Friday 10 April 2015

To all media reporters who falsely dragged Khaps in recent case of two dead bodies of a couple found stuffed in trucks at NH1!

Dear reporters,

Read your story on two dead bodies found on NH 1. The reporting is good as u have covered the necessary information but the para in the end puzzles one.

You have mentioned, rather alluded such incidents to khaps and have labelled them as against inter caste and inter religious marriages. I request you to please understand khaps. There has not been a single evidence against khaps for being such. Rather, to the contrary,the areas that have khap organizational practice, have maximum inter caste marriages.

A survey says that after Kerala, Haryana and Punjab leads in inter caste marriages. If you demand, I can try to locate a copy of this survey. With inter caste, it means a upper caste girl marrying a lower caste boy, as is govt's definition of inter caste marriage. , and not the other way,

Khaps are openly against marriage within same gotra and marriage within same village. No pretensions, Khaps have deposed the same in the Supreme court on it. But khaps are not against inter caste and inter religious marriages. At a sarva khap meeting in Jind, headed by retd. Gen. DP Vats, it officially declared and urged people to go for inter caste marriages. I believe, khap areas are the only rural areas of this country that have no issues on inter caste marriages. In rest of rural India, inter caste marriage is still a taboo. Instead of appreciation, we are getting brickbats.

Khaps have no role in killing couples. In this case in Supreme Court, Shakti Vahini, the petitioner NGO has produced not a single evidence. If you have any evidence, please share. I belong to this area and emphatically state that Khaps have a role in reducing violence, not abetting it. Khaps are harbingers of peace in any region. It works on principles of non-violence since ages. The panches solve issues with folded hands and consensus.

Such reporting alienates whole community. At times, we feel that it is a slander campaign by urban middle class. Khaps belong to rural areas with participation by people belonging to working classes. This is seen as a threat by urban middle classes and that's why such campaigns. There is something of this type, as I can not fathom any other reason for such biased reporting.

Such slander campaigns led to alienation of Sikh community from rest. It led to militancy in Punjab and demand for a separate state.

We do not mind facing truth. we are openly saying the facts in court, but what you are saying is just opposite of truth. A 1911 panchayat has openly endorsed inter caste marriage. You can access the record from National archives. I have a copy too. In Indian culture , in those days, endorsing inter caste marriage was unthinkable, but khaps did so.

In khap areas,historically, there have never been bonded labor; people have been pure vegetarian; practice widow remarriage- an exception to the entire country; sports culture; less brahmanical rituals and exploitation; and many other distinctions. Its a highly democratic institution. Please try to learn about it.

I wish you can avoid mentioning things without verification.

Courtesy: Diwan Singh,

No comments: