Thursday, April 15, 2010

Honour killings - Are we protecting the honour or heading for a downfall?

"Hindu caste leaders in the northern Indian state of Haryana have given their backing to six people convicted last month in an "honour killing" case.The heads of 20 caste councils also demanded legislation to ban marriages between members of the same sub-caste." - BBC

Indian village proud after double "honor killing" - Reuters

How may people already lost their lives in these killing spree?

What is the meaning of honour? Webster define honour as "Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence". It is of two types; one is our own feelings and the second one is how society treats us. Which one is better? I will vote for the first one. If you are wondering why I consider the first choice as answer, then let me explain.

Before that I would like to ask one question. How you define crime? How you define what is good and what is bad? If you are saying that it’s all there in constitution, IPC or CrPC, then how these rules are written?

These rules are based on what society thinks; what is good and what is bad, not exactly what is good and what is bad - its all relative. In each and every decision making process what we are doing is - comparing an action with the existing laws of society and take a decision whether it is good or bad. Just like courts producing each verdict by comparing it with the existing rules. The only thing which matter is what the society thinks at the time of writing the law.

So what is right and what is wrong? The simple answer is if you are thinking that your action is correct then it is right and if you think its wrong, then it is wrong. But in majority of cases the thought of ours are not fully ours, it is heavily influenced by the way we brought up, our surroundings, in the society we leave etc. That’s why an act which is perfectly correct for us is extremely wrong for Europeans, Americans etc and vice versa.

But at the same time there are some things which are our basic rights. The first and foremost one is ‘freedom’ everything else is dependable on this one. If you look at the history there are certain persons who are respected us the greatest persons. If you are looking further to their life you can see that they are not ready to be bounded by the laws of society. It doesn’t matter whether it is Socrates, Rajaram Mohan Roy or Sri Narayana Guru, they tried to think beyond the narrow limits of society. Copernicus dare to question the existing belief, Amundsen, Scott, Tensing, Hilary, Darwin, Wright brothers etc dare to think and go beyond the societies limits.

But what will happen if we are not ready to give people the freedom to think? The society can’t move forward, they can’t grow after a certain limit. Every human begins who are attached with the society have an energy level, the maximum value is equal to the maximum value of the society, they can’t go after that. But if you are free then there is no limit. So what is this honour killing indicates? Let’s look at some basic facts.

Anyone in the world have any power to decide their birthplace? Parents? Locality? Gender? Religion? People don’t even have the power to choose their name!!! Then how can a person, who born in a low caste is different in social status than that of one in higher caste? If religious text says that there is no birth and death, the process of death is simply - soul removing his/her envelope and birth is soul is taking a new envelope, then what is the problem with the people who are the followers of the same system?

Now a days honour killing is always in the news. It’s sure that this is not a new phenomenon, but earlier there was no cut-throat competition in media industry. After the killing of lovers or married couples - who are belonging to different caste or religion; do you think that the society becoming a more respectful one? If this is honour, then why society doesn’t show it against rapists? After all rapists not even care about the age of victims. It doesn’t matter for them if it is a two year old child or eighty year old lady. In these cases why society doesn’t search for honour? Society have problem with a legal marriage or love affair but not with illegal hungry for sex???!!!

Society doesn’t have any problem with distorted sex ratio? No problem with millions of girls being killed before they born? If you are saying that proper education will curb this activity- then you are totally wrong, educated people are leading the way!!!

But a forward looking society can’t tolerate this. We need people who have the courage to think beyond – who can look beyond the shades and saw the bright light of Sun. That is the way for unlimited growth. Honour killing will not lead us to anywhere, no society can move forward if they are not ready to give freedom to their citizens. So before supporting honour killing think - do you want to go forward or backward.

Sajeev

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