HONOR

KILLINGS

WHAT IS HONOR KILLING?

An honor killing(also called a customary killing)is the

Murder of a family or clan member by one or more
Fellow family members or relatives.
It is believed in the Indian society that
A Girls Character Represents Her Family

The Prepetrators believe the victim to have brough

Dishonour upon the family or community.

Why Honor Killing ,not a Murder?

o Honour killing, by definition, is a murder whose
motive is to defend or preserve somebodys
honour.
o In Indian societies, a woman is considered to
reflect on her familys honour. In 99% of the
cases be the womens family who would
commit the murder. The removal of the
shame restores the familys honour.
o The parents also have the belief that they
have a right to kill their child as they have
given birth to them, so it should be legitimate

Reasons for Honor Killing

Utilizing dress codes unacceptable to the
family/community
Wanting to terminate or prevent a love
marriage or desiring to marry by own choice.
Engaging in certain sexual acts, including
those with the opposite or same sex.
Huge caste based discriminations
stratification of the society.

and

Honor Killings that happened in the last year

1. June 1, Bulandshahr: Mother arrested for killing her
daughter
Afroz, 20, from Abda village in Bulandshahr was killed by her own
mother Rubina after she refused to give up her relationship with a
boy. Afroz had been working for the Pulse Polio drive when the
incident took place. On the fateful day, Rubina, alias Bano, got into an
argument with Afroz regarding her romantic alliance with a boy. The
argument led to Rubina slitting Afroz's throat with a knife. After
receiving information on a police control room about a murder, police
raided
house
where
they found
Afroz's
body. to death for
2.
AprilRubina's
10, New
Delhi:
20-year-old
youth
crushed
loving a 16-year-old girl
Sagar's rotting body was recovered by police from an isolated place
in Sahibabad, after it was dumped there by the relatives of a minor
girl with whom the victim had been having an affair for the past one
year. Sagar had been beaten mercilessly by the girl's relative after
her brother-in-law spotted them together. They then confined Sagar
for some hours and took him to Sahibabad in their car where they
crushed him under the wheels of the car while the girl kept pleading
for mercy. All the accused have been arrested.

3. April 7, Chandigarh: Bodies of couple dumped in suitcases

Bahalgarh police received a call regarding two unclaimed suitcases
lying in a park, located on the GT road in Sonipat district. When the
suitcases were opened, police recovered the naked bodies of a man
and woman dumped separately in the two suitcases. While the
woman's body was intact and she wore glass bangles similar to those
of a newlywed bride, the man's limbs had been chopped and disposed
of in the suitcase. The police which is probing the crime is suspecting it
to be a case of honour killing.
4. February 15, Lucknow : 16-year-old girl sexually assaulted
and murdered
The police are looking into the possibility of honour killing in the
murder case of a minor girl in Kotwali area of Gonda district. The fact
that the girl's family did not inform the police about the murder made
the police suspicious. The girl, who had left home to relieve herself,
was found dead after half an hour. The girl's body was intact with no
injury mark but tests confirmed sexual assault.
5. February 13, Mathura: Girl burnt to death by mother and
brother
Neeraj Kumari's family was against her relationship with a youth from
the same village, Ajay, and fixed her marriage with another person. As
complications cropped up for the marriage, the mother and the brother

Recent Honor Killings in India

n April 3 2016: Mandya teen killed for having affair with Dalit

On

A 19 year old girl named Monica was found hanging in a

field.The police suspected as a Honor Killing because her body
was cremated by the time police arrived without leaving any
evidence.
Her family members were interrogated separately for hours
and there were many inconsistencies in their statements.After
a while,Monicas father and her uncles admitted of their
March
5 2016:
Girlcrime.
burnt alive by family in Rajasthan
involvement
in the
The woman from Dungarpur village of Rajasthan had
married a man of her choice against the wish of her family
members.
She returned home after 8 years of marriage, was burnt
alive in front of entire village.

 Honour killings have been reported in northern regions of India

(mainly in the Indian states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and
Bihar).
According to a survey done by the Delhi-based Indian
Population Statistics Survey (IPSS) in mid-2014, almost 695
homicidal cases have been registered as honour killings, in
India.

PUNJAB:
As per data compiled by the Punjab Police, over 200 honour
killing cases have been reported in the state between 2013 and
2015; 97 in 2013; 85 in 2014, and 56 in 2015.
It has been reported that the victims Prabhjot Kaur and Pradeep
Singh from Ferozepur, both students of Class 12 were shot dead
by five unidentified gunmen, when they arrived at a local school
in Amritsar for their board examinations.

HARYANA:
The situation in Haryana is the worst of all, the number
of cases mentioned in police records is around 160 but
the actual scenario is unimaginable.
Even as rural Haryana remains in the stranglehold of
the defiant caste panchayats, honour killings continue
in their most horrible form.

In a recent case , the family members of a girl allegedly

killed her and her teenaged lover and hanged them as
exhibits in their house for the village to see their "fate.
According to police, Monika (18) and her lover Rinku (19),
both from Jat families, were brutally killed for honour at
Nimriwali village, near Bhiwani.

BIHAR & JHARKHAND:

Bhagalpur in the northern Indian state of Bihar has also been
notorious for honour killings.
Nirupama, a 22-year-old journalist was found murdered at her
home in Jharkhand. Nirupama, hails from a Brahmin family, was
in love with a boy from another caste.

DELHI:
Capital city Delhi, for all its aspirations to be a truly international
cultural centre, has also seen three related honour killings
recently. And these murders were carried out by jeans-and T-shirt
wearing youngsters, not the dhoti-kurta-pagri clad caste leaders.
A man and his son were arrested for murdering a youth, who
allegedly had an illicit relationship with the man's daughter, as
told by police.

