India / "Honour" Killings

Why Are Hindu Honor Killings Rising in India?
By Madhur Singh
Time.com, May 25, 2010
"[...] Though Western readers associate the term more with Taliban-ruled Afghanistan than with 21st century India, honor killings are shockingly frequent in villages in the northern and northwestern parts of the country, where those daring to cross the barriers of caste are made to pay with their lives. Mostly, these cases are confined to the inside pages of newspapers, but the Nirupama case -- in urban, educated, middle-class India -- has hit the front pages. Activists say dozens of people, both women and men, are killed for 'honor' every year, falling victim to the deeply entrenched caste system, which dictates an individual's social standing based on the caste they are born into. The majority of these killings take place in the agrarian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where land ownership and caste go hand in hand and an honor culture thrives by maintaining caste and gender hierarchies. [...]"