HONOUR KILLING IN INDIA

Submitted By

Sanskar Pandey

UID – SM0119043

1st Year & 2nd semester

Faculty in Charge

Mrs. Preeti Priyam Sharma

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, ASSAM

GUWAHATI

May 31 , 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE NO.

1. Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01

1.1 Overview

1.2 Literature Review

1.3 Research Question

1.4 Scope and Objective

1.5 Research Methodology

2. Honour killing: Meaning and concept

3. Role of law
3.1. International Laws Relating To honor killing

4. Specific Triggers of Honour Killing

5. Cases of Honour killing in Modern India

6. Effects on the Society

 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

An honor killing is a homicide of a member of a family by the other member of a society,

who thinks that the concerned member has violated the principal of a community or a religion
in regards it has brought dishonor to the family. By the term “honorable” itself suggest that
these crimes are committed in the name of culture, tradition & various beliefs. And the major
atrocities are against the woman and girls. This is a kind of pre-planned murder by the
members of the family against the member who had bought shame to the family. Most of
these acts are triggered by the relatives, society and neighbor by whom the accused feel
provoked and do such a heinous crime. India is a democratic country and every citizen of the
country has their right to freedom and right to do every act which does not violate law. In a
society where voters are equal with none discrimination, Honour killing brings discrimination
wherever the loved one is taken into the account to bring the dishonour by selection the
person of the special caste. When the husband is of low range, it eventually reduces the status
and caste of the female family which induces the male members of the family to kill the girl.
But they forget that the girl is their child where status can be gained and but girl life can
never come back and caste is not precious than the life and love spent by the girl with them.

Honour killing: Meaning and concept

1
Honour killing is a custom and a tradition rather than religion. and mostly it is seen that
victim is women or a girl. There can be many reasons for the death “Honour killing is
defined as a death that is awarded to woman of the family for marrying against the parents’
wishes, having extramarital and premarital relationship, marrying within the same gotra or
1
Unni Wikam, In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame 14 (2008).
outside one’s caste or marrying a cousin from a different caste.” 2 Though religion can be
sometimes used to justify honour killings. Honour killing is a murder carried out to clean the
stained family honour, respect, chastity or to clean the tarnished honour, or the honour in
question.3 So here the murder is in the form of like purifying exercise. and according to them
this can be doe only by death of that person who had created a stain on their clan, Family.
The more brutal the killing the more complete will be the purification or the restoration of the
honour within the family. These killings result from the observation that defence of honour
validates killing a person whose behaviour dishonours their family or clan or community. 4 In
other words it can be interpreted the mechanism which is used for restoration of honour has
to be brutal enough to terrorize the other member of the family so that no any member of
their family even dare to do it.
The qualities required for men and women to be considered ‘honourable’ contrasted
dramatically. For men, honour is the condition of integrity that, if violated accidently or
otherwise, must be to at once and with violence if reputation is to survive. The quality
required for women in regard to honour is ‘shame’, particularly sexual shame. In Islamic
society is an ascribed status whereas masculinity is something achieved, masculinity should
be seen as process, something that by definition can never be permanently achieved because
the danger of being un-manned is always present through female misbehaviour. In order to
protect their shame and their men’s honour, women are expected to behave modestly. While
norms and rules about the women’s social comportment vary in various regions, they are
perceived to have direct effects on men’s honour. When a female member violates an honour
norm, the whole family experiences shame. Thus killing a wayward women is seen as an act
of purification for the family and sometimes not doing quickly enough is perceived to be
damaging to the family honour. We can also relate that Honour killing is like some other way
of practising masculinity. Honour killing is particularly the product of social interaction
among the members of societies who propogate patriarchy. The origin of honour killing is
extremely grounded in history and has been related by numerous scholars with dominant
patriarchal structures in human civilizations. 5
Ruggi (1998) states that honour killing is a complex issue that runs deep into the history of
society. The men of the family, clan, or tribe wish to control the reproductive power of a
women in a patrilineal society. The women were considered a factory for making men. So the
2
Abdullah Panniyankara, Honour killing in India, (May 14, 2020, 01:04 AM), www.civilsevicesindia.com.
3
Clementine Van Eck, Purified by Blood: Honour Killings amongst Turks in the Netherlands 8 (2003).
4
Shobharam Sharma, Honour Killing in India: Need for Deterrent Action , LawZ, Feb, 2011 at 15,15.
5
Amir H. Jafri, Honour Killing :Dilemma Ritual Understanding (2008).
honour killing is not only a means to control sexual power or behaviour, the issue of fertility,
or reproductive power also lies behind this behaviour.6

