Hundreds of years ago, when Khap Panchayats started work in Haryana so that they could save their people from external attacks. They used to be a kind of military organization, but gently this strength reached social arrangements. Khap panchayats became which started pronounced on the lines of the courts. Khap is still there, but she is leaving the old strictness. Recently, Dhankhar Khap ended a tradition that has been going on for centuries, under which people of neighboring villages could not have a relationship among themselves.
Usually, relatives and relatives are closed only when there is some sourness in two houses, fraternities or sections, but the issue of Jhajjar is completely different from this. There was so much intimidation in six villages of the district for 100 or perhaps 200 years that marriages had stopped. There were many stories behind this, which the villagers used to narrate among themselves like folklore.
We spoke to Dhankar Khap’s head Yudhveer Singh on the phone about this.
They say, it would probably be a hundred years old, or even more time, when the population was less. When the people of five neighboring villages used to go to the haat-market, they used to relax in Gawali in the middle. They eat bread there. Gradually, five villages accepted brotherhood from Gawali village. This is the relationship where marriage cannot happen.
There is also another story. In this, a young woman belonging to five villages was on a journey, where she tried to molest her. In such a situation, the people of Gawalisan village rescued him. After this, there was brotherhood in the villages.
On February 2, social Mahapanchayat of Achhez, Malikpur, Goddi, Paharipur and Saifipur villages including Gawalisan was held, in which it was decided by the consent of the whole society that the brotherhood of the villages should be converted into kinship. Khap president, one of the reasons for this decision was that while deciding the weddings of the children, these villages had to leave, no matter how good the relationship was.
It took Khap a full year to come from Nukar to consent. It is then that when the ratio of boys and girls in the state is not being able to take weddings. Many reports kept coming in between that due to lack of girls, boys have to buy girls from other states for marriage. These purchased girls were also called Molki or Paro.
Now Khap Panchayats are becoming generous to handle the status of their own villages. Or it may also be that they are getting upgraded to make themselves relevant in changing times.
Earlier, there were strict decorating for those who run apart from Khap, including the fraternity being out and allegedly involving honor killing. Please tell that Khap Panchayats showed resentment on the relationship in a village, one gotra or another religion. Even cases of honor killing continued from the state.
In the year 2007, in a village in Haryana, the marriage of two autonomous lovers was spent on Khap. To avoid their anger, the girl’s family kidnapped the couple and killed both. Even then, Khap Panchayats argued that people in the same village and gotra become siblings and marriage is not possible in this.
The villagers were with the murder family. However, the matter reached the court this time and was sentenced in honor killing for the first time. The head of Khap Panchayat was also convicted. After this, for the first time, questions started to arise on the need of Khapas. Honor killing cases still come, but the role of organizations such as Khap is definitely changing. Social panchayats are changing with time.
In today’s era, Khap Panchayats are working on social issues other than controversies. For example, many panchayats worked fiercely on saving and teaching girls, which used to be less earlier. In the year 2018, many Khapas gave a statement against honor killing and said that girls should get the right to elections on their own. Even after working on social fabric, many times their traditional perspective becomes the cause of controversy.