Khaps in the Transforming North Indian Rural: Mapping Changes and Continuities

Abstract

In consideration of transforming rural realities and recent sociopolitical events in the North Indian countryside, in this article, we argue that some recent activities undertaken by khap panchayats have unsettled the established binaries and notions attached to them. Based on primary research, we analyse the changed role and participation of khaps in three recent political events—farmers’ protests (2020–2021), female wrestlers’ protests (2023), and mobilisation against Nuh–Mewat communal violence (2023). Such apparent changes in the nature and functioning of khaps are attributed to their weakening hold in the North Indian rural and are employed as survival or adaptive strategies in the rapidly altering sociopolitical and economic milieu. These changes do not instantiate a revolutionary break from their past, nor do they mirror their ‘archaic’ existence; rather, they are a consequence of shifting rural realities. Alternatively, while reading these changes, attention must be paid to the political vocabulary employed by khaps for securing large-scale mobilisation in these events. Such appeals are dually anchored in notions of honour and dignity, ‘protecting’ which has always been one of their central concerns.