India’s tennis sensation Radhika Yadav (25) was killed by her father because she was violating the norms of a patriarchal society
Early in the morning of 10 July, Radhika Yadav, 25, a former Indian national tennis player, was busy preparing breakfast in her large house in Sushant Lok-II, an upmarket neighbourhood in Gurgaon, in the North Indian state of Haryana.
But all was not well in Radhika’s household. A few days earlier, she had a heated argument with her father, Deepak Yadav, over her insistence on running a tennis training centre. Suddenly, several gunshots ripped through the early morning quiet. Radhika fell in a pool of blood. The murderer turned out to be her own father, Deepak.
Pyare Lal, the neighbourhood’s caretaker, who happened to be passing by, witnessed a shocking scene – Deepak was on the first-floor balcony, brandishing a revolver and shouting, “I have killed my daughter!” Then, as if he had accomplished a “great task,” he turned around and walked back into the house calmly.
This tragedy not only ended the life of a young woman, but also unveiled the cruelty of the patriarchal system in her ancestral village of Wazirabad, just 2.5 kilometres from where she lived.
Daughter’s Dream Clashes With Patriarchy
Cheerful and ever-smiling, Radhika was once a rising tennis star in India. She sweated it out on the court and was ranked 113th in the International Tennis Federation’s women’s doubles rankings and fifth in Haryana’s women’s doubles rankings.
Two years ago, a shoulder injury forced her to bid farewell to her career as a player. But after retirement, Radhika saw an opportunity in professional coaching and gradually became a very popular tennis coach in the Gurgaon area by posting instructional videos through social media.
A close friend of Radhika’s told NDTV that she loved her father, “He had invested so much in my tennis and I am not going to let it go to waste,” Radhika had said.
She was pursuing her dreams outside of sports too. She got hooked on social media, posting short videos on Instagram to show her personality, hoping to become a social media influencer with a large following. A year ago, she collaborated with singer Inaam for the music video “Karwaan”, the romantic images in which made her popular, and helped her find confidence. “I am in charge of my life,” she said to herself.
According to one of Radhika’s close friends, despite her love for makeup and for posing on social media, Radhika was focused on being a tennis coach. “Becoming a super coach would allow her to be financially independent and her children would be able to learn from her,” her friend said.
However, Radhika’s ambitions clashed irreconcilably with her father’s pride!
Father Deepak, who was in the real estate business, had made great efforts to boost his daughter’s career in tennis. Deepak’s friends and Radhika’s coach all said that he was a devoted father who not only accompanied his daughter to tournaments but backed her up financially and emotionally.
The most incredible thing is that the daughter who used to make her father proud eventually became a “stain on the family” in his eyes. Deepak told police that every time he went back to his home village of Wazirabad, the villagers would mock him for “living off his daughter’s income” and question her character. This deeply hurt his “manly pride.”
According to police investigations, Deepak disapproved of her earning money by tutoring others. He repeatedly requested Radhika to stop her tennis training courses and delete the “indecent” videos on social media. But Radhika would refuse to give in to her father’s demands to stop coaching. Her defiance was not only in defence of her dream, but also a silent challenge to patriarchy.
Ultra-Rich but Conservative
Since Radhika was a tennis celebrity from the village, people of the village would closely follow her every move through media. The adverse comments of the villagers against Radhika eventually became a major trigger for Deepak’s decision to kill her, his own daughter.
The village of Wazirabad, with a population of 8,000, is situated on the urban–rural border of Gurgaon, a satellite city of India’s capital New Delhi. The real estate boom of the 1990s catapulted this large village, dominated by the Yadav community, into one of the wealthiest villages in Haryana. The villagers amassed wealth by selling land and renting out properties. Today, most of the people of Wazirabad live on rent and indulge in playing poker and smoking the “hookah”, like typical rural landlords. Deepak, one of the richest in the village, owns real estate valued at 1 billion rupees (US$12 million) and earns 1.7 to 1.8 million rupees (US$20,000) per month from rent alone.
The Deepak family, which belongs to the Backward Caste of Yadavs, had been farming for generations. But after becoming rich, they started investing in modern “elite sports” such as tennis and shooting, to raise the status of their offspring. According to Deepak’s cousin, Pawan, Deepak had invested at least 20 million rupees on his daughter’s tennis training. He spends 5 million rupees a year to train his son to be an international-level shooter.