TAMIL NADU:
One more story of honour killing reported, but this time it is from
the Shivaganga district of South Indian state Tamil Nadu not from
North India.
In Shivganga, 20 year-old Megala and 24-year-old Sivakumar,
were told that they could not marry as they were related.
Despite Megalas love, her family married her off in June. She
eloped with Sivakumar ten days after the wedding. Her family

STATISTICS

3.33 6.67

90

Percentage of
people who
agree
legalizing of
Honour Killing?
Percentage of
people who
partially agree
legalizing of
Honour

80
70
60
50
40
30

74
51

Series 3

20
10

22
15

Chart showing number of people out of 120, who believe the reasons
for Honour killing in their state are these. Other reasons include,
Families of different beliefs, Love Marriage and Illiteracy.

ANALYSIS AND STORIES

HARYANA
a) People of Haryana have generally stressed that the main
reason for honour killing is marriage of people in the same
village or the gotra and also Inter-caste and Inter Religious
marriage.
b) Most of them have also mentioned that, the frequency of
them hearing such cases is very high.
c) A case has been posted by one of them which goes as
follows:
There is a village nearby my city where an SC guy married
an GEN girl. First they eloped for almost an year. Then when
they returned with a child, the khap panchayats allegedly
made them brother and sister and the baby was given to the
old parents of the boy. This was not the end ,later the guy
was murdered and then the girl hanged herself, so only
thing which was destroyed was the future of a child. Their
family was disturbed always ,their social connection (of the
boy's family) was cut, all their land holdings were sealed. The
Haryana govt. wont take actions because the old royal and

PUNJAB
a) People of Punjab have generally stressed that the
main reason for honour killing is marriage of
people in the same village or the gotra and also
Inter-caste and Inter Religious marriage.
b)Most of them have also mentioned that, the
frequency of them hearing such cases is very
high.
c) Most people also emphasized on the point that
both male and female are brutally murdered.

DELHI
a) People mentioned that the main reasons are intercaste and inter-religious marriage.
b) Lot of them also emphasized on financial gap
being the cause as Delhi is a metropolitan city.
c) Both are killed but people are more strict on
females.
There were stories like:
The boy was from a rich family and the girl was
from a different caste and poor family, they
eloped. The boy's family tracked the two down,
and killed the girl, and brought their boy home.
There was a case in which a girl was killed
because she became pregnant before marriage.

UTTAR PRADESH
a) People mentioned that the main reasons are intercaste and inter-religious marriage.
b) They also mentioned, marriage in the same gotra
being a prominent reason for murder.
Story by one of the UP resident:
This case happened in my village. Female was
eloped by male and they got married to each
other. They belonged to different castes. But case
was different because boys family got the girl
gang-raped by goons and girls family filed a case
against the boys family and also killed the boy.
Again boys family filed the case against the girls
family.

RAJASTHAN
a) People mentioned that the main reasons are
inter-caste and inter-religious marriage.
b)They also mentioned, marriage in the same
gotra being a prominent reason for murder.
c) Most of them mentioned that females are more
vulnerable for killing.
One guy from Rajasthan had details of the
concept of Marriage in the
same village or gotra. He said that, as per rule
in north India, a boy is not supposed to marry a
girl from upto the level of seventh cousin, while
the rule is upto fifth cousin for girls.

In, Eastern India, states of Bihar, Jharkhand

and Orissa, the main reason for Honour
Killing has been Inter-caste marriage while
some people have also mentioned marriage
in the same village or gotra and females
have been more vulnerable. The state of
West Bengal does not face Honour Killing
cases because from about a century ago
reformers have worked against it.
Few people from Madhya Pradesh had also
given the survey, which were similar to that
of Rajasthan except that both male and
female have been found to be equally
vulnerable in most cases, while the few
surveys from Gujarat showed that Inter-caste

SOUTH INDIA
ANDHRA PRADESH
a) People have emphasized on, Inter-religious marriage being
the main reason for Honour Killing followed by Inter- Caste
Marriage.
b) Both male and female are generally killed & Financial Gap
has also been a dominant reason.
A story from a resident is as follows:
A Rich business man who belongs to a higher caste has a
daughter who fell in love with a poor school teacher's son
belonging to a lowly caste, the Rich man came to know
about this when his daughter is talking to her lover in a
park. Then rich man sent rowdies to poor man's house and
threatened the parents. as the daughter is in deep love with
poor man, the rich man Killed the poor boy and married his
daughter to a NRI. This is the story of my uncle's neighbour
at a place Ananthapuram in Andhra Pradesh.

TAMIL NADU
a) Financial Gap between the families has been a prominent
reason.
b) Love Marriage, even though in the same caste has been
given another reason.
c) People have mentioned that male members are generally
killed.
There have been two stories of Chennai and both are similar:
Boy and Girl ran away from home and made Registered
marriage. After knowing this, the Father of the girl hired a
person and killed the boy. This happened in Chennai.

People of states like Kerala and Karnataka have

reported that they hear nil to negligible cases of
honour killing in their states.

CONCLUSION
We can conclude that honour killing, varies in
different parts of India, like it was abolished
about a century ago in Bengal, while practiced
heavily in Punjab and Haryana.
It is still being practiced in this modern India from
urban cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai etc to
the most rural and backward areas of India, so
clearly we cant say that illiteracy or
development is the reason for Honour Killing.
In rural areas, marriage in the same gotra is the
most dominant factor leading to honour killing
while in the metro cities, financial gap or other
factors like homosexuality or divorce etc are the
major factors.
So, it has something to do with the psychology or
the mentality of the people who feel, that their

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