An Assessment of Honour and Violence against Women in South Asia Shri Krishan, Professor of History, Indira Gandhi University, Rewari (Haryana) (Email: embu.indo@gmail.com) Introduction: The Declaration on Elimination of Violence Against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines Violence Against Women as "any act of gender based violence against women that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private spaces ". Gender based violence has been recognised as a violation of basic human rights of women and of their exercise of fundamental freedom. According to a WHO report, among women aged 15-44 years, gender violence accounts for more deaths and disability than, cancer, malaria, traffic injuries or war put together. Violence in general is a coercive mechanism to assert one's will over another, in order to prove or feel a sense of power. Any hierarchical social system has an in-built gradation of domination and subordination, as well as institutionalized violence and victimization. This is perpetuated by various means - subtle pressure through the power of ideology, the mechanism of internalized social norms, and the system of social sanctions which penalizes non-compliance. For the purposes of this study, we accept Kelkar & Krishnaraj's definition of violence as physical violence, threats, physical and mental harassment-in brief, all open and overt expressions of coercion (Kelkar & Krishnaraj, 1985: 1). There are forms of violence which are directed specifically against women. All these spring from the structure of patriarchy, defined broadly as a system of male dominance legitimated within the family and society through superior rights, privileges, authority and power. The degree and forms of expression of patriarchy vary from society to society. But the process of subordination is generally achieved by devaluing women's contribution, while at the same time extracting a significant contribution from them. A second process occurs through a powerful ideology of rigidly assigned roles for women, which act as boundaries for all their actions - boundaries which can be overstepped at their own peril. The most potent and restrictive injunction is the virtual debarment of women in public places or places typically designated as the male sphere. According to Meera Kosambi, Gender-based violence underscores the inadequacy,
ineffectiveness and unwillingness of the State machinery to curb violence against women. (Kosambi , 1993: 1) Is Women's Subordination an Ethnic Phenomenon? In the studies on gender-based violence specifically either the killing of women in the name of honour is glossed over as we see in the above mentioned important report of Meera Kosambi or it is seen as crimes confined to Asian subcontinent or the Asian immigrant communities from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and East Africa, located in the West (especially in the USA, UK and Canada), cutting across faith, age, caste, class and racial groups, similarly show crimes committed to maintain 'honour and prestige' of the family and community. According to Roger Ballard, "Honour