ROLE OF LAW
Each and every citizen of the country has its own rights. According to Indian Constitution,
rights is being guaranteed to every citizen irrespective of their caste, creed, colour, religion,
Gender. The constitution of India says that India is Secular State, where we have the Right to
adopt any religion and choose the life Partner of our choice ass well.
Honour killing is similar to that of homicide. Section 299 and 301 of the Indian Penal code,
1860 which means Culpable homicide not amounting to murder because the act of killing the
victim is made with the intention of kill them to bring the honour in the family. While section
300 deals with murder.
Section 3 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1857 states that every citizen shall become major after
attaining the age of 18 years. However later, the Supreme court had amended the Act and
changed that every citizen shall attain majority at the age of 21. According to the Hindu
Marriage Act every citizen has their right to choose their life partner after attaining the age of
majority. In that case, honour killing is a violation of it as it kills the victim for choosing their
life partner. No person shall be compelled to marriage and the same is done in honour killing.
If the victim does not accept the marriage arranged by the family, they are subjected to be
killed in the name of dishonour to the family.
Honour killings also violates Articles 14, 15 (1), 15 (3), 17, 18, 19 and 21 of the Constitution
of India. These killings violate the right to equality before law and equal protection of law as
these are mostly based on the lines of caste and judgements to kill the victims are given by
councils that do not hold any legal authority. It is also infringe the right against
discrimination as these killing are mostly directed towards women. These women are not
allowed to openly express their opinions about marriage due to the fear of family honour.
Also, the right to association of these women is infringed along with other rights. The victims
are deprived of their right to life, right to privacy and right to livelihood. Since these are
fundamental rights a writ can be passed, by the Supreme Court (article 32 of the Constitution)
or the High Court (article 226 of the Constitution), on their violation.

6
S. Ruggi , Commodifying Honour In Female Sexuality : Honour Killing In Palestine, Middle East Research
and Information Project (2008) (May 15, 2020, 03;30 P.M.), http://www.merip.org/mer/mer206/ruggi.htm.
The supreme court observed “to kill or physically assault a young man/woman who marries
against their wishes is wholly illegal”. 7 If someone is not happy with her daughter or any
other person he can do can socially cut off social relation there is nothing “honourable” in
Honour killing.
The law commission disapproved the proposal of government to amend section 300 of IPC to
include “honour killing ” within the definition of murder on the ground that the existing
provision are adequate to take care of the situation leading to such killings.
The law commission has proposed a legislation to declare al the khap panchayats who
indulge in this crime as unlawful. The probhition of unlawful assembly (Interference with the
freedom of matrimonial alliances) Bill 2011 proposes no person or any group shall gather
with an “intention to delibrate on, or condemn any marriage, not probhited by law, on the
basis that such marriage has caused a dishonour to their caste, religion or brought disrepute to
all or any of the person forming part of he assembly or the family or the people of locality
concerned”. Any violation of the bill will attract imprisonment upto 3 years and a fine upto
30,000. All offences under this act will be cognizable, non bailable and non compondable.
These cases will be tried in special courts preside over by Session Judge. The special court
can take suo moto cognizance of the case.
Every person has a right to live. The capital punishment is possible only when granted by
law. In cases where the Khap Panchayats have compellingly separated married couples who
are of eligible age to get married, these have violated the provisions of the Indian
Constitution. The Indian Majority Act, Section-3, 18578, states that every person domiciled in
India shall attain the age of majority on completion of 18 years and not before. Unless a
particular personal law specifies otherwise, every person domiciled in India is deemed to
have attained majority upon completion of 18 years of age.

As we already know that ‘Honour killing’ are not so different from the homicide; so we have
already the following section of Indian Penal Code, 1862, to punish the perpetrators behind
the honour killings. Those can be mentioned as follows:-

Section 299-304: Penalizes any person guilty of murder and culpable homicide not
amounting to murder. The punishment for murder is life sentence or death and fine.

7
Armugan Seevai V. State of Tamilnadu (2011) 6 S.C.C. 405(India)
8
Indian Majority Act, 1875
 Section 307:- Penalizes attempt to murder with imprisonment for upto 10 years and a
fine. If a person is hurt, the penalty can extend to life imprisonment.

Section 308 :- Penalizes attempt to commit culpable homicide by imprisonment for

upto 3 Years or with fine or with both.

Section 120A and B:- Penalizes any person who is a party to a criminal conspiracy.

Section 107-116:- Penalizes a person for abetment of offences including murder and
culpable homicide.

Section 34 and 35:- penalizes criminal acts done by several person in furtherance of
common intention.

Also along with that the perpetrators in honour killing can be punished under the various
article of Constitution of India. We Can see that the “Honour killing” are the violation of the
following constitutional provision like articles 14 9 , 15(1)10 & (3)11 , and 21 12
of the
constitution of India. Honour Killing violates the women right to live, right to move freely,
right to equality and right to security. Hence the ‘honour killings’ can also be combated with
the constitutional provisions too.

