The Taliban of north India

Name the word Khap panchayat and modernists and educated in India will forget Taliban in tyranny and will start a cacophony of atrocities. Well, if you compare a firecracker with a nuclear bomb and get scared then nothing can help you. In December 2014, the law minister of India had condemned Khaps as unconstitutional bodies. How many social bodies belonging to different religions and communities will he declare unconstitutional that come under criticism on account of their deviation from the mainstream conventions??!! The basic mistake committed by khap critics is that they put these social bodies under the sledgehammer of their judgement on the basis of gross generalizations on account of few abstract cases. Obviously the worst critics of khaps are urban based intelligentsia who do not know how things work in rural areas where people are forced to take shelter under a common sky, unlike the urban individualistic mode of life where you need not bother about anybody around you. Rural ways and means of life, particularly in Jat society in Haryana, are too simple and too complex for city gentry to understand and comment upon. It is very easy to compare Khaps with Taliban, but all of us know that it is grossly unjustified comparison. Khaps are not judicial bodies. These are social units that cover the administrative loopholes in rural areas where people agree to certain social norms for common benefit. By surrendering few individual liberties, this system provides proportionally larger common gains. Had Khaps been that bad, dissent against them would have surfaced from the ones who live under Khaps. Quite surprisingly, people under Khaps are almost contented with them, while the whole world around them is crying foul. See any debate on television, you will have some educated super-conscious individual fretting and fuming against Khaps...and who he/she happens to be...somebody who has possibly never been to a real village where Khaps operate...damn funny!!