While feminicides are much more frequent, a series of cases where young women are accused of having killed their husband alarm. Forced marriage and gender justice
Of the ” maricide »Who multiply
In recent months, India has been struck by a series of overwhelming various facts. With each recovery, A young bride is accused of having killed her husbandoften with the complicity of a lover. The phenomenon, although statistically marginal, fuels an intense debate on the state of Indian society. In particular by his practice of arranged marriage and gender inequalities.
The latest case, the state of Madhya Pradesh took place in early June. Sonam Raghuvanshi, 25, would have planned with her boyfriend the murder of her husband Raghuvanshi, 30, during their honeymoon. An arranged marriage, as in most cases in India. The case shocked public opinion by the coldness of the act but also because it seems to echo other similar cases occurred recently.
In March, in the Uttar Pradesh, Pragati, 22, just married, would also have ordered the assassination of her husband, two weeks after the ceremony. Shortly after, a merchant navy officer Surabh Rajput was found in a cement barrel. His wife Muskan and his lover are accused of having drugged him and then stabbed.
Killer wives?
These ” maricide Are rare but capture excessive attention. Indian society, patriarchal and marked by a culture of obedient and submissive women, has trouble conceiving that women can be the authors of violence, and not only victims. “” We do not expect women to act like this. When they make such acts, society does not only see criminals, She sees women who have failed as a woman“, Analysis of Professor GS Bajpai of the National Law University, in Delhi.
On social networks, misogynist videos are multiplying, transforming these cases into an almost political show. Women are caricatured in ” nasty “And the husbands in” martyrs“” . Yet official figures reveal another reality. In 2022, 445,000 crimes against women were recorded in India. Female, are much more frequent than husbands’ murders. In more than 50% of cases, the author is the partner or the ex-partner. Figures that prompted the country to take legal measures to effectively protect women in the face of their husband’s violence.
Arranged marriages and gender justice
These violent cases highlight the extreme consequences of arranged or forced marriages. Always very widespread in India. Niharika Karanjawala-Misra, main partner of the Karanjawala & Co law firm, declares concerning these cases that ” The fact that young women use this type of measures to avoid exhausting someone against their will, thus depriving an innocent person of their life and ruining their own lives (…) should point out to families that forcing someone to marry (…) is not a desirable and optimal choice“.
The problem is systemic. Many questions Indian legislation because these cases reveal above all the deep flaws of Indian society. “” “It seemed simpler to sonam to plan a murder than to admit that she loved someone else. Which says more about our society than on his personality“Explains activist Yogita Bhayana.
In short, this series of ” maricide Is less a mass criminal phenomenon than a symptom alarming social and cultural contradictions of a patriarchal country in tension between attempted modernity and rigid traditions.