Also with the system of joint liability must be introduced in the case of ‘honour killings’.
Normally there are groups involved who firstly orders for killings in the name of ‘honour’(for
eg. Khap panchayats) and secondly the execution of it is taken by other persons. So by
introduction of the ‘joint liability’ system both (i.e. persons giving orders and executors) will
be equally liable and this will be efficient to reduce the “honor killing”. Also we can seek
amendments in the sections of Indian Evidence Act, 1872, by which the ‘burden of proof’
can be transferred over the family members over whom the guilt of honour killing has been
bestowed on.

Cases of Honour killing in Modern India:-

Case Study of Punjab:

9
“The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the
territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth”
10
 “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of
birth or any of them”
11
“Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children”
12
 “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”
The main thrust of the study is to conduct the comprehensive analysis of various dimensions
and attributes of honour killings in Punjab. The primary part of the study has been carried out
by employing content analysis, a method of qualitative and quantitative data analysis which
aims at analysing the content of documents, i.e. books, newspapers, magazines and other
forms of written documents.
As honour killing is perceptibly a sensitive, bigoted and introvert issue attached to the honour
and the social status of the concerned families, people belonging to both sides. Therefore, 100
sample cases of honour killings occurred in the state from 2005 to 2012 and documented by
The Tribune Newspaper have been taken into consideration.
Results:
Punjab is one of the states where there is very frequent occurrence of the incidents of honour
killings. The sociocultural subsistence of Punjab comprises the patterns of semi-tribal and
patriarchic society, i.e. most of population residing in rural areas and pursuing agrarian-based
occupations; patronage to social traditionalism and cultural conformism in spite of rapid
economic and infrastructural development; dominance of jat-sikhs in the social, economic
and political spheres. In the region, honour based violence, and honour killings are not a new
phenomenon. A thorough observation reveals that the term “Honor” means much significance
in the society particularly the jat Sikhs. The word honour depicts very comprehensive
connotations in Punjab and it is considered as a very significant constituent of socio-cultural
values. Traditionally, zarr (wealth), zoroo (women), and zameen (land) are considered as
three integral constituents of honour in this region and there have been historical traditions of
pursuing violence and executing killings for reinstating the honour in case of an assault on
any of the three. Even the connotation of honour and honour killings related to women is
multidimensional. One aspect is that if the woman of the family is disrespected, teased,
harassed or exploited sexually by other man, it is considered as attack on the honour of male
family members and it probably causes violence against the accused which may result into
his killing as well. The other aspect of it is if a women establishes extra-marital relations with
another man it would result into assassination of his honor with other man. The another form
of honor related violence if a girls establishing a romantic or sexual relationship with any
boy. It becomes more aggravated if the boy with whom the girls establishes a relationship is
of the other religion or lower caste.

Caste-Wise Analysis of the Accused

It has been observed that honour killings are more frequently practiced by the Jat-Sikh
community in Punjab. While conducting a thorough content analysis of the 100 selected
cases, caste of the accused has been known in 87 cases. Among these cases, Jats are found
accused in 80 cases. In 06 cases, the honour killings are practiced by the Khatris; while in 01
case, a dalit has been found accused.
Caste wise analysis of the accused
Caste of the Accused Percentage
Jats 91.95
khatris 6.89
Dalits 1.14

Reasonably, several socio-psychic attributes can be observed behind this trend among Jats.
The Jats historically represent the tribal socio- cultural attributes which are dominantly based
on patriarchal social set up. Furthermore, the Jats represent several socio-cultural notions of
the Muslim orthodox societies such as Mughals and Pathans, which they have borrowed,
adopted or persuaded while co existing with them in Punjab since centuries.
The Jats, who acquired social and political influence in Punjab during the Sikh Rule (under
the Misaldari system and later Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule), by overpowering various
Muslim clans, had ingenuously carried their patriarchal socio-cultural traditions as well. Still
in present times, being called saala (brother of the wife) and sahura(Father of the wife)
considered as highly abusive words in Punjab, especially among Jats, which may generally
result into verbal altercations or even violent confrontation between the caller and the called.
Moreover, majority of the Jats are farmers, living in rural areas and are illiterate or
semiliterate. Living in rural segments makes them more socially endogamous. Thus they
assume pre-marital relations of their daughters, especially with males of inferior castes, as
their uncompensable dishonor in the society.