Wealth, however, had not shaken his deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes. Haryana is a typically patriarchal region of India. The sex ratio in Wazirabad is only 87.2, significantly lower than the state average of 91.0. Women rarely leave their homes, and when they do, they mostly cover their faces. No wonder villagers were vocal about some aspects of Radhika’s behaviour, which they termed “indecent”.
Although many villagers were shocked that Deepak had killed his favourite daughter, others sympathised with him, saying that “children should be disciplined if they don’t listen”.
Distorted Paternal Love
The media coverage of the murder tended to highlight Deepak’s “love” for his daughter. “He had gone out of his way to send his daughter to the most expensive school in the area, the Scottish International School, to receive an elite education, and devoted his time and money to training his daughter to become an international tennis star. The conservative-minded man even supported his daughter’s musical video ‘Karwaan’ and said he liked the song,” it was pointed out.
But her daughter’s bestie, Himaanshika, revealed on social media that Radhika felt “suffocated at home” and wanted to go abroad to breathe free air. The family objected to her wearing short skirts, makeup and talking to male students at the tennis centre. Her trips were monitored.
Three days before the incident, Deepak threatened to kill himself or his daughter and asked her to stop her activities at the tennis training centre. Himaanshika disclosed that Radhika loved taking pictures and dreamt of becoming a social media internet celebrity, but due to criticism from the family, she had deleted most of her content and only six posts remained on Instagram before her death.
However, Radhika’s family denied the accusations. Deepak’s cousin Pawan told the local media, “We support Radhika in playing tennis and she is free to play abroad, but freedom does not mean abuse.”
After killing his daughter, Deepak claimed to the police that his behaviour was due to the ridicule he got from fellow villagers and claimed to have been “depressed for 15 days” as a result. However, when police questioned 35 villagers, no one admitted to making such taunts. Deepak’s nephew, Vinod, who lives in Wazirabad, said that Deepak would come to his house every day on a motorcycle to fetch milk and they would talk, but he never mentioned facing any ridicule from the villagers. Deepak came from a well-to-do family and did not face any pressure or ridicule from the village or society, Vinod said.
But Radhika’s mother described Deepak as “suspicious” and “prone to believing in rumours”. He even objected to his wife talking to her brother!
According to the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, the day before the murder, Deepak received a “disturbing” message from the village about Radhika’s “misbehaviour”.
Psychologists pointed out that Deepak’s psychological disorder could have amplified villagers’ criticism. However, his planned murder, sidetracking his son on the day of the murder, locking his wife in a room and firing four shots, suggests that it was a control-driven act. His pronouncement from the balcony was akin to proving to the village that he had “restored his honour”.
Undercurrents of Patriarchy
Radhika’s encounter with patriarchy is reminiscent of the Haryana-set Hindi movie Dangal starring Aamir Khan a few years ago. Though the movie showed women in Haryana challenging gender norms in a traditional society, the movie did not question India’s patriarchal society according to which “the father is always right, and success has to be in accordance with the father’s will.”
In the case of Radhika also, father Deepak is a typical patriarchal figure. Deepak invests heavily in Radhika and wants her to succeed professionally but cannot tolerate her “autonomy”. In Dangal, the wrestler’s success is accepted by the family and the nation. In Radhika’s case too, her accomplishments are accommodated but not her full autonomy as an individual. The father goes to the extent of shooting her to death to uphold his patriarchal authority.
Radhika’s case shows that Wazirabad’s wealth improved the living standards of the Yadav community but without shaking its patriarchy. Even in urban India, patriarchy still clings to outdated notions of honour, obedience and silence.
Lament of the New Indian Woman
Radhika represents the ambitions of the new Indian woman: financial independence, professional success, and freedom of expression. But in the conservative soil of Wazirabad, these ambitions are seen as a threat to family honour and are ultimately crushed under the weight of villagers’ patriarchal disapproval.
The portrayal of Raghubir Yadav, the 74-year-old granduncle of Radhika, in the local media is illustrative. Sitting in his bungalow, puffing a hookah, the old man sneered, “The media just wants to prove that Radhika’s father is a criminal. Yes, he killed her, but a father has the right over his daughter!”
Alas, this is India! Perhaps the sneer from Radhika’s uncle is the cruellest footnote to Radhika’s tragedy.