Nirmala Devi
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology, GNDU
Amritsar, Punjab, India
Aditya Parihar
Assistant Professor [Guest]
Centre for Social Work
Panjab University
Chandigarh, India
Abstract
In the past, by and large harmonious relations existed in the villages and neighboring villages, due to an age-old ideology and regulatory function of khaps. Members of khap have always wielded enormous economic, social and political power in society and being rich and elderly, they forced their customary views with repressive laws. The village community in khap belt of Haryana is completely under the control of khaps. Hence, any study of khaps is bound to be incomplete without a peep into the opinions of community members. Therefore, in this paper an attempt has been made to approach every section of the community, including judiciary, police, academicians and social activists from khap belt of Haryana, who have very closely dealt with various activities related to these panchayats. The paper further explores the mindset of community members in relation to khaps. The responses and reactions of various sections of the community have been studied and also covered in detail the caste, class, and power politics in respect to the khap panchayats of Haryana.
Key words: Khaps, Community, Caste, Class, Power, Politics, Haryana etc,.
