Same Gotra Marriages in India and the Terror of Khap Panchayats

Arranged marriages have been common in traditional cultures in many parts of the world. In some countries like India the system of arranged marriages has not only survived into the present day but evolved in many ways to emerge stronger and more relevant to modern times. However certain offshoots of the system like forced marriages and violence to couples who choose their own life partners have become a source of worry in India. One such relatively recent trend is the insistence of same-gotra marriages especially in context of the terror of khap panchayats.

In India arranged marriages have been the norm since thousands of years and continue to hold sway for the greater part of the population even now. Arranged marriages in India strictly adhere to religious and caste regulations. Both the partners must not only belong to the same religion but also to the same caste and preferably follow compulsions of sub-castes as well. It is the primacy of the caste regulations that differentiate Indian arranged marriages from those which used to exist in aristocratic Western societies in the previous centuries and from arranged marriages still practiced in Oriental or Islamic societies across the world.



Caste regulations in Indian, especially Hindu arranged marriages require that the prospective bride and groom should belong to the same caste group but to different gotras or family lineage. According to Vedic Sanskrit, the word “gotra” originally meant “cow-pen”. In ancient times, cows were the most valuable possession of a family group, so with time, the term “gotra” began to refer to the family group who owned a particular pen of cows. The term was associated eventually with just the family group and its lineage. The gotra of an individual is conferred on birth. He/she is entitled to the gotra of his father, except in the case of people from Kerala, who are entailed to the gotra of their mother. Since the same gotra implies going back to the same family lineage, a man and woman possessing the same gotra can be considered to be related to the same family group in the manner of cousins. Consanguineous marriages have long been considered to increase the possibility of genetic defects in the offspring from such marriage. This formed the basis of the main argument against marriage between a man and woman from the same gotra, an unwritten rule which continues to be followed by traditional Hindu families.

However since the beginning of this century, India has seen a spate of murders of young couples who dared to choose their own partners. Termed as ‘honour killings’, these murder were ordered by khap panchayats of states like Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab which have substantial population of Jats. In India, panchayats are democratically elected civic bodies with quasi-official powers of administration. Typically every village has its own Panchayat or council. Whenever there is a problem or dispute in the village, a gathering of the Panchayat is called for every member of the village has a right to attend, express his views and vote for or against a proposal. The Khap Panchayat on the other hand is a creation of the Jat community and covers 84 villages in the afore-mentioned states of India. The Khap Panchayats have unwritten laws and they often pass decisions that range from illegal and extra-constitutional to downright horrific
As far as marriage in the Jat community is concerned, the khap panchayats forbid marriage between a man and woman within the same gotra, marriage between partners of different gotras if they belong to the same village and above all, all inter-caste marriages based on love.

Among the earliest cases of the recent rash of murders ordered by the khap panchayat was the killing of newlyweds Manoj and Babli in June 2007. The couple lived in the village of Kaithal and belonged to the Banwala gotra of the Jat community. The two were believed to have been murdered by Babli’s relatives after the khap panchayat ordered the annulment of the couple’s marriage and punishment of the couple. One of the most horrifying acts of terror ordered by the Khap panchayat occurred in 2009 when an eighteen year old girl Monica and her lover Rinku were brutally murdered in the village of Nimriwali of Haryana. The couple belonged to the Jat community of the village and when they fell in love and decided to elope to escape the wrath of the khap panchayat, they were killed by the girl’s father, brother, uncle and cousins at the behest of the caste-based body. Along with ordering the murder of young couples in the name of “honour killing”, the khap panchayat also seek to punish the families of the couples by measures like social and commercial boycott and levying exorbitant fines.

The murder of Monica and Rinku forced the Supreme Court of India to interfere in the matter of “honour killings”. On June 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre, Haryana government and six other states to take action against the killing of young couples.  However the khap panchayats remain unfazed. In fact a “mahapanchayat” or a major meeting of Khap Panchayats was organized around the same time in Garmukteshwar in UP where the leaders demanded the Central Government bring about an amendment in Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 to ban inter-gotra marriages and to lend legal authority to Khap Panchayats.

The belligerence of the khap panchayats and their ability to get away with acting like parallel kangaroo courts has dismayed many social, legal and human rights activists in India. Commentators point out that since the caste councils are powerful instruments during elections, they receive political support in return for vote banks and hence cannot be overthrown. The growing empowerment of women and previously oppressed castes are the major reasons behind the recent spate of violence unleashed by these caste-based khap panchayats. They are increasingly feeling threatened by the forces of urbanization and globalization spreading into villages. Also special government policies have made it possible for so-called lower castes to become stronger, both politically and economically. Thus the khap panchayats feel that the easiest way to reassert their control is to suppress the most vulnerable members of their community – the women and members of oppressed castes.

In the end the issue of same gotra marriages and the terror of khap panchayats is not a simple conflict between tradition and modernity. There are political, gender, caste and economic dimensions to the problem, all of which have contributed to its emergence as a threat to right to freedom of life and liberty as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.