‘Love Jihad’

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has banned religious conversions for the purpose of marriage, setting a 10-year prison term as the maximum penalty. The state government claims that the new law is designed to curb forced marriages. Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have already introduced similar laws. While we would generally give a government credit for addressing forced marriages, we know that this law has little to do with that. This is because of the widespread pushing of a baseless conspiracy theory called "Love Jihad". The theory goes that Muslim men are secretly trying to shift India's demographic balance by converting Hindu women to Islam through marriage.

The Love Jihad angle has been pushed by fringe and mainstream Hindu supremacist groups alike, including the ruling BJP, which controls the Centre. The theory has even been pushed by top government officials, including UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and those closest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is unsurprising then that reports suggest that at least four more BJP-controlled state governments plan to introduce legislation similar to UP. Even the head of India's National Commission for Women, a Modi crony named Rekha Sharma, has claimed that the country is suffering from "rising cases of love jihad". However, when pushed for information, the NCW claimed it had no information to prove this. Even Sharma herself refused to provide information to back up her claim when journalists approached her for details. Even where cases of alleged 'Love Jihad' have been probed, investigators have only found consensual relationships between adults that were falsely reported by disapproving family members.

The facts show that almost every supposed Love Jihad case is made up to punish people for marrying of their own free will, even though this is perfectly legal under Indian law. What is illegal though, is honour killing. Love Jihad laws give bigoted relatives and local fanatics a legal way to punish people who might otherwise end up as victims of honour killings. This is amplified by recent protests against TV shows and ads showing similar cross-religious marriages. Hindutva bigots can't even stand fictional representations of such relationships.