Of Khap Diktat's and Deobandi Fatwa's – some thoughts

The recent developments in Haryana involving the disturbing rise of Khaps or caste based community networks and their kangaroo courts have been noticed with much anxiety across the social and political spectrum. The main argument which emerged amidst the cacophony was the role of the state and civil society in negotiating and reconciling between the individual rights and group rights.

While what could have been an interesting exercise for various social science thinkers, policy framers and analyst, the cold blooded and dastardly killing of couples has sullied any meaning intellectual skulduggery.

This crisis also witnessed certain sections of the society who strongly feel the need to revisit the existing nomenclature governing Hindu marriage Acts and incorporate the demands of the aggrieved groups in wake of eroding community rights and demands. Madhu Kishwar in her recent article (A Question of Balance, Times of India, 18 May 2010, Page - 18) very rightly questions the outburst and attempts to brush aside demands from social groups to incorporate changes in consonance to their customs and tradition. At the same time this doesn’t mean endorsing killings of any kind orchestrated by Khaps in Haryana, but an application of law that is all encompassing and takes note of prevailing customs and traditions.

Kishwar confronts the present discourse fanned by ‘modernizers’ and ‘progressive groups’ about the inherent contradictions that have percolated from top down in the Indian state and its poor track record in addressing few but grave anomalies in the application of secularism and laws concerning individual rights. The Indian Constitution had envisaged that the state shall impose a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), but the deliberate attempts of earlier regimes not only has ensure continued subjugation of women but has led to evolution of a convoluted form of secularism in a heterogeneous country.

So by this logic women irrespective of their location in the society and primordial identity are subjected to a secondary position due to the endorsement of an oppressive and exploitative patriarchical order. Icons like Shah Bano or Banwari Devi have been very swiftly relegated to the dustbin of history while the ‘activists’ of the ivory tower deeply enmeshed in their upper class prejudices debate about landmark judgments and on attack on pub going by fringe groups. It is understandable that justice for late Priyanka Mattoo or Jessica Lall must be delivered but what is baffling is the utter indifference of these armchair gender rights enthusiasts towards the large scale violence and oppression of women in the countryside. As Kishwar contends that ‘when one community seeks constitutional guidelines to protect what they consider as their personal laws, how can others not be extended the same benefits’?

This may be disturbing and sound repulsive for a section of the society who are part of the new class of the rising global Indians, who have utilized moderns tools and technology and are well integrated into the globalized world order through personal, social and professional links. They would like to believe that such traditional identities and institutions are redundant in an age where people like them chose their partners in a shopping mall, multiplex, universities, work place or surfing through the digital networks.

These developments call for a debate as to who should represent "what" and what norms should be adhered to in dealing with cultural norms in a heterogeneous society. While this is not to deride legitimate grievances of some social groups about the alleged misrepresentations of their faith and values, the Indian state also envisages provision of marriage under the Special Marriage Act exists to legalize marriages of those who wish to not toe their community’s line nor adhere to customary practices. This is a significant feature since there are innumerable couples tying the knot cutting across caste, religion, sects or linguistic affiliations. Moreover custom concerning matrimony varies every hundred miles in India, for example cross cousin marriages in the south would be considered an anathema in the north.

Similar concerns emerged when the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband fatwa regarding women working in the proximity of men without the veil. Earlier similar fatwas were issues on a range of issues like donning the purdah or photo identity cards for voters, based on interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. The standard argument which is extended is that in an age of globalization members of various socio-cultural groups are losing their moorings and hence there is a need to build bridges with those whom they deem as drifters/cultural vagabonds in order to bring them back to their faith.

The conventional justification to such acts are that there is a need for spiritual and religious anchor and such diktats are seen as enlightening the present generation of Muslims. It is needless to state that the role of activists and media are frowned upon on the grounds of their role in alleged biases and alleged support to the Eurocentric discourses on Islam.

In this context kishwar also contends the role of the Indian state and its intervention to force its citizens to discard practices and kinship values simply because they are traditional and rather urges restraint as long as they are not imposed through force, threats or violence.

It may be noted that local politics should not be seen in isolation from national politics and that symbolic mocking at the assertions of nondescript Khap leaders or Fatwas of Maulanas may have become a norm in the television studios. At the same time India's anglicized middle class who usually complain about the politics of assuaging the ‘sensitivities’ of the electorate continue to display an inexplicable silence towards the need to implement the Uniform Civil code. Perhaps this also explains the prevailing ambiguity and anxiety in negotiating with sanskritization, westernization and modernity of tradition.

Hence while every group has the legitimate right for self preservation, they must ensure that they display adequate social tolerance towards its members who want to go the other way and at the exercise moral persuasion and not subject them to violence and social censorship.

Acknowledgment
1 - Image of Khap - IBN
2 - Image of the Deoband Conclave - The Outlook Magazine