Ayushi Singh
Political Science
July 2025
The practice of honour killings in India is a serious interplay between caste and patriarchy and conservatism in their culture, the pride of the family and the society take precedence over the freedom of the individual and the rights defined in their constitution. These are not merely killings where people who have married one community with another or what is termed as self choice marriages are killed but are significantly based in the strict adherence to caste endogamy and gender norms particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. Such violence is still justified and enforced by extra-legal entities such as Khap Panchayats and more than often, with the implicit backing of political and institutional influence. Although there is constitutional guarantee that people are equal, have liberty and cannot be discriminated, there is a low force of law as a result of lack of direct legislation, bureaucratic lethargy and social collusion. Such situations arise as an institutional failure to break patriarchal and caste based systems of power. In order to combat this systemic violence, India needs to move beyond unspecific laws on crime, and come up with specific laws on the ground, and must put law enforcers and the judiciary under accountability, recognize law enforcers through
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