01-12-2020 The Asian Independent

20 01-12-2020 to 15-12-2020 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Love Jihad rhetoric is back in action
in almost all the BJP ruled states as they
compete each other in proclaiming to
bring a law against it to stop the ‘conspiracy’
to convert the Hindu girls into
Islam in the guise of ‘love’. The fact is
that as a political party, BJP has been
active in creating issues and narrative
which are woven around Muslim conspiracy
theories so that it suits to their
political interests. While ‘secular-liberal’
analysts continue to take our time
‘discussing’ the issues in the elections,
they have rarely taken the Sangh
Parivar head on these issues. So, the
‘secular’ columnists and parties
respond to these diatribes through raising
‘non-political’ issues and leaving
the field open for them. The result is
that toxic campaigns and distorted narratives
have taken roots inside our
homes. Family members fight on these
narratives as who is good and who is
bad. Every issue has been converted
with a counter narrative with high speed
WhatsApp messaging to millions of
people.
The Love Jihad theory is nothing but
a very calculated effort to deny individuals
their choice to marry. We all know
that India lives in castes and millions of
Indians have been infected by the ideas
of caste supremacy. Every caste has
been fed with the ideas of its ‘golden
past’ and vilify the others. Hence, crossing
the caste barrier is the biggest ‘dissent’
of our time. None of us would go
for interfaith or inter-caste marriages
except where the individual takes their
own decision and they were called ‘love
marriages’. Before the term Love Jihad,
we had the term ‘love marriages’ as if
marrying someone you love is wrong
but perhaps that is true as we hate some
body and take a decision of his or her
own. Now, who am I to judge or comment
about a decision taken by two
individuals but then marriage is not
merely a choice by families but they
make social, political and cultural messages
through it. Marriage is a huge
industry in this country and the poor
and rich all would like to invest a huge
amount in it for the sake of their ‘ijjat’
or ‘prestige’. So crossing the caste barriers
to marry someone you love is the
biggest ‘dissent’ to Indian society
which meets with ‘dire’ consequences.
Targeting Muslims and Islam therefore
serves many purposes for the proponents
of caste forces, proud of their
‘caste ancestry’. Look at the way
Uttarakhand government officials
shockingly referred to the document
issued by a local district officer which
speaks about government schemes of
promoting interfaith and inter-caste
marriages. Rather than feeling proud of
such an initiative the officer in charge
actually looked embarrassed and
termed the order as an older one. This is
among the few contributions of the
right-wing political order that socialism,
secularism, modernism, interfaith
marriages etc have become dirty terms
and these have been very carefully distorted
and spread across the country
through their fake news factories.
Most of the interfaith marriages happen
through the Special Marriage Act of
1954 and it is here that the government
and authorities harass the couples who
opt for it to get married. Reports are
now coming in newspapers that this act
is being misused by the administration
particularly its clauses which speak of
‘no objection’ certificates from the families
of both the boy and the girl. A
notice period of 30 days is given where
the notice related to the proposed marriage
is pasted in public places. Now,
we all know that there is nothing special
Law against ‘Love Jihad’ or
controlling our ‘individuality’
about the special marriage act. It does
not provide safety and security to any
one but can spoil it. It becomes the best
for the lawyers to ‘arrange’ things for it
and they manage it. The cost is then
extracted from the marrying couples
who are ready to shed any amount to
get things done.
While we are getting worried about
‘Inter-faith’ couples, the fact is this narrative
being spread by the BJP leaders
in their states is bound to have disastrous
impact on the ‘inter-caste’ couple
which no politician will defend. Caste
is the one point they will never want to
cross the boundary. Whenever such
couples are reported to ‘run away’ from
their places, cases are filed against the
‘boys’ for ‘abducting’ the girl. Many
times false certificates are produced to
point that the girl was a ‘minor’ so that
the ‘abduction’ cases are pushed strongly.
If the things don’t improve then
‘rape’ charges are also pushed. An
atmosphere is created and what will
happen now in this age of ‘social
media’ when false outrage would be
created. One can only imagine when
people just celebrate killings and mob
lynching became a pattern. The Love
Jehad law may not stand to constitutional
scrutiny but these days we have
seen how constitutional courts have just
legitimised many of the disturbing acts
of the government.
Even if the Supreme
Court strikes it
down, the risk of
couples getting
lynched or harassed will remain there as
over the years these extra state actors
without any fears have been able to do
things at their whims and fancies.
Young boys and girls are being
killed by the parents and relatives in the
name of ‘threat to social order’ but ultimately
it is an all out effort to ‘protect’
the social order of caste privileges that
we all love whether we have those privileges
or not. It is a strange order where
everyone feels proud of being ‘above’
someone. Even the lowest of the low
feel proud of being someone else. Past
has been valorised and glorified and it
is the woman whose side looks betrayed
most of the time as she is the ‘prized
trophy’. That is why when Hindu
woman marry to a Muslim man, the
Hindus are at loss of word while
Muslims will speak about love but
when a Muslim girl marry to Hindu
boy, we see the similar reactions of loss
of ijjat.
Many people feel that marrying a
girl of the outside community denies
the right of the girl of their own community
to marry her own community
person. In all, the efforts are basically to
deny the individual a right to think
about her. This will continue to happen
as long as religious dogmas and values
dominate our cultural and political discourse.
Religious laws and religious
morality can not and should not be
made applicable everywhere and on
every condition and that is why if we
wish a interfaith marriages or inter caste
marriages happen, the aim of these
should be not to preserve our faiths and
castes but to annihilate them and be part
of a new social cultural world where
individual have faith in human values
and humanity, where I can cry with
those who do not necessarily belong to
my world or community or faith.
