Love Jihad: Love Marriages under Social and Political Turbulence (By-Vaishnavi Pratap)
In my opinion, firstly,
the Hindu right wing’s erroneous assertion that there is a "Love
Jihad" organization driving Hindu women to convert to Islam through phony
displays of love is akin to a campaign in North India in the 1920s against
purported "abductions". Whether in 1920 or 2009 or 2021, Hindu
patriarchal beliefs appear to be well ingrained in campaigns designed to hunt
down-converted women. It sets a horrible image of docile victimized Hindu women
at the hands of unfathomable Muslim men and any chance of women expressing
their inherent right to love and choice is rejected. Secondly, what people need
to understand is that it is normal for dissent to arise out of such situations
because as stated before, people hold their religion and culture to their
heart. Women won’t stop marrying just because the person they chose to get
married to doesn’t follow the same religion.
Our religious scriptures
and cultural teachings were framed over centuries ago and we have progressed as
a society through those centuries. Therefore, it logically doesn’t make sense
to limit basic rights and liberties over ‘hurt sentiments’ because, in a
secular democracy where people have a legal right to object, it is practically
impossible to keep everyone happy on the uncommon and volatile ground of
religion. Inter-faith marriages were always an issue because of only two
reasons- the first being the dogma of people and the second being the influence
of the press and social media. It’s only when the media influences the public
and doesn’t let their ideas evolve that issues like these are mishandled.
Similarly, it is only after they (the influential) had given such marriages a
religious identity, fanatical institutions such as Sri Ram Sena, Vishva Hindu
Parishad, and Sangh Parivar continued to harass families over their daughter’s
marriage.
An individual's right to
exercise conscience cannot be limited just because it contradicts religious
ethics and values. The right to conscience cannot be restricted if an individual
believes a religious principle violates his or her ethical convictions and if
the individual's ethical values are not in violation of laws or in the way of
restricting the exercise of another person's rights.[1]
All of this is fueled by
the common ‘fear’ that the number of Hindus were decreasing (in a country where
they are the majority). However, despite the authorities’ and the government’s
insistence that these worries were unfounded, vigilance against love jihad
became an important component of the