Wednesday’s attack on a married couple by the girl’s father in full public view at Erragadda sent shock waves across the city. Close on the heels of the sensational murder of Perumalla Pranay of Miryalaguda, the incident left many wondering if this trend is here to stay.
Academic and intellectual from T-MAS Kancha Ilaiah says caste violence pertaining to inter-caste marriages is a relatively new phenomenon for Telangana, seen more after State bifurcation.
Citing the murder of a youth, Naresh, and “suicide” by his wife Swathi in Bhuvanagiri, the suspicious death of another person, Madhukar, in Karimnagar district, both having roots in love/marriage across castes, Prof. Ilaiah puts the blame on the “aggressive feudal cultural environment” prevailing after State bifurcation. “When beef lynchings happen, the Prime Minister’s silence is questioned vocally. But here, the Chief Minister does not send out any strong message when such incidents happen, but there are questioning voices about it,” he says.
He attributes it to the fact that the Telangana movement lacked the tone of social reform component widely seen across many movements. Demanding that the State should evolve some programme incentivising intercaste marriages and supporting women who lose partners to such violence, Prof. Ilaiah said all caste associations should come out in support of the choice-based marriages.
Representatives of people’s organisations assert that caste and patriarchy go hand in hand, when it comes to murders as fallout of intercaste marriages. Sandhya from POW reminds that such incidents happen only when daughters marry outside the caste. It affirms the theory that women’s oppression is directly relatable to maintenance of caste hierarchy and racial purity.
Academic and activist Surepally Sujatha says marrying outside the caste is a choice exercised by women, and expression of such choice is dissented because it interferes with the perceived honour bestowed by the family’s social position.
“There are quite a few messages doing the rounds in social media, empathising with the father in the Miryalaguda case. To them, I want to say, women are not the carriers of your caste and pride. If you have to dictate right from what your daughter eats to what she wears and whom she marries, why give birth to girls at all?” Prof. Sujatha questions.
Gaddam Jhansi from the NGO Dalit Sthree Sakthi says protracted legal battles in cases related to atrocities against dalits are encouraging such violence. “In the Miryalaguda case, the girl’s father, Maruthi Rao, withdrew ₹1.5 crore just before the murder, which shows his confidence that he can buy immunity from law through his wealth. He unabashedly faced the police and the media without an iota of remorse. Even massacre cases of Chunduru and Karamchedu are yet to reach their legal conclusion. This only emboldens the perpetrators,” she says.
