PARAGRAPH,WORDS AND MEANINGS

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Topic Of The Day:-“Khap menace: on interference in relationships between adults

Each time the Supreme Court feels impelled to remind khap panchayats and the society at large that they have no business interfering in the life choices of individuals regarding marriage and love, it is an implicit commentary on our times. The frequency with which one hears the court’s warnings against groups and individuals obstructing inter-faith or inter-caste relationships reaffirms the fact that the social milieu continues to be under the sway of the medieval-minded. The court’s latest observations that khap panchayats should not act as though they are conscience-keepers of society and that no one should interfere in relationships between adults came while it was hearing a writ petition seeking a ban on such community organisations and guidelines to put an end to “honour killings”. In 2011, the highest court termed such khaps “kangaroo courts”, declared them illegal and wanted them stamped out ruthlessly. Similar observations were made in other cases too, some of them in the context of “honour killings”. It is a grave misfortune that parents and self-appointed guardians of social mores continue to use coercion and harassment, and even resort to murderous violence, as a means to enforce their exclusionary and feudal prejudices. The recent murder of Ankit Saxena, a photographer who was in love with a Muslim girl, allegedly by members of her family, is one more extreme indication of families choosing the penal consequences of violence over the perceived dishonour caused by an inter-religious relationship. While the popular narrative situates community pride as a source of unconscionable violence in rural India, such murders are a reality in cities and among educated and presumably socially advanced sections too. The other dimension is that these khap organisations in north India seek to enforce age-old taboos such as the prohibition on sagothra marriages among Hindus. Their grouse is that the present law on Hindu marriage allows sapinda relationships up to a particular degree; they would prefer a limitless bar on any degree of such relationship in lineal ascendancy, which would prevent any marriage with one presumed to be descended from an ancestor belonging to the same gothra. Such views can only be eradicated with a change in social attitudes. The Law Commission in 2012 prepared a draft bill to prohibit interference in marriage alliances. Key provisions that seek to address the problem of khap panchayats in this draft say such informal groups would be treated as an ‘unlawful assembly’ and decisions that amount to harassment, social boycott, discrimination or incitement to violence should be punishable with a minimum sentence. Whether the solution is social transformation or legislative change, high-handed mediation or interference should brook no sympathy.

MEANINGS AND WORDS

1) Impelled

Meaning: Drive, force, or urge (someone) to do something.

Example: “financial difficulties impelled him to desperate measures”

Synonyms: Force, Compel

2) Implicit

Meaning: Suggested though not directly expressed.

Example: “comments seen as implicit criticism of the policies”

Synonyms: Implied, Indirect

Antonyms: Explicit, Direct

3) Obstructing

Meaning: Deliberately make (something) difficult.

Example: “fears that the regime would obstruct the distribution of food”

Synonyms: Stop, Block

4) Milieu

Meaning: A person’s social environment.

Example: “Gregory came from the same aristocratic milieu as Sidonius”

Synonyms: Environment, Background

5) Sway

Meaning: Control or influence (a person or course of action).

Example: “he’s easily swayed by other people”

Synonyms: Influence, Affect

6) Writ

Meaning: a form of written command in the name of a court or other legal authority to act, or abstain from acting, in a particular way.

Example: “the two reinstated officers issued a writ for libel against the applicants”

Synonyms: Summons, Warrant

7) Kangaroo courts

Meaning: An unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanour.

Example: “they conducted a kangaroo court there and then”

8) Stamped out

Meaning: To get rid of something that is wrong or harmful.

Example: The new legislation is intended to stamp out child prostitution.

Synonyms: Causing

9) Coercion

Meaning: The action or practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.

Example: “it wasn’t slavery because no coercion was used”

Synonyms: Force, Compulsion

Antonyms: Persuasion

10) Murderous

Meaning: Capable of or intending to murder; dangerously violent.

Example: “a brutal and murderous despot”

Synonyms: Violent, Savage

11) Exclusionary

Meaning: Causing someone or something not to be allowed to take part in an activity or to enter a place.

Example: A formal US-EU trade agreement could be viewed as an exclusionary zone by Asians.

12) Feudal

Meaning: Absurdly outdated or old-fashioned.

Example: “his view of patriotism was more than old-fashioned—it was positively feudal”

13) Perceived

Meaning: Become aware of (something) by the use of one of the senses, especially that of sight.

Example: “he perceived the faintest of flushes creeping up her neck”

Synonyms: Notice, Identify

14) Unconscionable

Meaning: Not right or reasonable.

Example: “the unconscionable conduct of his son”

Synonyms: Amoral, Unethical

Antonyms: Ethical, Acceptable

15) Presumably

Meaning: Used to convey that what is asserted is very likely though not known for certain.

Example: “it was not yet ten o’clock, so presumably the boys were still at the pub”

Synonyms: Probably, Doubtless

16) Taboos

Meaning: A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.

Example: “many taboos have developed around physical exposure”

Synonyms: Prohibition, Proscription

Antonyms: Acceptance, Encouragement

17) Grouse

Meaning: Complain about something trivial; grumble.

Example: “she heard him grousing about his assistant”

Synonyms: Grumble, Complain

18) Ascendancy

Meaning: Occupation of a position of dominant power or influence.

Example: “the ascendancy of good over evil”

Synonyms: Dominance, Supremacy

Antonyms: Subordination

19) Descended

Meaning: (of a situation or group of people) reach (an undesirable state).

Example: “the army had descended into chaos”

Synonyms: Degenerate, Deteriorate

Antonyms: Improve

20) Boycott

Meaning: A punitive ban on relations with other bodies, cooperation with a policy, or the handling of goods.

Example: “a boycott of the negotiations”

Synonyms: Ban, Embargo

Antonyms: Approval

21) Incitement

Meaning: The action of provoking unlawful behaviour or urging someone to behave unlawfully.

Example: “this amounted to an incitement to commit murder”

Synonyms: Urging, Motivation

Antonyms: Suppression, Discouragement

22) Brook

Meaning: Tolerate or allow (something, typically dissent or opposition).

Example: “Jenny would brook no criticism of Matthew”

Synonyms: Tolerate, Allow