How ‘honour’ killings in India are reinforced and legitimised
CIt is not an individual problem in India – it is a deep -rooted social phenomenon. Kast survives and not only because individuals insist, but also because families, communities and all social structures continue to be implemented and legitimized in a deliberate or other way.
At the center of this caste endurance, social traditions were transferred to their households and preserved. Children will be talked about, who will marry, who will be avoided – internalizing boundaries grow before they can express their reason. As a result, the caste system continues to be one of India’s most flexible social frames.
‘Honor’ murders
One of the biggest threats to the hardness of the caste was social justice interventions. Marginalized communities, especially when Dalits provide access to quality education and significant employment, opens the doors of the mainstream community integrations. However, a basic change begins. The oppressed are no longer limited to margins, but now the caste-hindu society is equal to a basis-workplace, colleges, cities and most importantly, and most importantly, relations. This has created a new limit of social tension: romantic trade unions that cross the caste lines, especially Dalit men and dominant caste women. These unions represent not only love or rebellion, but a direct challenge to centuries -old caste hierarchies. And for many conservative families, this challenge is unbearable.
Dalit communities relatively more strengthening Tamil Nadu, Tahangana, Maharashtra and Kerala, such as states also record marriage rates between caste. According to the Indian Human Development Study (IHDS-II), the marriage rate between national caste is around 5%, but states with strengthened dalite populations show higher numbers. Ironically, these are the states that also lead to an increase in the events of honor murders.
This paradox demonstrates a disturbing fact: Honor murders arise in places where caste is the most powerful, but where it is most threatened. In the states where the oppressed still protect their “status quo”, violence is less – not because there is no casteism, but because it remains undisputed. Therefore, caste -based violence is not only a sign of permanent hierarchy, but a sign of the hierarchy under the siege.
Tamil Nadu’s caste paradox
When the caste murders occur, the state has a strong and lively civil society, as the democratic voices among the people are strong in Tamil Nadu. At the same time, caste is glorified on social media. Due to the anonymity offered by such platforms, some accounts go forward enough to defend caste murders.
How do we understand this paradox? Perhaps in Tamil Nadu, people have a collective consciousness against caste, shaped by decades of social justice policy, and individual attitudes may not always be aligned. The anti -caste culture of the state is collectively progressive but individual contradictory. In the public opinion, caste severity is rejected, but in special speeches, caste social preferences, marriage alliances and “honorable behaviors üz through WhatsApp groups and anonymous writings continue to dictate.
This paradox does not mean that the anti -caste movement of Tamil Nadu is a failure. This means that he lives in a limited area between tradition and transformation. What we see on social media is not only caste pride, but also the fear of losing the anxiety of the inherited power and cultural change.
On family and caste
There is a popular belief that the caste system has survived mainly due to political parties or caste -based organizations. These are not the roots of the system, while strengthening the caste sections in the public sphere. Caste survives because it is protected and transmitted in the family. With daily traditions, rituals, marriage arrangements, social expectations and prejudices inherited, caste becomes a part of a child’s consciousness long before questioning it. For this reason, caste, increasing education, urbanization and exposure to new ideas remained transgenerational.
However, especially among adolescents, the psychological and cultural importance of the ‘family’ itself changes. We see dramatic changes all over the world, especially in countries such as South Korea and Japan: marriage rates are falling, fertility rates are low in their history and the traditional family unit loses the center of people’s lives. Instead, new relationship models-open partnerships, living together, one life and self-parenting-part.
India’s urban youth gradually reflects this tendency. Today, many adolescents, individual growth, emotional prosperity and traditional family obligations are increasingly prioritizing. As the value of the family unit weakens, the primary mechanism in which the caste is applied and increased.
In other words, if family becomes less central in shaping social norms, caste may lose the most powerful and oldest survival tool. This does not mean that the caste will disappear overnight. However, this proposes the evolution of the self, not by the revolution, not by the revolution, changing emotional priorities, changing emotional priorities, not by the revolution.
Caste in India. On the one hand, we see violent reactions and online glorification. On the other hand, we witness strong democratic voices against the murders of honor and a new generations that gradually draw from social values. Tamil Nadu symbolizes this contradiction in the most vibrant form – a situation where both the highest resistance to caste and the quietest internal caste pride together. But it also offers hope: If this contradiction is accepted, if it is handled and challenged, we can move towards a society in which the caste is not only in our systems, but in our hearts and minds through participation and digital narratives.
Sivabalan Elangovan Professor and President, Department of Psychiatry, DR MGR Education and Research Institute.
Published – 18 August 2025 08:30 IST
