By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Women and civil rights activists and lawyers held a joint press conference in Delhi and Mumbai on “Right to Choose and Politics of Love Jihad.” Speakers condemned the propaganda over so called ‘Love-Jihad,’ dismissing it as myth and stressed on the fact that individual women or men not only have the right to choose their partners but are also free to choose their faith in a secular democratic country.
Speakers in Delhi included Vrinda Grover (Advocate), Jagmati Sangwan (AIDWA), Annie Raja (NFIW), Manisha Bhalla (Researcher) and Teesta Setalvad (social activist); and in Mumbai Shabman Hashmi (ANHAD), Neilofer Bhagwat (Lawyer), Chayankiya Shah (AKHM), Vahida (WARG), Sonia Gill (AIDWA) and Dr. Kranti Jejurkar (NFIW) were present. The Delhi press conference was called by ANHAD.
Delhi Press Conference.
Quoting from a 2006 Supreme Court judgment, activists reiterated, “This is a free and democratic country, and once a person becomes a major he or she can marry whosoever he/she likes. If the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of such inter-caste or inter-religious marriage the maximum they can do is that they can cut off social relations with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or commit or instigate acts of violence and cannot harass the person who undergoes such inter-caste or inter- religious marriage.”
The joint-statement noted, “Every year, hundreds of young men and women fall in love in India. They defy their parents, caste and religious considerations and traditions. Many of them elope and get married; some others also give in to family pressures and fall back into traditionally more acceptable roles. The Bollywood film industry thrives on such stories. We have laughed and cried with these couples on screens. The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly come to the protection and aid of just such couples. “
To stress on the fact that it would erroneous to suggest that only Muslim men marry Hindu girls, they also presented a list of 84 couples where the woman is a Muslim to emphasize the point that in a plural and diverse society there would be inter religious marriages and both ways and every individual has the right to choose. Many of the prominent names in the list included Bollywood celebrities, like late Sunil Dutt, who married Nargis, Aditya Pancholi who married Zarina Wahab, cricketer Ajit Agarkar who married Fatima, Congress leader Sachin Pilot who married daughter of Farooq Abdullah, Sarah, don turned politician Arun Gawli who married Ayesha, Sitaram Yachury who married Journalist Seema Chisti, Author VS Naipual who married Nadiya, among others.
Advocate Vrinda Grover questioned the hype over issue and criticized the Bhartiya Janta Party and its Hindutva affliates who have been fanning communal issues for electoral benefits, particularly in Western Uttar Pradesh.
There is no data or evidence to even suggest that such a conspiracy of ‘Love Jihad’ exist, she said, adding that if cases of discord in inter-religion or inter-caste marriages come up, those should be dealt sensitively.
Asked about the case of Ranchi based national shooter Tara Shahdeo, who has alleged that her husband was coercing her to convert to Islam, she said that the matter is still being probed and if she was being subjected to any pressure for conversion, they would definitely help her get justice. But one should not immediately jump the gun and put it as an instance of some Jihadi conspiracy, she cautioned.
While criticizing the propaganda and communal politics of the BJP, Social Activist Teeesta Setalvad said that she stands for freedom of choice and thinks that for larger integration of the country and for promoting secular values, inter-caste and inter-faith marriages should be welcome. Dispelling any doubts, she said that if tomorrow some clerics or any member from the minority community too resist inter-faith marriage, their reactions and oppositions would remain similar.
Jagmati Sangwan of AIDWA wondered why media played along the politicians and are creating furor over inter-faith marriages, but remain mute when Dalits and other backward castes people are subjected to oppressions or even murdered – or they commit suicide – due to coercions for marrying in higher castes.
Reminding that even the Law Commission had suggested a passing a law titled “Prohibition of Interference with Matrimonial Alliances In The name of Honour and Tradition Bill,” activists demanded that it’s high time there should be legal protection for such marriages.
Two contradictory beliefs of Jihad and Love are being linked and a new term namely, “Love Jihad” has been coined by the Sangh parivar to use it as their “latest hate tool to polarize the two communities and spread falsehood and hatred,” the press statement issued said.
