Why Naseeruddin Shah never asked wife Ratna Pathak to change her religion

Actor expressed angst against the term 'love jihad' and relayed how his marriage set a 'healthy precedent'

Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has expressed concerns over the divide being created in India between Hindus and Muslims. In a recent interview on Karwan-e-Mohabbat, the 70-year-old actor shared his two cents on ‘Love Jihad’.

"I am really furious with the way divisions are being created, like the love jihad tamasha in UP. Firstly, the people who coined this phrase don’t know the meaning of the word jihad.” He then reinstated that no one would be ‘stupid’ enough to that Muslims will overtake the Hindu population. “It is unimaginable,” he remarked. He felt how for that to happen, “Muslims will have to have so many babies.”

In November 2019, Uttar Pradesh (UP) became the first state in India to pass an ordinance against forcible and ‘dishonest’ religious conversions, reported the Hindustan Times. Following this, states like Haryana and Madhya Pradesh also revealed plans that would counter alleged attempts to convert Hindu women to Islam in the guise of marriage – which Indian political leaders often refer to as ‘Love Jihad’.

The Bandish Bandits actor believes the term adds to the stigma surrounding inter-faith marriages and prevents social interactions between Hindus and Muslims. “They not only want to discourage inter-faith marriages but also curtail social interactions between Hindus and Muslims,” he added.

Shah, who is married to seasoned actor Ratna Pathak Shah, said he always believed that his marriage to a Hindu woman would set a ‘healthy precedent’. “We have taught our children about every religion. But we have never told them that they belong to any particular religion. I always believed that these differences would slowly fade away. I believed that my marriage to a Hindu woman would set a healthy precedent. I don’t think this is wrong,” he added.

He then confessed that when he was about to tie the knot, his mother had asked if he would want his would-be wife to convert to his religion. But he refused. Shah recalled how even though his mother was uneducated and brought up in an orthodox household, she was completely against the idea of changing one's religion.

"My mother who was uneducated, brought up in an orthodox household, prayed five times a day, observed Roza all her life, went for the Haj pilgrimage, she said, 'the things that have been taught to you in your childhood, how can that change? It is not right to change one’s religion'.”

The critically-acclaimed performer then expressed his sadness towards the way young couples are harassed these days in the name of ‘Love Jihad’.

"This is not the world I had dreamt of,” he concluded. 

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