Affiliation of the Killers:

The study asserts that in 64 per cent cases, father of the girl is among the persons declared as
prime accused of honour killing. Further there is direct involvement of brother/s in 36 per
cent cases. The noteworthy concern is that in 12 per cent cases the mothers of the girls are
directly involved in the execution of killings their daughters and their paramours or even
legal husbands. Besides that, the parental or maternal uncles of the girls are involved in the
incidents of honour killings in 28 per cent cases. Quite surprisingly, there are other associates
i.e. family friends, friends of girl’s brothers etc. who are allegedly found involved in
executing honour killings. Another tragic concern is that even contract killers are hired in 16
per cent cases by the families of the girls to execute killing of their own daughters.
Relationship (with deceased girl) Percentage
Involvement of Father 64
Involvement of Brother/s 36
Involvement of Mother 12
Involvement of Paternal/Maternal Uncle/s 28
Involvement of other Associates* 08
Involvement of Contract Killers 16

The direct involvement of fathers in killing their own daughters in 64 per cent cases is a
noteworthy concern. The fathers, the brothers and even the mothers murder the girls and their
partners first-handedly. Moreover, the involvement of paternal and maternal uncles, family
friends expresses the collective community support to the practice of killings for honour. The
involvement of contract killers has been observed in those cases in which the couples elope
or get married without the consent of girls’ families. It has also been observed that the cases
in which couples are caught in compromising conditions and killed on the spot, majorly the
killings are executed by the family member/s.
Noticeably, none of the family has been visibly found having any harsh criminal background.
In a number of cases, the alleged accused comprised educated, employees, urbanized,
baptised sikhs with no previous criminal, anti-law or anti-social profile. It corroborates that
the process of urbanisation, advent of education and the connectivity of people to Western
world through massive immigration has not changed the mind-set of the people. The impact
of Sikhism has not much succeeded in changing the patriarchic pattern of the society and
diminishing the caste impact in the establishment of matrimonial relationships.

Causes of Honour Killings:

Alleged Cause Percentage
Inter caste relationship 44
Relationship within same village 28
Family intolerant to Relationship 28
The data corroborates that inter-caste relationships between females and males emerge as the
main cause of the honour killings in Punjab.

The incidents where inter-caste relationship has emerged as the main cause possess majority
of those cases where the girls belonging to jat-sikh families maintained relationships/caught
in compromising condition/eloped/secretly married to the boys belonging to the dalit
community. But a number of cases have been found where the jat-sikh families have
executed honour killings when found their daughters establishing relationships with boys
belonging to castes other than the dalits.

The findings of the study further divulge that there is seldom any tolerance for the girls
carrying relationships or willing to marry with the boy of their own village. The semi-tribal
sociocultural pattern of Punjab, especially continuing in its rural areas, expects and hence
compels the girls and boys of same village not to establish any pre-marital or matrimonial
relationships with each other. There is hardly any practice of marrying the girl into the same
village among any castes, clans, communities living in any part of the region. Moreover,
there is minimal tolerance for love-marriages and hence arrange-marriages are considered as
most ideal marriages in the society. Reasonably, when the girls and boys belonging to same
village wish to marry each other, they become the victims of double jeopardy. Firstly, the
family members are not at all willing to marry their girls in the same village; and secondly,
these marriages, acknowledged as love-marriages, are not acceptable to the families of girls.

CONCLUSION

The eradication of honour killing requires a serious intervention in the status quo. Equal
gender relations have not yet been achieved and violence still exists in the name of honour.
Therefore, it is the state’s and the society’s responsibility to protect the human rights of its
citizens, to avoid honour killings, to create possibilities and opportunities for the people
concerned to break free and to find protection, support and aid. It is to be suggested that
honour killing-like social evil cannot be just eliminated through law alone; rather almost
every substitution social, economic, political and cultural will have to be sensitized against
this crime; no doubt law could only be one of the important tools to fight this heinous
practice. The usual remedies to fight such social tragedy are required for immediate
sensitization; police officials, law enforcement agencies, setting up women police stations for
counselling women victims and civil administrations. However, constitutional law and
international provisions fail to tackle this menace. It also fails to give justification as to why
such a crime is rampant even in the contemporary times when there are abundant provisions
for the protection of individuals. It is strange that even after the provisions of CEDAW and
various human rights provisions to eliminate violence against women; individuals continue to
be the victims of murders in the name of honour. If some person in the family is not happy
with the marriage done by the young men/women, the maximum they can do is to cut off the
social relationship with them and honour killing does not bring any honour to the family. But
the people in the family do not understand this fact. Life is a creation of god, birth and deaths
should be decided by him. Where a person is brought in the earth by the god, it is in his hands
to take away from this earth. Family is important but family by killing a member is not
important. It is very much secured to stop honour killing as it is the life decided by the couple
and it is in their hands to either live together or get separated. No person has the right to take
away the life and liberty of another. It is always good to live the life to the maximum with
full of joy and happiness because the next moment of life is not predictable. So, it is better to
follow the policy of Live and Let Live.