Of the 30,000 cases of women marry NRI in India, 16,000 of those taken place in punjab. The sad thing is these women had no choice to marry, yet there lifes are all but over.

About post # 60

The only 2 honor killing of Canadian girls have been of punjabi sikh girls. And if this counts as an honor killing then it would be 3 for 3.

About post # 45

I’m sorry if I said something wrong. I have spoken out here to punjabi leaders about the issue of sexism among my people but they have fallen on deaf ears.

It was about a year ago when the trial of Amandeep Atwal was going on. She was killed by her father for having a white boyfriend. Yet during the trial many people in the punjabi community came to support the father including the sikh temple leaders and all of the girl/father family. But nobody in the sikh/punjabi community spoke up for the dead girl. It was something that made me upset with my own family.

Although here in the UK, the vast majority of such incidents (actual or attempted) do occur amongst Muslims.

Unfortunately, so-called “honour killings” occur throughout India and are not restricted to any single region or members of any particular religious community. It’s right across the board.

It probably does occur more in some communities than in others, of course, but I don’t know what the exact percentage breakdown is in that regard.

It’s difficult as hell to be a woman in any developing country.

I had no idea that Punjabis have ‘honour killings’ too. Thought this dreadful practice was limited to muslims

excellent point.

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it is difficult as hell to be a woman in india.

i was in jaipur this weekend on business, was meeting some colleagues for dinner, got lost on the way, my auto driver stopped to ask directions, and the young men who gave him directions spied me, a single female, in the backseat and preceded to corner me and grab me in various disgusting ways in the moments it took for me to get the auto driver to speed off.

this is just one incident, just one night, but my telling it will probably spark the memory of many women reading this to remember their own encounters with public physical assault/molesting — it is just that common.

i believe a similar issue prevails with domestic violence — beating a woman does not have the same signifigance as beating a child because, and forgive me the lack of numbers but it’s 1 am and i don’t want to look it up, the cases of child abuse in terms of beating of children (not sexual) is extremely low in comparison to wife-beating. that adds another dimension.

on another note: there was a discussion on the “missing girls” — this past week, i was in a village in rajasthan, near jaisalmer, meeting with women that were organizing into a self-help group and they openly admitted to female infanticide (but claimed that only the men commit it, and usually while drunk) and a door-to-door survey revealed a sex ratio that roughly works out to 500 girls for every 1000 boys. so it would seem the girls are missing still.

Well said MD. The only way a reader should enjoy writing. Leave their politics and opinions out of it (especially when you are reading fiction). Naipaul,rightly, is considered to be in the top tier of today’s writrs.

It’s a very real and sad reality, but it’s something that needs to be changed by the newer generations that have grown out of and away from such practices.
Rather than developing a self loathing attitude and attempting to distance and disconnect ourselves, we should approach the issue head on. I am not Indian, but as a Pakistani I know that these practices and other gruesome incidences happen as easily in either country.
It is disgusting and embarrasing, but every country has it’s own set of issues….this one just happens to be predominant in that area.
Awareness and education are the stepping stones towards change. This is a good start.