Hindu Vigilantes And Muslim Fanatics Bay For The Blood Of Those Crossing The Religious Boundaries In Matters Of Love And Marriage
By Ram Puniyani
4th
November 2020
Allahabad
High Court in its recent judgment opposed the conversion to get married to the
person of another faith. The logic is that in the Special Marriages act,
interfaith marriages are totally acceptable. One Muslim woman had converted to
Hinduism to get married to a Hindu man. Talking in this aftermath the UP Chief
Minister launched a tirade against Muslim men. As per him many Muslim youth
hide their religious identity, lure the Hindu girls and then convert them to
Islam. They will be dealt with sternly and their own funeral processions (Ram
Naam Satya Hai) will be taken out.
In a strict
warning he said that such incidents will not be allowed, his Government will
come out with a law against it. He also said that posters will be put up of
those indulging in such activities. As if on the cue, Haryana Chief Minster
Manohar Lal Khattar, another BJP ruled state came forward with the resolve of
his Government to bring a law against such interfaith marriages, Muslim
boy-Hindu girls, which are referred to by the derogatory ‘Love Jihad’, which by
now has become a sort of provocation for violence., as witnessed in the case of
Muzaffarnagar violence of UP in 2013.
In contrast
to these hyperbole speeches by BJP leaders the number of cases of interfaith
marriages is handful. There are both types of such marriages. One does recall
the marriage of Trinmul Congress MP, Nusrat Jahan to a Hindu and the way she
was trolled. Selectively case of Nikita Tomar, who was murdered by a Muslim
man, in which case Tausif and Rehan have been arrested and hash tag #KshtriyaLivesMatter
is making the rounds is also being projected as an attempted love jihad.
Officially speaking G.Kishan Reddy, Junior minister in Home Ministry had stated
in Parliament that there is no such category as love jihad. He also pointed
this out while replying to a question by a Kerala MP, about love Jihad cases in
Kerala. As per him the cases were investigated and not found to be the one
related to coercion etc.
Hadiya
-------
Love Jihad
had come to fore in a big way in case of Akhila. This Hindu girl had married a
Muslim man; and had changed her name to Hadiya. After the long battle the
Supreme Court upheld her right to her choice and overruling the Kerala High
Court verdict and permitted her to stay with her husband. Again we witnessed
the same in case of recently released and then withdrawn Tanishq advertisement.
In this ad a Hindu bride, looking happy and cheerful is surprised that a Hindu
ritual of God Bharai (Baby Shower) is being organized for her in her husband’s
Muslim household. The communalists not only trolled this ad but also declared a
boycott of Tanishq products. Under the threat of this the company buckled and
withdrew the ad. The charge was same that such advertisements promote Love
Jihad.
This time
around apart from the types of steps being outlined by the UP and Haryana Chief
Ministers, what is being dished out is a series of advices to the parents of
Hindu girls to keep a watch on them, to whom they talk, their mobile phone
messages and their movements. Clearly control mechanisms are being devised to keep
a control on the lives of girls/women. Control over the lives of women is one
of the agenda of the communal politics. Communal politics seems to be operating
on the ground of ‘hate minorities’, Muslim and also partly Christians. Its
other components are to push the caste equations to the pre-democratic times
and also to intensify the patriarchal control, which has the danger of
weakening in the democratic society. In the wake of rising education among
girls in particular, the social interactions between opposite sex do go up.
As such
this patriarchy is the integral part of the communal politics everywhere. It
may be Muslim communalism or Christian fundamentalism, patriarchal control is
the core of their agenda.
In case of
Hindu Communalism, showing the threat of Hindu women being converted to Islam
has part of communal propaganda. Hindutva ideologue Savarkar; in his writings
chastises Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a great icon for Hindu communalists, for
leaving alone the daughter-in-law of Bassien’s Subhedar, a Muslim, who was
brought to her as a gift by his soldiers. It is precisely for this reason that
Savarkar, despite being admirer of Shivaji on other counts did not include
Shivaji’s reign in his ‘Six Golden Pages of Indian History’, the major book by him.
As Hindu
communalism (parallel and opposite to Muslim communalism) developed in north
India, the communalists projected the threat of rising Muslim population in
India, way back in 1920s. Charu Gupta in her ‘Myth of Love jihad’ makes an
interesting observation “Pamphlets with provocative titles like “Hindu Auraton
ki Loot”, which denounced Muslim propaganda for proselytizing female preys, and
“Hindu Striyon ki Loot ke Karan”, an Arya Samajist tract showing how to save
“our” ladies from becoming Muslim, appeared at this time. The love jihad
campaign of today, too, is using similar tropes.”
Not to be
left behind RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat reiterates that women should restricts
themselves to household chores, while men should do the earning part.
In our
large society multiple layers of life patterns are occurring at the same time.
The interaction between people of different castes and religious communities is
the natural phenomenon. It is this interaction which does bring people in close
bandings, some of these leading to marital alliances. As such even inter caste
marriage is not occurring in India in significant proportions. One of the
prescriptions Babasaheb Ambedkar makes for ‘Annihilation of Caste’ is promotion
of inter-caste marriages. We on the contrary are witnessing reverse phenomenon.
In case of interfaith marriages the matters are worse. Here Hindu vigilantes
and Muslim fanatics bay for the blood of those crossing the religious
boundaries in matters of love and marriage.
Original Headline: Campaign to curb Inter-faith
marriages: Ruse to restrict women’s freedom
Source: The Siyasat
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/hindu-vigilantes-muslim-fanatics-bay/d/123377
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