We want to survive.

In an article titled The Backlash Against Equality one Mr Dipankar Gupta rages against rising violence against women in India. He compares this to the lynching of blacks following the abolition of slavery in the US. Till then blacks were apparently very safe but once they started demanding equality the whites saw them as a threat and started lynching them. From there he jumps to honor killings taking place in India and concludes that women are being killed because they are challenging male supremacy by marrying whoever they want to. So, in his erudite opinion men in India see their daughters and sisters as slaves of a distinctly different race seeking freedom. Killing for any reason is abhorrent and cannot be condoned but unless we examine the social conditions that give rise to such crimes the situation cannot improve. There are 3 reasons why a marriage is deemed to be of such dishonor as to warrant an act of murder. The first seems to be  restricted to north India and is marrying someone within the same " gotra ". Gotra is a house headed by a rishi or sage from ancient times. So we have kashyap, shandilya or balmiki gotras. Marriage within the same gotra is forbidden to prevent consanguinity which can give rise to the most hideous genetic defects. This is born of lack of knowledge. Your mother's side of the family will have a different gotra but consanguinity with someone on that side may give rise to the same problems. This can be cured by education. The second reason is marriage with a different, usually lower, caste person. Hindus in India have been selectively divided into various castes and tribes by politicians so that some maybe bribed by reserving 50% of higher education seats and government jobs for people with less merit. So, 65 years after so called independence some sections of the society face more discrimination than they faced under British occupation. The government is trying to force private companies to practice reservation which has been resisted till now. Even today the BSP is demanding that people should be promoted based on reservation and not on merit. This gives rise to a sense of injustice and rage and people react by trying to preserve their caste superiority even as they fall behind economically. The third reason is marriage to someone of a different religion. In recent months leading up to assembly elections in Gujarat acres of newsprint have been devoted to the demolition of Babri masjid and the Godhra riots by the freeloading press pouring hatred on Hindus. At the same time the same newspapers are promoting increasing trade, friendship and greater tourism with Pakistan. In Pakistan meanwhile school children are still being taught that Hindus are inferior and must be eliminated and terrorist training is going on at full speed. Every animal has an instinct to survive. That is all we Hindus want. Is it too much to ask for?