Honor and Indian Society

The concept of honor is common to every society. Human behavior in any society are directly and explicitly or indirectly and inherently is grossly regularized by social norms, values, customs and rules. To stay in harmony, man is bound to respect the will of the collectivity. But is it too difficult to observe that although Honor is basically constructed by collectivity but its main purpose is to exercise power and authority? The will of the powerful and the superior strata of the society is generally what is imposed on the collectivity by different means. Means like religion, spiritual , moral and legal preachings.

Starting from the Era of antiquity to pre modern society to evolving modern society there are changes from one era to the other in different aspects of the society. These changes involve socio-economic spheres, cultural spheres, political spheres etc. With the growth of human rights and exponential development in the spere of communication, man has moved on to become a better informed and exposed to newer ideas. All this has lead to the paradoxical freedom given to individuals, who are made to believe that they are free and capable to choose for themselves and do ad they feel like as long as they do not hamper these human rights for other individuals, in the context that the diminant and the powerful section of the society still has the urge to curtail individual freedom and regulate individual actions by the concepts of morality and humanity.

To begin with customs like sati pratha, untouchability, polygamy etc. every practice and every ill custom is collectively endorsed by members of the society because they are so beautifully taught to the people with proper and seemingly sane justifications. But if these justifications behind the malpractices of the society are critically analyzed, it can easily find the power game persisting deep rooted in the society.

Although the societies claim to have reformed and removed these ills of the society but the actual reality can be understood by understanding the process of change. The society consists of institutions and organizations and agencies and actors all of whose roles and the interlinkages are specifically defined by the society and its norms and values, which actually regulate the actually shape of the society. And Social change is merely the replacement of the old order by new order and nothing else. The structures of the societies are rigid and subject to continuity for prolonged period of time. The current Indian society seems to have changed superficially but the structure in actuality is merely altered and modified and can be considered to be almost the same. The society is still strongly driven by patriarchy and the strong dominance of male over the other gender; it still is highly driven by the institution of caste to a large extent- directly or indirectly.

This is why the social constructs on women have modified to a large extent but their centre still lies in the male dominated and culturally trained social structure.

To enumerate some uncivilized acts that causes shame to societies include marrying against the rules of the society that vary from society to soceity. The actions of this section of the society still revolves around the hapiness of the other gender. The type of clothes, the sort of occupation, the kind of behavior, the kind of marriage, relationships, sexual aspects, every act of a women is still dominated by male dominance. Female gender is still the center for the other gender to poke their eyes on as objects of meat and flesh meant for sole purpose of sex and dominance. Yes the outlook has changed, but there still are jokes cracked on the naivity of women and the decisions they make as being filled with emotions and insaneness; men still love their women to cook food for the family on the irrational contexts that they are better cooks and love to cook etc.; women prove to be equal to men in every aspect, be it knowledge, intellect or intelligence; but the biological superiority still allows men to have forcefull sex with women, which people give a short and sweet word - rape; this word is hyped for few days after such incidents and then forgotten by the other gender, but the victim gender has to remain cautious of what every other man can cause to her. So to stick to these norms of the society and stay mentally and psycologically stable with a balance between family and society with some level of dialogue creating compromised harmony in their worlds women- the oppressed gender and the less biologically powerful is bound to adhere to the patriarchal society.

Looking into power struggle in the caste instituion of the society: Who says caste has  reduced in the society? , If you do, you are bound to be half blind. The truth is that caste has changed shape. Earlier the so called superiors, who were intelligent enought to create a culture and language and interpret it to their advantage developed customs and norms of the society to oppress the rest. In today's situation the oppressed take pride of being evolved from such an oppressed descent and still creating goods for themselves and the oppressors of the past are suffocated to accept that the once 'neech' is today being equated to them. They still practice untouchability and casteism in one form or the other, by accepting human rights but still offering their superiority in form of religion and customs and rituals.

Intercatse marriages and marriage amongst the people belonging to the same gotra is a proof of this prolonged existence of the institutions and structures of the society. Only a replacement of the order changes, rest remains the same. The murderes of people allegated of marrying in the same gotra, causing dishonor to the family and society might be killed, but the Khap Panchayats that support and actually ordered the mandate are still supported by the State.

This strange definition of honor is out of my limits of understanding, I fail to understand if it is possible for Indian society to ever go for an ideological transformation and if not then what is the way out for the individuals, who are under the false impression of being absolutely free and masters of their own will. Can there be a space for the existence of such individuals and groups to survive. An individual to gratify its needs, social, physical, emotional- needs to be a part of some society, but what a paradox when one has to fight with the same society on the level of ideology and perspectives in life.