Katta panchayats in particular and those who support these inhuman practices or remain mute spectators in general, should get the right message that no one can take the law in their hands. A family is forced to obey the self-styled law and is boycotted from the community merely for defying its dictates. Ironically, these obnoxious panchayats are functioning in a state that boasts of Periyar’s social Justice and secular ideals. In this age of globalisation when we consider the world as a single family and try to bridge the gap, the katta panchayats widen the gap among people by creating gulfs through their irrational dictates.
Over the recent years, the katta panchayats prompted by the PMK, in the guise of maintaining the honour and pride of their community, have issued the most grotesque, barbarous and extremely disturbing diktats. Moreover, there is total absence of law enforcement. The police is also to be blamed for not taking action against these illegal panchayats. Recent violent incidents show Tamilnadu, otherwise a progressive state, in poor light. Despite the state’s modernisation, and rapid progress, these mindless killings are giving an impression as if we are still living in a medieval period. Katta panchayats are out of place and need to be strictly dealt with by the government of Tamilnadu. It is a shame that the politicians see in katta panchayats a dependable political tool and vote bank. Unless and until laws accurately define and punish these acts, katta panchayats will continue to brew a poisonous cocktail of crime, ignorance and bigotry.
In fact, katta panchayas have no legal standing and should not be allowed to function as a parallel judicial system. Self-appointed moralistic organisations have no place in a democracy. Our political parties can cultivate or tolerate them for their narrow political ends only at the cost of rights and freedoms guaranteed to people by the Constitution. Despite the state’s modernisation and rapid progress, the dictates of PMK and its subsidiary katta panchayats are giving an impression that we still live in a medieval period. Katta panchayats are out of place and need to be strictly dealt with by the government. Modern youth, especially women, should boldly come forward to fight against the feudalistic mindset and misdeeds of the katta panchayats.
My Letter to the Hindu dated 19-06-2013
The editorial, “Violence in disguise” (June 18) — on a young caste-Hindu woman from Dharmapuri deserting her Dalit husband under pressure from casteist forces — is a right step towards building public opinion against katta panchayats responsible for the ever-increasing violence against women and the socially marginalised Dalits. It is shocking that such panchayats exist in the Dravidian ideology-driven State of Tamil Nadu. In recent years, katta panchayats have issued grotesque and disturbing diktats. Since the dominant community which controls land and muscle power and is highly patriarchal in its view hegemonises such panchayats, they are anti-woman and anti-weaker sections. No political party has shown the courage to challenge them. In fact, politicians see in katta panchayats a dependable vote bank.
For your Reading, The Hindu Editorial dated 18-06-2013
Violence in disguise
Where coercion fails, persuasion might succeed. But social groups and community leaders often use a combination of the two, a kind of coercive persuasion, to ensure that individual members do not violate social mores while making life choices such as those relating to work and marriage. Recently, rural Tamil Nadu was witness to a case of a woman deserting her husband to return to her familial home, after her marriage triggered violence between her caste Hindu community and her husband’s Dalit community. What should have been a simple choice for two individuals to make was turned into a raging casteist campaign with leaders of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, a caste-based party, warning women of the Vanniyar community not to be “taken in” by Dalit men wearing “jeans, T-shirts and fancy glasses”. Even while informing the court she wanted to live with her mother, and not her husband, the young woman made it known this was not because she loved her husband less, but because she was shocked by the violence her marriage had triggered. She seemed prepared to sacrifice her love for what she must have seen as a greater social good: peace between the two communities, and quiet for her family.
The case is another reminder of the reality of caste in rural India, where the law and the law enforcers are no protection against the writ and the might of village elders and community heads. Across the country, old men who owe their position to feudal custom and traditional authority, and who therefore believe they are above the law of the land, constitute kangaroo courts (known as katta panchayats in Tamil Nadu or khap panchayats in parts of north India), which not only order social boycott or expulsion from the village, but also use coercion and force to enforce their diktats. Marriages outside the caste are frowned upon, and the whole family faces ostracism. This is especially so when it is the woman who belongs to a caste higher in the social hierarchy. Feudal values of honour and betrayal enter the equations of such marriages. Worryingly, newer forms of representative authority, especially politicians and parties with a casteist agenda, are seeking to ally with these extra-legal entities. Their attempt seems to be to accentuate existing social divisions and mobilise support through caste polarisation. Unfortunately, the civil administration in Tamil Nadu appears incapable of dealing with these katta panchayats. Unless the government takes a serious view of the legal transgressions of such bodies, instead of condoning or ignoring them, rural India will continue to be witness to tragedies similar to the one that unfolded in Tamil Nadu.
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