Prof Ram Puniyani
THIS 1st Oct a Bareilly court gave life imprisonment to a Muslim man in case of a complaint of sexual assault. In the judgment, the justice commented that it is a case of ‘Love Jihad,’ which the police have failed to present that way. The girl was a Hindu. During the court proceedings, the girl did withdraw the complaint on the ground that she lodged the complaint under the pressure of a Hindutva group. The Lordship will have none of it; probably the social propaganda was ruling his verdict. Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar in his judgment commented sui generis that Muslim men target Hindu women to get married.
The judgment went on: “In simple words, ‘Love Jihad’ is the practice of Muslim men to convert women from non-Muslim communities to Islam by pretending to love them and marrying them. Illegal conversions through ‘Love Jihad’ are carried out by some anarchist elements of a particular religion or are made to do so or are involved in a conspiracy… A huge amount of money is required for ‘Love Jihad.’ Hence, the fact of foreign funding in ‘Love Jihad’ cannot be ruled out…” Foreign funding in ‘Love Jihad’ is a novel concept; wish the judge had named the country which is sending the money for this.
While propaganda around ‘Love Jihad’ was the first one in jihad series, now of course there are a number of jihads which are popularised, ‘land jihad’, ‘UPSC jihad’, ‘flood jihad’, and ‘Corona jihad’ amongst others. There are downright communal anchors which specialise in tabulating the types of jihad if Muslims are near or remotely related to any happening. This is a classic case of trivial issues being magnified to demonise the religious community, which is regarded as belonging to a ‘foreign religion’ and is targeted in covert and overt ways to be presented as the ‘enemy other’. This creation of ‘enemy other’ lies at the root of communal politics, Hindu nationalist politics, which is dominating the social scenario in India.
Propaganda about ‘Love Jihad’ is not very old. Just a couple of decades earlier some Christian Bishops from Kerala started this slander and it was picked up more intensely by Hindu nationalists. Since their propaganda machinery is well-oiled from RSS Shakhas to RSS-run schools, sections of media, social media, and a parallel social media with IT cell in particular. The propaganda that there is an organisation funding the Muslim youth to lure Hindu girls was investigated and was found to be a hoax.
Many things have been attributed to the purpose of Love Jihad. The first one is the demographic one. So far the major propaganda is that Muslims have ‘Four Wives Twenty Children’ and they will overtake the Hindu population soon. The Love Jihad, the conversion of Hindu girls through Love Jihad and producing children has been added on to it. Yet another aspect which has been added to it is that these girls are trained to be part of the Islamic State to fight for them.
The core aim of ‘Love Jihad’ propaganda has to be linked to the patriarchal values which accompany nationalism in the name of religion. The phenomenon of rising atrocity on rape and the increase in the incidents of rape runs parallel to the rise of communal politics. Teesta Setalvad points out, “Women of targeted communities are singled out as ‘symbols of honour’ of the communities when the horrors and bestiality of violence are unleashed on them. We saw this during the Partition-related violence, 1946–47; Nellie Assam, 1983; Delhi, 1984; Bombay, 1992–93; Gujarat, 2002; and most recently in Manipur, 2023… the reasons are sociological, historical and ideological. We must always remember that the BJP is ruled by the ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha— extreme rightwing outfits that are based on a deep-rooted vision of not just a militarised faith but of a misogynist control of women and their sexuality.”
One recalls here the reprimand by Hindu nationalism’s foremost ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Commenting on Shivaji’s noble act of returning the daughter-in-law of the Kalyan governor (A Muslim) brought to him by his plundering army Savarkar criticises Shivaji for not taking revenge but returning her with honour.
In the wake of the rising chorus of ‘Love Jihad’, historian Charu Gupta stated this is a mechanism to control the lives of women. “The fake claim by the Hindu right that there is a ‘love jihad’ organisation which is forcing the Hindu women to convert to Islam through a false expression of love is similar to the campaign in 1920 against alleged abductions. Whether 1920 or 2009, Hindu patriarchal notions seem to be deeply entrenched in such campaigns, images of passive victimised Hindu women at the hands of inscrutable Muslims abound and any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right of choice is ignored.”
It is in this light that one sees the intense activities of Bajrang Dal on occasions like Raksha Bandhan etc, when they go to Hindu households and tell the parents to keep a ‘watch’ on their daughters. The propaganda on the issue has caught up and is affecting different sections of society. There are many cases where Muslim youth are attacked. Priyanka Todi and Rizwan Khan story ended in the tragic death of the latter. Even the reverse of this sometimes becomes true at times when Ankit Bhandari is done to death by relatives of the Muslim girl he was in love with.
The case of Hadiya, Akhila Arunan, who converted to Islam is very revealing. She converted to Islam due to interaction with Muslim friends. Later she married Shafik Jahan. Her father was given her custody by the court on the grounds that she has been indoctrinated and will be recruited for ISIS work. She went up to Supreme Court where her testimony was heard and was restored with her husband.
In Kerala, many a Yoga centres have come up to convince the Hindu girls intending to marry a Muslim to bring her back to Hindu fold and abandon her love for the Muslim man. Many a girl have complained of force and blackmail being applied to them.
The judgment mentioned above shows how this propaganda is affecting our society overall, including the judges who are supposed to base their verdicts on concrete evidence.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
