What the Khap ??
ShareThe title is a tribute to the outraged, hyperventilating mass media and its loyal followers on the subject of Khap panchayats.
In popular perception, Khaps are medieval,retrograde,dictatorial self appointed kangaroo courts found in the back of beyond, the remote (not anymore!) countryside of Haryana and UP. Outrage brews readily in the urbanite's head at the cruelty and apparant stupidy of their decisions. Even more outrage brims over when we hear of a ex chief minister (Chautala) and a sitting MP, also national flag hoisting champ (Naveen Jindal) come out and voice their opinion in defence of the Khaps.
The commonly discussed facts are that the Khaps frown deeply on women's inclusion in public life, on marriages in the same gotra (broadly the residents of the same village) and most modern, progressive changes in social life.
Scratch a little below the surface..What is important to a village farmer in Haryana, who is hundreds of miles from administrative instituions of the government and untouched by private sector enterprise? That he gets the maximum (or at least a fair) return on his professional endeavours in agriculture. Do you remember last year the sugar mills,through government manipulation, tried to pull down the minimum buying price of sugar that wouldve added handsomely to sugar mills' bottomline, but sent large hordes of small sugarcane farmers into poverty or een bankruptcy? How many of us even remember something like this happened..but we do remember the 2 day road blockage caused in delhi by farmers marching in and demanding reversal of the price policy. The person who led this rally, and eventually saved a lot of farmers by forcing the govt to reverse the policy was Chawdhury Mahendar Singh Takait, The most prominent of Khap leaders and president of Bhartiya Kisan Union.This is just one recent example of many fights for farmer's rights. When there is a land dispute or a property dispute in a village among neighbours, they have an option to go to the Khap or to the district administrative machinery for a resolution. Time and again, the Khaps have proven themselves to be faster, fairer and less prone to fall to temptation of exploiting the situation than the apparantly modern and systematic government machinery.
It is because of their proven capability and track record as an efficient administrator and judicial authority for material disputes that the word of khap is taken as law in the villages they operate in. They bring a sense of law and order to places which would otherwise have been completely lawlwss lands.
Now, problem is that with increasing urbanization and education of the country, the khaps are feeling outdated,increasingly irrelevant and are extremely insecure about their thinning support base. This is making them take extreme steps and start invoking ancient guidelines which they cannot justify in the current setup.
I think Navin Jindal is right in saying that the Khap as an institution has its place and merits. I would add that as lobby groups and as arbiters of material disputes, theyre fine as they are. What the government and judiciary ought to immediately do is quash their quasi-judicial authority over personal law matters like marriages, education, moral code etc. Khaps should not have any business meddling in personal affairs of people.
That's my two bits. Views welcome.
In popular perception, Khaps are medieval,retrograde,dictat
The commonly discussed facts are that the Khaps frown deeply on women's inclusion in public life, on marriages in the same gotra (broadly the residents of the same village) and most modern, progressive changes in social life.
Scratch a little below the surface..What is important to a village farmer in Haryana, who is hundreds of miles from administrative instituions of the government and untouched by private sector enterprise? That he gets the maximum (or at least a fair) return on his professional endeavours in agriculture. Do you remember last year the sugar mills,through government manipulation, tried to pull down the minimum buying price of sugar that wouldve added handsomely to sugar mills' bottomline, but sent large hordes of small sugarcane farmers into poverty or een bankruptcy? How many of us even remember something like this happened..but we do remember the 2 day road blockage caused in delhi by farmers marching in and demanding reversal of the price policy. The person who led this rally, and eventually saved a lot of farmers by forcing the govt to reverse the policy was Chawdhury Mahendar Singh Takait, The most prominent of Khap leaders and president of Bhartiya Kisan Union.This is just one recent example of many fights for farmer's rights. When there is a land dispute or a property dispute in a village among neighbours, they have an option to go to the Khap or to the district administrative machinery for a resolution. Time and again, the Khaps have proven themselves to be faster, fairer and less prone to fall to temptation of exploiting the situation than the apparantly modern and systematic government machinery.
It is because of their proven capability and track record as an efficient administrator and judicial authority for material disputes that the word of khap is taken as law in the villages they operate in. They bring a sense of law and order to places which would otherwise have been completely lawlwss lands.
Now, problem is that with increasing urbanization and education of the country, the khaps are feeling outdated,increasingly irrelevant and are extremely insecure about their thinning support base. This is making them take extreme steps and start invoking ancient guidelines which they cannot justify in the current setup.
I think Navin Jindal is right in saying that the Khap as an institution has its place and merits. I would add that as lobby groups and as arbiters of material disputes, theyre fine as they are. What the government and judiciary ought to immediately do is quash their quasi-judicial authority over personal law matters like marriages, education, moral code etc. Khaps should not have any business meddling in personal affairs of people.
That's my two bits. Views welcome.
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