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The Marriage Trap: How fear of stigma is killing the institution it was once meant to protect
🇴🇲 Oman /Culture & Society

The Marriage Trap: How fear of stigma is killing the institution it was once meant to protect

From Times of Oman · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • A murder case in Bengaluru involving a young woman, her unwanted fiancé, and a lover highlights how social stigma can distort perceptions of freedom and lead to extreme actions.
  • The case echoes a similar incident from 2003, where a law student conspired to kill her fiancé to be with another man.
  • Indian courts have noted that family insensitivity to a woman's state of mind, exacerbated by social stigma, can create conditions for tragedy, even while upholding sentences.

A murder case in Bengaluru, involving a young woman, her fiancé, and a lover, reads like a crime thriller. The details of the Lohagad Fort murder case describe a young woman, Siya Goyal, who allegedly orchestrated the killing of her fiancé, Ketan Agarwal, to be with her lover.

This incident is not unique, as an old colleague noted, with excuses becoming "flimsier nowadays." A similar case from Bengaluru in the early 2000s involved Shubha Shankaranarayan, a law student. Four days after her engagement to software engineer BV Girish, she instructed her accomplice to attack him. Girish died from his injuries, and Shubha was found to have conspired with a college junior, unable to tell her family the truth about her relationship.

This is not new. It is just that the excuses are becoming flimsier nowadays.

— Old colleagueCommenting on the recurring nature of such cases.

Twenty-two years separate Shubha and Siya, yet the pattern remains the same: a young woman unable to express her refusal of an unwanted relationship, creating a void where something far worse can grow. In July of the previous year, the Indian Court upheld Shubha's life sentence.

the tragedy might never have occurred had her family been more sympathetic to her state of mind - and, more broadly, that social stigma does not merely limit a person’s choices, it distorts their very perception of freedom, making resistance feel impossible, even immoral.

— Indian Court benchObserving the role of family insensitivity and social stigma in the Shubha Shankaranarayan case.

However, the bench made a significant observation: the tragedy might have been averted if her family had been more sympathetic to her state of mind. The court recognized that social stigma not only limits choices but also distorts the perception of freedom, making resistance seem impossible or even immoral. Shubha, though an adult, was unable to make an independent decision, caught between her desires and her family's expectations.

The court did not excuse Shubha's actions, and her sentence stands. Nevertheless, it identified the societal factors that contributed to the circumstances of the crime. This situation extends beyond individual cases, reflecting a broader societal issue where the refusal to accept a partner choice or the decision not to marry is often dictated by caste, class, religion, and horoscopes, rather than individual will. Both Shubha and Siya were unable to refuse relationships they had not chosen, highlighting a deep-seated problem within Indian society.

Shubha, the court found, was an adult who was nonetheless unable to make an independent decision for herself, caught between what she wanted and what her family was prepared to hear.

— Indian Court benchDescribing Shubha's lack of agency due to societal pressures.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Times of Oman. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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