These days the local newspapers are full of one case and one judgment, a sentence that was passed in court two days ago. It is a very big case and especially interesting for local media because it happened in Mehrana, a village in the district of Mathura, our district, so relatively close to us and because it was a very big crime. It happened however already twenty years ago.
In 1991 there was a girl in a small village. She fell in love with the neighbour’s boy. They wanted to marry but there was a problem: she was a higher caste girl and he belonged to one of the lowest castes. Their parents would never allow them to get married and so they made a plan. With the help of the boy’s cousin they ran away together. The village was in outrage and everybody was still talking about them when they returned, after only four days.
The village opened a meeting, a kind of village court to decide upon punishment for all three young people. The cousin’s involvement had been found out long before and the villagers found him just as guilty as the other boy. The girl had lost her honour and the honour of her family through their fault.
In this self-announced court, the village people, mostly elders, decided that the three should be hanged. Their sentence was carried out at the spot. The crowd started brutally beating them and even burned the genitals of the boys before hanging all three of them. A horrible crime. The girl’s father even took part in this honour killing.
The uncle of the young boy was the one who reported the case to the police. 54 people were accused and trialed for the past twenty years. In those twenty years 13 of them died, mostly of old age. Most of the remaining men are above 60 now and some are not in very good health situations. The court of Mathura now sentenced eight of them to death and 27 of them got a sentence for life.
This sentence is coming far too late. For 20 years, these people were out on bail. They should have been in prison for the whole time! I believe all of the sentenced people are going to appeal in High Court and in such cases a death sentence is mostly converted to a sentence for life imprisonment. It is, in my opinion, however good that the first and lowest instance, the court in Mathura, gave a very hard verdict because it gives a clear message to the rest of the society.
What is the meaning of honour here? What did this boy do to this girl that would really take anything away from her or her family? He loved her, that is all. Love is a divine feeling. It doesn’t see the caste of the other person. You can fall in love with anybody, you don’t ask for the caste before. We have heard of thousands of cases that happened in a similar way because of differences in society and the ‘honour’ that people associate with it. People want to control love but love cannot be controlled. It doesn’t see higher or lower parts of society or higher or lower castes and love has a very different definition of honour!
Related posts
Caste Discrimination in India’s Schools – Equality in ours! – 17 Jul 12
3 Groups of People who want to keep the Caste System and their Reasons – 20 Jun 12
5 Ideas how to get rid of the inhuman Caste System in India – 19 Jun 12
Daily Hypocrisy among Followers of the Caste System – 18 Jun 12
Legal Version of Honour Killing – Making your Children Outcasts – 22 Nov 11
Honour Killings due to Caste, Religion, Culture and Society – 21 Nov 11
No Respect for lower Castes in Hinduism? Become a Buddhist! – 3 Oct 11
Westerners supporting Caste System by pretending to be Hindus – 20 Sep 11
Hinduism Prohibits Lower Caste People from Entering Temples – 19 Apr 11
Lately I have been often in hospital as a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine got sick and needed doctors help.
There I saw an interesting situation – a young girl about eighteen years old in a wheelchair (lower part of her body was disabled, but this genetic issue was not the reason of her being in psychiatric clinic), was enjoying the company of a young man who was entertainng her by running in different speeds holding her wheelchair and she had to screem as she barely could supress loughter when he imitated sounds of a racing car when pulling her wheelchair with two wheels in the air.
Yesterday evening the following scene took place – a girl was siting in her chair inbetween two young men who were both interested in her. One of them was her boyfriend from outside hospital. The other young man was her new friend, a former patient and now also visited hospital in hope to win her attention. So there was a love trialngle.
The boyfriend was physically and mentally fit and to my estimate was too much inteligent for the girl. He expressed his compassion and superiority by kissing her in publics and the girl in the wheelchair could trust to have secure partnership. The oher young man, who was just freed from the clinics was emotionally rather instable and his apearance was not so smart. I had an impression he and the girl was in love with each other, but I am not sure if she would be more happy by giving up relationship with the current partner as the new friend allthough nice could not handle his emotions not talking about lifelong assistance to a disabled person.
So, Swami Ji, you are right that people can fall in love with anybody, but it is good to be detached enough to realise that physical life sets limitations.