Negotiating Honour by Jat and Muslim Women in Muzaffarnagar, Western Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

In this article, we critically examine honour as a daily cultural code which is pivotal in organising gender relations, and go beyond culture-centric and Eurocentric conceptions of honour. By looking at everyday honour practices of Jat and Muslim women, in Muzaffarnagar, western Uttar Pradesh, we argue against the dominant understanding of honour as a product of religious mannerism and a culturally specific trait. Rather by looking at two religiously different, but agriculturally intertwined communities, we argue that both the communities have an analogous underpinning of honour which is embedded in agrarian ecology. Through empirical evidence, we argue that honour is a regional ethos, embedded and organised around the resource of agrarian land. As anxieties around agriculture and the agrarian way of life are increasing because of agrarian transformation, we see a resurgence of honour in the region. We focus the analytical lens around honour as a negotiated process and argue that women of both communities, in the region are ‘doing’ honour to bargain with patriarchy and negotiate for their upward mobility.