Look at the reactions of the people
when some interfaith marriages happen.
When Kareena Kapoor married Saif Ali
Khan then it was ‘love jehad’ but when
Sanjay Dutt married Manyata then
nothing happened. Sanjay followed the
tradition of the family where his mother
Nargis happened to be a Muslim
while father Sunil Dutt happened to be
a Hindu but definitely that was one of
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
the most celebrated interfaith marriages.
This campaign of vilifying
Muslims as a conspiracy of Islam for
the interfaith marriages is dangerous
and have pure political motive. In
February 2019, RSS leader Ram Lal’s
niece got married to a Muslim man, and
it was blessed by all the top party leaders.
BJP already has a number of leaders
such as Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and
Shahnawaj Hussain who are married to
Hindu women. There are many celebrities
and it is not that more Muslim men
marrying Hindu women or vice versa.
These things don’t happen in a planned
way. It is love and we need to give
respect to two individuals for taking a
decision good for them. Ofcourse, ‘conversion’
for the sake of marriage was
only done by Dharmendra and Hema
Malini, both are BJP MPs and none can
tell them that they were wrong.
I have seen many ‘interfaith’ couples
enjoying their lives and living peacefully
though I can say most of the time
girls have to make adjustments in terms
of cultural practices. It is better that this
interfaith or inter caste matter remain
dedicated to modern laws and secular
values but unfortunately that does not
happen. Most of the time, the interfaith
or inter caste couples actually try to
‘follow’ both the ‘cultural’ practices
such as ‘celebrations’ of festivals but
then how do you follow the marriage
and death ceremony. Often the name of
the children is decided on the basis of
religion of the male counterpart.
Actually, these love marriages are then
converted into the ‘mainstream’ of the
men’s partners as they suffer from the
‘acceptance’ crisis. The fact is after
some time these couples too convert
into simple ‘family’ very much like others
where women suffer silently just to
protect the family.
When Baba Saheb Ambedkar,
Periyar and other leaders of our freedom
movement wanted inter caste marriages
to break the barriers of caste their
aim was to build a new society. One
must be proud
of being a
humanist or
s e c u l a r
humanist in
delinking ourselves
from
the past which
confine us to
our casteregional-religious
identities. Our birth is an accident
as we do not decide but we are given a
caste or a religious identity to define us.
This religious identity then creates artificial
barriers and vilifies others who
are not ‘like us. It is important to
strengthen secular laws for this. The
BJP and Hindutva people are speaking
about Uniform Civil Code only to push
their anti-Muslim propaganda about
Love Jehad. It is true that dominant
Muslim practices where they are a powerful
community have been very much
like the Sangh Parivar. In Pakistan and
Bangladesh, Hindu and Christian girls
actually suffer and are forcibly married
by the Islamic zealots. Fact of the matter
is that religious bigotry feeds each
other. In the Indian subcontinent the
Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists
have decided to carry their own propaganda
against plurality and made other
look like a threat to their basic existence.
It is nothing but purely political.
When Hindus and Muslims will get rid
from the clutches of the religious fanatics
these forces will automatically die
but then they feed each others so that no
saner voice come and societies
remained caged in isolation and bigotry
so that the thugs can take control of
their mind and body to mint maximum
political benefit.
Therefore only secular laws will
help. I have said this many times that
once you are into an affair beyond your
religion or caste or even nationality
please feel proud of your humanity and
do not succumb to the pressure of getting
‘legitimised’ by the ‘religious’ elite
of your communities. A secular couple
should look at secular narratives for
their children and not preach that ‘religion’
never ‘preach’ violence. Most of
the violence that we have witnessed in
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Myanmar are basically religious based
as the majoritarian religious identity
want to take political control of their
state and for that they continue to
weave stories and find a villain. Indian
Hindutva campaigners find it through
narrative around Pakistan, 370,
Ayodhya, Common Civil Code or Love
Jihad, in our neighbouring countries
they have similar narratives about us,
Kashmir, Muslims and now France has
become the most ‘rallying’ point for all
these fanatics.
We need to seek an amendment in
the Constitution seeking Humanism as
our identity and not necessarily pushing
for a religious identity. Let this tribe
grow which feel proud of Baba Saheb
Ambedkar’s constitution and its human
values as interfaith or inter-caste couples
can and will only survive through
constitutional morality and not really
through their religious values where
‘girl’ religious identity will always be
considered as loser or occupied like a
trophy. In multicultural societies we
need to explore and build up new sociocultural
values so that it does not
become a hunting ground for competing
religious fundamentalists. Marriages
are a matter of two individuals but it not
only becomes a point to spread disinformation
campaigns against people but
putting them at greater risk. Even when
I respect individual choices, I would
request all those in such marriages not
to compel your male or female partner
to convert to any religion. That is why I
am suggesting that we must suggest a
new narrative for them ‘humanist marriages’
or ‘constitutional marriages’ or
‘civil marriages’ for civilised people.
Don’t bring religious practices into
these marriages and remain dedicated to
secular laws and principles.
Inter-caste or interfaith can only survive
through faith in constitution and
modern humanist values of equality of
partners and it is this theme of equality
of women and other human beings
which hurt those who want to dominate
us through their regressive ideas and
value system as they know their religion
and customs will face extinction
threat more from such marriages where
two individuals can take their own decisions
to live together without giving a
thought to where they were born or
what is their caste identity.
The real threat to dominant religious
values can actually emerge once we
challenge the narrative that these marriages
are not merely marriages but
‘self-respect’ marriages as Periyar said
where a woman is an equal partner and
does not lose her identity. See Page 21