[ad_1]
It is described as an Islamophobic conspiracy theory that has become law. In Uttar Pradesh, India, Muslim men who marry Hindu women now face long sentences for “love jihad.”
Protesters in Bengaluru, in Karnataka state, are protesting the state’s plans to legislate against “love jihad.” Stock Photography.
Simran and his partner applied to the capital, Delhi, to register their marriage. In recent weeks, the local media has been filled with similar stories about couples fleeing the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where new legislation criminalizes the so-called jihad of love.
Officially, the legislation targets forced conversions to Islam in connection with interfaith marriages. In practice, according to Simran, it is used to punish Muslim men who make love beyond religious boundaries.
– Although the marriage is voluntary, they had called it coercion because I am with a Muslim. In Uttar Pradesh, they do it to catch the man, he says.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and stronghold of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party, was the first to criminalize love jihad in late November. The maximum penalty is ten years in prison. Four other states are preparing similar legislation.
The events in Uttar Pradesh have stirred emotions. The BJP leadership in the state has previously claimed that Muslim men receive money from abroad to seduce Hindu women and critics believe that an Islamophobic conspiracy theory has now become law.
Henrik Chetan Aspengren, a researcher in the Asia Program of the Institute for Foreign Policy, points out that the notion of love jihad is not new.
– In some Hindu groups, there has long been a belief that there are systematic conversions through marriages with Muslim men. The difference now is that these ideas are picked up by a political party in a position of power that has the opportunity to present these kinds of proposals in state parliaments, he tells TT.
Uttar Pradesh was expected to take the lead, says Chetan Aspengren.
– It is a special state in internal political dynamics. It is the largest in the country and is governed by a prime minister with extreme opinions.
The number of interfaith marriages in India is small. Chetan Aspengren speaks of a “symbolic issue” that has had a great impact on the debate.
In this debate, Hindu women are the victims in need of protection, but in a clip that circulated widely in India in early December, a group of BJP supporters in the city of Moradabad is seen teaching a young woman whose husband has been jailed accused of amorous jihad. The woman, in turn, claims that she converted voluntarily.
– It is for people like you that we must have this law, says one of the men in the clip, according to the BBC translation.
Henrik Chetan Aspengren is not surprised that even “crime victims” are stigmatized.
– This action, which has now occurred in legislative work, is not a particularly sophisticated idea. It is about intolerance towards minorities, but also about a patriarchal vision of the honor of the family materialized through its women, he says.
Marriage in India
Indian law allows interfaith marriages. However, marriage across religious boundaries, or across the boundaries of the Hindu caste system, involves bureaucracy and waiting time. Many believe that couples choose conversion to reduce the chances of dissatisfied families to put sticks in the wheels.
Under the new law in Uttar Pradesh, anyone who wishes to convert for marriage must seek permission from the local authorities.
Interfaith marriages are rare, estimated to account for about 2 percent of all marriages in the country.
About 90 percent of all marriages in India are arranged.
Source: BBC
