Ram Puniyani 
On October 1, a Bareilly court gave life imprisonment to a Muslim man in case of a complaint of sexual assault. In the judgment the judge commented that it is a case of ‘love jihad’, which the police have failed to present that way. The girl was a Hindu. During the court proceedings the girl did withdraw the complaint on the ground that she had to lodge the complaint under the pressure of a Hindutva group. The judge had none of it and social propaganda probably ruled his verdict. Judge Diwakar in his judgment commented sui generis that Muslim men target Hindu women to get married.
The judgment went on:
“In simple words, love jihad is the practice of Muslim men to convert women from non-Muslim communities to Islam by pretending to love them and marrying them. Illegal conversions through love jihad are carried out by some anarchist elements of a particular religion or are made to do so or are involved in a conspiracy… A huge amount of money is required for love jihad. Hence, the fact of foreign funding in love jihad cannot be ruled out…”
‘Foreign funding in love jihad’ is a novel concept. I wish the judge had named the country which is sending the money for this.
While propaganda around ‘love jihad’ was the first one in the jihad series, now of course there are number of jihads which are popularised – land jihad, UPSC jihad, flood jihad, and corona jihad amongst others. There are communal anchors who specialise in tabulating the types of jihad. This is a classic case of trivial issues being magnified to demonise a religious community which is regarded as ‘foreign’ and is targeted in a covert and overt way to be presented as the ‘enemy other’. This creation of the ‘enemy other’ lies at the root of communal Hindutva politics which is dominating the social scenario in India.
The ‘love jihad’ propaganda is not very old. Just a couple of decades earlier some Christian Bishops from Kerala started this calumny and it was picked up intensely by Hindutva activists. Their propaganda machinery is well oiled by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh shakhas, RSS-run schools, sections of media, social media and a parallel social media run by the IT cell in particular. The propaganda that there is an organisation funding Muslim men to lure Hindu girls was investigated and was found to be a hoax.
Many reasons go towards the bolstering of the bogey of love jihad. The first one is the demography. So far, a major propaganda point is that Muslims have many wives and children and they will overtake the Hindu population. To this is added the myth of love jihad, the conversion of Hindu women through it and the birth of their children. Yet another aspect which has been added to it is that these women will be trained to be part of the Islamic State.
But the core aim of all love jihad propaganda has to be linked to patriarchal values which accompany Hindutva politics in the name of religion. The phenomenon of rising atrocity on rape and increase in the incidents of rape runs parallel to the rise of communal politics. Activist Teesta Setalvad points out:
“Women of targeted communities are singled out as ‘symbols of honor’ of the communities when the horrors and bestiality of violence are unleashed on them. We saw this during the Partition-related violence, 1946–47; Nellie Assam, 1983; Delhi, 1984; Bombay, 1992–93; Gujarat, 2002; and most recently in Manipur, 2023… the reasons are sociological, historical and ideological. We must always remember that the BJP is ruled by the ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Mahasabha— extreme rightwing outfits that are based on a deep-rooted vision of not just a militarized faith but of a misogynist control of women and their sexuality.”
One recalls here the reprimand by Hindu nationalism’s foremost ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Commenting on Shivaji’s noble act of returning the daughter in law of the Kalyan governor, a Muslim, brought to him by his plundering army, Savarkar criticises Shivaji for not taking revenge but returning her with honour.
In the wake of the rising chorus of ‘love jihad’, historian Charu Gupta stated that this is a mechanism to control the lives of women.
“The fake claim by the Hindu right that there is love jihad organisation which is forcing the Hindu women to convert to Islam through false expression of love is similar to a campaign in 1920 against alleged abductions. Whether 1920 or 2009, Hindu patriarchal notions seem to be deeply entrenched in such campaigns, images of passive victimised Hindu women at the hands of inscrutable Muslim abound, and any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right of choice is ignored.”
It is in this light that one sees the intense activities of Bajrang Dal on occasions like Raksha Bandhan, when they go to Hindu households and tell parents to keep a ‘watch’ on their daughters. The propaganda on the issue has caught up and is affecting different sections of society. There are many cases where Muslim youth are attacked.
Amidst these, the case of Hadiya who converted to Islam is very revealing. She converted to Islam after interactions with Muslim friends. Later, she married Shafin Jahan. Her father was given her custody by the court on the ground that she has been indoctrinated and will be recruited for ISIS work. She went up to Supreme Court where her testimony was heard and was able to return to her husband.
In Kerala, many yoga centres have come up to convince Hindu women to abandon their love for Muslin men. Women have complained of force and blackmail.
The Bareilly court’s judgment shows how propaganda affects society, including judges who are supposed to base their verdict on concrete evidence.