Telangana Honour Killing: Why Are People Justifying Murder In The Name Of Parental Love?

While Indians are becoming more and more tech-savvy and exploring the world of social media, the casteism they practice in daily life is also being observed on social media. The horrific and chilling murder of Perumalla Pranay in front of his pregnant wife Amruth Varshini has shocked people, and many have condemned the incident, but some people are also justifying the killing and supporting her father who killed Pranay.

‘Your mother should be killed for giving birth to you’

Amrutha’s father and Pranay’s murderer, Maruthi Rao has been gaining a lot of support on social media. Some people have changed their profile pictures on Facebook in support of the murderer.

There are pages recently created that give updates on the case with messages of ‘Jai Maruthi Rao’, and ‘Jai Maruthi Sena’, reported The News Minute.

These large number of openly casteist people have found the age-old justification for caste killing – a father’s love for his daughter is the reason for the crime.

A man in Telangana on Monday put up a status saying, “If I get married I will pray to god to give me a daughter, but I don’t want a daughter like Amrutha.” There are posts on Facebook that questions the Telangana government and criticises them for supporting the victim’s family.

Not just that, a letter, allegedly written by Maruthi Rao is viral on social media. In the letter, he talks about how his daughter is the miracle of his life and when she didn’t listen to him about leaving Pranay, he decided to take matters in his own hands and killed him. In the end, the letter also urges parents who can’t ‘control’ their daughters who want ‘love marriages’, to take ‘matter into their own hands.’

He says that “it is not a caste killing, it was a love killing”. He also urges all the parents to save their daughters from the trap of love marriage.

The News Minute found another long post by a Facebook user, where the post justifies the murder and blames Amrutha’s character for everything. “Overcoming the days of abortion if it was a girl child, Hindus have just started accepting girls as “Mahalakshmi” and are taking care of them. You were sent to school for studying but you put your education aside and fell in love in class 9. Are you being sent to school to study or to fall in love?”

Justifying female infanticide, he further wrote “Yes, he (Maruthi Rao) made a huge mistake by giving birth to you! She should be killed…Looking at her behaviour, one can tell how low her morals are? No one should have a daughter like her. Looking at the way she talks, it seems like she has a big agenda.”

Another user wrote that Amrutha’s mother should be killed for giving birth to a daughter like her.

The Logical Indian take

It is necessary to understand that what is legal and what is not. Maruthi is Amrutha’s father and he must have made immense sacrifices to bring her up. But the love of a parent is not absolute. He made those sacrifices so that Amrutha can grow up to be a healthy adult, who has the right to her own opinions and wishes.

The decision to marry Pranay was of her own. She was in love with Pranay since class 9. It is definite that after giving due thought, she took the decision to marry him. Her father might not have agreed to the marriage but he had no right to end a person’s life. Also, it is illegal.

Now, coming to the point where people are defending him saying that his love for her daughter drove him to do what he did. Where is the love? If he did love his daughter, he would have wanted her to be happy and not made his own grandchild fatherless. There is no doubt that the only driving force for the murder was the caste and bigotry. Just to establish the upper caste supremacy, he killed Pranay. His ego and his status were more important to him than his daughter’s happiness.

People have been questioning Amrutha’s character for falling in love with someone in Class 9 and they are justifying the murder by saying “parents know best”. But, they don’t, at least not always. To conceal misogyny and patriarchy, their only defence is “Indian culture.”

This incident is like an alarm. It is important to understand that harassment, abuse, bullying, murder or anything cannot be justified by “Indian culture”. If our culture makes us commit such horrific and insensitive crimes, then it is high time we change the way we perceive it.

Also Read: Telangana Honour Killing: “I Am More Concerned About My Status In The Society Than My Daughter”