Beating someone

Serious shouting and screaming from somewhere close by, an hour or two ago. Sounded like people were angry enough to kill each other. I walked over to see if there was something I could do to prevent sudden murder. It's a bungalow behind a high wall, can't see anything but the shouting is getting louder and fiercer. Then three people emerge from a gate, walking backward, gesticulating, shouting and being shouted at. A slender young woman, a young man who is probably her husband, and an older man who must be his father.

Four people. The woman is carrying a small baby.

The young man shouts in desperation at the father, a mixture of Marathi and Hindi: "Baba, start your scooter! Let's go!"

Father yells and shakes his fist at whoever is inside. Something wondering about the caste of those inside, and pronouncing his own. Young man shouts at him again, "Get on your scooter! NOW!" Father won't stop yelling.

Eventually the woman starts walking toward me, which seems to prompt the father to get on his scooter. She says as she comes closer, cradling her baby, "They are beating our bahu in there."

The father and son draw alongside on their scooters. The father shouts in my face, "They are beating my bahu! Would you be able to tolerate it? I can't! My bahu!"

The woman settles herself on the seat behind her husband and the two scooters roar off down the road, with the father still shouting.

And I'm left scratching my head. Who were they talking about?