Khap to pardon family after 22 years
An influential, upper caste khap panchayat or caste council in Haryana’s Bhiwani district agreed to withdraw the social boycott of a village family 22 years after it had imposed the damning diktat during which both, the head of the victim family and his younger brother passed away.
Self-appointed elders of the Sindoliya Khap Chaurasi proclaimed the pardon on Thursday, long after Chandram and Srichand — the two men they had sought to punish in August 1988 — had died. Even now, the khap made known its reluctance and relented only after the dead men’s sons apologised publicly.
The social boycott was ordered at village Barwas in 1988 after Chandram’s sons married girls from Rajasthan’s Beran Village (Churu District).
The elders decreed the marriages violated caste and kinship traditions.
Consequent to the boycott imposed by the khap, both Chandram and Srichand and their families were forced to bear the worst hardships. Spurned not only by other village residents but also the extended Sindoliya and Sheoran clans, both brothers died as lonely and miserable men.
It was eventually after the intervention of relatives that another Sindoliya mahapanchayat was convened at the Barwas Brahmin dharamsala where the only surviving of the dead brothers, Sukhlal was called on to apologise and vow that his family would never again defy khap traditions.
While Chandram and Srichand’s kin are finally past what they remember as “nightmarish” years, Haryana’s politicians, the police and civil administration remain characteristically reticent on the matter.
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