Where the men call the shots

“We do not know what the law is,” he said on a recent boiling afternoon. “We only know what is decided by the khap panchayat. Here it is not the Supreme Court that decides. It is the khap panchayat that decides.”

For generations, these unelected councils of male elders have dominated life in many villages, mostly across northern India, exerting social control through edicts that govern everything from marriage to property disputes. But the councils are coming under growing national scrutiny as their extrajudicial rulings — especially those blamed for the spread of so-called honour killings — are challenging the concept of the national rule of law.

In recent months, an assertive Supreme Court has issued opinions condemning the councils as illegal bodies. Legal advocates are pushing for a comprehensive law establishing criminal penalties to deter the khaps from issuing their edicts.

Meanwhile, khap leaders are unrepentant and pushing their own agenda in Parliament by demanding alterations to make Indian marriage laws reflect their conservative traditions.

“They are mobilising for protests,” said Ranjana Kumari, a women’s rights advocate. “And they are capable of organising a very huge protest.”

The legal battle is another example of the growing pains in Indian society as the rippling influences of modernity collide with ancient beliefs and practices. Khap panchayats often seem to be trying to stop the advance of the modern world: some khaps have ordered bans on women wearing tight clothing and have even tried to ban the use of mobile phones by people in college or younger, since the devices are tools that couples can use for furtive contact.

Khap leaders contend that their councils create social cohesion and order, while providing speedier justice, in the absence of effective local government.

In the state of Haryana, khap panchayats dominate many villages and exert heavy influence on the political system. Much of Haryana is populated by Jats, a north Indian caste divided into subgroups known as gotras. Traditionally, villages are run by a particular gotra with its own khap panchayat, which adjudicates local disputes and upholds marriage customs, including the belief that men and women within the same gotra, and the same village, are considered brothers and sisters and are prohibited from marrying.

It is the khaps’ unyielding position on marriage, which they say derives from ancient Hindu texts, that has thrust them into the heart of a national controversy. Critics blame their edicts for directly or indirectly provoking honour killings of couples who marry within the same gotra or village. In other cases, social pressure has driven young women to commit suicide.

At a time when a younger generation of women is becoming more independent, many critics believe that the khaps are desperate to maintain traditional controls over women and property, which is intertwined with marriage.

“It’s all about social control and control of the girl,” said Kirti Singh, a lawyer who argues cases before the Supreme Court.  In Sisana, a farming village northwest of New Delhi, the local khap panchayat meets periodically on an open concrete platform in the village to consider various disputes. “It is a very sanctified place,” said Surender Dahiya (47), a member of the khap. “It is assumed no one will tell lies there.”

Dahiya and others in Sisana denied that the khap was an illegal entity, or that it ordered honour killings. He said the khap financed schools and gave cash to poor families. “If criminal incidents take place, a court will take years and years,” he said. “The khap will sit together and very quickly make a ruling.” Critics say local police officers and politicians sometimes work in tandem with the khaps. In some cases, the police have tracked down couples who had eloped, arresting the men on charges of kidnapping and returning the women to their families.

Since April, the Supreme Court has issued two lacerating rulings about honour killings and has described khap panchayats as products of a “feudal mentality.” “These acts take the law into their own hands and amount to kangaroo courts, which are wholly illegal,” the court wrote on April 19.

“The court tells them they are right,” Ishwar Singh (64), who lives in a village near Sisana, said of the intra-gotra marriages. “The court protects them. We are angry with that. If you are brother and sister, how can you marry?”

Kirti Singh, the Supreme Court lawyer, has drafted legislation that would categorise the khaps’ extrajudicial edicts, including those demanding social boycotts, as crimes of harassment, with punishments of up to 10 years in prison. The bill is expected to be considered by the Parliament in July. “We want to reiterate the right of people in India to enter into a marriage of their choice,” she said. Many people here in Sisana say the local councils, which have operated for centuries, will outlive legal and parliamentary challenges to their existence. “We keep a very close eye on our society,” Surender Dahiya, the khap member, said. “Social pressure does not have any legal sanctity. But it is a very powerful tool.”