Karthik Pandian, a 26-year-old youth who hails from the Asari community, was allegedly killed in Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi by his wife’s brothers and their friend, following a brutal assault on July 24. When the incident happened, Karthik was waiting outside a supermarket near Reserve Line to pick up his wife Nandhini Kumari (22), who was employed there. At around 9 pm, a hamlet clad, bike-borne miscreant, later identified as Siva, rammed into Karthik’s two-wheeler, following which two of Nandini’s brothers joined and assaulted Karthik with a knife and other sharp weapons, leading to his death.
In her police complaint, Nandhini alleged that her family was unhappy with her decision to marry Karthik, who was from a different caste, and had threatened to kill him. “I am from the Thevar community. He is from the Asari community. So my family opposed [our relationship]. Hence, we went to Madurai from our hometown of Sivakasi and got married there,” she wrote in her complaint.
Though both the Asari and Thevar communities are categorised as Backward Classes in Tamil Nadu, Thevars, unlike Asaris, enjoy immense political clout, and present a persistent history of inflicting violence to maintain caste endogamy.
According to the FIR filed by the Thiruthangal police, Karthik and Nandhini got married on November 24, 2023, in Madurai. The couple lived there for a month, during which her brothers Dhanabalamurugan and Balamurugan called Karthik multiple times and threatened to kill him. After Nandhini’s sisters intervened and worked out a truce, the couple moved to a rented house in Sivakasi, their hometown, in December 2023. While Karthik was employed in a workshop, Nandhini worked in a supermarket.
The police has booked Nandhini’s brothers Dhanabalamurugan and Balamurugan, along with their friend Siva who rammed into Karthik’s two wheeler first, under Sections 296(b) (obscene acts and songs) and 103 (punishment for murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
This incident has yet again brought forth the demand of anti-caste activists for a special law to prevent crimes in the name of ‘honour’ and punish those who commit such crimes.
Long-standing demand for legislation
The District Superintendent of Police K Feroze Khan Abdullah, in a press release, said that Karthik’s murder cannot be called an ‘honour killing’. “It was their unhappiness with the marriage that led Nandhini’s brothers to murder Karthik. Some people are spreading false information that this is an honour killing. But it is not. Both of them belong to the same community,” the release read.
Responding to this, A Kathir, the founder-director of the rights-based organisation Evidence, told TNM that we cannot negate caste-based honour, which is a primary motivation in this case for the murder. “They technically belong to two communities, though both fall under the BC category. There is a caste difference here, which the police have to understand. This is why we are demanding for a special law which will take into consideration nuances like these,” Kathir pointed out.
In 2022, a 17-page draft Bill titled ‘The Freedom of Marriage and Association and Prohibition of Crimes in the Name of Honour Act 2022’ was drafted by the Dalit Human Rights Defender Network, a coalition of anti-caste activists and organisations in 2022, and handed over to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. The Bill intends to “provide justice, compensation and rehabilitation in crimes committed in the name of honour vis-a-vis caste, faith, age, gender, sexual orientation, language, class, race, status and tradition”.
Kathir, who is also the head of the coalition, said that such a Bill is necessary to compliment the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act, to handle issues that don’t involve Dalits.
“In the case of inter-caste marriages like Karthik and Nandhini’s, both the victim and perpetrators are from the same caste, so their murders cannot be charged under the Atrocities Act. But in this instance, clearly there is a caste-pride which served as the motivator for the crime. Also, patriarchy robbed Nandhini of her right to choose a partner and she was punished for her choices. We need a law that would take these factors into consideration,” he said.
Read: Anti-caste coalition has drafted a Bill to end ‘honour’ killings: Here’s what it says