Where it all started: Kerala and Karnataka
While allegations of Muslim men attempting to forcibly convert Hindu women have been around for a long time, the term’s coinage gained national prominence in 2009 and its origins can be traced back to Kerala and the Karnataka coastal belt.
According to the Kerala Council of Catholic Bishops, as of October 2009, up to 4,500 girls had been attacked in Kerala, while the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti claimed that 30,000 girls had been converted in Karnataka alone.
Following the initial outbreak of the controversy in 2009, it flared again in 2010, 2011, and 2014. On June 25, 2014, Kerala’s Chief Minister Oommen Chandy informed the state legislature that 2,667 young women had converted to Islam in the state since 2006. However, he claimed there was no evidence that any of them were forced conversions, and that fears of ‘love jihad’ were “unfounded.”
Several official police investigations in both states found no evidence of forced conversions and ultimately stopped the investigation.
.
