Neha Dixit
Tehelka
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Khaps have existed in northwestern India for centuries; each is a group of 84 villages of the same caste, and a khap panchayat can control thousands of villages. Local governments in those areas are afraid of crossing the khaps, which are widely seen as having greater moral authority than the government that emerged out of British colonialism.
That means millions of Indians are governed by “a barbaric system that glorifies murder and lynching in the name of honor.” Until the political will is found to abolish them, khap panchayats will “continue to brew a poisonous cocktail of crime, ignorance, and bigotry.”
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