“Social media deemed as a modern-day innovation facilitate and perpetuate caste crimes,” said writer and national secretary of People’s Union of Civil Liberties S. Balamurugan. 

He spoke at a meeting on ‘Increasing honour killings – How to prevent?’ organised by PUCL here on Saturday. 

Mr. Balamurugan recollecting recent incidents of youths rampaging through the streets of western districts for observing guru pooja celebration said, “Hailing from one of those western districts I have never witnessed such scenes in my childhood days or even before five years.” 

The mob which was mostly youths was brainwashed through the social media applications to exhibit their caste pride, he added.  

“Though the pride neither helps them financially nor solves their familial issues, they tend to display their caste ‘strength,’” he noted.  

Commenting on the government’s inaction towards such violent activities, he said that on the one hand casteism was growing rapidly towards violence and on the other hand, the government responsible for preventing them remains a mute spectator to retain their electoral caste base intact. 

“A close perusal of all the honour killings in Tamil Nadu would reveal that police or the State at some point would have received a complaint or information about the violence that is to take place,” he asserted.  

“Even in the recent caste killing case in Tirunelveli a police official was said to have warned the victim to stay away from the relationship,” he said.  

He said that police should be sensitised to handle such cases or should be placed in such a way that they are not influenced by the majority caste in the region.  

The Supreme Court, only after realising that none of the governments would dare to go against the caste, through its judgements, had given several guidelines to prevent and handle honour killings, he noted. 

Notwithstanding numerous laws and acts which ensure prevention of honour killings, the inaction and inefficiency of the State help the perpetrators in identifying the loopholes to escape from the violent crimes, he said.  

Adding to it, he said, the caste mentality which can be defined as a psychosocial disease takes pride in resorting to violent acts.

“Unless there are social education and appropriate laws to take into account the ‘caste’ angle in suicides and murders, the crimes in the name of caste pride are not going to come down,” he observed.