Casteism : A Barrier for Marriages in India

“In the name of family and caste honour, the act of honour killing, which truly has no honour in it, is the most degrading human act.”

The rigidity of caste system in India stands as a very big problem in various aspects of Indian society. And the most speedily rising problem of Casteism is to be analyzed by looking at the large numbers of reported deaths of the couples only because they dared to marry outside their caste and without their family’s consent. The family members who could not first approve and accept a member of their family marrying outside their caste , thus giving them death sentence. Well such daring acts are not accepted by a large number of people in India, irrespective of their class and place of living even in the twenty-first century. The ideology of casteism is so deep-rooted in the India Society that even blood relatives are not spared. The defense given to kill own family members is preserving the honour of the family and tribe by ending the life of the one, who bought ‘disrepute’ to the whole family by marrying someone from another caste, irrespective of the fact that every individual has the fundamental right to marry.

Therefore, the paper while throwing light on a few real incidences of honour killing, puts forth the problems in the Indian Society and the role desired by the Law-makers and citizens of the Nation, for carving out the shame of Honour killings due to Casteism..

The words ‘honour killings’ and ‘honour crimes’ are being used loosely as convenient expressions to describe the incidents of violence and harassment caused to the young couple intending to marry or having married against the wishes of the community or family members.