Although the Love Jihad Law Has Been Used Only Against Muslim Males, It Is Actually About Banning Mass Conversion Per Se
By
Saba Naqvi
December
31, 2020
According
to a report published in this newspaper (‘Walking home with friend after
birthday party, Muslim youth booked under ‘love jihad’ law’, IE, December 25),
a Muslim boy who stepped out with a young girl in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, after
a birthday party, landed in jail for apparently trying to induce the girl into
marriage and conversion. The boy is now guilty till proven innocent, although
the girl is vocal that her friend made no such attempt. The girl’s father says
the police dictated the complaint and pressured him into making it. The young
man’s future is potentially worse than that of other Muslim males picked up
since the so-called love jihad laws came into effect in the state on November
24. This is because the girl is a Dalit, which means the punishment can be
doubled to 10 years — the young man has also been charged under the SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences
(POCSO) Act). His life has been blighted.
The Uttar
Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance operates at
various levels. It comes no doubt from a visceral hatred of the Muslim male and
the need to show him his place, a process that is of a piece with the political
tactics and the hearts and minds of those who rule the nation’s most populous
state. It is, however, important to note that although the law has been used
only against Muslim males, it is actually about banning mass conversion per se.
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For the
larger Hindutva project is fundamentally about consolidating Hindu society
across caste differences and the Muslims are the punching bags. The prejudice
and fear against them is designed to instil such unity. The badly and
hastily-drafted ordinance was brought in months after the brutal Hathras gang
rape in Uttar Pradesh — the victim from the Valmiki Dalit sub caste was raped,
allegedly by upper caste men on September 14 (she would die two weeks later).
As the police action invited charges of a cover up, the incident became an
embarrassment for the state government. Leading national dailies would
subsequently report that 200 Valmikis in Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh
had converted to Buddhism on October 14 in protest against the caste prejudice
displayed in the handling of the Hathras rape/murder. The district
administration would downplay the conversion.
Indeed, the
words “love jihad” find no mention in the ordinance but it takes a serious view
of any incident where two or more people (say an entire family) convert to
another faith. It is designed to harass those who wish to do so and makes the
process the punishment. It is in this sphere too, that the ordinance is
fundamentally against the vital principle of free will.
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To put this
in context, it’s important to recognise how strongly the current system reacts
against any retelling of caste atrocity. Bhima Koregaon, for instance, located
30 kilometres from Pune is a site where the Mahars (a Dalit sub caste to which
Bhimrao Ambedkar belonged) have celebrated their role as soldiers in the
British victory against the Peshwas in 1818. A gathering on January 1, 2018 to
mark 200 years of that battle was attacked and subsequently, the attempt to
tell the story through the subaltern perspective was criminalised. The name
Bhima Koregaon is now associated with cases and arrests of activists/
lawyers/academics.
Similarly,
the leader of the Bhim Army from Saharanpur in UP often finds himself behind
bars because he has another narrative to offer. Chandrashekhar Azad is a small
player, yet he seems to invite repeated jail terms and house arrests. He has
incidentally attached the name Ravan to his name, an act that some see as an
insult to the belief in Rama, the God-King, for whom a splendid temple is being
constructed at Ayodhya. Azad has repeatedly urged Dalits to assert their own
distinct identity and not get submerged in the Hindutva stream.
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Also Read:
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As a new
socio-political construct is being created by the BJP-RSS, there is a need to
silence awkward voices. Mass conversions are few and far between but have been
an important protest tool used by Dalits since Ambedkar himself famously
converted to Buddhism in 1956. There is no pretence at fair-play as the same
law that criminalises conversion makes it possible for people to “reconvert” to
their faith. This is to ensure that the “Ghar Wapsi” (home-coming) initiatives
by RSS linked organisations to get people from tribal communities, Christians
and Muslims to “return” to what they see as the Hindu fold, face no hurdle. In
other words, you can check-in any time, but you can never leave.
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There are
many historical fears essentially that of the caste Hindu male, that lie behind
the new law. To sum it up in a sentence — it is about the historical belief
that somehow their numbers will decline if Muslim men wed Hindu women and if
Dalits and Adivasis have the option of leaving the Hindu fold. A study of the
pamphlets and literature of the right wing groups such as the VHP and Bajrang
Dal reveal a phobic obsession with the two themes of seduction and conversion.
As all
these neuroses come into play, the rights of women have been completely
subjugated in this law. Any relative of the woman can file a complaint to get
the police and bureaucracy engaged in an inter-faith marriage. The law presumes
the woman is a chattel of the family, community and relatives who now have
greater agency than her and can invite police and bureaucrats to interfere in
an adult’s personal choice.
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Saba
Naqvi, a senior journalist, is the author of Shades of Saffron: From Vajpayee to
Modi
Original
Headline: Love jihad law speaks to Hindutva’s insecurities about conversion,
and is driven by need to curb free will
Source: The Indian Express
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/although-love-jihad-law-been/d/123935
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