and Khap Panchayats : With Special Reference to traditional And Modernity Debate
Introduction:There is no doubt that Indian society is caste ridden and its every aspect of life deeply influenced by castes, subcaste's, clan (Gotra) etc. Indias society is facing socio-economic challenges due to youth those are thinking out of box to choose there life partners in resent past some decade specially . Because in North India the Socio-economic change can be observed in education, jobs, per capita income, growth in every sector and one reason of growth may be Delhi & NCR that also contributing much in socio-politico-economic life style changes even in villages. Some youth are not seems to ready to accept every marriage related taboos, they want to choose there partner according to there match and choice not according to social taboos such as caste, class, gotra (clan), religion, village exogamy, caste endogamy etc. Statement of Problem:As we are observing in media from last some time approx every day issues like Force Divorces, honour killing by families or Fatwas by Khap Panchayats, death sentence to Khap Panchayat members by court and protest of whole village and community against death sentence and they also boycott elections. Murder of newly wedded couples or murder of girls those fall in love, may boy belong to any caste, gotra, village, rich or poor etc shows the resistance by tradition redden society. And it mean not that boy will not suffer by any consequence of murders, Boys also being killed in many cases. In these cases old vs young ideological differences are clearly visible. So these murders and social boycotts are showing the resistance by families, societies, social institutions (Khap Panchayats). Khap Panchayats (Local Administrative bodies without legal liabilities, age old society governing system with values, norms and traditional thought.) are the parallel governing system specially in villages and also enjoying political support too. If we look at the regions that why some couples tries to violate the social norms then in journal we would see low sex ratio, female foeticide, constantly increasing number of eligible bachelors (Secondary citizen with in family and society), unemployment, modernity & globalization, effect of media, education, economic & historical reasons etc. Statement of Problem:- 2.
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Legal and constitutional vs cultural differences we can understand by Hindu marriage act 1955, Hindu succession act 1956, Special marriage act 1954 etc and honour killing, what constitute honour for villager, what gotra and why its more important then act, marriage, values, norms and caste rules and meaning of them for rural area. But other hand LGBT act 377, live in relationship and domestic violence act 2005 etc. are enforced by government and same time we can see the demand from North India(Rajasthan, Haryana etc.) to amend Hindu marriage act according to Gotra and to reduce marriageable age so it will be easy to control the couples according to caste rules/taboos etc. Hindu marriage act have provision to avoid five generation from father side, three from mother side to choose life partner but gotra have more obligation then it. So it will be interesting to understand Gotra vs Hindu marriage act.
Objective of Study:-

1.) To explain the socio-politico-economic factors leading to force divorce/ honour killing/same gotra marriag rules and modernitys influance etc. 2.) To explain the factor responsible for not following social norms by new generation. 3.) To show the relevance of study in understanding of new social compositions and trends regarding marriage, patriarchal control on women and on her sexuality, caste hegemoney and land relation with all this change. Research Methodology:1.) Hypotheses - Incompatibility between tradition and modern ethos leading to honour killing, force divorce, elopement, female foeticide etc. 2.) Theoretical orientation (a.)Structural functionalist approach would be better to understand the problem. (b.) Modernization theory - tradition & modernity dualism. 3.) Methods of data collection : (a.) Secondary sources. (b.) Activist and there work . (c.)Audio video sources. Scope and Limitation:- Limitation would be literature at some extend because there is less work at micro level but now various articles, books etc available those focus on related issues and problem. And scope would be to understand social system and its change with respect to modernity.
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References:1. Chowdhary, Prem; Contentious Marriages, Eloping Couples Gender, Caste, And Patriarchy In Northern India; Oxford university press.(2006). 2. Chowdhary, Prem; The Veiled :Shifting GenderEquations in Rural Haryana: Oxford university press(2004). 3. Kaur, Ravinder: Dispensable Daughters and Bachelor Sons: Sex Discrimination in North India; Economic and Political weekly(EPW) ,Vol-43, No-30,26 July-1 Aug 2008. 4. Kaur, Ravinder: Khap Panchayats,Sex Ratio and Female Agency; EPW, Vol-45, No-23, 5-11 June 2010. 5. Kaur, Ravinder: Across-Region Marriages: Poverty,Female Migration And the Sex Ratio; EPW,Vol-39, No-25 19-25 june 2004. 6. Yadav, Bhupendra; Haryana Raising, Critical Insider; EPW,Vol-35, No-50, 9-15 dec. 2009. 7. Karve, Iravati: Kinship Organization in India; Asia Pub. House(1968). 8. Singh, Yogender; Culture Change In India ; Rawat Pub.(2000). 9. Singh, Yogender; Modernization of Indian Tradition; Rawat Pub.(1986). 10. Uberoi, Patricia ; Kinship and Marriage in India; Oxford university press(1993). 11. Chandra, M. Pradhan; The Political System of Jats of Northern India; Oxford university press(1968). 12. Dabas,B. Krishan; The Political and Social History of Jats; Sanjay Parkashan(2001).