Honour Killing - The Archaic Side of Modern India-

Honour Killing - The Archaic Side of Modern India

By Aditi D Joshi

India is one of the largest democracies in the world that is on the fast track of becoming a super power. Education, business, the arts, you name it, everything's changing for the better and at a lightning fast pace. The modern India, as some would like to put it, has supposedly shed all its inhibitions to pose for the arch lights as the next big thing.

At the very same time, there is another India. The India that has not progressed along or as its alleged messiahs put it 'protected itself from the bad influence of change'. It has been left somewhere in between, in the darkness of orthodoxy.

This place that someone even might find hard to imagine is actually a reality. A reality, that is not so far from the center of all activity that decides the country's fate. A reality, that threatens to tatter the image of the so-called modern India. A reality that strikes hard so as to make us think 'had we ever progressed'.

Honor killing, as it is most widely known, is a blot that is not that easy to hide or erase. It literally means killing to protect one's honor, but the ground reality only gives you a peep into what is going on in the proximity of the heart of the nation.

Marrying, loving or even liking a person within one's caste or otherwise is not tolerated by the family and the village. The discord is so much, so as to kill the family member involved. No, it's no act of rage; it is murder in cold blood. They don't feel any kind of pain, shamed or even guilt to have killed a loved one. Rather, they take pride in having restored the honor of their family.

These people, they are no aliens to progress or anything that me or you have access to. They are common people, like us. Then, what is it, that has made such an inhuman side of these individuals come to fore? The social conditioning has to be the answer. It has been ingrained in them to kill for the traditions that have been followed till date, whatever they are and irrespective of their being right or wrong.

But, knowing the problem is not enough because if it is ignored today, it will definitely infect our tomorrow as well. The only solution is education and removal of such supposed guardians of values who preach to kill. India needs to act and that too now; we need to change and that too now, and if it is not today, we will be doing nothing but continue to progress hypocritically only like we have done till date.

Having been party to a lot of experiences in life, this is my way to share a bit with you guys. so pour in, read, comment and discuss... let;s expand the pool and let knowledge an experiences flow!