E. S. YURLOVA Candidate of Historical Sciences Keywords: violence against women, castepanchayat, honor killing, inter-caste marriage Against the background of the main processes in the development of mankind at the beginning of the XXI century - globalization and modernization - in many countries "unexpectedly" began to openly and acutely manifest trends associated not with moving forward - to the future, but rather with going back - to the past, to the roots of the traditional organization of society. In India, this is reflected in phenomena that affect the deep foundations of society, including in the field of family and marriage relations. They manifested themselves, in particular, in such forms as the murder of women for the sake of family honor. HONOR KILLINGS AND... DOWRY MURDERS In May 2010, the mother of a 22-year-old journalist, Nirupama, was detained in Koderma, in the northern state of Jharkhand, on suspicion of honor killing. Nirupama's parents objected to her marriage to a non-caste man with whom she had studied at the Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi. Police arrested the mother on suspicion of strangling her daughter. The question of his father's involvement in the murder was investigated by law enforcement agencies. The National Commission on the Status of Women reacted sharply to this event, demanding to speed up the investigation of the circumstances of the murder1. At the same time, another honour killing was reported in Andhra Pradesh, in the village of Krishnajivadi, also in May 2010. Sankar Srinivas, a 32-year-old Dalit (formerly untouchable), married a 22-year-old high-caste Swanna Reddy. This marriage did not receive the approval of her parents. To avoid trouble, the young couple moved to the state capital city of Hyderabad, where Sankar worked as an operator for a computer company. Svanna's parents invited them to their village, ostensibly to discuss some business. There was a quarrel, during which Swanna's parents began to beat Sanka ... Read more