A 21-Year-Old Woman Murdered By Her Parents For Marrying Outside Her Caste
In India, parents including several others savages, who murder their daughters for defying them and marrying outside their caste, consider the ghastly act an honour.
By Sadho Ram — 22 Nov 2014, 01:24 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
Earlier this month, 12 November 2014, 21-year-old Bhawna, a third-year Delhi University student of the Rajasthani Yadav caste, and 24-year-old Abhishek Seth, a Punjabi who works at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President's House) in Delhi, married each other in a Temple in Delhi, India without informing their families
A resident of Delhi's middle-class Dwarka area, Bhawna did not let her humble background hold her back from hoping for a better life. But, on 15 November, three days after her marriage, Bhawna's dreams were shattered when she was strangled to death by her parents, who were against her marrying outside their caste.
Bhawna's husband is now trying to come to terms with her death
"She had small dreams. Her parents wanted to get her married after school but she wanted to wear jeans and shirts and go to college," says Mr Seth.
"She managed to get into Venkateswara College, one of Delhi's finest. On top of her wish list after our marriage was to taste wine and go to a beach for our honeymoon."
Bhawna's parents had arranged for her to be engaged on 22 November to a man she had last met when she was six years old
So the couple decided to get married before the engagement.
"I knew my family would accept Bhawna once we got married. We knew her family would resist a bit, but we thought they would eventually give in," Mr Seth says.
"I remember the day we went shopping for our wedding. When she tried on the wedding dress, she was dancing in the shop.
"I wish she would come back. She was a fighter and can't go away like this."
Upon finding out that their daughter went outside their caste to marry, Bhawna's parents took her away, saying they would arrange a "grand wedding" for the couple. Instead they murdered her and cremated her body in their village in Rajasthan, 150km from Delhi. The parents have confessed to the crime.
As Abhishek explains it to Times of India: "She often told me that her father would never allow her to marry a Punjabi but I used to assure her that we will find a way. We did not want to shock them which was why we had told them about our friendship and she had also conveyed her feelings to her mother. However, they snubbed us saying it was imposible."
For this one indiscretion, Bhavna was allegedly strangled by her middle class parents, Savitri and Jagmohan -- a middle class property dealer, described as a "strict but harmless man" with "strong views about inter-caste marriages and community prestige" by his neighbours.
firstpost.com
For many Indians, marriage outside the caste is taboo. One study estimated hundreds of people are killed by their families every year for marrying against their wishes, reports BBC. But Bhawna's murder has shocked many because such so-called 'honour crimes' rarely involve middle-class educated families in big cities.
There are no statistics on the number of "honour" killings but, according to one study, hundreds of people are killed each year for falling in love or marrying against their families' wishes in a country where many still prefer arranged marriages within their own caste.
In 2011, India's Supreme Court said those involved in honour killings should face the death penalty.
Abhishek wants her parents to be hanged for the crime.
"They have no remorse and should be given the death sentence," he says.
"I still can't understand the honour for which they killed their daughter, my wife."