Thursday, September 9, 2010

Honour or Dishonour in killing your loved ones?


Give them education and they will change!
Make them economically independent and they will change!
But they have not!
Brothers shooting sisters,
Mothers strangling daughters,
Grand-mothers killing grand-daughters,
Fathers arranging the death of their sons and daughters.

Is this what our education and age-old tradition has taught us? We boast of our rich culture and tradition, but does our tradition teach us to follow such acts of killing our loved ones for the so-called honour just because she/he has tried to tie the knot with the person of other gotra, caste or community. And, they call it honour killing as if the act is highly justified and was done to save the honour of the family. How can killing of the daughter or the son brings honour to the family and marrying the person of other caste and community results in dishonour. You can allow them go out and study, wear jeans and T-shirt, eat burger and pizza but they cannot wear modern thoughts, cannot breach the non-sensible, illogical customs and traditions. What an honour in killing your loved ones you gave birth, bought up, you played with just for a reason that she/he is engaged or gets married to a person who does not belong to your caste or gotra.

How can we forget that we have the tradition of Swayamvara where the daughters were supposed to identify the husband of her choice. Be it the swayamvar of  Ram-Sita, Nala-Damayanti, Prithviraj-Sanyogita. In such swamvaras, grooms from different castes were invited to participate and show their competence.

Why do we design some customs and traditions according to our whims and fancies without having any logic behind it. It seems our society is mentally sick and needs proper medication.

It is high time we should retrospect what we are doing and for whom. The motherhood, fatherhood, brotherhood and above all the humanity is at stake-‘Save it’.