Right to Marriage: Routine Violence of the State and Extension of Patriarchal Control

The article critically analyses the role of the state in ensuring the right to marriage of couples who defy family wishes or community norms. The article is based on in-depth interviews of couples and security personnel lodged in the Protection Centers of Haryana and other stakeholders. Besides, the findings are based on the textual analysis of judgments of Punjab and Haryana High Court and participant observation of actual High Court proceedings dealing with couples who had filed a petition for a protection order from the court. The study unfolds the routine and more subtle form of violence in the micro-practices of the legal and judicial apparatus of the state which nullifies or contradicts the legal enablement of progressive laws. Such cases reflect how the patriarchal control of the family members or community members is extended in the arena of the state institutions. The state emerges as an overall patriarch; ‘benevolent’ or ‘protective’ in some instances and ‘violent’ and ‘retributive’ in other cases. The ‘benevolent’ and ‘protective’ role of the state can be understood primarily in the judicial apparatus of the state and the operation of state institutions such as Protection Centers for Couples.