The number of cases in which the totally unconstitutional caste panchayats have openly defied the law of the land by issuing illegal diktats has increased manifold. In Haryana today, rapid capitalist transformation is accompanied by a regressive feudal consciousness. As education and political awareness spread among Dalits, women and backward sections, alongside there is a massive consolidation of caste (khap) panchayats in defence of the status quo. The number of cases...

By scraping and bowing before khap leaders and agreeing to hold aloft their frayed flag of patriarchy, youth icon and Congress MP from Kurukshetra Naveen Jindal may have staved off a siege on his home by the violent keepers of middle-ages morality. But other MPs and MLAs who represent areas where the khap writ runs have now been warned that the lawmakers face khap ire if they don't make their...

IN 2005, Gohana in Sonepat district of Haryana witnessed the torching of several Dalit homes by members of upper castes. Now Mirchpur, a village 58 kilometres away and located deep inside Hisar district, has met a similar fate. On April 21, as many as 18 homes belonging to Dalits from the Valmiki community here were set on fire by upper-caste youth over an alleged slight on the part of the...

A newly wed couple in Barmer district has approached the district magistrate seeking permission to end their life after a khap panchayat ordered their separation and payment of Rs 5 lakh. The panchayat had threatened to kill them if the failed to abide by its diktat. According to local reports, the khap panchayat of Bhimda village had ruled on March 5 that one Khama would have to severe her relations...

The fear of khap looms large over Haryana with 40 members of the Dalit (Valmiki) community at Mirchpur village in Hisar district — where two people were burnt alive by Jats last week — fleeing their homes, rattled by khap support of Jat violence against them. Their fears were compounded on Sunday when, in a khap meeting in Jind, 300 khap representatives called for intensifying the agitation against the Hindu...