“They are trying to propagate a myth that all such interfaith marriages where the male is a Muslim are malicious and are solemnized with single objective of religious conversion and increasing the population of Muslims by producing innumerable children. Similarly, the orthodox Muslims are not ready to accept any interfaith marriage without nikah of a non-Muslim,” they pointed.
They expressed their and concern and were alarmed at the way the right wing is using ‘Love Jihad’ to polarize people and spread hatred between communities.
The word Love Jihad must be a creation of an evil genius and it has come to be used to further demonize the Muslim community, argued the activists. They drew parallel to similar campaign by Hindtuva forces in 1920s.
The propaganda has been that some Muslim organizations are funding Muslim youth, to lure the non-Muslim girls, to marry them and to increase the Muslim population. The rumor is being spread that youth are given money to buy motorbike, mobile etc and lure the non-Muslim girls.
In India the word began to be used in coastal Karnataka, Mangalore couple of years ago, and in parts of Kerala. It was Sri Ram Sene founded by RSS trained Swayam Sevak, Pramod Mutalik, which started attack on Hindu girl-Muslim boy couples. The marriages of such combinations started being looked at with suspicion and if parents were opposed to the marriage, Sri Ram Sene would help to take the matter to the court also. The pretext was that the girl has been forced to marry the Muslim boy.
Over a period of time, from being just a mechanism to control the lives of Hindu girls, a tool to ensure that girls don’t have the right to choose their own life partners, this phrase has been used to instigate violence. Most of the pretexts of communal violence are cooked up, gradually manufactured. This term ‘Love Jihad’ by now is being used as a dangerous weapon. Lot of messages on whatsApp and face book are flying and relating the phenomenon as an international conspiracy of the Muslims.Communal politics, communal violence all over used women’s bodies as the site of contestation and community honor. Women’s sexuality is sought to be controlled as they are seen as the repository of culture, values, faith and honour.
Mumbai Press Conference.
This Raksha Bandhan day (August 2014) hordes of RSS volunteers spread in different parts of Western UP, tying Rakhi (sacred thread, traditionally tied by sister on brothers wrist) to the people and warning them of the threat of the Muslim youth wooing away their ‘girls’ for love jihad. ‘Muslim youth teasing and luring Hindu girls’ has been made the central part of propaganda in Western UP currently.
Sangh is also trying to divert the fact that organised targeting and rape of minority women has happened and happens in communal attacks – Gujarat, Kandhamal & Muzaffarnagar are glaring examples. And this is also another way to control the sexuality of women.
Kerala High Court in 2009 and Karnataka High Court in 2010, asked police to investigate, love -jihad. In both cases police said there was no such organized mission by Muslim boys.
The BJP’s new rhetoric focusing on a communal twist to crimes against women in Uttar Pradesh is not borne out by cold facts. Data accessed by NDTV shows that in western Uttar Pradesh, where vociferous campaigns have highlighted the alleged abuse of Hindu women by Muslim men, women have been assaulted by men from their own community in most rape cases this year.
Out of 334 rape cases in 9 districts of Uttar Pradesh in 25 cases Muslims men were accused and Hindu girls were victims, in 23 cases Hindu men were accused and Muslim women were victims, in 96 cases Muslim men were accused and Muslim women were victims and in 109 cases Hindu men were accused and Hindu women were victims.
Such campaigns against inter-religion, inter-caste marriages are not only against the spirit of a diverse and plural society they also aim to control women’s sexuality and polarize the society along communal lines for electoral and political purposes.
“The reality is that thousands of couples across the country are defying both the Hindu right wing and the conservative Muslim groups and are doing both inter-religious and inter-caste marriages. We believe that Inter caste and inter-religious marriages will make for a united and strong India in future,” the joint-statement read.
Since some global Jihadist conspiracy of conversion has been made a pretext, it would be interesting to point here that in 2008, Darul Uloom Deoband had issued a fatwa that accepting Islam simply to get married, without actually having faith in it, is against the basic tenets of the religion.