The Meghalaya honeymoon murder case has found its way into every corner of conversation—from neighbourhood chai shops to national TV news channels. Speculation is swirling: Did Sonam Raghuvanshi – a young bride from Indore allegedly forced into an arranged marriage – kill her husband Raja Raghuvanshi with the help of her lover Raj Kushwaha? Facts are still emerging, but the debates have already taken hold—about choice, coercion, inter-caste marriage, feminism, and what happens when social and familial pressure turns into tragedy.
This isn’t the first time a crime like this has happened. But we live in a world where social media ensures that every such incident is quickly pulled into the service of someone’s narrative—call it propaganda, agenda, or simply a spin. Many accounts, especially Right-wing or Right-leaning ones, have jumped in with their usual retort: that this is the curse of feminism. That feminism has somehow ruined women, corrupting their minds and turning them into ruthless criminals.
It’s not just the desire of many to maintain the status quo of a traditional society—by blocking and reversing any freedoms women have gained in their lives—that’s troubling. What’s truly disheartening is how tragedies like this are quickly turned into tools to push tired anti-women narratives. The way these cases get shared, framed, and amplified is rarely about justice for the victim. They fuel an agenda. And when I say they don’t care about the victim, I mean it. If they did, they would be far more focused on understanding the situation that led to this – not just rush to blame feminism or women’s freedom at the first opportunity.
While details are still emerging in the Meghalaya honeymoon murder case, current reports suggest that the bride couldn’t marry the man of her choice—perhaps because Sonam is a Raghuvanshi, and Raj, her family’s employee, belongs to the Kushwaha community. This begs a crucial question: Why is choice, and inter-caste love, still a rebellion in India?
Denying choice
A woman with no real agency, forced into a marriage she didn’t want—let’s not pretend this doesn’t happen in India. It does, and often. Families, despite knowing what their children want, still emotionally blackmail them into going through with forced arranged marriages.
Why? Because they believe they know what’s best for their children; because they feel bound to society’s expectations; because keeping up appearances matters more than respecting an individual’s choice.
Could this tragedy have been averted had choice not been denied? Yes, the accused are criminals if proven guilty, and murder couldn’t have been the only solution to their problem. But at the same time, they were, like many others, cornered by a system of traditions that allows no escape within its own logic. And unless we’re willing to talk about that system, we’ll just keep seeing more of the same.
Facts vs agenda
Using crimes like the Sonam Raghuvanshi case to portray men as victims of feminism is absurd – especially when juxtaposed with facts and statistics. In 2022 alone, 6,450 dowry-related deaths were reported in India, along with 31,516 cases of rape. About 96.6 per cent of these crimes were committed by someone known to the victim: family members, friends, or neighbours. That’s an average of 86 rapes per day in this country. Coming to domestic violence, 32 per cent of married women aged between 18–49 have experienced spousal violence. And these are just the reported instances.
So, when people try to hijack one tragic incident and use it to attack feminism, it tells you more about their agenda than about reality. No matter what a woman does in today’s world, feminism is somehow to blame for it. If anything, it’s the lack of feminism that is the problem. If Sonam Raghuvanshi had been truly empowered by feminist values, she would have had the courage to rebel against a forced marriage and stand up to her parents. And if her parents—or the society around them—understood feminism even a little, they would never have forced her into that union.
The issue here isn’t too much feminism; it’s that there’s still not enough of it.
Amana Begam Ansari is a columnist, writer, and TV news panellist. She runs a weekly YouTube show called ‘India This Week by Amana and Khalid’. She tweets @Amana_Ansari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Does –all that what is written by Amana here–give license to Sonam to murder an innocent,gentleman, who was not at all responsible for her problems in this respect?
Do not give it colour of feminism, coersion. etc. It is simly a case of extreme fiendishness,
For them thinking of murdering someone did not mean anything serious; First they planned to kill any woman resembling Sonam. Then they made FOUR attempts on life of Raja.
Sonam and her accomplices must be condemned unconditionally.
Supporting such persons even harms the feminism cause
Your defence is quite painful & inhuman .
Wrong facts, wrong research. They are both from same caste, only clans are different. They are from different class. Just proved how our media makes news of nonsense.
A bit disappointed with the tone of this article, we are talking about adults here, not kids. If she was forced into a marriage, what was stopping her from talking to the groom and telling him the truth? Or if she truly loved Raj, both of them could have eloped? Or talked it out like adults? Or even make a huge scene in the wedding and stop it?
This is the most ridiculous argument I have heard. Somehow this columnist parries away the blame for murdering her husband (which from all available evidence rests squarely in the shoulders of the bride) to her parents! As if the cold blooded murder is justified by the coercion that the bride supposedly had to go through. Would she have the same opinion of the groom, hypothetically forced into a marriage murdered the girl? Absolute garbage of an opinion.
Dear Saikat, it is not only disappointing, article, it is cruel to humanity.
Sonam and her accomplices first think of murdering any (innocent) woman resembling Sonam, and then passing it as murder of sonam. Then they make FOUR attempts on innocent Raja’s life.
It is extreme case of fiendishnes, and Amana gives it colour of feminism. Such articles even harm the cause of feminism.
Thanks for raising this issue, in fact this seems to be the root cause of this murder. The girl wanted to have free choice, but her wish was suppressed due to family and caste pressure and was forced to marry against her wishes. She should have fought against her family, or better she should have told the groom before marriage. She made the mistake of murdering an innocent person who placed trust in her. The real culprits are her parents and society in general.